D&D 3E/3.5 What if everyone's a wizard? [3.5]

[Dannyalcatraz]

I would use Scholar's Touch every day if I had that spell.

That just sounds dirty.

 

[xigbar]

If it hasn't come up already, it should also be pointed out that society would benefit from an intellectual utopia, due to everyone having the requisite mental ability scores needed for all of these magical abilities.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...until the anti-intellectuals decide to tear everything down, or the magic gets used up, or there is a great cataclysm...or a combination thereof...(see Larry Niven's Magic Goes Away stories)...

OTOH, Harry Turtleove's Darkness novels depict a fantasy world were magic and tech work together to form a world we would all recognize...for good and ill.

Magic pervades the world, much like modern tech, but it doesn't do everything.

 

[xigbar]

...until the anti-intellectuals decide to tear everything down, or the magic gets used up, or there is a great cataclysm...or a combination thereof...(see Larry Niven's Magic Goes Away stories)...

OTOH, Harry Turtleove's Darkness novels depict a fantasy world were magic and tech work together to form a world we would all recognize...for good and ill.

Magic pervades the world, much like modern tech, but it doesn't do everything.

Not really. All of the most powerful classes in d&d are in someway reliant on mental ability scores. All the ToB classes that are considered the saving grace for melee get rewarded in some way for high ability scores. Everything in Tier 1 uses a mental ability score almost exclusively.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not really. All of the most powerful classes in d&d are in someway reliant on mental ability scores.

Just because someone is smart, wise or charismatic doesn't mean they are not capable of being jealous, amoral, manipulative, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, nihilistic, insane or simply incorrect. Any of those could lead a spellcaster to rip apart societies to reshape them with their own goals in mind.

Exhibit #1 in D&D: Vecna

(And many more besides.)

 

[Herobizkit]

Weiss and Hickman put out a series of books back in '88 called the Darksword Trilogy. The world you describe is exactly what is presented in these works. There was even a 'game manual' printed to encourage readers to role-play in such a world.