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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMaple" data-source="post: 73756" data-attributes="member: 947">The point I'm trying to make is.....Say two large armies meet in at the field of battle.One has come up with the cunning idea of enlisting the aid of a school of wizards. The other commander is expecting a traditional war since magic has not really been used in such a scale on the battlefield.The battle begins, but is quickly brought to an end by the wizards fireballing the enemy into oblivion. The victor gains the field and his invasion goes well at first, but unfortunately he has killed all the peasants (as a fireball give little chance to survive or run away, or recover from a minor wound) that would work the fields he has claimed and the land goes to waste.The next nation he approachs has perpared for him in kind and they two slaughter huge numbers of the enemy, soon both armies are in ruins. There aren't enough people left to work the land and famine sets in across the continent.People are a resource that you can't afford to kill, and conventional war generally doesn't lead to massive numbers of dead. Wounded that recover, troops that flee the field of battle and so forth but generally the people are left alive to be ruled over.A full scale magical battle would be so devastating as to be a disadvantage to the winner as he would be left with nothing to rule over. You would be fighting a war that no-one would win.Fantasy novels and campaigns are full cataclysmic (sp?) results of previous mage wars and generally they are seen as such a bad thing that no one would let them happen again.I can see how both sides would avoid the use of wizards on the field of battle even though they might keep them in reserve in case the enemy was stupid enough to deploy them. They would generally be used for spying and building normal defenses "Dig", etc.</blockquote>

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