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What Magic Would Be Most Realistically Most Impactful?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 7643599" data-attributes="member: 19675"><p>The only other relevant <em>RULES</em>- which is all we have to work with- are:</p><p></p><p>1) whether the character in question has another class or not. IOW, a Demihuman who already has a class or is multiclassed and not aready a spellcaster cannot later become one, and a Human could only <em>dual class </em>into it if he or she had a 17 in the class’ primary stat. </p><p></p><p>2) whether the character is barred from being a MU (or other PC or NPC spellcasting class) by race. </p><p></p><p>Anything else is a houserule. Nothing wrong with that- everyone had them. But we can’t really consider a bar to class entry based on houserules and conjecture.</p><p></p><p>Now, could someone <em>choose</em> not to become a wizard, even if qualified? Of course! Just because you have the smarts and are literate, it doesn’t follow that you would wish to engage in that field of study. Besides the nature of the study itself- long hours poring over dusty books around funny smelling ingredients- some of the practices themselves might be a turnoff. You might have a religious reason or taboo against studying arcane magic. And reading the descriptions of how some spells are cast...some aren’t too savory. As I recall, casting Spider Climb involved eating a live spider as part of the process. There are people who have left culinary school for refusing to eat more mundane ingredients.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>...a sailing ship that never loses propulsion? That is consistently faster than any other ship around? </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The draft. It works. Carrots & sticks work, too.</p><p></p><p>We have evidence in the real world of countries that scour their territories to find anyone- child or adult- with a glimmer of talent to be agents of the state, and take them away to serve their countries. (A friend of mine married a Russian woman who was taken from her parents and raised by the state to be a ballerina...until puberty gifted her in a way that made pursing said profession virtually impossible.)</p><p></p><p>England’s law mandating learning the bow was similarly effective.</p><p></p><p>And also, nowhere did I say you needed “a bunch” of tamed wizards capable of bringing elementals to the field. You just need more than your enemy.</p><p></p><p>Likewise, not all the casters need be powerful. Like massed archers or crossbowmen don’t need to be marksmen, a bunch of low-level casters- even with only one attack spell in their arsenal- could be deadly effective if used properly. Even moreso if some non-trivial number of your “Caster Corps” are devoted to making things like wands of some of those spells. (Conscientious objectors- if they exist- might be trained with Mending or other utility spells.)</p><p></p><p>See also Harry Turtledove’s <em>Darkness</em> novel of a (non-D&D version) WW2 style conflict in a fantasy world.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Like I said, I’m not assuming large cadres of high level casters in the service of king and country. A few, used the right way, plus a bunch with some rudimentary training (as little as 1st only) could be brutally effective.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 7643599, member: 19675"] The only other relevant [I]RULES[/i]- which is all we have to work with- are: 1) whether the character in question has another class or not. IOW, a Demihuman who already has a class or is multiclassed and not aready a spellcaster cannot later become one, and a Human could only [i]dual class [/i]into it if he or she had a 17 in the class’ primary stat. 2) whether the character is barred from being a MU (or other PC or NPC spellcasting class) by race. Anything else is a houserule. Nothing wrong with that- everyone had them. But we can’t really consider a bar to class entry based on houserules and conjecture. Now, could someone [i]choose[/i] not to become a wizard, even if qualified? Of course! Just because you have the smarts and are literate, it doesn’t follow that you would wish to engage in that field of study. Besides the nature of the study itself- long hours poring over dusty books around funny smelling ingredients- some of the practices themselves might be a turnoff. You might have a religious reason or taboo against studying arcane magic. And reading the descriptions of how some spells are cast...some aren’t too savory. As I recall, casting Spider Climb involved eating a live spider as part of the process. There are people who have left culinary school for refusing to eat more mundane ingredients. ...a sailing ship that never loses propulsion? That is consistently faster than any other ship around? The draft. It works. Carrots & sticks work, too. We have evidence in the real world of countries that scour their territories to find anyone- child or adult- with a glimmer of talent to be agents of the state, and take them away to serve their countries. (A friend of mine married a Russian woman who was taken from her parents and raised by the state to be a ballerina...until puberty gifted her in a way that made pursing said profession virtually impossible.) England’s law mandating learning the bow was similarly effective. And also, nowhere did I say you needed “a bunch” of tamed wizards capable of bringing elementals to the field. You just need more than your enemy. Likewise, not all the casters need be powerful. Like massed archers or crossbowmen don’t need to be marksmen, a bunch of low-level casters- even with only one attack spell in their arsenal- could be deadly effective if used properly. Even moreso if some non-trivial number of your “Caster Corps” are devoted to making things like wands of some of those spells. (Conscientious objectors- if they exist- might be trained with Mending or other utility spells.) See also Harry Turtledove’s [i]Darkness[/i] novel of a (non-D&D version) WW2 style conflict in a fantasy world. Like I said, I’m not assuming large cadres of high level casters in the service of king and country. A few, used the right way, plus a bunch with some rudimentary training (as little as 1st only) could be brutally effective. [/QUOTE]
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