D&D spellcasters in the modern world

[WayneLigon]

GURPS Technomancer deals with this issue in detail, with many interesting ideas. There, magic is a recent phenomenon; the first atomic bomb blast, combined with Oppenhiemer's phrase 'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds' ripped a huge hole in the fabric of the universe and magic poured back in.

Some of the ideas are quite workable and transportable.

1. Not all the spells in the PH are known! Some have not been discovered yet, and in general it takes years and years to really nail down a new and difficult spell like Cure Disease.

2. It takes years to train a mage. Learning magic is like going to college; you come out of your first four years, do a practicum, and boom, you're a First Level Wizard. Sorcerers on the other hand... they are more prevalant, simply because all you need are the right parents.

3. The military will have mages as well. There are classified spells. In D&D, those might be Detect Evil, Haste, Invisibility, Improved Invisibility, Animate Dead, any of the Evil spells, etc. They are not taught as part of any curriculum, and can only be learned through highly illegal means or by people with the proper security clearance. Again, Sorcerers and Bards have the advantage here, but might be arrested for demonstrating a classified spell.

If you want to design a 'modern magic' campaign but want to limit the pervasiveness of magic to something less High Fantasy, require Feats. Such as:

Mage-Gift [General]
Allows magic use.
B]Benefit[/B]" Allows the learning and use of First and Second level Arcane spells. It is require for a person who does not begin as a Wizard, Sorcerer or Bard to multiclass into those classes.
Prerequisites: Int 13+
Normal: Without this Feat, magic use is impossible
Special: Wizards, Bards, and Sorcerers get this Feat for free

Then add things like Improved Mage-Gift for learning higher-level spells. Wizards might get this as a bonus feat at the appropriate levels, or not, depending on how 'low' you want the magic level.

 

[Destil]

Whereto the ecological considerations.

I've been thinking about that. How are spells cast? Is there leftover magical energy? Does the "shaped" magical energy revert back to its "usual" form over the course of time, or does it stay "changed"? What is the effect when this changed magical energy "piles up" in a location. To put it another way, what about dweomer pollution?

Or it could be much, much worse, like in Dark Sun, where magic doesn't just run out, but it completely changes the planet at the same time...

I think the one of the most interesting aspects would be the planer possibilities. Once you can get permanent Gates, Keyed Portals, Elemental Vortexes, Astral Color Pools... well, we'd have options of Inter planer trade & exploration. If we're on the Great Wheel there's a real chance actually gods would be out there among the planes, but with demons and devils as well I imagine many, many people would fall back to religious superstitions... which hunts, clamis of pacts with demons....

Likewise it would take quite a while for wizardary to spread, generations most likely. The arcane Formulas would need to be discovered, studied and documented carefully, and given that wizards train for years we wouldn't see many that arn't old, bearded men until the point where we start kindergardeners on not only the're ABCs, but also some sing-songy form of the basic somatic components of cantrips.... At first magic would be dominiated by the Sorcerers, Clerics and Psions of the world...

 

[mythusmage]

Prove it is actually live. Prove that it's an actual gaping chest wound, and not latex and ketchup. If it isn't live and in person, it's deniable. It can even be denied if it is in person. You'd be surprised at what people can deny and rationalize whent hey want to...

There you're getting into some rather iffy territory. The nature of reality, can things be proven, so on and so forth.

So you go with the preponderence of evidence. It's happening all over the place. People with serious injuries at the crash site arrive at hospital with scratches. Patients riddled with cancer on Tuesday are cancer free by Thursday.

People aint stupid, (doing stupid things aint the same as being stupid) they catch on. Paranoics and those Too Clever For Their Own Good would continue to deny it, but the sensible folks will acknowledge what's going on.

Besides, a person with a real gaping chest wound does not act like a person with a fake gaping chest wound. I've seen enough episodes of real life medical shows to know how people with real wounds act.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

If healing spells are repeated in front of scientists under laboratory conditions, their reality will eventually be accepted by the scientific community.

If not, some people are no longer fit to be called "scientists".

 

[Caedrel]

Wizard / Sorceror v Cleric spells

Also, are you going to differentiate between wizard/sorceror spells and cleric spells? The standard D&D healing spells generally imply a deity providing the keys somehow (if not the actual power), which would be another major change in the modern world again ("Yes! The Grim Reaper really does exist!").

 

[Fenes 2]

I think we better separate the question in arcane magic and divine magic. Arcane Magic, imho, would have much less of an impact than divine magic on our world. Imagine if you can prove that there is a god - and he can answer questions like on the phone.
Or imagine that you could prove that there are several gods...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I think we better separate the question in arcane magic and divine magic. Arcane Magic, imho, would have much less of an impact than divine magic on our world. Imagine if you can prove that there is a god - and he can answer questions like on the phone.
Or imagine that you could prove that there are several gods...

People wouldn't accept the "proof". In the U.S., people would be saying, "They're not gods, they're powerful extraterrestrials!" Largely because a great many people here have "proved" to themselves that there's no such thing as god, so aliens of superior technology are just easier to accept.

In parts of the world where religion is still a facet of daily life, people would scream "Demon!" And then their clergy, seeing the mage as a threat to their religion's power, would encourage this conception.

Unless it was a definitive member of the clergy who used the magic. If the Pope started calling up visions of Christ and chatting with him, Catholics would fall in line. But if it were a non-clergyperson, or even a low-ranking priest? No way.

 

[Sir Edgar]

I wish I had a few cantrips. Then I wouldn't even have to do my dishes (prestidigitation) or switch on the lights (light).

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Cantrips...

First I thought,"Oooh, I'd be MUCH more productive at the lab."

Then I thought, "Think how many practical jokes would occur on a daily basis that would flush that productivity down the toilet."

Conclusion: Negligible productivity effect. Irritation from the pranks played by morons would be offset by glee at laying waste to them with my own pranks.

But it would be nice to not have to do the dishes...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I wish I had a few cantrips. Then I wouldn't even have to do my dishes (prestidigitation) or switch on the lights (light).

Well, unless you are a sorcerer, you would have to spend an hour preparing them every day. Sure, letting the dishes do themselves would be fun - but would that be worth it?