D&D General How does a guild use it's power?

[Celebrim]

With the relative high magical power level of Dungeons and Dragons, how can a Guild use it's power so it doesn't become moot in someplace like Cormyr?

The power of the Guild is coin. And a Guild typically trades coin for political power in the form of guaranteed monopolies, rights to regulate it's own affairs to ensure that monopoly persists, and guaranteed government contracts. In other words, the Guild offers politically powerful individuals a trade - we'll make you personally wealthy by filling up your coffers, if in exchange you help us squash competitors so that we can ensure we can keep ripping people off and so always have that money to spare.

The Guild system ensured the prosperity of the newly created upper middle class of highly skilled craftsman, while breaking the backs of the peasantry with high priced goods that they could ill afford to pay. As with similar labor based monopolies, they can hold onto their power if and only if the quality of their labor really is vastly superior to any cheaper replacement.

 

[Beleriphon]

As a thought the City of London had, and still has guilds, some of them are little more than fraternal orders these days, some of them are very much relevant.

Some that seem to provide the same service compete: chandlers for example. The Tallow Chandlers and the Wax Chandlers compete against each other, but both may find common ground against the Glass Makers (who produce gas lamps).

What does that do, well as a sactioned guild the Wax Chandlers can petition the local government to tax rendered animal fats to prevent the Tallow Chandler by increasing the cost of their product, thus reducing the advantage the cheaper fat based candles have over was based (they smoke way more and smell, but cost less).