What would Pericles/Cyrus/Augustus/Imhotep do with 1000 Wizard 1's

[johnbragg]

I'm going for a "broad magic" feel--not magitech, not reverse engineering modern technology with fantasy magic tools, but how organized societies would use available low-level magic for the things societies tend to do.

Airships? No. Hundreds of miles of road with permanent longstrider effects? Yes.
Elemental powered steam locomotives? No. Carriages drawn by skeletal horses? Maybe.

[Balyano]

Dining equipment with a built in Purify Food and Drink effect.

Comprehend Languages when negotiating with foreign dignitaries using a translator, while pretending to not understand what they are really saying to each other

a cloak of Endure Elements so our great emperor doesnt feel uncomfortable during his journey, and in the unlikely situation that these are cheap then equip the army and march where no one would expect.

the kings bedchamber has a permanent Sanctuary spell in place to help thwart assassins

Know Direction so you can sail more accurately on cloudy nights

a cloak of Hide From Animals to aid the king in hunting, he gets so fussy and decapitates people when he doesnt snag a fox

use some illusions to help our lord look more impressive and godlike help the peasants see his majesty as he really is

Lip tattoo of Message, boots of Pass Without a Trace, hat of Disguise Self - the three most useful tools in the arsenal of his grace's secret police

a nightcap of Sleep for when our lord is unable to nod off

Some sort of permanent Entangle on the rose bushes around his windows, after all its so annoying when people keep sneaking in to kill him, and the thorns are a good touch

[Shyftir]

Generally the same thing they'd do with 1000 guys with rifles.

[Yora]

Not really. Rifles can shot more than once per day and you can relatively easily get a lot more than the 1000 rifles you started with. The usefulness of a thousand first level wizards would be much more limited.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Really, spells like create/purify food and water, mending/make whole, and all the other really boring ones would be your best bet. You could basically cut off the bottom of the hierarchy of needs overnight.

[Mr.Cobalt]

Mage Hand and Unseen Servant render regular servants obsolete.

[Yora]

Really, spells like create/purify food and water, mending/make whole, and all the other really boring ones would be your best bet. You could basically cut off the bottom of the hierarchy of needs overnight.

But with only 1000? Even Pericles, having by far the smallest realm under his rule among those named as exaples, still had about 250,000 people to support.
1st level wizards only have one or two 1st level spells per day. Create food requires a 5th level cleric and these would only feed 15 people per day. Which leaves you still with 235,000 people who need being fed.

1000 level 1 wizards would not even register. If every single member of the empire were a mid-level cleric or wizard, then you could perhaps consider no longer needing most basic labor and food production.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

But with only 1000? Even Pericles, having by far the smallest realm under his rule among those named as exaples, still had about 250,000 people to support.
1st level wizards only have one or two 1st level spells per day. Create food requires a 5th level cleric and these would only feed 15 people per day. Which leaves you still with 235,000 people who need being fed.

1000 level 1 wizards would not even register. If every single member of the empire were a mid-level cleric or wizard, then you could perhaps consider no longer needing most basic labor and food production.

Given the OP's examples, I don't think `1000 wizard 1s` was meant to be taken literally. 1st level wizards can't make permanent longstrider or cast animate dead for skeletal mounts. And come to think of it, longstrider is a druid spell, so we clearly have other classes.

Admittedly, what you can do with wizard 1s is pretty limited. I'd say their best trick is endure elements - that's one worker who can work in pretty much anything from blizzards to the highest temperature ever recorded in death valley (134F, compared to EEs maximum of 140). Also, considering they can `exist comfortably in such conditions`, if you cast it on a worker every day (or find a way to apply it in an area), you don't need to house that worker.

If you add in cleric or druid 1s, it gets a lot better. Create food may be 3rd level, but create water and goodberry are both 1st level spells. Each casting provides enough for 2-8 people (depending on how many berries you get, and how demanding your serfs are). Furthermore, create water scales with level - a third level cleric can create 18 gallons of water (assuming he has at least 12 wisdom, and doesn't use 2nd level or domain slots) a day - and that takes 18 seconds and 0 expenditure of other resources, so he's free to do some other job the rest of the time.

But the big one is purify food and drink. It's a cantrip, so any 1st level cleric or druid can cast it 3 times per day (or, if we're going by pathfinder rules, unlimited). And 1 cubic foot per level of food or water is a lot (8 gallons). You do have to get the food beforehand, but after that, you have an infinifridge. Or even better, cast it on seawater.

So, using a first level druid with 12 wisdom as our base:
Prepare spells
Get peasants to get 24 gallons of seawater in barrels or something
Cast purify food and drink on the seawater - those 24 gallons are now enough water for 48 people (at half a gallon a day)
Cast goodberry twice - that's 4-16 meals. Average of 9, so enough to get 3 people 3 square meals a day. But since this is the bronze age, I can make my people get by on less than that.
This has taken the druid a grand total of 1 hour and 30 seconds, including time to prepare spells (the 8 hours rest doesn't count, that's called sleeping and he does that anyway), plus a few peasants about an hour to fill the barrels. The peasants go back to peasanting, and the druid goes off and does something else useful - probably goes off with his animal companion to hunt, or puts those skill points to good use in craft or profession.

Thus, 1000 druid 1s can provide enough water to support 48,000 people, and enough food to securely support at least 3000 (even if the druids produce less than the average 9000 berries, they will produce at least 4000 each day, so they're all guaranteed at least 1 meal, and it'll be supplemented by any excess from yesterday. If you think 1 square meal a day is enough for your peasants, then you can feed 4000-16000 each day). That's not going to quite replace your entire agricultural sector, but it's going to give it a serious boost. And that's before we start using higher level casters or magic items - if we have the money and the magic to longstrider the roads, we have enough money to mass-produce this kind of magic.

[johnbragg]

Many royal luxuries, plus a few tricks for His Majesty's Secret Service

True, but the guys in the title are remembered for what they built as much as for their wealth and luxury.



Know Direction so you can sail more accurately on cloudy nights

That's the sort of thinking I'm looking for. It's a druid cantrip, but I don't see a reason that the wizards couldn't research it as a 1st level spell (same for the ranger spell Longstrider, BTW). So ships with compasses are going to be fairly common.[/QUOTE]


Generally the same thing they'd do with 1000 guys with rifles.
Well, 1000 guys with rifles are pretty lousy at building roads, draining swamps, digging canals, rebuilding city walls, building aqueducts, standardizing law codes, keeping watch on the regional governors (Ok they're useful for that last one).


Really, spells like create/purify food and water, mending/make whole, and all the other really boring ones would be your best bet. You could basically cut off the bottom of the hierarchy of needs overnight.

I think I agree with the argument upthread that there aren't enough casters to replace servants and peasant farmers.


Given the OP's examples, I don't think `1000 wizard 1s` was meant to be taken literally. 1st level wizards can't make permanent longstrider or cast animate dead for skeletal mounts. And come to think of it, longstrider is a druid spell, so we clearly have other classes.

Yes. The idea is low spell level magic, but applied broadly and in an organized way. "Magitech" by a pure definition, but when people say "magitech" they usually mean "19th century hi-tech powered by magic, railroads and airships and ironclads oh my."


Admittedly, what you can do with wizard 1s is pretty limited. I'd say their best trick is endure elements - that's one worker who can work in pretty much anything from blizzards to the highest temperature ever recorded in death valley (134F, compared to EEs maximum of 140). Also, considering they can `exist comfortably in such conditions`, if you cast it on a worker every day (or find a way to apply it in an area), you don't need to house that worker.

Looking through the SRD.
Message would play a large role in courtship behavior, but that's not really the topic.
Unseen Servant is a luxury item. For the same 2,000 gp, you could pay an SRD list price trained hireling for about 18 years.

The wizard/sorceror spell list really isn't built for public utilities.


If you add in cleric or druid 1s, it gets a lot better.


Create food may be 3rd level, but create water and goodberry are both 1st level spells. Each casting provides enough for 2-8 people (depending on how many berries you get, and how demanding your serfs are). Furthermore, create water scales with level - a third level cleric can create 18 gallons of water (assuming he has at least 12 wisdom, and doesn't use 2nd level or domain slots) a day - and that takes 18 seconds and 0 expenditure of other resources, so he's free to do some other job the rest of the time.

But the big one is purify food and drink. It's a cantrip, so any 1st level cleric or druid can cast it 3 times per day (or, if we're going by pathfinder rules, unlimited). And 1 cubic foot per level of food or water is a lot (8 gallons). You do have to get the food beforehand, but after that, you have an infinifridge. Or even better, cast it on seawater.[/quote]

Even better, resetting traps of purify food and drink. Ships no longer need to carry water with them--lower the purifying barrel into the sea, hoist it back up and you've got drinking water. Figure out the hydraulics, and you've got an aqueduct that flows from the sea into the port city.


And that's before we start using higher level casters or magic items - if we have the money and the magic to longstrider the roads, we have enough money to mass-produce this kind of magic.

I'm definitely thinking that this boosts the agricultural sector, but that's some sort of incantation where the whole community participates in a Bless the Crops ritual, boosting crop yields by 10% (which of course drives down the price of food, but no one's invented economics here)

(I do like your druidic empire of half-starved peasants, though.)

Ok, so far we have definitely moved naval tech forward--compasses and water purification.

[Grek]

If it's specifically Wizards, a VERY obvious answer is "Construct a Royal Library" because, seriously, wizards increase in utility significantly if they're allowed to share spells.

The following spells will be employed by assassins:
-Charm Person/Disguise Self (Lure the victim somewhere)
-Mount (Murder weapon; horses be deadly)
-Summon Small Fiendish Viper (Murder Weapon)
-True Strike (Sniping)
-Sleep/Colour Spray/Daze/Cause Fear (Incapacitates people)
-Prestidigitation (Disguise poisons)

The following spells will be employed to defeat assassins:
-Detect Poison (Checks for poison)
-Protection from Evil (Checks for compulsions)
-Mage Armour (Public appearances)
-Detect Magic (Checks for Disguise Self, Charm Person, other spells)
-Sleep/Colour Spray/Daze/Cause Fear (Incapacitates assassin)
-Disguise Self (Body doubles)
-Mount (Disposable poison tester)
-Silent Image (Missle screen for public appearances)

The following spells will be employed to counter the anti-assassin defenses:
-Magic Aura (Foils Detect Poison/Detect Magic)
-Detect Magic (Identify Body Doubles)
-True Strike (Ignore concealment due to Silent Image)

Mending will be used to repair expensive equipment. The king will have Endure Elements up constantly, and Protection From Evil cast once a day. A personal attendant with Feather Fall, Colour Spray, Message, and several castings of Daze will suppliment the royal guard in protecting the king.