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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6834123" data-attributes="member: 996">Encounters shouldn't be mundane and humdrum, even if everyone in them is just beating eachother with sticks.&nbsp; It's meant to be a life-and-death struggle, no?Where magic starts looking everyday is, well, when it gets used every day.&nbsp; Systematically casting Continual Light for a town so they don't need streetlights.&nbsp; Cool &amp; imaginative the first time (c1975), keep it up and it turns you from mysterious Magic-user to Rural Electrification Bureau.&nbsp; That's been an issue with D&amp;D since the get-go.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;'Magic' in D&amp;D has two quite distinct senses.&nbsp; Magic items, and magic using characters (spellcasting PCs, mainly).&nbsp; And it being 'ubiquitous' also seems to have two distinct senses.&nbsp; Use by PCs, vs use in the setting.&nbsp; A world where every PC cast spells in every combat and every non-combat 'scene' might be said to have 'ubiquitous' (w/in the PCs' storyline) magic, even if no one else in the world can use magic, making it a very low-magic setting.&nbsp; A world in which magic is used to clean &amp; light the streets of every town, potions can be bought at the corner store, and flying ships are standard transport, could be said to have ubiquitous magic, even if the PCs are a gang of penniless rogues, barbarians &amp; fighters who can't afford to avail themselves of any of that magic.So the notorious High Elf fighter/magic-user was rare?&nbsp; Not anywhere I ever played 1e, sorry to say.&nbsp; And, wasn't 1e the edition during which &quot;Monty Haul&quot; was coined?&nbsp; And &quot;Killer DM?&quot;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Or was that 0e? Casters had more spells/day, you had make/buy for magic items, sure.&nbsp; Caters had far-fewer slots, but also at-wills, you still had make/buy but items were far lower-impact, all-non-caster parties were viable.&nbsp; Kinda mixed, really.&nbsp;&nbsp; Casters back to more spell slots, /plus/ at-wills, and every class can cast, but items aren't assumed to be as common.&nbsp; Again, mixed, depending on how you squint and look at &quot;magic.&quot;Sure.&nbsp; Then again, there's not as much pre-casting as in&nbsp; 3.x, when you could have just layers of spells on everyone.&nbsp; Thanks to the one mechanic that got slightly harder on caster in 5e: concentration. Baseline?&nbsp; You mean like treadmill &amp; bounded accuracy assumptions?&nbsp; Or as in amount of magic (items?&nbsp; casters?) in the party/campaign?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6834123, member: 996"] Encounters shouldn't be mundane and humdrum, even if everyone in them is just beating eachother with sticks. It's meant to be a life-and-death struggle, no? Where magic starts looking everyday is, well, when it gets used every day. Systematically casting Continual Light for a town so they don't need streetlights. Cool & imaginative the first time (c1975), keep it up and it turns you from mysterious Magic-user to Rural Electrification Bureau. That's been an issue with D&D since the get-go. 'Magic' in D&D has two quite distinct senses. Magic items, and magic using characters (spellcasting PCs, mainly). And it being 'ubiquitous' also seems to have two distinct senses. Use by PCs, vs use in the setting. A world where every PC cast spells in every combat and every non-combat 'scene' might be said to have 'ubiquitous' (w/in the PCs' storyline) magic, even if no one else in the world can use magic, making it a very low-magic setting. A world in which magic is used to clean & light the streets of every town, potions can be bought at the corner store, and flying ships are standard transport, could be said to have ubiquitous magic, even if the PCs are a gang of penniless rogues, barbarians & fighters who can't afford to avail themselves of any of that magic. So the notorious High Elf fighter/magic-user was rare? Not anywhere I ever played 1e, sorry to say. And, wasn't 1e the edition during which "Monty Haul" was coined? And "Killer DM?" ;) Or was that 0e? Casters had more spells/day, you had make/buy for magic items, sure. Caters had far-fewer slots, but also at-wills, you still had make/buy but items were far lower-impact, all-non-caster parties were viable. Kinda mixed, really. Casters back to more spell slots, /plus/ at-wills, and every class can cast, [i]but[/i] items aren't assumed to be as common. Again, mixed, depending on how you squint and look at "magic." Sure. Then again, there's not as much pre-casting as in 3.x, when you could have just layers of spells on everyone. Thanks to the one mechanic that got slightly harder on caster in 5e: concentration. Baseline? You mean like treadmill & bounded accuracy assumptions? Or as in amount of magic (items? casters?) in the party/campaign? [/QUOTE]

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