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<blockquote data-quote="Baron Opal II" data-source="post: 8784979" data-attributes="member: 6794067">This statement is fraught with issues. It is ignorant of real world practice and choices that are highly setting dependent.Do commoners know about magic? Witch bottles were a very common thing. A bottle filled with nails or iron, urine poured over the iron, and the bottle sealed and hidden. The bottle drew curses and ill intent and neutralized them. So, yes, I would say that commoners had an excellent understanding of the existence of magic and knew of low-level practitioners for access. For a period of time it was very common folk magic. Can anyone learn magic? I don't think so. I think it is pretty rare in the grand scheme of things. Sure, sorcerers exist as do magician guilds. But to what level and amount is DM fiat. Examples of magician superiority involving first level spells is laughable. As far as I remember, the first &quot;You Can't Hurt Me&quot; spell is stoneskin at 6th level. That's why I mentioned 12th level as a start to have a reasonable shot of having a wizard coming to rule just by the virtue of being a wizard. You have to think of how you would defeat your peers of the same level.How would a fighter deal with spoiled grain and poisoned wells? Same way we did. Take the grain and feed it to livestock, compost it, or roast it and make beer. Poisoned well? Walk a hundred yards and dig a new one, filling up the old.I'm not saying you can't, or shouldn't, have magocracies in your game. They're just not inevitable; whether or not they truly are is an interesting topic but ultimately it depends on a number of setting assumptions. Or, &quot;adjudications&quot;, if you will.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Baron Opal II, post: 8784979, member: 6794067"] This statement is fraught with issues. It is ignorant of real world practice and choices that are highly setting dependent. Do commoners know about magic? Witch bottles were a very common thing. A bottle filled with nails or iron, urine poured over the iron, and the bottle sealed and hidden. The bottle drew curses and ill intent and neutralized them. So, yes, I would say that commoners had an excellent understanding of the existence of magic and knew of low-level practitioners for access. For a period of time it was very common folk magic. Can anyone learn magic? I don't think so. I think it is pretty rare in the grand scheme of things. Sure, sorcerers exist as do magician guilds. But to what level and amount is DM fiat. Examples of magician superiority involving first level spells is laughable. As far as I remember, the first "You Can't Hurt Me" spell is [I]stoneskin [/I]at 6th level. That's why I mentioned 12th level as a start to have a reasonable shot of having a wizard coming to rule just by the virtue of being a wizard. You have to think of how you would defeat your peers of the same level. How would a fighter deal with spoiled grain and poisoned wells? Same way we did. Take the grain and feed it to livestock, compost it, or roast it and make beer. Poisoned well? Walk a hundred yards and dig a new one, filling up the old. I'm not saying you can't, or shouldn't, have magocracies in your game. They're just not inevitable; whether or not they truly are is an interesting topic but ultimately it depends on a number of setting assumptions. Or, "adjudications", if you will. [/QUOTE]

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