D&D General The DM Shortage

[Mort]

Fantasy setting does not equal "nothing matters, so anything goes". IMO, fantasy settings work best when the fantastic stuff is a specific exception, and the rest of the world operates more or less like ours. That grounding helps the fantastic "pop", so that the world is comprehensible.

Mummy rot as a magical disease works fine as a specific exception, IMO.

It's not anything goes. It's a recognition of the fact that the fantasy world does not have to conform to our world realism.

Magical herbs, if you don't want them in your fantasy world, ok. But to say they are not there because they're not realistic is preposterous.

Frankly if the world doesn't provide SOME evidence of it itself being fantastic (rather than just that guy there can pop a magic missile), that becomes boring for me. I mean, I can play a historical GURPS setting if I want my non fantasy fix.

 

[Vaalingrade]

A fantasy world can't have fantasy magic, silly.

The only fantasy allowed must come from PC-available caster classes specifically.

In fact, get these dragons out of here unless there's a Wizard spell that makes dragons.

 

[Mort]

Fantasy setting does not equal "nothing matters, so anything goes". IMO, fantasy settings work best when the fantastic stuff is a specific exception, and the rest of the world operates more or less like ours. That grounding helps the fantastic "pop", so that the world is comprehensible.

Mummy rot as a magical disease works fine as a specific exception, IMO.

Further, magic as the go to, most expedient, solution for 90% of problems gets old fast (at least for me). It actually takes away from the fantasy (again, for me) if every problem is essentially solved by "find the magic button..."

 

[overgeeked]

Bring back the five minute work day!!!

No. Stop fighting it and have five minute epic fights…and as many as you and the players want in a given day.

 

[tetrasodium]

Further, magic as the go to, most expedient, solution for 90% of problems gets old fast (at least for me). It actually takes away from the fantasy (again, for me) if every problem is essentially solved by "find the magic button..."

I feel like to some degree this is caused by the extreme & relatively exclusive focus on FR in the core books causes this. FR's gratuitous plotarmor levels of "magic does it" If there were more of a shared focus then settings like eberron with their magewrights or darksun where things lean more towards "yea it just sucks for you..." would provide alternatives for the venn diagram of solutions to cover.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Further, magic as the go to, most expedient, solution for 90% of problems gets old fast (at least for me). It actually takes away from the fantasy (again, for me) if every problem is essentially solved by "find the magic button..."

Mummy rot is not every problem, it is a problem. You take these things on a case by case basis. I have no issue with many things being solvable by mundane means; would prefer it generally, again because the world feels more real that way. But some magic problems needing magic fixes should be fine.

 

[Mort]

Mummy rot is not every problem, it is a problem. You take these things on a case by case basis. I have no issue with many things being solvable by mundane means; would prefer it generally, again because the world feels more real that way. But some magic problems needing magic fixes should be fine.

I actually get what you're saying, sure.

But, if the world has magic or is magic? Shouldn't there be magic herbs that could solve the problem? Could even be the basis for an adventure. You ARE solving the problem with magic, just not with the typical spell or PC ability.

Frankly, that's no different (and I, personally, find it more thematic) than forcing the group (assuming they don't have access to the spells by themselves) to track down a scroll, wand or NPC spellcaster.

 

[jasper]

Procrustean will help with the DM shortage. Just check into his services. He will only charge you a leg to get ahead in the DM game.

 

[Oofta]

When it comes to magic in the world, I think it's best left up to the DM, group and campaign. Some campaigns are going to have minimal magic where wizards are as rare as hen's teeth and others that have even more magic than Eberron.

In my campaign world, magic does infuse the world and there are healers that can cure many diseases and help people heal more quickly. But there may also be rare herbs that can only be found in the misty forest that's haunted by a banshee and the PCs need to retrieve it to stop a disease that's ravaging the town. In other cases you have magical diseases like mummy rot which is more of a curse than a disease which requires magic. That and NPCs may devote their lives to healing while I view training in medicine to be more akin to having advanced knowledge of first aid and combat emergency medicine. While we don't have NPC classes any more, NPCs specialists can frequently do things the PCs can't in my games. Those specialists simply don't use the same rules as PCs because they aren't adventurers.

I don't think having magical herbs that can help people heal and magically curing disease are mutually exclusive.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

A Medicine check can't even be used to heal someone with Healer's Tools, you need the Healer feat for that, and it ironically doesn't use the medicine skill at all, it just happens.