D&D General World Building and Magic

[Xeviat]

Back during the original D&DNext Playtest I ran my first 5E game. In it, something one of my players said stood out to me ever since. He said: it's odd that no one bats an eye when they find out I'm a warlock, a great old one warlock to boot. I recently started thinking about it again.

Has anyone thought about changing up how NPCs react to different characters based on the kinds of magic they know? Like the whole "White Magic/Black Magic" divide. Has anyone done such in their games? How do normal people in your games react to magic?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

People in my campaign definitely have opinions on magic, religions, etc. Even PCs gave the warlock in my game the side eye until he "came out" as a celestial warlock. (Up until that point, even the character in question wasn't sure where his powers were coming from.)

In the setting, it's only been a few generations since arcane magic was widely considered to all be fiendish magic and there are still pockets where that's the majority view, so spellcasters generally tread a little carefully when amongst strangers.

 

[Krachek]

By default I consider that all classes sub classes ( and lineage) are fit to be the hero of the adventure.
If players want to play the bad guys that need to be discuss on session 0.

 

[Stormonu]

Back during the original D&DNext Playtest I ran my first 5E game. In it, something one of my players said stood out to me ever since. He said: it's odd that no one bats an eye when they find out I'm a warlock, a great old one warlock to boot. I recently started thinking about it again.

Has anyone thought about changing up how NPCs react to different characters based on the kinds of magic they know? Like the whole "White Magic/Black Magic" divide. Has anyone done such in their games? How do normal people in your games react to magic?

Done that from day one. Had one occasion where they party lost out on a quest reward because one of the party unwittingly revealed to their LG employer who the Warlock's patron was.

Folks don't really like it when they find out your patron is Tharizdun, or Asmodeus - thought they might have enough sense just to move to the other side of the street rather than confront you.

But, I also did once run a red dragonborn LG Paladin of Tiamat just to gobsmack my DM.

 

[Shiroiken]

Part of it probably has to do with general ignorance. The difference between the types of mages is completely lost on the average person not trained in arcana. I imagine a great old one is just another type of god to most people.

 

[Dross]

My take is this:
The average person generally doesn't care that someone is a wizard v warlock v sorcerer, usually they care about what the mage has done. Unless the mage does do something that will distinguish them as a specific class they wouldn'tbe able to distinguish between them anyway. And maybe not even then.
If the are prejudiced against a certain type (warlocks as an eg) they will tend to be suspicious of all mages.
However the more someone interacts with them, or needs to know the difference between them (magic item merchants) the more likely they will.

It may even be possible that they could mistake a cleric for a mage, depending on the situation.

And people may not even care, you are a mage, all mages are the same.
(I'm a commonwealth/federal government employee in a science organisation, but people dont care they still expect me to fix a local council road because I'm the government).

 

[GrimCo]

In my games, there is no divide between divine/arcane magic. There is only magic and people who access/channel it in different ways. Also, there is no good or evil magic, same as there are no good or evil weapons, magic is just the tool. How one uses that tool is what counts.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Because the setting I run for Jewel of the Desert is intentionally highly cosmopolitan, most things would not get more than an odd glance based on what the power is--even devilish powers, since tieflings are a well-known phenomenon. Far more likely to get you the stink eye is your behavior, what you do with your magic--to the point that the dominant religion of the area, the Safiqi priesthood, has a legit internal affairs division, the Asiad al-Khafyun. Their primary purpose is hunting actual heretics. Not the incorrect meaning of heretic as used by WK40k--where it should actually be "infidel," NOT "heretic" in most cases--but the real meaning, that is, those who have begun to spout dangerously divergent doctrine.

The Asiad basically never go after ordinary folks, unless there's a serious planar incursion (and the party has made sure that that is exceedingly unlikely to happen again, at least for a good while yet). Their targets are treacherous priests who have broken their oaths and begun using their powers for wicked ends, or people who are secretly practicing forbidden rituals to harm others, that sort of thing. The Asiad are not nice, but they are dedicated to the cause of Good.

But yeah, there's really only three things that would get you in Deep Doodoo if you were caught doing them, in rough severity order:

1. Necromancy, other than proper resurrections, restoring the dead to their form in life. This is a HUGE no-no in this region. The deep desert already has enough dead things, or things that should be dead, crawling around in it.
2. Mental enslavement. Slavery in general is the other HUGE no-no in this land for historical reasons, so magical slavery counts just as much as mundane.
3. Committing magical crimes (e.g. magical voyeurism). Severity obviously depends on the severity of the crime.

Other than those three, most folk are used to people trafficking with the Weird because Kahina (shaman+druids) do stuff with spirits, Waziri (wizards+artificers) can do all sorts of High Middle Ages/Renaissance "tech"/alchemy stuff, and it's known that there are other traditions both religious and secular in other lands. Of course, one would be wise not to get a reputation of trafficking with devils or demons, as that's likely to get Safiqi eyes all over your business.

 

[Lanefan]

Back during the original D&DNext Playtest I ran my first 5E game. In it, something one of my players said stood out to me ever since. He said: it's odd that no one bats an eye when they find out I'm a warlock, a great old one warlock to boot. I recently started thinking about it again.

Has anyone thought about changing up how NPCs react to different characters based on the kinds of magic they know? Like the whole "White Magic/Black Magic" divide. Has anyone done such in their games? How do normal people in your games react to magic?

The general public usually doesn't care much, they either accept mages or they don't (they almost always accept clerics).

The stink-eyes usually happen either between different types of mages or between other non-mage adventurers and certain types of mages; in part because those people are more flikely to know with what they deal. Necromancers, blatant fire mages, and sometimes Illusionists are usually on the receiving end of said dirty looks.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

My current character, Brother Vortigern, is a secret necromancer. He is a devout priest of the church, but he abuses his position to acquire bodies with which to conduct his clandestine arcane research. One of the other players even plays a priest who acts as Brother Vortigern's chaperone and overseer, because Vortigern has been caught too many times dabbling in forbidden arts.