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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4134063" data-attributes="member: 1003">I was quoting a statistic dropped by one of Kelewan's Great Ones.* 1/1,000,000 was the "natural" rate of wizards being born among the population.  Hardly the 1/1,000 that the 3.x DMG assumes.  And in D&D you get sorcerers, druids and spell-casting Clerics too.  If you multiply the number of magic-users by 3,000, you're going to get a society that looks really, really different than Midkemia or even the Empire of the Tsurani.Hmm. To get back to the OP's request, I'm really having a hard time here. The main problem is that even in fantasy kingdoms or cities where magic is commonplace (such Kelewan's City of the Great Ones or Wheel of Time's Age of Legends or Valdemar's pre-Mage War Empires), the boundary between life and death is rarely within the power of even the greatest wizards. D&D is somewhat of an anomaly is that respect. Teleportation and telepathy become commonplace way more often than Raise Dead type magic.I don't know. I think the whole problem is over-stated. Just spend 15-30 minutes one lazy afternoon and ask yourself "If I had a 50% chance of 'surviving' an assassination, how would that change my behavior?"  Frankly, I don't think it would change my behavior much at all, other than the fact that my Last Will & Testament wouldn't kick in until all revival options were exhausted.  That chance of death (the chance that my killer takes my heart/head with him, or uses a dagger blessed by the Raven Queen, or hides my body under a bush until the time limit for RD is exhausted, or that the spell just doesn't work, etc.) is too high to be nonchalant about it.  And the cost is hardly de minimus, even to a King.  And that doesn't even get to the question of "If I die, will my heirs respect my wishes about being raised, or leave me dead so they can inherit?"  I mean, I bet lots of Kings get offed and the few loyal retainers get offed too to make sure that, even if it's possible to raise him, no one does.Plus, there's cool plot-lines like "The King died mysteriously, and his nephew ascended the throne and took power, but the King's loyal man Kerced carried the King's body away in the night.  Now a rebellion is brewing in the East and it is rumored that King Alfred has returned from the Shadowfell, determined to retake his throne."  Isn't that cool?Or, some street tough might warn you "Don't cross the Nighthawks.  Many have tried, but their leaders have all signed pacts with dark powers. They've been killed a half-dozen times, but they keep coming back to retake their 'rightful' place as the rulers of The City's underbelly. And when they do, their killers don't survive - and their bodies are never found to be raised. Even the Prince is afraid of them, as well he should be. And so should you."  Even if it isn't true, it could be true, and that's all that counts when reputation is on the line.Man, I could write stuff like this all day.*A side-effect of having read those books close to a dozen times each is that I really, really know way too much about Midkemia.</blockquote>

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