Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What Magic Would Be Most Realistically Most Impactful?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7643412" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>So I'm going to list spells that I think would fundamentally change the world, and their impact on a scale of 1-5</p><p></p><p>Light: 1 - 10 minutes of bright, clean light doesn't have trivial value in a culture without affordable lighting options. Biggest impact would be items that packaged the light.</p><p>Mending: 2 - Repairing broken items completely and cheaply has tremendous cumulative economic impact. Everyone is wealthier. Certain acts can be undone and reversed which would not otherwise be reversible.</p><p>Mount: 4 - An absolutely tremendous source of free labor - one horse power for a whole working day more or less free. Material component is highly sustainable, and packaged this is incredibly powerful. </p><p>Comprehend Languages: 3 - Ability to read any written communication has huge value.</p><p>True Strike: 3 - Fireball gets the attention, but this is the spell to watch for in terms of military implications.</p><p>Charm Person: 3 - Huge potential impact, however biggest impact will be the zeal with which society will prosecute attempts to use this spell. It's probably a death penalty offense to get caught, and I'd rule that on a passed save you have some idea someone tried to enspell you.</p><p>Disguise Self: 1 - The ability to look like someone else creates a huge problem. Impact decreased though because society would adapt to not trust what it sees. </p><p>Silent Image: 2 - The ability to make something that isn't there appear there creates a huge problem. Impact decreased somewhat because society would adapt to not trust what it sees.</p><p>Summon Swarm: 1 - Potential military implications, limited mostly by the short range. Exact impact depends on rulings on how the spell works.</p><p>Detect Thoughts: 1 - Mind reading has huge implications. Limited by short duration and the fact that casting it unobserved will be in practice difficult. Obvious implications to legal inquisition though, and even if it isn't admissible as evidence in court, it certainly is a good source of leads.</p><p>Continual Flame: 4 - Light this cheap, abundant, and clean has amazing economic impact. Even with a cost of say 50 day's wages, this is worthwhile and pays for itself. The quintessential economic impact spell.</p><p>Magic Mouth: 1 - Anything permanent has impact. A hidden impactful feature of this spell is that it has artificial intelligence.</p><p>Invisibility: 3 - Major implications only partially mitigated by the fact society would adapt and create defenses against this spell. Impact decreased only because economic value is low.</p><p>Minor Image: 2 - As silent image. There is also implications for this as a form of art as a theater production, possibly not unlike going to the movies. It's almost certainly the case this spawns a profession.</p><p>Alter Self: 3 - The 3.5 version is pretty broken but this is one of the lowest level spells that forces you to deal with the impact of flight on a culture. Also disguise self but not an illusion, so even harder to defend against.</p><p>False Life: 1 - A very underrated spell in terms of its impact or utility. Protects from most ordinary hazards for practical durations.</p><p>Levitate: 3 - Again, flight or in in this case, a crane that can be employed anywhere. </p><p>Spider Climb: 3 - Nearly flight and has much the same implications. Huge impact when packaged in an item.</p><p>Tongues: 4 - A spell I'd like to think has enormous positive impact in reducing misunderstanding and creating empathy between people. But then, knowing people, probably not.</p><p>Tiny Hut: 1 - This is absolutely amazing emergency survival utility. Impact limited by the cost to package the ability which is a reoccurring problem starting at this level and higher and the reason I don't think higher level magic would be as impactful as the lower level stuff.</p><p>Major Image: 2 - As silent image. </p><p>Fly: 3 - The ability to defy gravity is profoundly influential.</p><p>Water Breathing: 3 - This is so powerful that it's probably economically viable to package the ability, even at this level of spell. There is almost certainly a profession based on this ability and retrieving what was lost from underwater.</p><p>Phantom Steed: 1 - Ironically, probably not nearly as broken as it's 1st level counterpart 'Mount'.</p><p>Fireball: 3 - The quintessential military impact spell. One of the spells that calls into question the nature of war unless you can adjust the rules of mass combat to compensate.</p><p></p><p>Listing these spells, I also realize that most of these have been altered in my house rules to some extent. Fireball has a counter for units with shields in formation. Fly has gone up a level. Spider climb is severely nerfed. The cost of packaging these spells as items is generally increased. Continual flame has an XP cost. Etc.</p><p></p><p>At 5th level, the implications break wide open and I've always limited them only by assuming there are countable 9th level casters in the world - often single digits per nation state, with '1' not being an unusual single digit.</p><p></p><p>Higher level spells to watch out for:</p><p>Animate Dead - 4</p><p>Dominate Person - 2</p><p>Wall of Stone - 5</p><p>Fabricate - 4</p><p>Sending - 3</p><p>Dream - 3</p><p>Teleport - 3</p><p>Nightmare - 3</p><p>Magic Jar - 2</p><p></p><p>Most of those would be 5's or force me to assign 6's if they were lower level and more accessible. Wall of Stone is particularly problematic, even at this level of accessibility.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7643412, member: 4937"] So I'm going to list spells that I think would fundamentally change the world, and their impact on a scale of 1-5 Light: 1 - 10 minutes of bright, clean light doesn't have trivial value in a culture without affordable lighting options. Biggest impact would be items that packaged the light. Mending: 2 - Repairing broken items completely and cheaply has tremendous cumulative economic impact. Everyone is wealthier. Certain acts can be undone and reversed which would not otherwise be reversible. Mount: 4 - An absolutely tremendous source of free labor - one horse power for a whole working day more or less free. Material component is highly sustainable, and packaged this is incredibly powerful. Comprehend Languages: 3 - Ability to read any written communication has huge value. True Strike: 3 - Fireball gets the attention, but this is the spell to watch for in terms of military implications. Charm Person: 3 - Huge potential impact, however biggest impact will be the zeal with which society will prosecute attempts to use this spell. It's probably a death penalty offense to get caught, and I'd rule that on a passed save you have some idea someone tried to enspell you. Disguise Self: 1 - The ability to look like someone else creates a huge problem. Impact decreased though because society would adapt to not trust what it sees. Silent Image: 2 - The ability to make something that isn't there appear there creates a huge problem. Impact decreased somewhat because society would adapt to not trust what it sees. Summon Swarm: 1 - Potential military implications, limited mostly by the short range. Exact impact depends on rulings on how the spell works. Detect Thoughts: 1 - Mind reading has huge implications. Limited by short duration and the fact that casting it unobserved will be in practice difficult. Obvious implications to legal inquisition though, and even if it isn't admissible as evidence in court, it certainly is a good source of leads. Continual Flame: 4 - Light this cheap, abundant, and clean has amazing economic impact. Even with a cost of say 50 day's wages, this is worthwhile and pays for itself. The quintessential economic impact spell. Magic Mouth: 1 - Anything permanent has impact. A hidden impactful feature of this spell is that it has artificial intelligence. Invisibility: 3 - Major implications only partially mitigated by the fact society would adapt and create defenses against this spell. Impact decreased only because economic value is low. Minor Image: 2 - As silent image. There is also implications for this as a form of art as a theater production, possibly not unlike going to the movies. It's almost certainly the case this spawns a profession. Alter Self: 3 - The 3.5 version is pretty broken but this is one of the lowest level spells that forces you to deal with the impact of flight on a culture. Also disguise self but not an illusion, so even harder to defend against. False Life: 1 - A very underrated spell in terms of its impact or utility. Protects from most ordinary hazards for practical durations. Levitate: 3 - Again, flight or in in this case, a crane that can be employed anywhere. Spider Climb: 3 - Nearly flight and has much the same implications. Huge impact when packaged in an item. Tongues: 4 - A spell I'd like to think has enormous positive impact in reducing misunderstanding and creating empathy between people. But then, knowing people, probably not. Tiny Hut: 1 - This is absolutely amazing emergency survival utility. Impact limited by the cost to package the ability which is a reoccurring problem starting at this level and higher and the reason I don't think higher level magic would be as impactful as the lower level stuff. Major Image: 2 - As silent image. Fly: 3 - The ability to defy gravity is profoundly influential. Water Breathing: 3 - This is so powerful that it's probably economically viable to package the ability, even at this level of spell. There is almost certainly a profession based on this ability and retrieving what was lost from underwater. Phantom Steed: 1 - Ironically, probably not nearly as broken as it's 1st level counterpart 'Mount'. Fireball: 3 - The quintessential military impact spell. One of the spells that calls into question the nature of war unless you can adjust the rules of mass combat to compensate. Listing these spells, I also realize that most of these have been altered in my house rules to some extent. Fireball has a counter for units with shields in formation. Fly has gone up a level. Spider climb is severely nerfed. The cost of packaging these spells as items is generally increased. Continual flame has an XP cost. Etc. At 5th level, the implications break wide open and I've always limited them only by assuming there are countable 9th level casters in the world - often single digits per nation state, with '1' not being an unusual single digit. Higher level spells to watch out for: Animate Dead - 4 Dominate Person - 2 Wall of Stone - 5 Fabricate - 4 Sending - 3 Dream - 3 Teleport - 3 Nightmare - 3 Magic Jar - 2 Most of those would be 5's or force me to assign 6's if they were lower level and more accessible. Wall of Stone is particularly problematic, even at this level of accessibility. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What Magic Would Be Most Realistically Most Impactful?
Top