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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GuardianLurker" data-source="post: 392481" data-attributes="member: 786">Re: Re: What Do Your Fantasy Societies in D&D Get For Their Taxes and Tithes?Actually, I've seen many similar comments here; basically "spellcasters would be the rulers", or magic has a huge effect.To the first I'll offer the following observations:1) People in most fantasy worlds are just like people in this one.2) Modern society's standard of living is almost completely based on the efforts of chemists, physicists, and engineers of various stripes.3) Modern chemists, physicists, and engineers are the equivalent of the fantasy magician, both in rough terms of percentage of population, and in terms of personalities drawn to the professions. IMO.4) Modern society is NOT ruled by the modern magicians. (And speaking as a modern magician, this is sometimes HIGHLY frustrating.)The conclusion that affects the first point is, hopefully obvious.To the second, I'll point out that magic, even magic enabled through item creation just does NOT scale well. Primarily because it requires the presence of the magician (in some form) every single time the benefit is gained. This is not true of technology.  Computer programs are probably the best example of the differences in the scaling abilities of technology and magic. One computer programmer creates an application <A wizard creates a magic item> usable by anyone. After the initial program is developed <after the first magic item is created>, the programmer can copy the program an arbitarily large number of times <the wizard must recreate the magic item a single copy at a time>, and the program is usable as often as the customer desires <and the item is probably only usable a limited number of times> ,in fact, there is an *increased* cost per item for limited use <there is a *significant* increase in cost for unlimited use>. If we're not dealing with magic items, but instead are working on a per spell basis, the situation is worse. Moreover, most "infrastructure" spells just don't have the capacity to deal with the large scale problems. Contrast the Teleport Circle's transport volume with the volume of an 18-wheel trailer truck. Now, calculate the volume of food it would take to feed a city large enough to have the appropriate level spellcaster.  Pick a distance to deliver the goods to. Assume the truck travels an average of 50 miles/hour. The truck probably has a advantage. It almost definitely does when you give it a "reasonable" ratio of trucks to circles (which I'd say is 20:1, for a guess).Now, to make matters worse, the circle is send-only (IIRC), but the truck can transport both ways.</blockquote>

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