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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5685420" data-attributes="member: 22779">mmadsen -  I think the major issue with D&D specifically is that the fantastic elements are added based on how they affect game play, rather than how they affect world building.  Continual Light appears as a 2nd level cleric spell because by third or fourth level, the party is sturdy enough to be able to stay in the dungeon for somewhat more extended forays and trying to cart around dozens of gallons of lamp oil becomes more trouble than its worth.So, we get a spell that means we don't have to cart around torches or lamp oil, but, it's still dispellable, so the DM can treat it as a resource as well.Like you say, as soon as that gets applied to the wider world, it becomes very, very problematic.Your solutions are from a world building perspective - how can we allow the party to have these resources without having such a broader impact.  I don't think this was ever a criteria in design, particularly in spell design in the early days.  And, since it got more or less set in stone at the outset, it simply got carried forward.</blockquote>