"Natural" Disasters on a Massive Scale

[wolff96]

How about an extinction level event like the one that theoretically wiped out the dinosaurs?

I think in any high magic world -- Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms (esp. FR) -- that the loss of life would be far less than the same event in real life.

Assuming no one whips up an epic-level spell to deal with the specific problem, there are still huge numbers of solutions to get out of the way. Every 9th level or higher cleric can Plane Shift; there are 8 of the church's most faithful out of the way. If you have a little warning (which you probably would, given that astrology depends heavily on the stars), a single cleric could theoretically save hundreds with just by shifting as often as he possibly could.

Fifth level druids can use stone shape; they can dig shelters deep within the planet that can save large numbers of people and animals. Higher level druids have even more options.

Wizards and Sorcerers have the most options, probably... Higher level ones follow in the cleric's footsteps and leave the plane. Every single 3rd level or higher wizard can dodge the impact, though.... Rope Trick is a common, easy-to-use spell.

After the impact, the main life-killing event is the massive temperature drop. Sunlight is blocked, plants die off, animals that feed on the plants starve, and finally the predators die. Clerical and Druidic magic makes this obsolete, though. Clerics can create food and water. Druids can make plants grow in the most inhospitable places. And the temperature really isn't a problem -- burning hands, fireball, Wall of Fire... Magic can create energy out of nothingness, so it isn't a real problem.

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Don't get me wrong, the loss of life would be horrific. But the main difference is that magic makes the survival of large groups of people very likely.

Not to mention the most basic fact of all: In D&D, the gods listen and actively meddle in human affairs... any major disaster or life-ending event is subject to divine intervention.

 

[kenjib]

I think in any high magic world -- Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms (esp. FR) -- that the loss of life would be far less than the same event in real life.

Yeah, I agree.

Assuming no one whips up an epic-level spell to deal with the specific problem, there are still huge numbers of solutions to get out of the way. Every 9th level or higher cleric can Plane Shift; there are 8 of the church's most faithful out of the way. If you have a little warning (which you probably would, given that astrology depends heavily on the stars), a single cleric could theoretically save hundreds with just by shifting as often as he possibly could.

But what kind of warning would they get from astronomy? They would see a new star getting brighter in the sky, but there wouldn't be much way for them to know exactly what it portends. I think some kind of commune spell would be more effective than astronomy.

Of course that poses the old question -- where do the refugees go now?

Fifth level druids can use stone shape; they can dig shelters deep within the planet that can save large numbers of people and animals. Higher level druids have even more options.

Wizards and Sorcerers have the most options, probably... Higher level ones follow in the cleric's footsteps and leave the plane. Every single 3rd level or higher wizard can dodge the impact, though.... Rope Trick is a common, easy-to-use spell.

After the impact, the main life-killing event is the massive temperature drop. Sunlight is blocked, plants die off, animals that feed on the plants starve, and finally the predators die. Clerical and Druidic magic makes this obsolete, though. Clerics can create food and water. Druids can make plants grow in the most inhospitable places. And the temperature really isn't a problem -- burning hands, fireball, Wall of Fire... Magic can create energy out of nothingness, so it isn't a real problem.

So stone shape and create food and water rely on level 5+ casters. How common are these and what are the odds that they can all be coordinated and organized to work efficiently? Create food and water is only for 3 people per level per day. I don't have my DMG handy for NPCs and population distribution but it seems like you would need a level 5+ cleric for every 100 or so people (guesstimating increased benefits from more rare, but higher level, casters) and they would most likely need to be either inclined toward humanitarianism (i.e. mostly good aligned, some neutral) or extracting some kind of payment or extortion (from people with nothing to give) in return for their services. It still seems like most of the population would still starve to death as a 1:100 ratio seems extraordinarily generous even for the Forgotten Realms. This is also, of course, ignoring the logistics of getting the food to people in rural areas from the higher level clerics who are concentrated mostly in the cities. The effect on population distribution would be dramatic. Then on top of this you have clerics whose magical power for the day is consumed by producing food, thus leaving them incredibly vulnerable to those of nefarious intent who seek their destruction and still have their power entirely intact.

Creating heat really isn't efficient enough via magic using the spells you mentioned. The durations are too short and the energy is too concentrated. I think new spells would need to be researched.

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Don't get me wrong, the loss of life would be horrific. But the main difference is that magic makes the survival of large groups of people very likely.

Not to mention the most basic fact of all: In D&D, the gods listen and actively meddle in human affairs... any major disaster or life-ending event is subject to divine intervention.

That's a really good point. There's always Deux Ex Machina to save the day! How do the divine politics work out? Would even some of the evil gods join forces with the good gods to prevent this calamity, in order to preserve their followers, thus power base?