D&D 5E What high-level spells could warp society?

[kigmatzomat]

,....what sort of implications would that have for how "adventurer society" acts?

I think this question is getting lost beneath the overall setting discussion.

The main character energy is super-hero type "not really dead" immortality, where clones pop up a few months later. (Plus side, Wish makes clones with no material cost) Securing clones is so important but people also don't want to give away their best secrets. Its probably more "Did you hear about Lord Gaffington? He though a Demiplane with new gear and a Glyph of Warding with Planeshift seems like a good idea and never thought about someone trying 'open the demiplane with Lord Gaffington's clone'. He woke up to find his demiplane had been filled with sea water and pirhana." )

There is going to be some kind of weird hazing ("Get a bottle of Astral Seawater", "Snipe are naturally invisible, quiet as a ghost and can hit you with a poisoned quill from 120ft away...").

Eventually they start giving you good ideas. "Don't try to directly make a permanent Teleport circle or Temple of the Gods, or whatever, someone will distract you. Instead make a series of Glyphs of Warding that cast the spell at dawn the day after the prior glyph went off. Once you have all 365, say the command word for the first one and a year later it's done." "Look, of you need demon blood you could go to the Hells or....Glyph of Warding some magic circles, a suitable summoning spell, a couple of Planar Bindings and Glibness so you can order the blighter to shut up, sit down, and don't do anything unless you order it. Remember, always use multiples of magic circles and bindings so a save doesn't waste the effort. Or worse, it gets loose. Takes forever to clear out a demonic infestation. You cant have anyone over until its cleared up"

There are likely some backstories of which villains might be called on to be unlikely allies against which other villains. "Dargon the Flesh Ripper helped save the world two or three times from Void Demons because this world is in Dargon's top 3 worlds to conquer. But Dargon has a crush on the Raven Queen, so he won't do squat if she's trying to drain the life from this world to restore her Shadar-kai."

 

[kigmatzomat]

Extending on the "Reliable Villains" is "Unreliable Allies", aka "Frenemies". These are other polities to the PCs' that share similar general traits but vary on methods and/or specifics.

Thus can be as basic as one side being a bunch of paladins who's foreign policy is "kill them all and let the gods sort them out" and the other is a mage-ocracy with a stance of "No, that's too extreme. Let's make them all slaves!" (Holy-Vicious and Utilitarian-Callous
are common aligments in fiction) There will be external and internal frenemies.

Likely frenemies are the non-heroic parts of the government. There will be factions aligned with specific heroes and/or antipathy to specific heroes as well just those who resent the need for heroes on the whole and look to make them redundant

 

[MGibster]

In the DMG, if players want to buy a 9th level spell it’s going to cost 100,000 gold. It cost 146,000 gold to maintain a castle for a year. There aren’t going to be many people who can afford a high level spell to be cast on their behalf.

 

[Belen]

What amount of setting sense does it make that spellcasters are rare, especially under these circumstances? What possible reason could there be that so few beings have class levels? In some ways, the NPC classes from 3e made a lit more sense than what modern D&D does (when it bothers to think about these things at all).

It makes perfect sense. You have to be able to manipulate magic before you can be trained. Every one of my worlds require someone to have Spark or Talent.

The same goes for clerics and paladins who must be blessed by divinity.

Casters are rare in my worlds. Many may have talent and are never found and the talent fades if not trained early.

As for why there are no great civilizations. They are/ were. Everyone of my settings feature cyclical collapse and rebirth. Most civilizations with power fall apart or are destroyed by hubris and evil.

Wish: It is hard to cast. A wizard could spend years crafting the perfect one. Of course, casting Wish gets you noticed by great evil. They want your power and will come for you.

There are plenty of reasons for a semi- medieval or dark ages setting.

It is also a setting where I find fun.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Likely frenemies are the non-heroic parts of the government. There will be factions aligned with specific heroes and/or antipathy to specific heroes as well just those who resent the need for heroes on the whole and look to make them redundant

I have a major frenemy NPC in my campaign, the local bishop of the powerful empire-spanning church. He's not particularly tolerant of other religions, but he genuinely wants the best thing for the empire and its residents, as he sees it. So he's alternately a help and hindrance to the pluralistic party of PCs.

 

[Belen]

My current campaign is my version of the Bronze Age collapse. The southern civs were just destroyed by a volcanic eruption, tsunami and 9.7 quake.

The campaign started far to the north after a year of winter and no one knows what caused it yet but the area is getting attacked by pirates and mass migrations are close to happening.

 

[TwoSix]

It makes perfect sense. You have to be able to manipulate magic before you can be trained. Every one of my worlds require someone to have Spark or Talent.

The same goes for clerics and paladins who must be blessed by divinity.

Casters are rare in my worlds. Many may have talent and are never found and the talent fades if not trained early.

As for why there are no great civilizations. They are/ were. Everyone of my settings feature cyclical collapse and rebirth. Most civilizations with power fall apart or are destroyed by hubris and evil.

Wish: It is hard to cast. A wizard could spend years crafting the perfect one. Of course, casting Wish gets you noticed by great evil. They want your power and will come for you.

There are plenty of reasons for a semi- medieval or dark ages setting.

It is also a setting where I find fun.

My generally assumption was similar, that having the spark to do strong magic (like a wizard or a sorcerer) was rare enough that most people didn't have access to it. That's why there are plenty of high level rogues and fighter around. It's also a reason warlocks abound, plenty of people want that power even though they weren't born with the talent. And extraplanar entities are happy to be able to tap into the maelstrom of power currently whipping throughout the world.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It makes perfect sense. You have to be able to manipulate magic before you can be trained. Every one of my worlds require someone to have Spark or Talent.

The same goes for clerics and paladins who must be blessed by divinity.

Casters are rare in my worlds. Many may have talent and are never found and the talent fades if not trained early.

As for why there are no great civilizations. They are/ were. Everyone of my settings feature cyclical collapse and rebirth. Most civilizations with power fall apart or are destroyed by hubris and evil.

Wish: It is hard to cast. A wizard could spend years crafting the perfect one. Of course, casting Wish gets you noticed by great evil. They want your power and will come for you.

There are plenty of reasons for a semi- medieval or dark ages setting.

It is also a setting where I find fun.

Spark or talent are not game rules though. Those are setting choices outside of the books.

 

[Belen]

Spark or talent are not game rules though. Those are setting choices outside of the books.

There are no rules around who can become a wizard or sorc other than some rules around stats. Of course, those rules are for the players.

The DMG remains silent on this one for NPCs so I follow the all powers not designated to the rules are awarded to the DM philosophy.

 

[Belen]

Spark or talent are not game rules though. Those are setting choices outside of the books.

Duplicate post.