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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8553732" data-attributes="member: 6801845">There are many reasons for technology not advancing, or to put it a better way advancing in ways unlike the real world.  Some have already been mentioned.We think gunpowder and we think effective cannon and flintlocks.  But for a long time it was just a curiosity, something used as much or more for it's psychological effect than actual impact on the battlefield.  Forget fireball, a thunderclap or fire bolt would be more effective than early gunpowder weapons along with being more reliable.In a world with magic, perhaps life really can spontaneously form from things that emulate life. Rituals can bring things to life as well, what if a ritual for a steam engine was accidentally recreated?  It wouldn't take many events where a steam engine came to life and destroyed a town for people to ban them.  What we consider alchemy for things such as turning lead to gold never worked in the real world but eventually lead to modern chemistry.  But what if you really could turn lead into gold?  The process isn't exactly cheap but it does work.  It would also explain the devaluation of the gold piece.While things work the same on the macro level, there's no guarantee they work at the micro level.  At least not all the time.  Sometimes disease is caused by bacteria or viruses.  In a magic world some diseases, perhaps even the majority, could have magical origins.  For that matter, perhaps the interactions are not as predictable in the real world.  If the phase of the moon or the words you mumble while holding your hand just so can affect some core properties of reality, good luck trying to replicate every aspect of an experiment.  Maybe alchemists are casting minor spells without even realizing it.In my home campaign I also assume that low level magic such as poultices and minor potions actually work.  A healing potion may be costly because it's healing is nearly instantaneous.  On the other hand, if you come down with a fever, the local apothecary or healer can probably help.  In such a world infant mortality is far lower and families can be smaller.  Birth control is also more accessible which leads to women not having to spend their lives raising young children so society tends to be more equal.Since low level magical healing works also means that there's not much need for modern medical advances.The outlier here is metallurgy.  In many ways it's actually pretty advanced, you need to be pretty good at forging steel in relatively large quantities before you have high quality plate mail.  Again, magic comes into play here.  The blacksmith hums a tune to a rhythm of his hammer blows or says a prayer that helps to magically transform the iron.  The forge was blessed when it was built and it maintains a more constant temperature.  People have learned from dwarves the secrets of metal since a dwarven smith can spend centuries honing their craft.That's my 2 coppers on it anyway.  We have a hard time understanding how crude the early discoveries for what we take for granted now were.  If those crude beginnings can easily be surpassed by magic, how many people would spend their lives pursuing it?</blockquote>

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