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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silverglass" data-source="post: 1682485" data-attributes="member: 14071">While there are far-reaching effects the impacts should be much smaller than you postulate because of the limitations of the spells.Sorry this is so long but I wanted to rebut each invalid point.As a method of mass movement Teleportation circle is inefficient. Either it lasts about 3 hours or it costs 4,500xp to make permanent (and there will always be a limited number of 17th level Wizards). It is 10ft across which means that best you are limited to the amount of people/transports that can cross per round. Its also easy to block by putting any large solid object at the destination. As it rises from teleport it is possible that the circle has a limit of 1+1/3 caster level medium creatures a round (based on it “activating” and doing a greater teleport). Even so with soldiers literally running through the maximum rate round be about 500 people a round (based on 60ft movement) but I don’t really think you could use it this way without a massive pileup at the other end.Although you could use it to move thousands of troops to a location there is then the small problem of also moving enough supplies for these thousands of troops. Troops need food and water, ammunition and the like and all this needs transport. So you would be adding in wagons and people to drive them. Unfortunately telepoort circles are not activated by objects and teleport (which the spell is based on) only allows creatures "carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load". So no wagons only supplies carried by porters of pack animals.And as soon as the army moves away you have a supply line that can be cut unless you recast a circle into the camp every time you want to resupply.Boats and wagons allow you to move large weights of good efficiently so would always be a viable option. The sheer cost of creating a pairs of permanent teleportation circles means that it would not be viable except between very important locations. And you would still need ships and wagons to pull all the goods in to the central point and distribute them out again. So Teleport Circles would replace the major long distance trade routes and then act as a nexus for local trade routes. Try working out the logistics of moving enough grain into a major city to feed the populace, a lot of wagons will be involved.Fortresses would not be useless, the purpose of a fortress is to allow control of an area. Build Fortresses and link them with Teleport Circles and a government has a very good defensive network to command invasion routes. And if you preposition supplies in fortresses the defender can move troops around quickly to respond to invasions. So its an advantage to the defence.All mind-affecting compulsions that allow Will saves. Thus they can be defended against using other spells or saved against. So they are useful in checking people’s truthfulness. Investigators and PI’s would not be out of work because someone has to identify who the suspects are and bring them in. Its hardly possible to haul  an entire cities population into court every day. So these spells aid the courts and organisations but do not ensure that there are no problems. Quite True, as are AMF areas.  Good Clerics can’t cast it at all (it has the Evil descriptor) and the undead need to be controlled. That means an absolute limit of 4HD per caster level. Boats will remain because who can afford to link fishing villages with teleport circles at 4,500xp a go.True and almost certainly the reason for the small set of languages in D&D, however anyone who wants to keep something secret writes it in code which is not broken, all the items allow is for the person to read the gibberish in another language.The polymorph of workers will help drop construction times somewhat however all that means is less bodies needed to move the same amount of stone because polymorphing 2000 people is a huge task. In war the ability of both sides to polymorph and dispel their troops will balance out.Both spells give one word answers only. And they admit the chance that the deity doesn’t know the answer. D&D deities are not omniscient, even Knowledge gods. If Printing presses just don’t exist no deity would know about it. Clean drinking water is the one that they would know, which is probably one of the reasons that disease is less of a force in D&D societies. Better ploughs yes, expensive magic items created for hundreds of  thousands of draft animals? Not going to happen.And most universties will be strongly linked to the prevalent God of Knowledge. That’s what happens when you have deities with protfolios.So a 13th level druid affects a 3 mile radius for an average of just over 4 days. And the spell can only add or remove the stated effects. In summer the list is Torrential rain, heat wave, or hailstorm. Want light showers? Not with Control Weather. Plant Growth would be widely used but it only raises yields by 1/3 and affects a ½ mile radius with each casting.Gate is a broken spell unless extra caveats are put on it. But anything longer than 1 round per level means that the creature needs paying for what its going to do. And at the end of its service it leaves. The use of Gate is not that much of a problem as there will not be that many 17th+ level casters in any country.Absolutely true except for spells that cost xp. And yes the Sorceror (assuming he chose Wall of Stone) can usethe spell to do this and good on him, all that this means is that construction times of rock walls that can be crudely shaped is reduced. So civil engineering projects are quicker and cheaper. That’s a good thing as it means that settlements can be easily fortified against predators.Society will be changed but the level of change you suggest ignores the limitations of these spells.</blockquote>

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