D&D 5E How common are "petty" spell casters?

[Ancalagon]

Before we start, I would like to preface this by saying there is no right answer - this is a "world design" consideration, and of course different DMs will come to different conclusions. But it's still useful to talk about it.

5e has given us several means to generate "petty" casters:
1: Someone who is a very low level caster and has "peaked" (ie won't go up in level and is "stuck" at that low level)
2: Someone who has a bit of magic via another mechanism - racial magic, or the magic initiate feat (a great way to make a "hedge mage" or priest), or a number of other feats that grant magic via a number of mechanisms - a peasant could be fey-touched for example!
3: NPCs don't have to follow precise rules. If you want a local fisherman to have a seagull familiar and not bother to explain how, go for it!
4: Someone could have an "external" source of magic they use - perhaps a magical item, or a magical being that can use magic on their behalf.

So these aren't people who are slinging fireballs and summoning angels - they just have a bit of magic that is useful to them and/or their community.

Personally I think it would be a mistake to have everyone have a bit of magic, but having every village have a local petty caster can be pretty interesting flavor. Of course once heroes reach tier 2 these will fade into the background, but they could be important NPCs at low levels. Just with magical initiate you can craft a great number of casters, who's style/flavor is based upon the spell list and the spell taken: "the ice mage" - someone with prestidigitation (for cooling and food preservation), ray of frost and ice knife, who's a rival of the red mage - a wandering tinker with mending, a raven familiar and firebolt. In an urban setting, there could be dozens of these. The Red Mage might have found employ at a petty noble, who wanted to emulate the king and get his very own "personal wizard".

Lastly, I'll mention that when I started writing this post, I had forgotten about racial magic, which would really change the dynamics in a community where this race is prevalent, but also how they are perceived. If there is one mage per village but every (high) elf knows magic... elves are magical beings!

Anyway, thinking about these "lesser casters" and how prevalent they are can really inform your world design and how the common people react to magic. Personally I like the "1-2 per village" level, as it helps with my personal "the PCs are not special at first but will become special" taste -at low levels you can cast firebolt, cool I guess, but when you start flinging fireballs people notice.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

The assumption in Eberron is these types of casters are fairly common. A magewright (arcane), adept (divine), or gleaner (primal) are almost as easy to find as a guild crafter. After that it's a steep drop off, with npcs that can rival high level spellcasting characters being fairly rare.

 

[bedir than]

In my world there was a Born Generation who discovered they could cast a single cantrip. These humans, halflings and goliaths are now all middle aged and some have taken to normal D&D casting (but only that small percentage who are potential heroes)

 

[DND_Reborn]

For my worlds magic is rare and difficult to master (like AT ALL), so less than 1 in 100 creatures will be able to use any magic whatsoever.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

In the Realms there are hedgewizards. Classed as wizards and (later) sorcerers of middling power, you could expect to encounter one every couple of villages or towns. They were relied upon by locals for the few helpful magics a typical hedgewizard could provide. They also had mundane skills and (local) knowledge that was of equal use to the folk living nearby, as well as to adventurers blundering their way forward to adventure. Their abodes were not wizard's towers or castles, but simple hovels or homes just below or on par with what common folk in the area lived in.

It was the hedgewizard's facility with magic that set them apart from local folk and made them unique. They ought to be rare, maybe a bit idiosyncratic, and memorable if not interesting.

 

[Kobold Stew]

2: Someone who has a bit of magic via another mechanism - racial magic, or the magic initiate feat (a great way to make a "hedge mage" or priest), or a number of other feats that grant magic via a number of mechanisms - a peasant could be fey-touched for example!

For me, this is where small-time casters typically come from. I love playing (otherwise) mundane characters who have a knack -- the jump spell, or magic stone. Or using prestidigitation and mending to have a village laundry/seamstress. some small magic that they can pull out. Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster were great ways to implement it, IMO (and it is one of the ways that the revised Ritual Caster lets me down; and which I hope they change).

At the same time, there is (for my tastes) too much racial magic. One thing the revised Kobold did right was allow a single cantrip, but make it a choice: you could take a cantrip, or a save bonus, or a skill. YOu could play the race without needing to be a spellcaster.

In terms of world-building, among races where magic isn't baked in, I figure everyone knows someone who has a knack. So maybe 1 in 40. A town meeting will have a handful of low-level casters, though maybe only one or two with spellcasting class levels.

 

[Thunder Brother]

For my own setting, I developed this guideline for the rarity of spellcasters:

1 and 10 Rule: On average, 1% of the population knows some cantrips + 1st level spells, then 10% for every spell level after that.

Spell level	Example Population	Example City
9th	1
8th	10
7th	100
6th	1,000
5th	10,000
4th	100,000
3rd	1,000,000	2
2nd	10,000,000	20
Cantrip + 1st	100,000,000	200
None	10,000,000,000	20,000

Naturally, this table applies mainly just to humans, since other races have innate spellcasting which fudges things. But my own personal setting is very human-focused, so it balances out.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

For my own setting, I developed this guideline for the rarity of spellcasters:

1 and 10 Rule: On average, 1% of the population knows some cantrips + 1st level spells, then 10% for every spell level after that.

Spell level	Example Population	Example City
9th	1
8th	10
7th	100
6th	1,000
5th	10,000
4th	100,000
3rd	1,000,000	2
2nd	10,000,000	20
Cantrip + 1st	100,000,000	200
None	10,000,000,000	20,000

Naturally, this table applies mainly just to humans, since other races have innate spellcasting which fudges things. But my own personal setting is very human-focused, so it balances out.

While it's nice and easy it means that you need a population of TEN BILLION to have ONE person who can cast 9th level spells? So most worlds (including our own) would never have anyone who can do it.

 

[GMMichael]

While it's nice and easy it means that you need a population of TEN BILLION to have ONE person who can cast 9th level spells? So most worlds (including our own) would never have anyone who can do it.

Is that a problem?

I like my magic-using population to number slightly higher than the number of wizards in middle earth. Magic isn't cool if anyone can do it. So petty casters shouldn't really exist.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Attempt to swing a dead cat.

That guy you hit? Spellcaster.