Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 1704437" data-attributes="member: 15999">Excellent post, KM.&nbsp; I'm one of the guys usually complaining about the huge power levels assumed in the DMG demographics.&nbsp; I see that I was being a bit chauvanistic - thinking that life in the towns and cities defined life for the &quot;average person.&quot;&nbsp; Probably a city-dweller's bias on my part, combined with the fact that much of what I know from ancient and medieval history I associated with cities (Ur, Nineveh, Babylon, Athens, Rome, London).Looking at your conclusions, I'd have to say that one consequence would be that peasants are less powerful than the city dwellers even moreso than was true in history.&nbsp; Once you get to the &quot;large town&quot; level, you really have the spellcasters capable of casting world-changing spells such as teleport.&nbsp; Now, a related question for you all - which low-level spells would have the greatest effect on a world like ours?&nbsp; That is, which ones can do things that technology cannot yet do?&nbsp; I'd say Comprehend Languages is something technology can't do (Linear B, for example) but it wouldn't be all that world-changing.&nbsp; Detect Lie (or whatever it's called now) is another one that technology can't do (polygraph is more like a +4 bonus to Sense Motive, because unlike Detect Lie a skill check can give false positives), but it does allow a save.&nbsp; Cure Disease is probably the top low-level spell in this regard - imagine being able to cure any ailment even once per day.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 1704437, member: 15999"] Excellent post, KM. I'm one of the guys usually complaining about the huge power levels assumed in the DMG demographics. I see that I was being a bit chauvanistic - thinking that life in the towns and cities defined life for the "average person." Probably a city-dweller's bias on my part, combined with the fact that much of what I know from ancient and medieval history I associated with cities (Ur, Nineveh, Babylon, Athens, Rome, London). Looking at your conclusions, I'd have to say that one consequence would be that peasants are less powerful than the city dwellers even moreso than was true in history. Once you get to the "large town" level, you really have the spellcasters capable of casting world-changing spells such as [I]teleport[/I]. Now, a related question for you all - which low-level spells would have the greatest effect on a world like ours? That is, which ones can do things that technology cannot yet do? I'd say [I]Comprehend Languages[/I] is something technology can't do (Linear B, for example) but it wouldn't be all that world-changing. [I]Detect Lie[/I] (or whatever it's called now) is another one that technology can't do (polygraph is more like a +4 bonus to Sense Motive, because unlike [I]Detect Lie [/I] a skill check can give false positives), but it does allow a save. [I]Cure Disease [/I] is probably the top low-level spell in this regard - imagine being able to cure any ailment even once per day. [/QUOTE]

Verification