What Do Your Fantasy Societies in D&D Get For Their Taxes and Tithes?

[Chrisling]

This was sorta inspired by the thread about D&D economies. One of the posts said that magic would not enhance productivity because normal people -- peasants or serfs -- could never afford the magic that would enhance productivity. When I read that to my gf she said, "I can think of one group of people who could: governments." I said, "And I can think of another: big churches."

It made me wonder why people pay taxes and tithes if the never see any of the benefits that this wealth can bring. Oh, sure, I'm completely aware that there are forms of government that aren't rich -- the chaotic ones probably have terrible time levelling and collecting taxes -- or that in some governments they don't serve the good of the people (such as the evil governments, which I see as largely existing for the good of the people in the government and not the people). But with that caveat, what about the lawful good, lawful neutral, neutral good and neutral governments and religions which possess both the mechanism to collect huge amounts of taxes and tithes and the inclination to spend it in public works?

Most kings employ all sorts of magicians for attack and defense, not to mention their hiring of freelancers (such as PC adventurers) -- isn't it the moral and legal duty of the monarch to deploy those powerful wizards to, say, drought stricken areas to alleviate their suffering? Or use golems -- tireless and inhumanly strong -- to do stuff like road-building and opening mines (or even gather crops if there isn't other work to do)? And wouldn't it be right for the people to ask why their tax dollars go to maintaining these expensive wizards if the people get nothing out of them?

Same with religion. Pay for a healing spell? Well, the community supports the cleric! Not to mention that all those good aligned dieties almost certainly support the doing of good deeds for no profit. After all, why else pay tithes and worship if the mortal factotums of the gods on earth don't do anything for their community?

In short, what do monies spent in taxes and tithing give in the world you game in?

 

[Crothian]

The army to stop the invasion of the orc tribes. The constables and other law enforcement.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

It depends on the culture.

Launhym - protection. Most of the levied money goes to defense.

Remaria - Infrastructure. Most villiages have one continual light in the cetner of town and a purify water on a local well. The roads and canals are kept in good shape.

Other countries - are in-between. Calisia is quite wealthy but the tend to spend money as soon as they get it. They're pretty big on jousting and fairs and the like, so festivities take a chunk out of their taxed money.

The magic-heavy kingdoms tend to go easy on their magicians. Some spellcraft (necomancy, invocation, summoning) is illegal, so simply charging wizards with duties "for the good of the land" isn't going to get rulers very far.

 

[alsih2o]

i imagine all of the benefits that could come from tithing to a society with magic are swallowed up by the problems magic causes.

i mean, for every bit easier it should be to build roads, you have to account for greater defenses for magic aided peopel invading or sneaking in.

magic is not an unbalancing force imo. but only because it is balanced by magic.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

Yeah.

That and there aren't too many spells that are good for extended construction projects that cover a large area, such as roads. Simply chain-casting wall of stone and dropping them down like tile over the countryside won't give you a decent road. After three months it'll just be a bunch of ungainly rubble.

Plant growth can be used to make a large area more "fertile". Weather control has some nice uses as well for agrarian socities. But beyond that magic is mostly very spotty. A wizard could tackle localized problems (e.g. dredging a harbor), but nothing that was spread out.

 

[reiella]

Purchasing/procurement of mind influencing drugs to expand sphere of influence.

Clergy funds used primarily for the expansion of the clergy or other tasks related to the deity.

Sea-trade nations would also most likly spend a good deal of their funds on mercenery protection for their boats (or mercenary pirate strikes).

The Reagent/Emperor/Putz decides he wants an adamantium statue of himself to inspire loyalty (and thievery).

Researching magic. Supplying your own militia.

The effects the people would most blatantly see are more actual roads (fabricate), faster sea trade (control weather), and more reliable lines of communication.

 

[hellbender]

For taxes and tithes, I use an older (in the 2E realm) Dragon magazine that extrapolated upon how taxes and tithes work, and how Player Characters can invest their loot into profitable ventures.

As for magic, in my campaign, wizards and sorcerors (or druids) cannot really be compelled to partake in major construction, there is generally no interest, unless you want to look like a hero or make up for a previous faux pas. There is a druidic liberation front, dedicated to halting any major encroachment upon Nature, who, if anything, would feel obligated to undo mage-built roads or bridges.

hellbender

 

[Storminator]

Defense eats up a lot of the taxes, as does pacifying the wilderness to allow greater expansion. There's a lot of nation building going on, and that takes money. The government IMC is also sort of loose, so hammering the collection of cities into a nation requires cash outlays (bribes) to the right people.

The clergy is almost as busy with defense as the government, and they also maintain temples and graveyards. While government runs the city guard and writes laws, the clergy run the courts and prisons, so both sides have expenses there.

The clergy also tends to heal the sick and cure disease quite a bit as well. So the populous benefits fairly directly.

PS

 

[Voadam]

When I was playing a merchant prince I actually bargained to aquire a harvesting artefact. It was a mithral rat-like thing that would harvset a certain amount of grain each night and duplicate iteself doubling in number each night. When cold hit they would all die except for the original. It also doubled as an agricultural weapon if sent in unattended, destroying harvested crops, but I got it primarily for the beneficial uses.

Oh the life of a mercantile sovereign in a magical world.

 

[Voadam]

Tithing isn't an investment, it is a duty. You don't get anything back from it. The church gets money for what the church does, or if you follow the islamic model, the poor get the money directly.

So for FRP religions with a christian style tithing method expect their churches to be able to afford good magical defenses, (magical traps, constructs, glyphs, large in place items). But that is generally par for the course for fantasy temples.