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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 6870463" data-attributes="member: 53980">Remember that transmuters can only cast raise dead. That's a significant limitation, since raise dead cannot bring back someone missing essential organs. To assassinate someone who is friends with a high-level transmuter, one need only take the head, or heart. In fact, in a world where being raised from the dead isn't a rarity, I would expect this to be standard operating procedure, unless the death was simply a warning. At that point a philosophers stone is useless unless you can recover the missing organ within 10 days. You need at least Resurrection (or Reincarnate, but that has its own innate drawbacks). As for high-level transmuters running a rejuvenation service in FR, I'm skeptical. Sure, FR is pretty high magic. However, 14th level casters aren't exactly a-dime-a-dozen even there. On top of that, transmuters would presumably make up roughly 1/8th or less of all 14+ level wizards, given an equal distribution among the schools of magic. I could see the occasional transmuter offering these services to a noble when that wizard needs a bit of extra gold for some endeavor, but I can't see a wizard choosing to spend all day, every day making new philosophers stones so that spoiled little nobles don't have to get wrinkles. That wizard has power undreamt of by most mortals; I would think that he has better things to do than be a manufacturer of cheap tricks.A lack of Continual Flame lights is easy to explain. Either there is a shortage of casters in general, or the cost is too great. Since the former is setting dependent, I'll focus on the latter. 50 gp is a non-trivial cost for most NPCs in D&D. It can pay for almost a full month of comfortable lifestyle, and is more than half a year's upkeep of a poor lifestyle. A torch costs 1 cp. Granted, it only lasts an hour, but it is cheap. So cheap, that you can continually light an area for more than half a year using torches for the same cost of a single Continual Flame spell (and that's assuming that the caster is selfless and doesn't charge anything more than the material components). More if you don't need the torches during daylight. Additionally, no one is likely to steal a torch, but a Continual Flame spell is a different matter. It's worth multiple months of pay for a poor NPC even if they can't get its full worth on the black market, so stealing one would certainly be tempting. You can make them hard to steal, but at a certain point it becomes far more trouble than its worth to save a few gold down the line.Lastly, 17+ level wizards probably wouldn't spend their time layering their lairs in Symbol for one simple reason. They might need that 9th level spell slot for something actually important. That wizard is one of the most powerful beings in the world, and he probably didn't get that way without making a few enemies. If one of those enemies sends a cadre of assassins to your home, do you think he wants to be caught with his pants down, or does he want to be able to wish he was someplace safe right now? Better yet, forget Wish and use that 9th level spell to cast Foresight so that the assassins can't surprise and kill you before you can even utter the Wish. I mean, sure, if you tell your players that they have a year of downtime where nothing bad will happen to them, they might try putting Symbols everywhere. That kind of foreknowledge isn't at all realistic. By all means give them that downtime, but don't ensure them that they don't need to be prepared for the worst. Remember to throw them some curve balls.</blockquote>

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