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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1713557" data-attributes="member: 812">Excellent point. My argument SHOULD read -- Spellcasters in D&D have no reason not to use every spell that doesn't consume resources every day. If a spell's components are trivial, the point stands. If the components are not trivial, then casting the spell consumes resources, and obviously the casting is not a resource-free operation.But for many spells there are either no material components or trivial ones (all the Cure spells, for example, or Remove Disease, or Plant Growth, or Purify Food and Drink -- pretty much all the spells that have been referenced here are devoid of material components), and so those spells are free to cast -- they consume zero resources on the part of the spellcaster and so the spellcaster has no reason to NOT cast them. He or she gains nothing by withholding those spells.In contrast to the moron who spends all day swinging his sword in pointless circles around him -- he's NOT eating, NOT killing bad guys (or good guys), NOT making friends and influencing people, NOT putting away a little for a rainy day, NOT helping out his community -- he's just obviously a mental case. Casting spells accomplishes stuff AND costs nothing. We don't have anything like that in our world. In my life, the only way you can accomplish things is by expending resources. Spellcasters get spells for free. It's interesting. You start to wonder very seriously why EVERYONE doesn't learn magic. It's not like you need to be a genius -- even someone with an 11 Intelligence can cast first-level spells. And being able to cast one first-level spell every day for free is better than not being able to cast one first-level spell every day for free.If I were king, I'd ORDER everyone to learn magic. Especially if even my big cities are getting attacked by deadly creatures on a daily basis. Your society could easily take the short-term effort of getting everyone at 11 or higher Intelligence or Wisdom casting spells for the long-term benefit of having thousands upon thousands of spell-casters available throughout the kingdom. It just makes sense.It seems very likely to me that free power radically changes the way people organize themselves.As would (and this is a related but tangential point) "religion" based on demonstratable truths. If you KNOW your god exists, is your religion really a religion the way we think of it? This is different from pagan beliefs that have existed on our world -- the priests of a D&D world can invoke miraculous powers reliably and repeatedly. There is no doubt that they possess that power. And so belief isn't a matter of faith anymore, it's a matter of picking sides.I don't know if that's really "religion". I don't think that's how pagan systems worked. I mean, IRL, you can't easily tell a false priest (somebody whose view of the world is wrong) from a true priest (someone whose view is correct). But in D&D you can -- the guy who's just mad and running around making stuff up can't cast spells. The guy who is actually worshipping his god correctly can. So people can't just come up with crazy stuff and start convincing people through force of will, because those people will sensibly say, "Fine, cast your Cure Light Wounds, buddy."Now of course a priest of some evil god might be able to fool people into thinking he's a priest of some other, less offensive deity (though I suspect Mr. Less Offensive would have something to say about that eventually), but that's not the same thing as people just making stuff up and turning it into religion.Which is something that happens regularly in our world because religion isn't about picking the right side. It's about having faith in something bigger than what you can comprehend. And the D&D gods can be comprehended by man. Ergo, they will not fulfill man's (or elf's, or dwarf's) need for the religious experience.Dunno what to do about that, but that's what I think. Religion is HARD to get right in a fantasy world. Not many authors get it convincingly, and even fewer DMs. I certainly never have.</blockquote>

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