D&D 5E How do the classes change a small town on a day to day basis

[Crothian]

Under the assumption that characters with classes are rare how would each class alter the day to day life of a normal small D&D town. Are there some cantrips that a Wizard or Cleric could get that would change how a small town operates like create water does in Pathfinder? Are there class abilities or skills that would be really useful in the day to day living of a small town? I'm especially interested in the low level items as that is what characters would have first.

 

[steeldragons]

Interesting thought exercise. Let's see...

Assuming a classes being rare in the game world:
Fighters: Depending on their temperament [and to an extent, alignment would play into this], their presence could be a source of great comfort or concern for the community. As in, "We've got nothing to worry about. The goblin tribe in the swamp wouldn't dare raid again with THIS guy [or gal] around." or "With this guy/gal around we'd better keep our eyes down and our doors locked!" Same could be said for warrior types (or even classed characters as a whole) of all sorts.

Classed fighters/paladins/barbarians/rangers that are permanent parts of the community would likely have some of the best trained "0 level" militia's around and be more confident than the average joe's in their sergeant/captain/constable's leadership.

Rogues: If they are known as "rogues" and not explorers or adventurers would be a cause for much concern, I would think.

I am a big propnent of magic being accessible to the PCs, of course, but not necessarily "common" in the world. Such as, the spellcasting cleric being maybe the only one in a small temple or one of two. So things like "come get your fresh water every day"...probably isn't possible...or, maybe I could see it at a temple of a Water-based/associated deity.

More later, maybe. Dinner now.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The majority of rules (including spells) revolve around combat. There aren't many spells for things like "ensure survival during childbirth".

In every edition from 3rd, magic items are really expensive. You either need to be an adventurer, noble or plain rich to buy them. Barring some cheaper consumables, I think only the rich are going to have items. A peasant family might have one healing potion for emergencies, enough to survive an accident but probably not even enough to survive a raid.

Adventurers, naturally, tend to get items that boost their combat and harsh environmental survival ability. Nobles might tend toward items that protect their families or are useful in politics, disease-treating items might fit the first category, and items that make scrying on them harder the latter.

In 4e, many spells that used to be "free" weren't. The Remove Affliction ritual would come up a lot, and it's expensive. Contrast with 3e and 5e, where such spells only cost slots. For adventurers, this is a big deal. For the village priest, there's much less competition. Of course, clerics have a limited number of slots. They can probably keep the disease level down, but can't handle a massive epidemic.

Some classes don't really "belong" in a small town. A ranger makes sense. Hunting, tracking, and general woodcraft are important in the wilderness. A ranger might be hired to hunt poachers, or a ranger might be a poacher. By contrast, paladins probably spend their time at large churches or military encampments. A wizard who isn't adventuring is probably studying at a tower, university, or lab, and only the first might be found anywhere near a small town.

Non-adventuring rogues don't advertise that they're rogues. They don't always wear leather armor, festoon themselves with daggers, skulk around where anyone can see them, etc. In today's world, a mugger probably looks just like the guy you sat beside on the bus, or the woman you drove behind in your car. Of course, this means rogues need "day jobs" for cover.

Rogues have a variety of skillsets too. A rogue might work as a "scout" for the military. People who know their skillset (and are loyal to the same country) might disagree that they're a rogue. Such a rogue doesn't need a day job "for cover" as being a rogue is their job.

 

[Crothian]

The majority of rules (including spells) revolve around combat. There aren't many spells for things like "ensure survival during childbirth".

In the basic release Spare the Dying could easily do this.

It doesn't matter how things were handled in other editions I just care about the current game. While some character with classes will focus on the combat not all will and it is those select few or specifically their non combat options I am interested in and how those abilities can be used to improve the day to day life of people in a small town.

 

[Lalato]

Once you accept the idea that magic exists in the world and that people can either express that magic naturally (wild mage sorcerer) or via circumstance of birth (draconic lineage sorcerer). It's not a stretch to accept the idea that people may have varying degrees of power.

You might have people that have very minor ability (can cast a cantrip) to someone that has much greater potential (an adventurer). To me, this means that some minor forms of magic might be fairly common. Karsek the farmer can't create a fireball, but he never seems to need flint to start a fire. Just snaps his finger a bunch of times and the kindling starts to smoke and eventually lights.

Since you can't have people with even minor ability to burn things down walking around your town, you either shun those people from your community or you accept them with a lot of making sure they understand the consequences of doing something stupid. Generally speaking the consequences are shunning or death. It's scary to have someone fart in their sleep and cause the town to explode.

Add to this a world where ritual magic exists and you might have people without any talent for magic practicing it on a regular basis. Rituals would get passed down just like oral history and other lore. If most people can't read, they might only know a couple of minor rituals, but they would be known.

As for how adventurers interact with all of this. They would be seen as potential threats until proven otherwise. Just like Karsek the farmer would be eyed suspiciously for his minor ability to light fires, adventurers would get a long look because it would be known that people with weapons and pouches filled with bat guano are dangerous. Customs might rise up that involve adventurers (and I'm including anyone that carries weapons and/or bat guano) presenting themselves to the town elders and only if the elders approve would they be able to stay in the town proper. Accepting what the town elders say would then go a long way in developing trust. Break that trust and word would spread that Boltar the Brave is a lying jackanape and you should never break bread with him... much less let him into your town.

 

[KarinsDad]

As for how adventurers interact with all of this. They would be seen as potential threats until proven otherwise. Just like Karsek the farmer would be eyed suspiciously for his minor ability to light fires, adventurers would get a long look because it would be known that people with weapons and pouches filled with bat guano are dangerous. Customs might rise up that involve adventurers (and I'm including anyone that carries weapons and/or bat guano) presenting themselves to the town elders and only if the elders approve would they be able to stay in the town proper.

Every PC party then states that one of them is a traveling merchant and the rest are his bodyguards. They take a few samples along as proof.

The problem with suspicious NPCs at every town for every adventurer is that the same issue would occur with normal occurring NPCs like merchants.


It's much better to ignore that stuff and assume that townsfolk are willing for the most part to accept travelers until they prove themselves untrustworthy and be done with it. It doesn't make for very interesting roleplaying if the PCs are defending their very right to be in town in most places, it just makes the game annoying. Nothing wrong with being suspicious on occasion, but doing it because Karsek the farmer can light fires doesn't make a lot of sense.


There is also the concept of adventurers being known as adventurers. For the most part, unless they are waving wands around and such, or grilling the local populace about the way to the closest dungeon, they should typically be considered armed and armored travelers (a not unreasonable thing for travelers to do in many campaigns).


Getting back on topic, Blade Ward would be a really good cantrip for manual workers when they are about to do some dangerous work. Ditto for Light in an underground mine.

 

[Andor]

Why would being able to light fires be bad? Anyone with a candle or a flint and steel can light a fire. We don't control access to matches...

Being able to throw a fireball warrents respect to be sure, but that's higher level stuff.

Spare the dying is a potent cantrip, but you need to be on the spot. Childbirth might be one of the few places where it makes a big difference. So lower child/mother mortality in childbirth.

Purify Food/Drink is actually extremely potent in this edition. It covers a 5' radius without a weight limit and can be performed as a ritual. No more jack-in-the-rye. No more rancid water and mouldy biscuits on sea voyages. No more tainted water. Any settlement or civilization that's organized enough to ensure that the cisterns and silos are purified regularly will have vastly lower rates of disease and even starvation as less food will be lost to spoilage.

Continual light is 50gp and permanent again, so I'd expect everburning torches/lamposts in any civilized area to be common place. Too expensive for the common man, but cheap for cities and towns. Even in the sticks you'll have the odd familly that recieved one as a gift from a grateful magician.

That's all that springs immediately to mind for low-lewvel stuff.

 

[Lalato]

snipped because I don't care about the details

This isn't about what's good for the game at your table. It's about what's good for the town. If I'm a town elder... I don't let merchants with "bodyguards" come into my town. Do you think I'm going to for fall for the banana in the tailpipe trick yet again? Nope... not me. If the merchant with bodyguards wants to gain my trust, he can do so by accepting that I don't let merchants with "bodyguards" into my town... no matter how nice their sample wares are.

These are common folk... not idiots. It's not just a matter of saying... "Oh those are adventurers... they can pass because they just want to raid the dungeon up the hill." It's a matter of having just one so called adventurer make a mistake and kill someone. It's a matter of recognizing that people with weapons are dangerous even if they're the "good guys". That's not to say that they aren't occasionally useful... like when we hired some to deal with the goblins that were raiding our town. But even then, that one warrior kept on hinting at how easy it would be to just call himself a warlord and use the town as a base of operations. That didn't sit to well with the elders.

Anyway, I'm just riffing on what the existence of magic and adventurers would do to a town. I think people would be very much on edge unless they had some way to protect themselves. If the town was under the protection of the Duke then they might act differently... knowing that the Duke's militia will take care of any crazy adventurers. My example was for towns under no such protection... but it also speaks to customs that might develop over time.

Things like extending hospitality to strangers might be a big deal in some places, but it might also mean that the strangers have certain responsibilities like... I don't know... not killing anyone in town. People that break these customs would be seen as evil (even if they aren't actually "evil" in alignment).

 

[Tony Vargas]

Under the assumption that characters with classes are rare how would each class alter the day to day life of a normal small D&D town.

If they're /rare/ they wouldn't impact day to day life in a small town. Rather, when a classed character came into town for some reason, there'd be a temporary impact.

Are there some cantrips that a Wizard or Cleric could get that would change how a small town operates like create water does in Pathfinder? Are there class abilities or skills that would be really useful in the day to day living of a small town? I'm especially interested in the low level items as that is what characters would have first.

There's no assumption of characters getting magic items, nor are their markets for them, so they'd be strictly objects of wonder, not something that'd get applied to anything prosaic.

Non-casters have no particularly exceptional abilities. A rogue's expertise might make him stunningly good at something, but there are presumably specialists with comparable ability at any given skill. A fighter's athletic prowess, likewise. So it's really down to spells and cantrips. To have an impact on day-to-day life it'd have to be useful systematically, so anything with expensive components is out.

Lesser Restoration, at only second level, with no components, and able to cure blindness, deafness, paralysis, poisoning, or disease stands out.

Various divination spells are about the only other things in the Basic lists that look like they might have a day-to-day impact. Ironically, Prestidigitation's ability to clean is another - not very glamorous, but cleaning was a lot of work, and instantly cleaning a noble's silk shirt without getting it wet is actually kind of impressive (think what people pay for dry-cleaning).

 

[LapBandit]

It's not that hard to imagine what it would be like to have a person skilled at something being a neighbor. A good-natured police man or solider for a neighbor might be comforting in that if things ever got violent they might be able to protect the neighborhood. Similarly, having a doctor for a neighbor might provide some level of belief that at least cursory medical knowledge/help/skill was close by. And perhaps a locksmith who knows how to open all manner of doors/windows/security-related devices could be called on (locked out of house,car. Lost keys to your safe). Having skilled people around is always useful and for a small town they usually appreciate them being around. So, if John the 5th lvl Fighter retires from adventuring life to a small town a day or two ride outside a big city, you know his martial ability would be more than welcome if times ever get dangerous.