Zonugal
2012-05-11, 10:24 PM
Building a Magitechnocratic Society
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82110.jpg
In this here project I will hope to display that, as opposed to the Tippyverse, one does not need high level spells or levels to radically change the basic foundations of a society within the common D&D world. Through the most basic spells of magic and beyond we can introduce commodities we all take for granted every day and truly ask, if there is the means why wouldn’t a town in D&D operate under such a familiar model. As mentioned this “magitechnocratic” (it’s a mouthful) society is based off the fundamental idea of a Tippyverse but radically scaled down. This author feels the mass abuse of Wish spells and other high-level effects make the possibility of a Tippyverse considerably unstable in being formed & consistent. For the purposes of this project the spells & powers used will be restricted to 3rd-level as this puts us not only in a “sweet spot” for most towns/cities to be able to accomplish but also allows E6-based games/campaigns to access the ideas within it.
The first, and most pivotal, part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is found in the education & labor of Artificers. Be it magical or psionic Artificers are the life-blood of a magitechnocratic community as they not only propel the upgrades necessary for a town or city to become something greater, but do so with greater ease than any other occupation. The second part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is having a well-providing source of experience points for the Artificers to harvest. No xp means no upgrades, so the xp must flow. If we were to use unsavory methods quick factories of soul harvesting and such from The Book of Vile Darkness could be utilized but I feel that is a weak element to build such a society on. It is not only unquestionable vile but also may lead to riots/unrest in revulsion of it. So we see some other opportunities open up for the Artificers. The first is large scale “safari” expeditions in which they are lead by Rangers, Scouts & other suitable guides to hunt down dangerous animals. With wands & items of Ray of Stupidity these Artificers can collect a great deal of experience points taking down intellectually-challenged monsters. The second is mini-fight clubs within firms (the collective of Artificers) which ultimately won’t bring in as much experience points as option #1 but is significantly safer & quicker to achieve. Two Artificers go a couple rounds bare-knuckle fighting, they’re doing non-lethal damage and at the end of it they’ll be quickly healed. The third is taking the basic proponent of both the first and second ideas and making it into a spectacle. Using the rules for xp transference we have the society institute gladiator-scale events as a means to “farm” xp. Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rogues and more all show up and compete in different games or obstacles and the winner than is paid a wealthy sum to pour his newly gained xp into a magic item. This author personally feels the third option is the best not only for flavor purposes (who doesn’t like a steam-punk style society with Roman elements?!?) but it provides a stimulus for the masses as well as a consistency as to why martial professions still exist in such a world. The third part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is underlying a strong focus on education. With the upgrades magic and such bring to any community the extremely high need of commoners to work in the fields is lowered dramatically, and with the ease at which one may become educated bringing people out of serfdom into schools is a realistic hope. While there is still a need for a physical work force a commoner can see to it that their child is set on a road towards higher achievements. Education is what ultimately leads to the stability of an upper-class filled with Artificers and other elite classes.
Health, Hunger and Higher Learning, Oh My!
Obviously the first step to achieving step number three is reducing the need of agriculture in a society. This is done as to push those who would work the fields into other fields, such as mining & other resource collection, while putting more money in their pockets. This is initially done by each community, no matter how small, obtaining a wondrous item of Goodberry. This first level Druid spell turns any single berry into a full nourishing meal for a medium humanoid as well as heals one hit point. This alone redefines what a D&D society regards as poverty. When you can feed a human on three berries a day (which also heals them) you can begin to make some big changes. People begin to become less scared of famine as it is near free to provide for anyone in a community. The next item that naturally compliments the Goodberry magic item, let’s call it a Goodbearer Box, is a magic item of Create Water. A 0-level Druid & Cleric spell that creates two gallons of pure, clean water on command pretty much makes irrigation significantly less concerning. Simply setting up one of these Magic Fountains in the middle of a town square means all can have access to useable water for drinking, cooking, agriculture and more. Now that these two inventions are instituted we steer towards upgrading the situation. We have to really ask what still needs to be grown and the answer is still everything, by a lot. Even with the use of magic or psionics the needs and duration of such basic requirements requires an agricultural force to be of constant use. But just like our own societies we can have dedicated individuals handling this as opposed to the lowest of the low having to farm to survive. Agriculture becomes an actual force of the economy and not a dire need. Animals still need to be raised for food & resources (like wool), while tobacco and other luxury items are still grown for economic purposes, and fruits & vegetables are grown because in the end spells or powers like Psionic Minor Creation and Create Food & Water can’t simulate fine culinary delights.
But let’s focus on these spells and powers. Create Food & Water says, “The food that this spell creates is simple fare of your choice—highly nourishing, if rather bland.” It provides enough of this simple, nourishing but bland food to feed three medium humans per casting. If we really break down what the spell provides a society gets a lot of food that is very good for them but doesn’t really taste amazing. It sounds almost like a nutritious microwave dinner… Obviously one could use something like a magic item of Prestidigitation or a Spice Jar (Magic of Faerun pg. 165) to add flavor but if all a society is getting is nutritious gruel I don’t see them discarding traditional agriculture. That is where the beauty of Psionic Minor Creation comes in and the splendor that is, “Unattended, nonpsionic, nonmagical object of nonliving plant matter, up to 1 cu. ft./level.” A nonliving plant matter is effectively any crop that can be grown which, when used economically, would allow a society to be able to summon an apple, some juice or a bushel of corn. Because it has a duration of 1 hour per level, we can’t exploit it to produce items like high-powered alcoholic spirits but it provides a very strong argument against necessity driven agriculture.
Beyond the matters of replacing agriculture magic can be properly utilized in the expansion & improvement of it through the use of Plant Growth. This simple, third-level spell offers a community the opportunity to instantly “raise their potential productivity over the course of the next year to one-third above normal,” up to a half-mile distance. There are a couple ways we can interpret this but this author is going to follow the most exploitable while still conservative. Upon casting on a field of standard vegetables you raise their initial harvest by one third. Come the next day you cast Plant Growth again and raise the previous improved harvest by one third again. See a pattern? Following this any community can expect to produce an amazing harvest given a typical season. The spell won’t speed up the process by any account but for nothing more than the initial cost of casting Plant Growth you can extract more out of your investment. A conservative approximation of corn, which would take around 90 days to grow, would bring in thirty times more corn than a typical season (if Plant Growth was cast every day). Your standard D&D economy is going to see a supreme shift in prices and vegetables, fruits and other planted commodities will become very cheap.
So we are left with some magical items that resolve agriculture of being an absolute necessity but not enough to get rid of it all together. But as we shift our gaze from one of hunger we look towards health. Even easier than agriculture, curing an individual of a disease or wound in a magitechnocratic is as easy as setting up some quick magic items of Remove Diseases or Cure Light Wounds. An option that jumps out in familiar ways to the Goodberry spell is Estanna’s Stew from the Book of Exalted Deeds, a spell which not only summons a stew (so there you go for a nice meal) but also heals 1d6 points of hit points. Any assortment of these in a community effectively eases all the necessity from healers or the clergy to provide their services.
Finally we stumble upon the first look into economic factors regarding commoners & such. A basic commoner (four ranks in profession: anything, skill focus [profession: anything] and a 12 in wisdom) can be expected to bring in around eight gold pieces per week. Now this author doesn’t know the intricate budgeting of a medieval commoner but with food not necessarily being a vital proponent of said budget (if they stick to items made exclusively from a Goodbearer Box or an item of Create Food or Water/Psionic Minor Creation) they can begin to put the money that would go towards food into investments like learning magical training (much like the feat of the same name) or a psionic talent (through Hidden Talent). This is the first building block to radically altering the typical D&D campaign structure. You are giving your lowest citizens a chance to better themselves.
Education; or How Those Spellbooks Aren’t Going to Read Themselves…
In our previous section it was discussed how through the elimination of poverty and hyper-improvement of agriculture the lowest citizens of a magitechnocratic may be able to shift their budget around to offer themselves greater means. A commoner picking up the Magical Training feat immediately gains access to some 0-level spells (like Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Mending, Prestidigitation, and others) as well as the ability to use eternal wands freely. But beyond the connivance of having a few spell-like abilities at command it opens up the chance for a commoner to invest in the future of their child. Given enough years is it really too crazy to think that a commoner couldn’t afford the training of a 1st-level Wizard for their child? It takes no real amount, by RAW, to receive such training but for the academies, universities and such a magitechnocratic society can see a shift towards magical training.
And from a purely RAW perspective there is nothing to really stop a society from sinking a ridiculous amount of focus towards education in result seeing the influx of 1st-level Wizards increase radically. All an individual needs is an intelligence score of 11 and the will to learn. But stretching beyond the hope of a wizard’s world a magitechnocratic has other means of pushing a doctrine of education. The first is through magic items of Amanuensis a.k.a. your new printing press. With a simple 0-level spell not only does the vast publication of the written word become a reality, but a great deal of citizens to any community become informed (and possibly interested) in knowledge, cultural events, ect... If the printing press ushered in the “period of modernity” for our own world who is to say the same couldn’t happen within a D&D campaign?
The second handy item contributing to the improved education system of a magitechnocratic society is the first-level spell Scholar’s Touch which allows an individual to read any sized book in a round. Now the spell doesn’t grant any hard upgrades to a character like skill points but it does give the individual an understanding of the book’s contents as if they had read it, which is still huge. Imagine an education system where a child could read a hundred books a day with no effort at all. It would be something similar to The Matrix in how Neo downloads martial arts & such. History, geography, geometry and more immediately become easier to devour as academic subjects. And while a character isn’t earning any skill points they are becoming more knowledgeable about any subject they desire. Because if it only takes a minute to read ten large tomes on a subject, you’re character is going to be better…
So in conjunction with a magic item of Amanuensis and Scholar’s Touch we have a society which can pump out knowledge and devour it in very quick speeds which opens the door even wider to a magically-influenced “period of modernity.”
Infusing the Common Man
But taking a step away from a traditional approach to how we know education and self-improvement there is the lovely feat Hidden Talent which bestows a first-level power, two power points and the psionic subtype. That is a lot for a first level feat, especially for a commoner. A commoner could be throwing around energy rays, creating matter, drawing upon knowledge of the universe, and more which in a way could resemble the mutants from the Marvel universe. The sorcerer equivalent of the Magical Training feat provides a similar benefit (although not as substantial as Hidden Talent) providing solid 0-level spells like Ghost Sound, Mending, Message and Prestidigitation (and with a little cheese via Precocious Apprentice you can possibly open up 2nd-level spells like Unseen Crafter, Alter Self, Whispering Wind, ect…). And I they are tough enough they can pick up teleportation, briefly fly and spit orbs of acid via Shape Soulmeld from Magic of Incarnum. This all comes together to showcase a campaign society in which every single individual can be magical/special and every single individual is a unique entity within the world they occupy. And when it comes down to it a first level commoner with two feats is more likely to sacrifice one for the ability to jump through space & time over picking up toughness…
And with this we see a shift in attitude towards the mystical and mundane. In a traditional D&D campaign magic and the supernatural are possibly viewed as just that, supernatural. But in a world in which your milk man can telepathically control you and your co-worker at the market place can manifest illusions conceptions regarding the supernatural begin to change.
Economic Models
Within the previously expanded upon magitechnocratic society we’ve seen how the wonders of magic can other supernatural aspects can elevate a traditional D&D society into something a little bit more “futuristic” as we would come to acknowledge it. What follows is a look at how some of these aspects reflect in different parts of the society as actualized through game mechanics.
Transportation
Typical transportation within low-level D&D is what most would expect when approaching it, fairly basic. Most shippers still use wagons to get across mountains and ships to make it over the blue oceans. And while most of the heavy duty teleportation spells (the kind that the Tippyverse commonly utilizes) aren’t open most of the magical or supernatural options stick to that basic model. But even when structured to that familiar mode, a lot of fun can open up.
The first radical upgrade in a magitechnocratic society when it comes to transportation is the adoption of the Astral Skiff as found in the Planar Handbook. It costs $10,000 gp and doesn’t disclose any information regarding how it is made (or what it is composed of construction-wise) so we have to stick to that hard price. The Astral Skiff is typically used on the Astral plane and while in its description it notes it typically doesn’t work on a Material plane it doesn’t actually apply any restriction so we can go ahead and use it on our typical, gravity-based world. It’s a huge vehicle with a 120 ft. speed that can carry three people & 1 ton (possibly more people if storage space is removed to allow such a convenience). This is, under seventh-level, the cheapest & best option for a transport. It’s cost is reasonable for what it offers and allows us to populate our society with mini-space ships for combat, economic and other reasons. They won’t be owned by everyone but for those who need them, they are accessible.
But for those with stricter budgets another option jumps up as affordable, reasonable and eye-catching; effigies. Found in Complete Arcana the rules for constructing effigies are easy, cheap and open for a lot of creative uses. For your basic model, a large 3 hit-die creature, you’ll look at a base price of 14,000 gp which is more expensive than the Astral Skiff but with cost reducers (Magical Artisan, Apprentice: Craftsman, Extraordinary Artisan, and restricting the use via skills/class as to make each item special order) would knock it down to somewhere around 4500 gp. These can act as private “hovercycles” as they are ridden around the high skyscrapers of a magitechnocratic society.
And than of course for the minimalist a wondrous item of Tenser’s Floating Disk which could very well act as a “hover-board” akin to the ones in Back to the Future 2. For a little over 800 gp an individual could hover around a city at a safe, calm speed of 30-40 ft. per round which sadly doesn’t offer the style or customization of an effigy but is cheap & practical.
Finally we leave the practical concerns of common transportation behind as we examine how under seventh-level planar travel is entirely possible & reasonable. Opening up to psionics the powers Astral Caravan and Astral Traveler both present options for those wishing to embark beyond their own world. If offers significant risks jumping to the Astral plane and passed it to possibly unknown regions of the universe, but by sixth level a world can have “space travel” (something this author thinks is wildly cool).
Production
Unlike the Tippyverse which is to a degree rather independent of resources a magitechnocratic society still has to farm standard resources if only because the short term duration of most magical spells & effects. But while such physical labor is required there are ways for magic to assist in the formation & production of such resources. An easy section by far with three spells: Magecraft, Unseen Crafter and Fabricate. The first two assist in the expert crafting of items by not only pumping the crafter’s skill by a whole margin (+5) but also not even requiring him to lift his finger. And while Unseen Crafter is almost a magical substitute for a factory production line-up it pales in comparison to Fabricate (found as a 3rd-level spell via the Trapsmith’s spell list). With Fabricate a new, quicker economy can begin to blossom as items are immediately made in minutes. And because Fabricate needs a crafter for higher quality items each of the fabricated items will can be of high-quality, as opposed to lesser-quality factory conditions.
And once again, found in the Trapsmith’s spell list, Wall of Stone as a third-level spell allows a magitechnocratic society to quickly, very quickly, build foundations. A kingdom is significantly sturdier when it can buffer its outer walls ten or more inches thick at no cost. And on a more domestic angle home buildings become easier, if a bit formulaic.
Labor & Servants
Through the use of constructs, primarily effigies, people can begin to adopt “helpers” as their more personal assistants. Now, because of the high base cost, these helpers will never beat having a consistent work force (of living individuals) as their pay will always be lower. But for more personal reasons such as physical chores around a home or farm a helper may be of some use. For example an effigy of a Goliath will routinely cost somewhere around $2,600 gp and will grant an individual a loyal construct who requires almost no upkeep, can protect them in case of intrusion and with a strength score of 18 will be able to lift anywhere from 100 lb. to 600 lb. (and push or drag 1,500 lb.).
War
Just like any setting a magitechnocratic society suffers the brutalities of war, but approaches it in drastically different ways than a traditional method. As opposed to the classic line defense of shields & swords a magitechnocratic society adopts a more modern approach to battle as influenced by the technology of the settings. Swords and shields are good but when your enemy is firing bolts of energy that warp right through armor, things change.
The first change in typical combat is the assumption that an army couldn’t mount a force armed in magic. There is nothing to really support the idea that only Fighters can handle a fierce battle. The flavor reason is that it is radically easier to train a Fighter than a caster, but in a true military situation training a specific type of caster could happen right along the training of basic infantry. Now in a magitechnocratic society wars aren’t primarily fought with the Fighter class anymore. They have been subbed out in favor of the Ranger. Packing better skills (heal, hide, listen, move silently, spot, search, ect…) your typical infantry soldier is significantly more capable in a war-based situation as they can heal a fallen comrade, plan/spot an ambush and navigate rough terrain. In addition through favored enemy bonuses they are doing nice damage to their chosen foe (likely whatever the rival enemy primarily is). In addition by having them pick-up the feats like Magical Training and Precarious Apprentice they have the opportunity to snag a reserve feat (like Fiery Burst or Winter’s Blast) and begin throwing out some arcane artillery while still packing a solid combat chassis via the Ranger class.
But beyond those on the front lines the serious upgrade in technology quickly finds its way to a battlefield. Be it from using the Stronghold Builder’s Guide to build rudimentary tanks storming across a battlefield in solid protection to dropping magic items of fog cloud in the middle of a battlefield to provide cover the use of technology in war would be outstanding. A command word activated magic item of Fireball would alone make the idea of a traditional battle terrifying to behold as soldiers are blown up every round. But the pinnacle of weapon technology would be in the military application of both Energy Missile & Swarm of Crystal psionic powers. Both 2nd level powers they each offer a lot when compacted into the hands of a weapon for an infantry soldier to use. Energy Missile has a range of 130 ft. and targets up to five creatures with 3d6 points of damage of either a cold, electricity, fire or sonic variety. There’s a saving throw (reflex or fort) to half the damage but on average a soldier can reliably take down a five 1st-level character with one of these each round. Right alongside that is Swarm of Crystals which fires thousands of tiny crystal shards forth in a 15ft. cone, dealing 3d4 points of damage and offering no save. If you find yourself in a cone you are going to get hit which means a 1st-level character is likely to get torn apart if they are so unlucky. Both of these, when made into magic items, are expensive weapons but alter the landscape of traditional war through immense fear.
Conclusion
I feel, as shown above, that one does not need to bring in higher-level spells to properly elevate a D&D world into a higher, bolder world as seen in the style of a Tippyverse. All you need is the will to look at the tools at hand and see how to actively implement them in creative ways.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82110.jpg
In this here project I will hope to display that, as opposed to the Tippyverse, one does not need high level spells or levels to radically change the basic foundations of a society within the common D&D world. Through the most basic spells of magic and beyond we can introduce commodities we all take for granted every day and truly ask, if there is the means why wouldn’t a town in D&D operate under such a familiar model. As mentioned this “magitechnocratic” (it’s a mouthful) society is based off the fundamental idea of a Tippyverse but radically scaled down. This author feels the mass abuse of Wish spells and other high-level effects make the possibility of a Tippyverse considerably unstable in being formed & consistent. For the purposes of this project the spells & powers used will be restricted to 3rd-level as this puts us not only in a “sweet spot” for most towns/cities to be able to accomplish but also allows E6-based games/campaigns to access the ideas within it.
The first, and most pivotal, part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is found in the education & labor of Artificers. Be it magical or psionic Artificers are the life-blood of a magitechnocratic community as they not only propel the upgrades necessary for a town or city to become something greater, but do so with greater ease than any other occupation. The second part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is having a well-providing source of experience points for the Artificers to harvest. No xp means no upgrades, so the xp must flow. If we were to use unsavory methods quick factories of soul harvesting and such from The Book of Vile Darkness could be utilized but I feel that is a weak element to build such a society on. It is not only unquestionable vile but also may lead to riots/unrest in revulsion of it. So we see some other opportunities open up for the Artificers. The first is large scale “safari” expeditions in which they are lead by Rangers, Scouts & other suitable guides to hunt down dangerous animals. With wands & items of Ray of Stupidity these Artificers can collect a great deal of experience points taking down intellectually-challenged monsters. The second is mini-fight clubs within firms (the collective of Artificers) which ultimately won’t bring in as much experience points as option #1 but is significantly safer & quicker to achieve. Two Artificers go a couple rounds bare-knuckle fighting, they’re doing non-lethal damage and at the end of it they’ll be quickly healed. The third is taking the basic proponent of both the first and second ideas and making it into a spectacle. Using the rules for xp transference we have the society institute gladiator-scale events as a means to “farm” xp. Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rogues and more all show up and compete in different games or obstacles and the winner than is paid a wealthy sum to pour his newly gained xp into a magic item. This author personally feels the third option is the best not only for flavor purposes (who doesn’t like a steam-punk style society with Roman elements?!?) but it provides a stimulus for the masses as well as a consistency as to why martial professions still exist in such a world. The third part in constructing a magitechnocratic society is underlying a strong focus on education. With the upgrades magic and such bring to any community the extremely high need of commoners to work in the fields is lowered dramatically, and with the ease at which one may become educated bringing people out of serfdom into schools is a realistic hope. While there is still a need for a physical work force a commoner can see to it that their child is set on a road towards higher achievements. Education is what ultimately leads to the stability of an upper-class filled with Artificers and other elite classes.
Health, Hunger and Higher Learning, Oh My!
Obviously the first step to achieving step number three is reducing the need of agriculture in a society. This is done as to push those who would work the fields into other fields, such as mining & other resource collection, while putting more money in their pockets. This is initially done by each community, no matter how small, obtaining a wondrous item of Goodberry. This first level Druid spell turns any single berry into a full nourishing meal for a medium humanoid as well as heals one hit point. This alone redefines what a D&D society regards as poverty. When you can feed a human on three berries a day (which also heals them) you can begin to make some big changes. People begin to become less scared of famine as it is near free to provide for anyone in a community. The next item that naturally compliments the Goodberry magic item, let’s call it a Goodbearer Box, is a magic item of Create Water. A 0-level Druid & Cleric spell that creates two gallons of pure, clean water on command pretty much makes irrigation significantly less concerning. Simply setting up one of these Magic Fountains in the middle of a town square means all can have access to useable water for drinking, cooking, agriculture and more. Now that these two inventions are instituted we steer towards upgrading the situation. We have to really ask what still needs to be grown and the answer is still everything, by a lot. Even with the use of magic or psionics the needs and duration of such basic requirements requires an agricultural force to be of constant use. But just like our own societies we can have dedicated individuals handling this as opposed to the lowest of the low having to farm to survive. Agriculture becomes an actual force of the economy and not a dire need. Animals still need to be raised for food & resources (like wool), while tobacco and other luxury items are still grown for economic purposes, and fruits & vegetables are grown because in the end spells or powers like Psionic Minor Creation and Create Food & Water can’t simulate fine culinary delights.
But let’s focus on these spells and powers. Create Food & Water says, “The food that this spell creates is simple fare of your choice—highly nourishing, if rather bland.” It provides enough of this simple, nourishing but bland food to feed three medium humans per casting. If we really break down what the spell provides a society gets a lot of food that is very good for them but doesn’t really taste amazing. It sounds almost like a nutritious microwave dinner… Obviously one could use something like a magic item of Prestidigitation or a Spice Jar (Magic of Faerun pg. 165) to add flavor but if all a society is getting is nutritious gruel I don’t see them discarding traditional agriculture. That is where the beauty of Psionic Minor Creation comes in and the splendor that is, “Unattended, nonpsionic, nonmagical object of nonliving plant matter, up to 1 cu. ft./level.” A nonliving plant matter is effectively any crop that can be grown which, when used economically, would allow a society to be able to summon an apple, some juice or a bushel of corn. Because it has a duration of 1 hour per level, we can’t exploit it to produce items like high-powered alcoholic spirits but it provides a very strong argument against necessity driven agriculture.
Beyond the matters of replacing agriculture magic can be properly utilized in the expansion & improvement of it through the use of Plant Growth. This simple, third-level spell offers a community the opportunity to instantly “raise their potential productivity over the course of the next year to one-third above normal,” up to a half-mile distance. There are a couple ways we can interpret this but this author is going to follow the most exploitable while still conservative. Upon casting on a field of standard vegetables you raise their initial harvest by one third. Come the next day you cast Plant Growth again and raise the previous improved harvest by one third again. See a pattern? Following this any community can expect to produce an amazing harvest given a typical season. The spell won’t speed up the process by any account but for nothing more than the initial cost of casting Plant Growth you can extract more out of your investment. A conservative approximation of corn, which would take around 90 days to grow, would bring in thirty times more corn than a typical season (if Plant Growth was cast every day). Your standard D&D economy is going to see a supreme shift in prices and vegetables, fruits and other planted commodities will become very cheap.
So we are left with some magical items that resolve agriculture of being an absolute necessity but not enough to get rid of it all together. But as we shift our gaze from one of hunger we look towards health. Even easier than agriculture, curing an individual of a disease or wound in a magitechnocratic is as easy as setting up some quick magic items of Remove Diseases or Cure Light Wounds. An option that jumps out in familiar ways to the Goodberry spell is Estanna’s Stew from the Book of Exalted Deeds, a spell which not only summons a stew (so there you go for a nice meal) but also heals 1d6 points of hit points. Any assortment of these in a community effectively eases all the necessity from healers or the clergy to provide their services.
Finally we stumble upon the first look into economic factors regarding commoners & such. A basic commoner (four ranks in profession: anything, skill focus [profession: anything] and a 12 in wisdom) can be expected to bring in around eight gold pieces per week. Now this author doesn’t know the intricate budgeting of a medieval commoner but with food not necessarily being a vital proponent of said budget (if they stick to items made exclusively from a Goodbearer Box or an item of Create Food or Water/Psionic Minor Creation) they can begin to put the money that would go towards food into investments like learning magical training (much like the feat of the same name) or a psionic talent (through Hidden Talent). This is the first building block to radically altering the typical D&D campaign structure. You are giving your lowest citizens a chance to better themselves.
Education; or How Those Spellbooks Aren’t Going to Read Themselves…
In our previous section it was discussed how through the elimination of poverty and hyper-improvement of agriculture the lowest citizens of a magitechnocratic may be able to shift their budget around to offer themselves greater means. A commoner picking up the Magical Training feat immediately gains access to some 0-level spells (like Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Mending, Prestidigitation, and others) as well as the ability to use eternal wands freely. But beyond the connivance of having a few spell-like abilities at command it opens up the chance for a commoner to invest in the future of their child. Given enough years is it really too crazy to think that a commoner couldn’t afford the training of a 1st-level Wizard for their child? It takes no real amount, by RAW, to receive such training but for the academies, universities and such a magitechnocratic society can see a shift towards magical training.
And from a purely RAW perspective there is nothing to really stop a society from sinking a ridiculous amount of focus towards education in result seeing the influx of 1st-level Wizards increase radically. All an individual needs is an intelligence score of 11 and the will to learn. But stretching beyond the hope of a wizard’s world a magitechnocratic has other means of pushing a doctrine of education. The first is through magic items of Amanuensis a.k.a. your new printing press. With a simple 0-level spell not only does the vast publication of the written word become a reality, but a great deal of citizens to any community become informed (and possibly interested) in knowledge, cultural events, ect... If the printing press ushered in the “period of modernity” for our own world who is to say the same couldn’t happen within a D&D campaign?
The second handy item contributing to the improved education system of a magitechnocratic society is the first-level spell Scholar’s Touch which allows an individual to read any sized book in a round. Now the spell doesn’t grant any hard upgrades to a character like skill points but it does give the individual an understanding of the book’s contents as if they had read it, which is still huge. Imagine an education system where a child could read a hundred books a day with no effort at all. It would be something similar to The Matrix in how Neo downloads martial arts & such. History, geography, geometry and more immediately become easier to devour as academic subjects. And while a character isn’t earning any skill points they are becoming more knowledgeable about any subject they desire. Because if it only takes a minute to read ten large tomes on a subject, you’re character is going to be better…
So in conjunction with a magic item of Amanuensis and Scholar’s Touch we have a society which can pump out knowledge and devour it in very quick speeds which opens the door even wider to a magically-influenced “period of modernity.”
Infusing the Common Man
But taking a step away from a traditional approach to how we know education and self-improvement there is the lovely feat Hidden Talent which bestows a first-level power, two power points and the psionic subtype. That is a lot for a first level feat, especially for a commoner. A commoner could be throwing around energy rays, creating matter, drawing upon knowledge of the universe, and more which in a way could resemble the mutants from the Marvel universe. The sorcerer equivalent of the Magical Training feat provides a similar benefit (although not as substantial as Hidden Talent) providing solid 0-level spells like Ghost Sound, Mending, Message and Prestidigitation (and with a little cheese via Precocious Apprentice you can possibly open up 2nd-level spells like Unseen Crafter, Alter Self, Whispering Wind, ect…). And I they are tough enough they can pick up teleportation, briefly fly and spit orbs of acid via Shape Soulmeld from Magic of Incarnum. This all comes together to showcase a campaign society in which every single individual can be magical/special and every single individual is a unique entity within the world they occupy. And when it comes down to it a first level commoner with two feats is more likely to sacrifice one for the ability to jump through space & time over picking up toughness…
And with this we see a shift in attitude towards the mystical and mundane. In a traditional D&D campaign magic and the supernatural are possibly viewed as just that, supernatural. But in a world in which your milk man can telepathically control you and your co-worker at the market place can manifest illusions conceptions regarding the supernatural begin to change.
Economic Models
Within the previously expanded upon magitechnocratic society we’ve seen how the wonders of magic can other supernatural aspects can elevate a traditional D&D society into something a little bit more “futuristic” as we would come to acknowledge it. What follows is a look at how some of these aspects reflect in different parts of the society as actualized through game mechanics.
Transportation
Typical transportation within low-level D&D is what most would expect when approaching it, fairly basic. Most shippers still use wagons to get across mountains and ships to make it over the blue oceans. And while most of the heavy duty teleportation spells (the kind that the Tippyverse commonly utilizes) aren’t open most of the magical or supernatural options stick to that basic model. But even when structured to that familiar mode, a lot of fun can open up.
The first radical upgrade in a magitechnocratic society when it comes to transportation is the adoption of the Astral Skiff as found in the Planar Handbook. It costs $10,000 gp and doesn’t disclose any information regarding how it is made (or what it is composed of construction-wise) so we have to stick to that hard price. The Astral Skiff is typically used on the Astral plane and while in its description it notes it typically doesn’t work on a Material plane it doesn’t actually apply any restriction so we can go ahead and use it on our typical, gravity-based world. It’s a huge vehicle with a 120 ft. speed that can carry three people & 1 ton (possibly more people if storage space is removed to allow such a convenience). This is, under seventh-level, the cheapest & best option for a transport. It’s cost is reasonable for what it offers and allows us to populate our society with mini-space ships for combat, economic and other reasons. They won’t be owned by everyone but for those who need them, they are accessible.
But for those with stricter budgets another option jumps up as affordable, reasonable and eye-catching; effigies. Found in Complete Arcana the rules for constructing effigies are easy, cheap and open for a lot of creative uses. For your basic model, a large 3 hit-die creature, you’ll look at a base price of 14,000 gp which is more expensive than the Astral Skiff but with cost reducers (Magical Artisan, Apprentice: Craftsman, Extraordinary Artisan, and restricting the use via skills/class as to make each item special order) would knock it down to somewhere around 4500 gp. These can act as private “hovercycles” as they are ridden around the high skyscrapers of a magitechnocratic society.
And than of course for the minimalist a wondrous item of Tenser’s Floating Disk which could very well act as a “hover-board” akin to the ones in Back to the Future 2. For a little over 800 gp an individual could hover around a city at a safe, calm speed of 30-40 ft. per round which sadly doesn’t offer the style or customization of an effigy but is cheap & practical.
Finally we leave the practical concerns of common transportation behind as we examine how under seventh-level planar travel is entirely possible & reasonable. Opening up to psionics the powers Astral Caravan and Astral Traveler both present options for those wishing to embark beyond their own world. If offers significant risks jumping to the Astral plane and passed it to possibly unknown regions of the universe, but by sixth level a world can have “space travel” (something this author thinks is wildly cool).
Production
Unlike the Tippyverse which is to a degree rather independent of resources a magitechnocratic society still has to farm standard resources if only because the short term duration of most magical spells & effects. But while such physical labor is required there are ways for magic to assist in the formation & production of such resources. An easy section by far with three spells: Magecraft, Unseen Crafter and Fabricate. The first two assist in the expert crafting of items by not only pumping the crafter’s skill by a whole margin (+5) but also not even requiring him to lift his finger. And while Unseen Crafter is almost a magical substitute for a factory production line-up it pales in comparison to Fabricate (found as a 3rd-level spell via the Trapsmith’s spell list). With Fabricate a new, quicker economy can begin to blossom as items are immediately made in minutes. And because Fabricate needs a crafter for higher quality items each of the fabricated items will can be of high-quality, as opposed to lesser-quality factory conditions.
And once again, found in the Trapsmith’s spell list, Wall of Stone as a third-level spell allows a magitechnocratic society to quickly, very quickly, build foundations. A kingdom is significantly sturdier when it can buffer its outer walls ten or more inches thick at no cost. And on a more domestic angle home buildings become easier, if a bit formulaic.
Labor & Servants
Through the use of constructs, primarily effigies, people can begin to adopt “helpers” as their more personal assistants. Now, because of the high base cost, these helpers will never beat having a consistent work force (of living individuals) as their pay will always be lower. But for more personal reasons such as physical chores around a home or farm a helper may be of some use. For example an effigy of a Goliath will routinely cost somewhere around $2,600 gp and will grant an individual a loyal construct who requires almost no upkeep, can protect them in case of intrusion and with a strength score of 18 will be able to lift anywhere from 100 lb. to 600 lb. (and push or drag 1,500 lb.).
War
Just like any setting a magitechnocratic society suffers the brutalities of war, but approaches it in drastically different ways than a traditional method. As opposed to the classic line defense of shields & swords a magitechnocratic society adopts a more modern approach to battle as influenced by the technology of the settings. Swords and shields are good but when your enemy is firing bolts of energy that warp right through armor, things change.
The first change in typical combat is the assumption that an army couldn’t mount a force armed in magic. There is nothing to really support the idea that only Fighters can handle a fierce battle. The flavor reason is that it is radically easier to train a Fighter than a caster, but in a true military situation training a specific type of caster could happen right along the training of basic infantry. Now in a magitechnocratic society wars aren’t primarily fought with the Fighter class anymore. They have been subbed out in favor of the Ranger. Packing better skills (heal, hide, listen, move silently, spot, search, ect…) your typical infantry soldier is significantly more capable in a war-based situation as they can heal a fallen comrade, plan/spot an ambush and navigate rough terrain. In addition through favored enemy bonuses they are doing nice damage to their chosen foe (likely whatever the rival enemy primarily is). In addition by having them pick-up the feats like Magical Training and Precarious Apprentice they have the opportunity to snag a reserve feat (like Fiery Burst or Winter’s Blast) and begin throwing out some arcane artillery while still packing a solid combat chassis via the Ranger class.
But beyond those on the front lines the serious upgrade in technology quickly finds its way to a battlefield. Be it from using the Stronghold Builder’s Guide to build rudimentary tanks storming across a battlefield in solid protection to dropping magic items of fog cloud in the middle of a battlefield to provide cover the use of technology in war would be outstanding. A command word activated magic item of Fireball would alone make the idea of a traditional battle terrifying to behold as soldiers are blown up every round. But the pinnacle of weapon technology would be in the military application of both Energy Missile & Swarm of Crystal psionic powers. Both 2nd level powers they each offer a lot when compacted into the hands of a weapon for an infantry soldier to use. Energy Missile has a range of 130 ft. and targets up to five creatures with 3d6 points of damage of either a cold, electricity, fire or sonic variety. There’s a saving throw (reflex or fort) to half the damage but on average a soldier can reliably take down a five 1st-level character with one of these each round. Right alongside that is Swarm of Crystals which fires thousands of tiny crystal shards forth in a 15ft. cone, dealing 3d4 points of damage and offering no save. If you find yourself in a cone you are going to get hit which means a 1st-level character is likely to get torn apart if they are so unlucky. Both of these, when made into magic items, are expensive weapons but alter the landscape of traditional war through immense fear.
Conclusion
I feel, as shown above, that one does not need to bring in higher-level spells to properly elevate a D&D world into a higher, bolder world as seen in the style of a Tippyverse. All you need is the will to look at the tools at hand and see how to actively implement them in creative ways.