How common are mages in your world?

[blackshirt5]

I'm asking because we seem to have quite a few topics on the commonality of magic up on the boards right now; plus, it came up in my game last week and is sure to come up again(when the party was talking of splitting apart for a few years to evade bounty hunters and then meet up again, the NPC mage, Tak, made mention to the paladin, Agon, to "not automatically trust anyone who calls themself a real mage; I'm probably the nicest of the lot." How common are mages in your world, and how do you distinguish between them(how are they distinctive?)?

 

[blackshirt5]

Just to give a bit of a clarification, when the mage refers to "real mages", he's referring to mages who actually do something with themselves, as opposed to "other" mages, such as alchemists, seers who spend their lives reading the stars for money, and others. It's a distinction I plan on making in my campaign, that while there are plenty of other or lesser mages who find work doing things of that nature, they aren't really seen as mages so much as whatever role they fulfill in society.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well, the latest homebrew I worked on was low tech, high magic. There were lots and lots and lots of the second sort of magic user you were talking about running around.

The first sort was probably pretty common compared to the norm.

There were a few places where there were actual communities of them, major magical sites and academies and what not, members of the elite were just as likely to be 'mages' as opposed to any other secondary personal source of power, and heroes and adventurers were a recognized profession so there were a lot of fighters just being fighters and what not running around.

On the other hand there were very few people overall.

 

[blackshirt5]

Ah. How low-tech is "low-tech"?

Yeah, mages don't generally group themselves together, except as part of a holy order(I'm switching to the Arcana Unearthed magic rules when it comes out, so all magic is the same); most "real" mages are very jealous of their secrets, most of them have at least a handful of spells that only they know(which is why mages are loath to kill each other wantonly, at least without learning the secrets of each others spells, because who knows when or if anyone'll ever discover the secrets of those spells again?); for example, Tak, the party mage, has a set of spells he's developing that focus on conjuring up physical weaponry and creations to deal damage, so he's not relying on energy spells all the time(so far, I've worked out details for "Twin Swords" and "Fierce Knight"; I'm still working on the high-end version of it, "Knights of the Round". Yes, that spell, like FF7).

 

[Tsyr]

Mages?

Hmmm... I've never actualy worked out the numbers, but...

About twice common as dwarves and albinos combined, in the real world.

 

[willpax]

In my campaign (set about 200 years after a large economic catastrophe that reduced population significantly), you can usually number the mages in a country on two hands. Huge and important academies have student populations in the teens at best.

"Mage" is the third and highest rank of scholar in this campaign ("novice" and "scholar" being the other two). Most people don't earn the rank of mage until 4th-6th level. The scholars are the primary experts on magic and lore, and those that can wield magic signify it with a series of increasingly elaborate tatoos on their arms and face (marking their power and their danger--the aforementioned catastrophe was caused by magic gone out of control).

There are, of course, a number of people who have some lesser magic ability (which may be more limited or narrower), but they are only slightly more numerous, and usually take great pains to hide the fact that they are magical.

I make magicians rare as part of a way to reconcile a quasimedieval culture with real magic without having to have a world that is many times too strange.

 

[blackshirt5]

willpax, did your world revert from modern society?

 

[A'koss]

In our new campaign it's something we're also having to address. Our campaign is Norse/Rune-flavored and we've been testing the waters with a few changes as to how spellcasters work.

The campaign is what you would call "low magic", but I wouldn't consider it low powered. It's a post-Ragnarok setting where humanity is recovering and setting out to explore the new world.

The Talists (wizards) are an ecclectic and secretive lot, even more so than in core D&D. You won't find schools or guilds of them or any formalized institution to teach you. A Talist will generally take just one apprentice in his lifetime to pass his secrets on to, and familial relations have no special privileges in this regard. A potential apprentice has to prove they have what it takes to the master Talist by passing (and surviving) The Trials. Some Talists have been known to take on several apprentices over their lifetime but such generous masters are rare and usually only because the Talist sees a special talent in the candidates.

Talists in most of my campaign's societies are well respected (but to be avoided if possible) provided they aren't known to be malicious or cruel with their powers. Though Odin himself passed on the secrets of the runes to humanity, the Chosen (clerics) distrust the secrective Talists (often even the ones they know personally). There is an underlying rivalry between these magic weilders that tends to boil up at the most inappropriate of times.


Cheers,

A'koss.

 

[alsih2o]

in Maissen sorcerers are not uncommon and wizards are very rare. "written" magic has been outlawed for over 200 years after one of the three founding brothers (a wizard) killed the ranger brother and was banished by the clerical brother.

sorcerers are considered natural mages and are frequently state sponsored workers. the state is run by a theocratic council composed of leaders of several religions.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I operate on a set of assumptions that carry over from 1st and 2nd edition - that PC classes comprise about 1% of the overall population.

Of that 1%, Wizards comprise 16%, sorcerors 4%. By comparison, fighters are about 40% (that includes barbarians, paladins and rangers as subsets of "fighter").

So in a population of 1 million, there would be about 1,600 wizards. 2/3 of those are 3rd level or lower, and only 84 would be 6th level or higher. On average there would be 2 of 12th level or higher in that million.