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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 2929522" data-attributes="member: 18280">Let us not forget that, strictly going by RAW, each 1st level spell costs 100 gp.  Even though the spell itself may not be that difficult, you are paying for the specialist (not unlike an auto mechanic).True.  But that combination isn't simpler because it requires you to exert a much greater control over both your spellcasters and your population.  You can't simply keep food producers in the barracks if they have to be out among the crops.  Then you have to consider why they don't simply desert and become adventurers, in a D&D world anyway.  There have to be some pretty heavy incentives.  Then you have to consider how to prevent them taking over the farmlands.  Somebody once said that "in a magical world, where power is held by those who are good at casting spells, they would likely dominate the political landscape."  I extraoplate from that that "those who could use military force - usually meaning the ability to afford lots of armor, weapons, and horses, as well as the leisure time to train at arms" will therefore have to take steps to prevent the spellcasters from "ruling most of the world".Also, what is easier:  The spellcaster making food for himself only, or the spellcaster helping everyone else out?  History teaches that people tend to do the easiest thing unless they can see a clear-cut advantage for doing otherwise.  Very few people make true "labor saving devices" (this is certainly not the efficient future that 50's SF promised us!) but many people want to exploit the labor of others.In the real world, nationalism is a big deal because individuals cannot protect themselves against a hostile world.  By banding together into communities, people are able to protect themselves from other individuals and, to a lesser extent, from other communities.  But power in a D&D world going strictly by the RAW is not at all like power in the real world.  In a D&D world, power rests with individuals in a way it never has in the real world.  A spellcaster isn't the equivilent of a man with a gun.  A spellcaster isn't the equivilent of a nuclear arsenal.  A spellcaster that can cast beneficial spells has the potential to learn any spell on his list, and there is no way to control what spells she learns.  Moreover, as she gains levels, she is only going to become more powerful and harder to control.  She will learn to cast spells without speech, or movement, or materials.  You won't know what she's casting, or when.  You might feel warmly toward her, and you won't know whether that's because she's helped you so many times or because you're under her influence.  She says she can only cast low-level spells (and thus can't do what you fear), but you have no way to know if she's telling the truth.  Her other friend, the other spellcaster, says he detects no lies, but you know that those spells can be countered.....And what if they are in it together?  Just how many ranks of Spellcraft and Knowledge [Arcana] does the average village headmaster have, anyway?Jump a step up in government, and the same problems occur, just on a greater scale.  Now you know (or think you know) that your friend the spellcaster can cast the spells you fear most.  Those magical bracers that he claims protect you....do they also charm you to his will?  Are you sure?  That new ring you got for your birthday....doesn't detect as magic, but that could be a spell effect, too.Etc., etc., etc.If it is true that the mindset of a 12th level NPC spellcaster won't be that different from the mindset of a 12th level PC spellcaster, most worlds will not have strong nationalism.  They will have rampant individualism, disregard for authority, disregard for social consequence, disregard for taxes, and, eventually, a coup of local government.I find that a very dubious statement.Magic in the D&D RAW is unlike anything found in nature, and unlike anything real world history and politics have had to deal with.  The only example worlds we can describe are fictional, and 3e D&D worlds are more like superhero comics than most fantasy novels.  In fact, they employ the same conceit:  the villians do not take over the world because the heroes always arise to stop them; the heroes don't change the world significantly with their vast powers because they are always too busy with the villians.Of course, then you can examine D&D worlds, and the games that occur within them.  Are the PCs very nationalistic?  Unless artificially constrained by the DM, do they use their powers only for good?  Do they kill people and rob them of their stuff?  You can only posit a world in which magic is exploited by the masses if you ignore PC behavior in favor of very dubious assumptions.Oddly enough, you are forgetting the availability of magic.  Any defector could be detected before the defection occurred.  Of course, your opponent would attempt to counter the detection.  But you could counter that.The system would not be stable so far as its effects on the world were concerned but it could do very nicely for those ultra-powerful beings.RC</blockquote>

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