Magic and sanitation

[UngainlyTitan]

Sewage waste is a useful fertilizer, particularly if the disease load is removed.

 

[MGibster]

Depends on how common Mold Earth is. Most people have no idea how slow it is to move dirt by hand. The construction estimators will tell you a person with a shovel will move under 23cf of dirt/hr*. Mold earth moves 125cf every 6s. This is on par with a 100hp excavator.

A few years back, I moved 5 cubic yards of earth for my mother. At 2,100 freedom units (950 kg), it occurred to me that 5 cubic yards of earth was simultaneously more and less earth than I thought it was. i.e. It's a lot of work to move dirt by hand.

The truth is that in a high fantasy setting like D&D I don't really care about sanitation. The exception to that general rule is if there's some reason to go down into the sewer (as adventurers are wont to do) or if it's something that otherwises has an impact on adventuring.

 

[John R Davis]

.

 

[John R Davis]

Have launched a KS examining just this issue!

 

[Celebrim]

Depends on how common Mold Earth is.

Excellent analysis.

Just wanted to make a note of how much it infuriates me as a GM when authors write spells entirely based on how useful they think they would be in a dungeon environment to solve dungeon exploration problems and pay absolutely no attention at all to the economic consequences of their creation.

Move Earth was a sixth level spell. It's potent but easy to argue that spellcasters of that puissance aren't common and don't like being conscripted into physical labor. And, it's not clear how other than adventuring you'd get an 11th level character and adventuring is likely a funnel that most people won't attempt and few people will survive. IF it takes powerful magic to have powerful economic impact, then we can sort of imagine magic having an occasional impact on an otherwise familiar world.

It would appear that Mold Earth as an unlimited cantrip effect duplicates a 6th level spell with the sole exception that if I did the math in my head right, it moves about 1/3rd as much every 10 minutes. There has never been anything particular in the rules of D&D that said that anything prevented average intelligence people from learning spells except time and education. Wizards aren't sorcerers; they don't need to be born special. In a world that can train wizards, virtually everyone has access to 1st level magic - say 50% or more of the population. If magic has that massive of an economic benefit, then societies would quickly gravitate towards a universal magical education system. Any society that didn't would be overwhelmed by the ones that did. IF you make economically powerful magic common, it implies nothing should be familiar about the resulting world.

 

[Bedrockgames]

In a world where magic work how would you describe the sanitation?,

I think this really depends on access and how widespread magic is. Just like anything else in the setting. So if there is a lot of utility magic, I would expect a setting to be pretty clean. On the other hand if it is rare and costly, it might be something you only see in wealthy sectors of the city.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think this really depends on access and how widespread magic is. Just like anything else in the setting. So if there is a lot of utility magic, I would expect a setting to be pretty clean. On the other hand if it is rare and costly, it might be something you only see in wealthy sectors of the city.

Sticking a few "trapped" gelatinous cubes in the sewers seems like something a lot of medium-sized settlements would consider. The really foolish ambitious ones might even want an otyugh in there.

 

[Dioltach]

Just imagine exploring a sewer and running into a gelatinous cube filled with all kinds of undigested "waste".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just imagine exploring a sewer and running into a gelatinous cube filled with all kinds of undigested "waste".

Now you know why wererats are always so grumpy.

 

[the Jester]

Bearing in mind that waste is a resource for building soil, I think it's not unlikely that some druid circle (the Circle of Waste?) takes charge of it, converting it into enhanced fertility for the surrounding lands.