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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sunshadow21" data-source="post: 6658671" data-attributes="member: 6667193">This is why my personal world treats different levels of magic different ways. It solves both of these problems with remarkably little effort on my part, and without ejecting whole parts of the official game. Low level magic and even mid level magic is common enough that it's known and about, but that also means that counters, both magical and nonmagical, are also known and about. Because of this, the actual success rate of the Zone of Truth without a decent amount of prep work in advance is closer to 50% on average, and probably lower on the people that would be most likely to be it's intended targets, given that their tendencies to lie and be sneaky, both things that would make it harder to use it on them, are probably what drew the attention of the PCs in the first place. It's also not overwhelming more common than what we recognize as basic technology. It's more obviously useful than something like steam power, so it's far more likely to be seen on a day to day basis, but it's not like things like steam power or gunpowder are unknown, and magic users are not the only ones presenting shortcuts or power to those that really want either. Magic is still a neat and useful trick, and relatively easy to use, so it's still the main choice for most things, but it's far from the virtually guaranteed success that so many forum users seem to assume magic will be.In my world, magic is a tool just like anything else; the higher level of magic you use, the more immediate effect it has, but it comes with a higher risk of consequences (both known and unknown), often requires more effort to properly setup and control the aftermath of, and more people are watching out for it and/or are prepared for it. Sure, the zone of truth may perfectly solve the immediate problem, but it could create three others, all of which the authorities expect the party to handle since they were the ones who created it. And the really high end stuff isn't readily available to just anyone; it's controlled very carefully by authorities and organizations that guard its use carefully for a wide range of reasons and usually knowing about it comes with a fair number of responsibilities to powerful NPCs. A rare lone wizard may have wish, but he isn't going to be doing anything more with it than anyone else because of the headache he'll have afterward dealing with everyone asking him about it. I've found this to be the best compromise between the concept that everyone seems to have that magic should be this rare and powerful thing and the reality that true low magic adventures/campaigns have been few and bar between since the very beginning of the system. In some ways, I actually prefer 3rd precisely because it highlights the problems well enough that a DM that is paying attention to it from the very start should be able to mostly avoid most nasty surprises without too much difficulty. From what little I've seen of 2nd, and 5th will likely have the same issue, it's not a problem until it's a big problem, at which its probably too late to easily fix.</blockquote>

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