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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 8780530" data-attributes="member: 53980">Sensible precautions.Cast detect magic on the ruler regularly to identify enchantments. This can also identify other potential issues, such as illusion or transmutation magic to mimic the ruler.This doesn't even require a caster. Literally anyone with a wand of magic detection can do it. Which is merely an uncommon item, and therefore if the ruler can't easily afford a dozen of these, why would a mage even be interested in such a backwater?Frankly, you could have numerous additional layers of protection on top of that, but that alone would be enough 99% of the time.I assure you, I did not mix up charm person with suggestion. The suggestion needs to be spoken aloud to the target, and the suggestion lasts 8 hours (or until the caster stops concentrating).Let's look at an example of a mage trying to influence policy:King: There shall be no necromancy allowed in the kingdom henceforth!Mage (suggestion using subtle spell): Your majesty, necromancy is a boon to the kingdom and dead peasants should be donated to the mages for study.King: Belay that order! Henceforth all dead peasants shall be donated to the mages for their necromantic experimentation. For the empire!...8 hours later...King: Wait... Why would I say that!? That's abominable! <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤔" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png" title="Thinking face    :thinking:" data-shortname=":thinking:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /><img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤔" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png" title="Thinking face    :thinking:" data-shortname=":thinking:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /><img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤔" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png" title="Thinking face    :thinking:" data-shortname=":thinking:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /> Guards! Behead the mage at once!Even if the mage is a little more subtle about their suggestions, any ruler with a pair of braincells to rub together is going to notice a pattern if they think something is a bad idea, the mage makes a suggestion and suddenly they think it's a good idea, and then 8 hours later they think it's a bad idea.Heck, here's another sensible precaution. Don't hire sorcerers as your mages. Wizards make more sense anyway. They're more intelligent and more flexible.You're conflating hunger for political power with hunger for power. Sure, mages would be just as power hungry as everyone else. I'd even go so far as to say you might find a higher proportion of power hungry individuals among mages. But here's the thing. Mages can persue real power of the kind that politicians can only dream of. Therefore, it seems reasonable that they would spend their time in the pursuit of magical power rather than wasting it trying to obtain political power.I mean, it seems like you're assuming that both mastery of magic and administration of a kingdom require zero effort from the mage at all. Which doesn't make sense. Both require significant dedication to be done well. Otherwise you'd have 20th level mages on every street corner. And if the mage just delegates away all of their authority to their advisors, I think there's a very real possibility the mage won't have a kingdom sooner than not, because the advisors will have administrated the kingdom out from under them.</blockquote>

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