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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1709683" data-attributes="member: 812">Fair enough, but it's not stupid to assume that laws of reality apply to everyone in reality.This is just hand-waving the problem away -- which is a fine response, no kidding, but that's what it is. Nowhere do the rules say "Oh, and other people in the world have a completely different set of rules about how magic works," so it's reasonable to assume that such rules as are detailed apply to NPCs as well as PCs.For a DM who wants to create a consistent, believable world in which D&D rules apply, there are some significant decisions that need to be made, decisions that have massive implications on the nature of the world.For example:Exactly. And any increase in average longevity will cause a corresponding increase in overall population. If people are living longer, there will be more people. Which will lead to a non-medieval setting.Monster Attacks: Suggesting that your average settlement gets attacked twice a day by deadly monsters is insupportable. Who would live in such a place? The typical response from successful cultures throughout the world to such incursions is massive retaliation to stomp out the offenders once and for all. What good is it living near some defending lord if goblins walk in once a day and injure or kill people? By the time the lord's forces arrive the damage is already done. The way to make a place livable is to send out a party of tough guys to wipe out the enemy. Even encountering such creatures once a WEEK would be cause for panic and either immediate "pacification" of the region or abandonment.Just the rumour of attack is usually enough in our world to send thousands of people fleeing for their lives.If orcs were competing with humans for resources, history certainly suggests that humans at least would settle for nothing less than complete eradication of the orc race. And since orcs are actually the evil ones, presumably they wouldn't even settle for that.There's just no way that people would live under those conditions. Either they would leave and live somewhere less incredibly dangerous, or they would organize a pre-emptive defense to make the area safe.And if we assume that instead, the villagers would remain, and gain levels from successfully fighting off monsters, doesn't that put an end to the "commoners have no access to magic above 1st level" argument? A 9th-level adept has 3rd-level spells, and if Toothless Joe the commoner can be 9th level, why not Mumbling Fred the adept? I mean, either these are low-level people -- in which case they get wiped out by monster attacks consistently -- or they're higher-level people -- in which case they can resist the monster attacks but end up encountering higher-level magic as a matter of course.Note that a band of 30-100 orcs includes 3 7th-level barbarians, 5 5th-level barbarians and a 3rd-level barbarian for every 10 orcs. These guys are going wipe your average village or thorp off the map. That's 30 orcs -- a force like that could cut a massive swath through any kingdom populated the way this thread suggests.The point is that pretending that deadly incursions will keep populations levels down ignores typical responses IRL to such dangers -- either put an end to the danger, whatever the cost may be, or flee. In no case would most people accept living in such regions.Withholding spells: Spellcasters in D&D have NO REASON not to use every spell they get every day of their life. None. Saying "It's exhausting" is just making stuff up. The rules don't impose any penalties for casting spells. You aren't fatigued because you just cast a spell. I guess a wizard might have something better to do daily than memorize a bunch of spells (but honestly, what wizard would ever take the chance that TODAY they won't need a spell ready?), but I find it unlikely. Or at least sub-optimal. And the other classes have even less rationale for not maximising their spell-casting.This is part of where my "Paranoia Theorem" comes from. The Paranoia Theorem states that according to D&D rules of magic, the most successful method for a sorcerer is complete paranoia. Sorcerers do best by practicing complete paranoia -- trusting no one and arranging the destruction of everyone who might possibly be a threat. Of course many sorcerers won't be good enough at it, will get caught and recognized for what they are and destroyed before they can succeed, but the laws of probability suggest that sometime somebody's going to combine the lethal qualities of intelligence, charisma, and complete paranoia and be able to wipe out all threats to their existence.Because the power of sorcerers depends on nothing outside of themselves. They cannot be stopped by social pressure -- not if they're sufficiently clever and cautious.I'll grant you that "sufficient" is a very very large amount of cleverness and caution, but there exists an amount that if possessed would mean a sorcerer is literally untouchable and will be able to act at will. The only force that could stop such a character would be a god. In particular, a god in a campaign setting where mortals cannot make themselves into gods.Sorcerers, therefore, who do not prepare new spells as soon as they can, will get eliminated by their more paranoid brethern -- who are watching for exactly those opportunities. They would do the same to wizards (the Paranoia Theorem applies less well to wizards because their spellbooks can be taken away from them), and anyone else that looked like a threat.Eventually you have a world where a small number of extremely powerful sorcerers maintain constant vigilance, gathering as much power as they can and denying all resources to their rivals. They would simply wipe out entire civilizations if they could -- they have no use for peasants, and such resources might provide armies that would be turned against them. Better to kill them all.It's interesting to me because it provides a rational explanation for the standard "destroy the world" ploy of BBEGs. It's actually the optimal path for a sorcerer to follow -- you best assure your own survival by killing every other being in the world. Barsoom is the campaign that grew out of this line of thinking -- it's a nasty place, that for most people is not only low-magic, it's NO-magic -- but what magic does exist is immensely powerful. It's just specifically targetted at wiping you out.Where did I start all this? Huh.</blockquote>

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