What if everyone's a mage? [3.5]

[WhatThePhysics]

Removed by author.

[Gavinfoxx]

Society would still look fantastically different. And a form of tippyverse existing can still happen even if no one is over 6th level... Emperor Tippy even described it in some post once, I think it had to do with lots and lots of people being magic item crafters, and that sort of thing being really valued.

[Madara]

Well, there would be a reversal.

Given the situation, all City Guards would be well invested in dispel magic/ counter-caster measures. So, you'd see spellcasters taking a dip/feat in order to learn some normal fighting techniques.

In addition, you can bet that the spells people could learn would be restricted(At least for wizards and such), while people would have the ability, the ruling class would probably restrict access to stronger magic.

"When everyone's special, no one is special."

[NeoSeraphi]

Depends on the SLAs granted, really. Do fighters get gish-like spells, or blasting spells, or BC? Can barbarians still use their spells while they rage? Monks would probably be psionic, but that's a good fit for them.

I'm afraid without knowing more about the SLAs granted to classes, I won't be able to comment further. I will say that I know some players simply don't enjoy the bookwork that comes with keeping track of daily resources, which is why they play classes like fighter, ranger or monk.

[Kamai]

Is this closer to everyone being like a Gnome, with some minor spell-like abilities, and including a way to advance the ability, or would every class have some spellcasting ability or the ability to use it's bonus feats to pick up spell-likes?

[moritheil]

"When everyone's special, no one is special."

There are a number of stories that exploit this premise (Break Blade, I think, is about a man born with no magical ability into a society where everyone can use magic. I think they would be interesting to base a campaign on. Truly, the PCs would be special - in all the "wrong" ways.

[Feralventas]

I deal with this in my homebrew setting, though not with the kind of concentration (all aspects of supernatural power) that you're speaking of.

I usually treat the economy as having very little scarcity; basic necessities like water and food are not difficult to come by for the people that still Need them in the 1st place (shadow casters, for example, only need to eat 1/week at 5th). Magical know-how is redily available by public education in arcane arts, meaning that at the very least most of the population has either Adept (NPC 'caster) levels or UMD on their skill list (to make use of magical infrastructure and tools). Higher level wands, scrolls, and other such wondrous items are equivalent to operating a construction crane, or air-plane; it is lawfully allowed to do so provided you go through and get the right permits and licensing. The cities and towns are connected not by roads, but by teleportation circles established in a network with the capital as the center, though one can go pretty far via the branches. Walking across the country takes about as long as walking from one side to the other of the world's biggest air-port.

Wizards are fairly well respected, since they can pick up whatever spells they need for their employment; because of this there's a big emphasis on educational importance in the arcane society. Sorcerers can usually get by, but they'll have a more difficult time breaking out of a given career than a prepared 'caster might, though they are likely to make friends enough to do well anyway (high Cha requirement). Bards are treated with a bit more respect, as they're one of the few Arcane 'casters that get healing and medicinal spells on their own, as well as the Heal skill. Summoning's all well and good, but with the society's inclination toward Chaos, constantly binding and semi-enslaving summons to do so doesn't sit well with public opinion.

Religiously speaking, deities of magic and knowledge hold the fore-front in this sort of culture; Baccob, Mystra, Nessek and the like can all be found as semi-public icons, though usually as ideals or as paragons rather than as worshiped patrons. The availability of spellcraft makes waiting and praying for miracles both less economical and less sensible, though those that do are held among the Bard's company in terms of social standing.

Warlocks aren't quite bottom-of-the-barrel by default, but they will have a difficult time making something of themselves in such a world. Their UMD capacity means they can use the public facilities, and their invocations might make them a little more useful than an Expert with UMD if not for the fact that the Expert also has 8 or so other skills that they can work with while the warlock has Blast Stuff with a couple of other minor utilities. They're the drop-outs and unfortunate folks who couldn't make it on their own steam. Binders in my setting are obscure enough not to really have a specific place, but due to their lack of UMD, would probably be right here with the 'Locks. However, binding Does work for people who Can't cast arcane spells, so those few pariahs who are magically defunct can turn to it as an option; if it becomes more openly known, binding might take the place of a sort of special-cases or special-needs option.

You might want to take a look at the War-Weaver based magitech article; can't remember what it's called, but it basically allowed folks to send spells from a central point all over the city; lights, signals, communication, the works.

[WhatThePhysics]

Removed by author.

[NeoSeraphi]

No classes are changed, and there is no homebrew material added. It's simply 3.5, but all PCs/NPCs must be able to use spells/powers/SLAs of some kind. Hence, requiring people like full Fighters and Commoners to at least take a Dragonmark or SLA-granting feat.

I see. So you're not changing the world, you're going to use existing feats to give people spellcasting or give them the Hidden Talent feat or etc. Eh, in that case I don't see much changing. Those feats are all pretty minor, nothing like my Fire feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231700) or anything.

Really, if people want some kind of minor magical abilities that don't scale well and stop being relevant mid-game, they could all just dip a level of rogue to get full ranks in UMD allowed, and then just spend double skill points on it from then on.

[Big Fau]

I've toyed with the idea of giving my players their choice of either Adept or Magewright casting if they played a noncaster, but I have yet to try it out.

[Snowbluff]

Wizards are fairly well respected, since they can pick up whatever spells they need for their employment; because of this there's a big emphasis on educational importance in the arcane society. Sorcerers can usually get by, but they'll have a more difficult time breaking out of a given career than a prepared 'caster might, though they are likely to make friends enough to do well anyway (high Cha requirement). Bards are treated with a bit more respect, as they're one of the few Arcane 'casters that get healing and medicinal spells on their own, as well as the Heal skill. Summoning's all well and good, but with the society's inclination toward Chaos, constantly binding and semi-enslaving summons to do so doesn't sit well with public opinion.





In addition, you can bet that the spells people could learn would be restricted(At least for wizards and such), while people would have the ability, the ruling class would probably restrict access to stronger magic.

"When everyone's special, no one is special."

Sorcerers would be considered incredibly dangerous pariahs. Wizards are predictable, with a vast majority of them using only the government mandated spell. Predictable... and safe. Since their talent is innate, it's impossible to know what spells a Sorcerer may develop as they grow. Some of them would hide their talents, practicing wizardry overtly, to avoid persecution. Waiting... biding their time for when they can show the world what they can do...

[Arcanist]

If everyone is a mage? Well chances are you'll have one guy that wants to become a God and accidentally break his arm punching out the God of Magic (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu)

But all humor aside depending on how Magic works (Is it standard material components, somatic components and Verbal components like in D&D? Or is it something internal like "spirit" or something like that) If its like in D&D where you need material components then all the government has to do is limit the sales of bat guano and people won't be able to fire off as many fireballs... Honestly in a real world setting D&D Wizardry is pretty limited since in a real setting we wouldn't have access to feats, prestige classes, levels, or anything like that...

It kind of scary if you think about it :smalltongue: You can have elementary school students casting by D&D standards 9th level spells...

So pretty much limit access to material components and there you have it that is how magic would be in the real world... But if you ignore all of that and we do have access to spell levels, levels, prestige classes, feats, etc then the world starts to become pretty friken dark and looks a lot like how Madara describes it.


"When everyone's special, no one is special."

As Snowbluff stated, I'd rather be a Sorcerer then learn a little Wizardry and become an Ultimate Magus :smallamused: The state has less limits on me, I'm harder to predict, hopefully I'll be able to make something out of myself :smallsmile:

[Endarire]

Awhile ago, I asked, "What if we were all Wizards? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-171994.html)"

[Fable Wright]

I've toyed with the idea of giving my players their choice of either Adept or Magewright casting if they played a noncaster, but I have yet to try it out.

...Giving a Warblades casting may be a mistake... maybe just give it to Tier 4 or below noncasters?

[SimonMoon6]

What do you think a campaign world would look like if everyone had some form of supernatural ability?

Something like Xanth, Levram (the setting of "normalman"), or the setting of Top Ten.

[ahenobarbi]

Meh. None of this "everybody is a caster cuz it's so good" stuff please. People are lazy. Think our world. Casters are geeks.

So everybody uses magic (but stuff you can use without UMD - 'cause they are lazy...), casters earn a lot. PRobably every caster want's to be a focuse speciallist with an arcane thesis to be as good as possible in something.

Non-caster either can do something cheaper than magic or starve in slums.

[Waker]

ahenbobarbi makes a good point about people being lazy. Even if in this world magic was available to everyone, most people wouldn't take it beyond the most basic cantrips. I mean, how many people know how to fix their car, rewire a faulty appliance or any number of other handy skills. Now imagine these same people are playing with the laws of reality and summoning beings from another plane.
While there will be outliers who master the magical arts, it would probably be better to give the majority of people feats like Communicator, Insightful and the other SLA granting ones from Complete Arcane.

[lunar2]

i actually had an idea like this. a setting where magic was weak, but common and easy. basically, everything with a charisma of 10 or higher got a single at will level 0 SLA (their choice), with high HD, high Charisma creatures getting more SLAs, and more powerful SLAs. 4th level spells didn't come online until level 17, though, so very few people ever got a truly significant amount of magic power (many dragons ended up about as powerful as standard, though, because of their high HD). of course, actual spells didn't exist, and neither did classes that gained alternate magic systems (meldshaping, initiating, manifesting, etc.) although those systems still existed through feats, if applicable.