Why wouldn't Someone Learn Magic...

[Griffith Dragonlake]

If you want a setting/system that represents this very well, you should really check out Runequest. (Check out my review.)

Thanks, I will.

 

[Storyteller01]

In a world where magic really does exist, and can do the things it does in D&D, why would someone ever choose not to learn how to cast spells? Even just one level... For everyday purposes some of the 0th level spells seem pretty darn handy.

It almost seems like not learning to cast spells would be the equivalent of not learning to read...

Probably for the same reason not everyone in our world is literate...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Probably for the same reason not everyone in our world is literate...

Or that everyone in America knows how to touch-type: "I get along fine without it!"

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Probably for the same reason not everyone in our world is literate...

I applaud your astute answer! However, in the real world there are illiterate farmers in developing nations that accuse a successful neighbor of using black magic. And seek the help of illiterate "witch doctors" or "white witches" to remove curses. For that matter some scientists in developing nations still cling to beliefs of the 'evil eye', curses, and the influence of planets in spite of a Western doctoral degree.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Why would someone ever choose not to learn how to perform emergency first aid?

I have no idea. I consider this to be a basic skill to qualify as a member of society. In particular any parent not familiar with emercency first aid should be charged with criminal child endangerment.

Your personal political opinions completely aside, the fact remains that it's a somewhat complex but undeniably useful set of skills which, nevertheless, the vast majority of people never take the time to learn.

Prestidigitation might be an incredibly useful spell to know, but where does a farmer find the time in his pre-dawn-till-well-past-dusk working day to receive the necessary training to take a level in a class that can cast it? We're not talking about a small investment of time, here: if you need to be a wizard or magewright or whatever in order to cast that spell, then we can presume that a thorough grounding in the basics of magic (taking 1st level in a spellcasting class) is required in order to learn how to cast a spell as simple as prestidigitation (adding it to that class's spell list).

You can't take a feat or spend a few skillpoints and learn it, after all. It's not something just anyone can do without a large investment of time, and if you grow up on a farm and your middle-aged parents are looking to you to help them feed the family, where does the opportunity to skive off to wizard's school come in?

Why would someone ever choose not to learn how to fix their own car?

Money. If you can earn more money working than you can pay to have your car fixed in the same period of time, it's a waste of time and money for you to be able to perform more than the most basic roadside repairs, or to do them yourself. Also most modern car need specialzied equipment to analyze and repair. Few people can afford to pay a few thousand dollars for a diagnostic device they will only use once or twice in the life of a car. If you can't perform home repair work without an untenable upfront cost, why bother to learn how?

If you can't learn to cast prestidigitation without an untenable upfront cost, why bother to learn how? In this case, the untenable upfront cost is likely to be both monetary (whatever your mentor would charge you to train you as a wizard or magewright) and temporal (if the harvest needs to be brought in so your family can make it through to the next planting season, where do you find the time to go off and be trained?).

Your average commoner or expert in a D&D setting no more needs to know how to cast an undoubtedly very useful spell than I, in the real world, need to know how to fix my car. Indeed, in a world like Eberron which asks some of the same questions you're asking about the widespread use of minor magic, the answer is the same as it is in the real world: a class of professional workers (magewrights or mechanics) emerges to do the tasks (cast spells or fix a car) which people might need both badly enough to pay such a professional for but not often enough to bother investing time and money into learning how to do it themselves.

Why would someone ever choose not to learn how to to play the guitar and write their own songs?

I don't see how this one belongs with the rest. Playing a guitar requires a massive investment of time and energy for what amounts to a hobby.

It's not necessarily a massive investment of time and energy. People become reasonably proficient at playing instruments, and learn the basics of musical composition, via short weekly lessons with as much practice as they can fit in around the rest of their lives, all the damn time - and have throughout history, modulo that they probably didn't have regular weekly lessons.

The real reason:

Furthermore aptitude is a real worry wrt music as some people have no sense of pitch or rhythm.

Exactly. Those people who can learn to play instruments or sing or write music - or all three - in a casual manner that fits in with whatever else they have to do in their daily lives are, nevertheless, those with the talent, the aptitude, the ability to do so. Why don't I play the guitar and write love songs for my fiancee? I'd surely like to. It's because I can't play, write music, or sing.

Why doesn't your average D&D commoner study magic when he has time and learn to cast a few simple spells - in game terms, take a level of magewright? Because he doesn't have the aptitude. Maybe he can no more get his head around the thought patterns and components of even minor spells than I can prevent my voice from going off-key.

Music isn't a bad analogy for spellcasting aptitude, as it happens. Your magewrights are akin to people who play in garage bands or mix electronica on their home PCs or sing in local choirs - they have talent, but perhaps not enough to really make a go of it as a professional performer, or perhaps they simply never had the time, opportunity, or desire to really seek out a way in which they could reach their potential as a musician.

Those that do - mostly people from families either well-off enough to provide musical education or those who collectively pull together and tighten their belts in order to provide the talented kid with the opportunity to develop their gift - are analogous to full-blown wizards. The Juilliard School is in this analogy equivalent to a wizards' school renowned as one of the best in the world - the place where truly talented wizards/musicians are given a chance to develop to their fullest potential, but also the sort of place from which many deserving candidates are excluded because they can't afford to go or their families don't support them or they don't believe they could get in and so never try.

Any or all of these options could explain why your average D&D NPC doesn't know how to cast spells.

Music is enjoyable but not helpful in day to day work generally.

Magic is incredibly powerful and useful, even 0 level spells like ghostlight or pretidigitation.

If you want to be frank, most low-level magic isn't that great of a help to your average commoner. Is it worth sending your eldest child off to learn how to be a wizard or magewright and cast unseen servant, leaving the farm bereft of a worker for however long it takes, or would it be better to just get along without the damn spell but with a pair of hands available to help out every day right here and now?

That's a similar tradeoff that some parents in the real world have to consider when they balance the chance that their child will succeed as a musician and make good money in, say, five or ten years' time, as opposed to the money they could be making if they forgot about music and got an accounting degree right now. Some people will take the chance, sure. But I think it's not very many.

It's not just music, it's anything that requires a great investment of time and energy for a distant and uncertain reward - or even a reward that would be nice and certainly very helpful but not exactly necessary, which pretty much describes all the cantrips in the book.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The fact is that in D&D worlds, the relationship between what happens to you and what you learn is alien to how people in our universe learn.

To begin with, there is the fact that whenever you learn something really important, your body changes, becoming sturdier and more robust. You're not just more knowledgeable; you are physically more precise and nimble.

Learning, in a D&D world, is more like that theorized by monastic movements the world over. One moves closer to enlightment by quanta; whether you have been moving in that direction by reading the books, chanting the prayers or cleaning the chicken coop is deliberately left undifferentiated.

Fusangite, this is a great post and I'm going to save it. My thanks to you.

 

[Storyteller01]

I applaud your astute answer! However, in the real world there are illiterate farmers in developing nations that accuse a successful neighbor of using black magic. And seek the help of illiterate "witch doctors" or "white witches" to remove curses. For that matter some scientists in developing nations still cling to beliefs of the 'evil eye', curses, and the influence of planets in spite of a Western doctoral degree.

Agreed! I'm a few months from a bachelor's degree myself, and have a healthy respect for magic (seen it used to subtle, if questionable, effect too often to discount it).

My point was that they may not learn it for the same reasons many folks today can't read: lack of teachers, lack of money, wasn't deveolped because it wasn't needed at the time, inability to wrap your head around it, etc. Same goes for magic, here and in a D&D setting.

 

[SkidAce]

Because they burn witches.

Darn, you stole my line....

 

[Davelozzi]

Because they don't want to fall behind on their BAB.

 

[fusangite]

IIRC the RAW says that adventuring (PC) classes are only available to adventurers.

But adventurer isn't identical to PC; otherwise supplements wouldn't be full of stats for NPCs with these classes.

All others must use the NPC classes.

Where in the RAW does it say that?

A commoner who becomes a blacksmith probably takes levels in expert. A commoner who achieves a ledership position in the community probably takes levels in aristocrat.

But why would any NPC in his right mind take more than one level in commoner? Unless there are social forces outside the rules forcing NPCs to take more than one commoner level, nobody would.

But the DMG clearly states that people with nothing but commoner levels are the overwhelming majority of the population. So clearly, there are forces not specifically describes in the RAW that curtail what class people can level in. Otherwise, the class distribution charts in the DMG would make no sense because most commoners would take the majority of their levels in other classes, which they clearly do not.

An blacksmith (expert) who wishes to gain an edge on the competition might take a level in adept.

Does that mean that those who choose not to do not want an edge? If the opportunity cost of taking an adept level is zero, why does the DMG describe a society in which the vast majority of NPCs don't do it?

Like it or not, there is a limit to what the GM can change without player revolt.

I guess it's just a matter of whom you game with. Sounds like I've been more fortunate than you.

As far as NPCs having class levels, I find it patently absurd that a 20th level carpenter has 70 hit points -- comparable to an 8th level fighter with a 14 Con. But this is the game we choose to play.

If you were following the RAW you would have to develop a theory to explain the demographic level distribution. Your theory of how switching classes works is in direct opposition to the RAW. So let's be clear: this is the game you choose to play.