Horwath
Legend
The wealthiest people in our world could solve homelessness and poverty if the just donated most of their money to the community.
Homelessness, maybe.
Poverty? No chance.
The wealthiest people in our world could solve homelessness and poverty if the just donated most of their money to the community.
I've done the math in a previous post, it *absolutely* is worth it.
Edit: There you go: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?652011-The-economics-of-Continual-flame
Fantasy world populations are far too low, even if all magic users make up only 1% of the total population.
I've never had a problem with that, because it seems to me that it takes a special kind of crazy to go on what amounts to multiple suicide missions. Fighting dangerous creatures is deadly, and the vast majority of people just don't want to do that. Exp from non-combat situations should be very slow going, so most elves and dwarves that even have class levels at all wouldn't be mega high level.
If you assume the XP system is the universal physics of the world, rather than a narrative device that applies to PC adventurers, you will end up with far bigger worldbuilding challenges than a few 4th-level spells.When you get to a certain level, defeating/killing a single goblin is hardly dangerous or suicidal.
It is a flaw in the system IMO that you continue to earn XP for very easy encounters, and as I understand it our DM doesn't award XP if the encounter's XP total doesn't reach at least Easy.
For example, a couple Hell Hounds (CR 3, worth 1400 XP total) would not be enough to meet the 1800 XP to warrant an Easy encounter for three 10th-level characters.
Make the populace superstitious of mages & magic. ‘Druids on the farm? That’s how you get werewolves!” “You couldn’t give away a magic-made weapon in this town. Folks say the blade will turn in your hand and kill you if it sees moonlight.” A lot of those crazed high level caster villains started out as aspiring merchants who just had too many bad retail customers...
1) Plant Growth: If one 5th druid decided to "help the farmers", and enrichs a different area everyday, they could effectively add over 150,000 acres of farmland to a kingdom (the true answer is 183, 468...but inevitably travel time, vacations, etc play in).
Further, its a reasonable thing for several druids to consider, enriching the land is a very drudic thing to do.
2) Fabricate: No craftsman in the world can compete with a 7th level wizard....in fact, its easy to ask "why would there even be regular craftsman in such a world?". In 1 day, a 7th level wizard with proficiency can craft two full items in an hour and 20 minutes (needs a short rest for arcane recovery for that second spell). Or if hes feeling lazy, 1 item a day for 10 minutes.
1) "There are just not that many high level casters". Is that the case in most of your campaigns...so would a 7th level PC really be the most powerful person on the planet in all of your worlds?
I agree that high level characters are "rare", but the truth is it only takes a small handful of such characters to do the economic changes that I am describing. And if high level characters are "non-existent", than you have other problems when a player gets to not even mid levels and now is more powerful than everyone else on the planet" There is nothing wrong with that campaign, but I doubt its the norm.
2) "High level wizards have more important things to be doing".
Now sure, sometimes the high level wizard (and again we are talking 7th here, not like 15th) has to save the kingdom, beat back a monster, slap down a wizard duel against his nemesis, research the next great spell, etc. And during those times it makes sense that he wouldn't be crafting.
But Wizards like gold too, and plenty of it. In fact, they are the only class whose power is directly tied to gold (as acquiring spells by default in your spellbook costs gold).
For just 1 spell and 10 minutes a day, in a few years a 7th level wizard could become rich beyond imagining.
Heck they could just pay non-wizard adventurers to go kill all of the important monsters they need for components.
3) "NPCs wouldn't do it, but if PCs would more power to them"
This is a similar notion to my thoughts on Item 2, but now its the PC that gets all of the crazy benefits. If we assume a world where gold is useful (can buy you favors, spells, maybe have some adventurers bring you some magical components), and that PCs have at least some downtime here and there....than for a 7th level wizard this seems so powerful you would have to be an idiot not to do it.
For one little old proficiency the wizard during his downtime generates more gold than entire adventures. He has more money than the rest of the party combined.
And not just money....fame. Take that armor example I mentioned before, imagine the prestige that wizard would have. The king himself would invite him to his castle to stay, and would ensure every need of his was provided for. He would become one of the most important people in the kingdom...maybe the world. The other party members....nay, not so much.
So your belief is that it would be impossible for our world to provide sufficient resoures that everyone could have all the basics - food, shelter, water, healthcare ... the truh is that if we had an efficient allocation of resources and smoothly functioning economies with an educated and willing workforce expectation from every person, there is no reason why - globally - we could not (within a few years) provide the basics for everyone, rising everyone above what is currently considered the US poverty line.Homelessness, maybe.
Poverty? No chance.