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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Atticus_of_Amber" data-source="post: 446059" data-attributes="member: 2683">mmadsen, I agree totally!From my reading of the history of technology (admittedly within the context of economic history rather than the history of science), early inventions were extremely expensive and available only to the very wealthy and to governments and other major institutions (e.g. the steam travel, the telegraph, the telephone, the automobile, air travel, computers, early mobile phones, etc).  As their developers reaped the profits of these inventions they ploughed that money into ways to simplify and streamline the product, and simplify the manufacturing process, so as to allow mass production (e.g. Henry Ford and the automobile) .  As mass production increased, prices fell and the product became increasingly available to all members of society, with attendant major social changes.Now imagine that the process for developing these inventions, say the aeroplane, could not be reduced to a simple set of instructions executable by any competent mechanic.  Imagine that aeroplanes could only be created by people with similar intelligence and training and self-discipline to that of the Wright brothers (though perhaps lacking their inventive imaginations and inclinations).  Mass production would be impossible.  Only those who could afford to keep people of the calibre of the Wright brothers on their payrolls could hope to have a regular supply of aeroplanes.  Planes would be incredibly expensive and incredibly expensive to maintain.  Flying would remain the preserve of the wealthy elite.  Aeronautical engineers would be incredibly rare, incredibly prestigious and incredible sought after (compare with the way Leonardo de Vinci was so sought after for his siege engineering skills by the Italian city-states and mercenary companies during the early Renaissance).This is how I imagine the social role of magic in the DnD world.  The very wealthy (and high level clerics and wizards and their retainers) would use it as technology.  The lowly would live much as the lowly did in the Middle Ages.  Some items might be *reasonably* common (but very expensive) and thus have a social effect – ever-flaming torches, minor healing potions, use of green slime for sewerage waste removal, use of plant growth spells to help crops (though this last would only be in those areas blessed with the presence of a high enough level cleric, and the added population bearing capacity would precariously rely on that cleric's continued presence).Basically, rather than flattening social and economic differences as mass produced real world technology does, magic technology would *exacerbate* social and economic differences.  The rich and powerful could fly on griffin back or teleport from city to city, could have their houses lit by ever-flaming torches, watered by decanters of endless water, could have their wounds and illness instantly healed and even be brought back from the dead.  The poor would live a pretty desperate existence.  No wonder so many would take up the adventuring life…</blockquote>

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