D&D 5E How 'magical" in your game/setting?

[Scott Christian]

I am very confused by the top part of this poll. The strength of the caster in D&D (which is what it is posted under) is pre-determined, ie. the rules. I mean, I guess some DMs can tell their casters they can cast fewer spells or not take these spells and only use this small group, but I have never met any.
Frequency, I guess can be individualistic. But again, when playing D&D, I have seen very few tables where one could tell a difference. Almost every PC at the table can do something magical; therefore, according to the PC's world view, magic is quite common. In 5e, there are cantrips, which can just be cast and cast and cast. Magic abounds 24 hours a day. For example, a sixth level wizard, cleric, ranger and bard (not an odd group). Almost all of them have tons of cantrips. If they are like any players I've met, they use them all time. Even mundane situations like at a tavern: "I use mage hand to grab my drink," "I use prestidigitation to help the barkeep clean up," "I use ray of frost to cool my drink," "I use dancing lights to entertain the cat in the corner," or "I cast thaumaturgy on the bard."
I fail to see how the DM can really limit these without enforcing it through setting. Which brings us to setting...
As far as magic in settings go, again, in D&D, it is pre-set; maybe not in stone, but certainly carved in wood. A healing potion is a good example. It would seem very flip-flop consistency to have all sorts of magical creatures, even mundane ones, like skeletons, and not have magic be "everywhere."

Note: Other settings and game rules, I completely see. But for D&D, I don't know, I just have never seen it be a low magic, low power conception except maybe in 1st edition.

 

[Fifinjir]

Medium magic probably fits best. Magic is a part of life, but not a daily part (usually). In light of the Four Curses, magic is important for the people protecting both their homes and their minds, but if things are going well this is a mostly invisible process, with the possible exception of constructs patrolling the roads. An ordinary farmer or fisherman might witness magical events a few times a year, unless there’s a crisis.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I am trying to figure out how magic a setting would be after I ban the wizard? also the cleric, the paladin the druid, ranger.

 

[gamerprinter]

I guess I'm an odd sort of third party publisher for Starfinder, in that I mostly create hardware content - starships, weapons, armor, equipment, settings and modules, and very little in magic, despite Starfinder being science fantasy with spellcasters. I did include some magic options for starships, which not even Paizo hasn't included yet, so I'm ahead in arcane development that way. I guess I lean hard sci-fi a bit more, so that's the kind of content I focus on. In Starfinder, technology works around the reliance on magic in ways that Pathfinder could not - you can do a lot of overwhelming things in Starfinder and not even delve into magic. I prefer that, so design for that. I usually play a fighter/ranger/rogue and more rarely a paladin or a half-caster, like PF classes - don't know if D&D has any half-casters. I rarely play full casters.

 

[Oofta]

In my campaign world low level magic is so ubiquitous that people don't even always realize that it's magic. The bakery sells cookies that really are magically delicious, the master smith forges items out of iron that don't rust, people heal more quickly than they do in the real world.

In addition, magic items are practically indestructible. Bury that rock with continual flame on it? Dig it up a century later and it still provides light. Something like continual flame may be expensive if you follow the standard rules, but it's also a game changer to have a reliable source of light that won't burn the house down.

I also have ritual casters as NPCs. People that can do powerful magic (both diabolic and benign) if given enough time but couldn't cast magic missile to save their lives. I don't go quite as far as Eberron, but there are some steam punk like elements to my world. To me it only makes sense that magic would be useful for things other than war or adventuring.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I guess I'm an odd sort of third party publisher for Starfinder, in that I mostly create hardware content - starships, weapons, armor, settings and modules, and very little in magic, despite Starfinder being science fantasy with spellcasters. I did include some magic options for starships, which not even Paizo hasn't included yet, so I'm ahead in arcane development that way. I guess I lean hard sci-fi a bit more, so that's the kind of content I focus on. In Starfinder, technology works around the reliance on magic in ways that Pathfinder was not - you can do a lot of overwhelming things in Starfinder and not even delve into magic. I prefer that, so design for that. I usually play a fighter/ranger/rogue and more rarely a paladin or a half-caster, like PF classes - don't know if D&D has any half-casters. I rarely play full casters.

ranger and paladin are half casters in dnd

 

[gamerprinter]

I am trying to figure out how magic a setting would be after I ban the wizard? also the cleric, the paladin the druid, ranger.

I developed with another designer Way of the Samurai (PFRPG) (PF1), and offered six different archetypes - one kind of paladin-like (with some paladin like abilities), but the rest covered the various classic samurai themes - mounted archer, a more political high skills samurai, a Miyamoto Musashi inspired duel wielding samurai, an arquebus expert samurai, a monster-slaying samurai, and a ranger archetype who was a bodyguard samurai-llke Yojimbo, with enemy clans, not monster as opponents.

So I ran an unpublished one-shot based on the Seven Samurai for my playtesters, less the paladin samurai, and one playing the PF standard samurai to run a zero magic adventure - it worked out great!

 

[nevin]

in my setting there are 1st world countries where high levels of magic are common. There are rules, mages that work for law enforcement. In those countries if you need to buy a teleport, wish etc you just need the money. Now abuse that wish and you and the criminal mage that cast it could be in deep trouble. the Magical NSA will have you on thier watch list. What this means for the Quadratic Wizards is that any official group coming for them will have researched all the powers they've exhibited, considered past actions and be fully equipped with magical items for all scenarios they've postulated. Imagine seal team 6 with a combat mage and a 10 or so clerics and mages on call as needed.

As bad as that sounds your even more screwed if you mess with reality enough to get a church on your tail. They only follow the rules of thier order and thier diety and if the diety says you get captured or die anything goes. All combat arms of the church , it's inquisitors and any other resources needed can be brought to bear. Details change from country to country but abuse of magic in those 1st world countries is almost never forgiven. It's hard to maintain an orderly society with mages wishing reality away or building unlicensed demiplanes to hide criminals or worse.

go to the 3rd world areas and it's much much harder to find that kind of magic unless it's titans, dragons or outsiders and because of the 1st world humans they mostly hate humanoid casters and thier allies.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I developed with another designer Way of the Samurai (PFRPG) (PF1), and offered six different archetypes - one kind of paladin-like (with some paladin like abilities), but the rest covered the various classic samurai themes - mounted archer, a more political high skills samurai, a Miyamoto Musashi inspired duel wielding samurai, an arquebus expert samurai, a monster-slaying samurai, and a ranger archetype who was a bodyguard samurai-llke Yojimbo, with enemy clans, not monster as opponents.

So I ran an unpublished one-shot based on the Seven Samurai for my playtesters, less the paladin samurai, and one playing the PF standard samurai to run a zero magic adventure - it worked out great!

cool, I want to see it?
also you any good at fixing the 5e monk?
It is not that I dislike those classes more that I do not what to deal with some of them and the themes they bring into the setting, miracle dispense is a bad class idea for a setting with some semblance of normality and druids are too strong and ranger to niche for what I want.
still kinda want another kind of magic and some half casters just not divine casters.

 

[jmartkdr2]

An analogy I've used in the past: my default assumption is that magic in DnD is about as common as air travel: not a daily part of most people's lives, but most people have experienced it. For middle-class people, they might experience it once a year, for working class people it's once every few years. Some wealthy people interact with magic much more often.

If you live in a city, you see evidence of magic every day or close to. In the countryside it sometimes appears overhead.

A high-magic setting is one where magic is as common as car travel. A low-magic setting is one where it's as common as space travel.