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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 1702830" data-attributes="member: 9254">Okay. IIRC, you need a community of around 400 to support a 5th level cleric.  That cleric can produce enough food for maybe 15 people per day, consuming all his 3rd level spells.  That amounts to 4% of the populace, not eliminating farming.  Purify food and drink lets you un-spoil food.  Trouble is, it requires having spoiled food to begin with.    Purify does help during winter when grain will start going bad, reducing the losses from rot, mold, and fermentation.  Plant growth, at least by MMS:WE, boosts production by around 33% per acre.  Unfortunately, that boosts the number of weeds, creepers, and parasitical plants as well, which doesn't really change the man-hours/bushel ratio in a world without herbicides.  Goodberry is a wonderful thing, but with the exception of holly berries, I'm not aware of too many berries available year round.  And again, we're not talking enough food to feed the population.Then there's the population survival arguement.  Yes, more children will survive childbirth and probably to around 4.  But 5 year olds are probably the primary foodstuff of many monsters.  They're big enough to be tasty, fast enough to get away from adults, and virtually defenseless on their own.  This is probably why a 1st level adventurer can be about 14 years old; great ghu only knows how many of his buddies were dragged into the sky by a peryton, hippogrif,  dire bird/bat, giant bird/bat, or fiendish critter, not counting the ankheg, worgs, goblins, orcs, gnolls, or other monsters.</blockquote>

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