Percentage of Magic Casters In Your World?

[Scorponok]

I was wondering, what is the percentage of people who can cast magic in your world? I'm including even the martial ones like Paladins, Bards, and Rangers? And what percentage of that percentage is higher than level 5?

Because even in a small town of 10000 people, at even 1% at level 5, that would be 100 people. Is having magic as part of everyday life in a fantasy campaign ideal?

Has any campaign setting ever listed the amount of people who can cast magic?

[Eldan]

You don't even need a campaign setting. The DMG lists numbers and levels.

[JenBurdoo]

I know the 3rd edition DM guide has guidelines, but I don't have it with me atm. And did you mean 1% of all magic-users, which would be much less than 1% of all citizens? You'd end up with a lot fewer than 100 5th level users.

[EisenKreutzer]

In my ice-age setting Æl-Ceald, magic is rare. Among humans, it is rare enough that most of the nomadic family groups only have one divine caster (they vary in size from 200 to a thousand), and only very rarely a sorcerer or psion. Obviously population numbers are screwy since there are so few people in this world, but i'd say maybe 0.1% of the population has any kind of arcane talent, and closer to 1% are capable of vasting divine spells. As for psionics, the number is maybe closer to 0.01%. It's rare.

In Kerebra, my psionics only setting, population is a bit screwy too since the world is so small (it's basically a sentient demi-plane), but psionic potantial is much more common there. Maybe 20% of the population have levels in a psionic class.

As for NPCs over lvl 5, I have always preferred the Eberron way of doing things, where high levels are reserved for player characters and extremely important NPCs.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I run by the DMG guidelines*. The vast majority of people are non-casters and the vast majority of people are first level. Where those two rarities intersect, the higher level the caster the rarer they are.

I'd ball-park casters capable of slinging 4th level or higher spells as under 1% of the general population.

*entries added to the table for new classes at the same value as their closest equivalent class in core.

[Flickerdart]

I tend not to use published settings, so my % of casters is about 0 because everyone who's not an NPC tends to be an undifferentiated mass of commoners. You know, the way it is in real life.

[VoxRationis]

My world? Varies by culture (99% of magic users are clustered in a few cultures and regions), but in most regions, an area the size of Spain or France has few enough wizards that you can count them on your fingers. Paladins aren't even a thing in the setting, and few rangers ever get to have spells (most of the NPC rangers are multiclassed or low-level). It's a very low-magic setting.

[martixy]

About 0.1% are capable of some manifestation of the supernatural. So 1 in every 1000. That however is only the general mean.
Imbalances are introduced, where certain regions have a high degree of natural talent, some simply feature a strong tradition of producing casters due to socio-economic or historic reasons.

I do do a spread of low-levels for the undifferentiated masses(on a semi-random principle), but whereas a commoner might vary up to L7, those with magic talents rarely see L4. About 1-2% of the magic folk qualify for a chance in spotlight - e.g. people with PC caster classes - high priests, mad wizards, high advisors, high-level shopkeeps, the people on level playing field with the PCs.

In a world of many millions that still results in a high-magic universe.

[SangoProduction]

which of my worlds? I've had hundreds - even thousands if you include the each of the campaigns that had multiple worlds within itself.

But, in my current one? Most people are level 0. With enough heal-type mages to have a fairly sizable guild. Additionally, there are enough mages/sages to fill a multi-dimensional wizard's tower, and then enough to act as a plot hook. And lastly, there's enough magic that mages can't run rampant, even if I was running an edition in which mages overpowered everything else. And that's just in one city.

[Uncle Pine]

I tend to include New Casters as the Plot Demands (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NewNeighboursAsThePlotDemands). All the important statted groups in the campaign include a known amount of spellcasters among their ranks, but then you have the capital and the Mage Guild and that basically means that if you roll high enough you are pretty much guaranteed to find a caster. However, since this particular world only goes up to 10th level, there are no 11th level spellcasters.

[nedz]

IDK — and I've been running games in the same world for a very long time.

It's just not a very important question — for me.

I create NPCs continuously, and many of these will be casters. If the NPCs don't interact with the party, do they even exist ?

[ZamielVanWeber]

I don't use that campaign world at the moment? But mine had a sizable number of casters, say 30%, of which .1% exceeded level 2 and none PCS failed to exceed 6. Ever.

[Yogibear41]

90% Of the world is a level 1-3 NPC. 9% Are people with PC classes that are level 6 or lower. Everything else is the 1%. Distribution of classes is based on difficulty of learning the skill set of said class. For example there are way more fighters than wizards because learning to fight is easier than learning to use magic.

This is more or less how the game I play in is set up.

[Seclora]

I was wondering, what is the percentage of people who can cast magic in your world? I'm including even the martial ones like Paladins, Bards, and Rangers? And what percentage of that percentage is higher than level 5?

Because even in a small town of 10000 people, at even 1% at level 5, that would be 100 people. Is having magic as part of everyday life in a fantasy campaign ideal?


If 100 people are level 5, half of them are commoners. They're the best commoners, farm owners and tavern owners, maybe a few tradesmen, but they're commoners. Of the 50 remaining, half are other NPC classes; the Blacksmith Expert, the Adepts who work the local churches and apothecaries, the snooty Aristocrat landlord and his family. That leaves us about 25 PC-grade characters. These guys are the best in the town. Depending on the town, you might have half of these guys be Fighters, Rangers, Warmages, or whatever makes up the upper echelons of the town's defenses. Two or three are probably Rogues, town of that size is bound to have a couple of decent thieves. Two or three are Clerics, they run the churches and temples of the town. We're down to about seven, most of which are inevitably itinerant Bards. A town of 10,000 can count itself lucky to have a Wizard or Artificer, and is realistically too large for most druids, but not big enough for an urban druid. Most likely, they've got a Sorcerer or Warlock, and those guys tend to keep their heads down if they're not in charge.

Now you might be wondering why clerics are more common than wizards, and that's simple; clerics tend to have more institutional and communal support. Even Fharlanghn has a protocol for training new clerics, and non-evil clerics always have at least one usable skill, the ability to mend wounds. Communities need that ability, so even low level clerics are welcome, where a wizard is more likely to migrate to locations there are already other wizards. Wizards need unusual, expensive reagents, access to libraries, and ultimately to other wizards. So some communities, larger ones, would be disproportionately high in wizards, college towns if you please. Most of the world, however, would have a more even array of PC classes.

Any PC class above 5 or 6 should be carefully considered though. If there's a conclave of 20 level 19 wizards in town, people will want to know why they aren't fixing the problems themselves, or at least why none of them saw it coming. And frankly, you build towns around concentrations of power like that. The Forementioned conclave is an economic and strategic resource to most, non-tippyverse, kingdoms; assuming none of the wizards can be bothered to rule it themselves.
So, basically, above 5 or 6 isn't so much a percentage of the town, as it is a percentage of the kingdom. You should decide that for yourself. (The exception is monks. All monks are level 20 and live at the tops of mountains. There they meditate and try to ignore the taunts of wizards with sending spells.)

[Doc_Maynot]

I have two major campaign settings, one for 3.5 and one for PF.
In 3.5 I run a high magic setting, so most know some magic however little. So I'd say around 75%
In PF I make NPCs using SoP, UltPsi, or PoW. Reformacist (as in PsiRef) is even a common line of work in it. So that is more towards 80% that can so even the faintest magic.

[danzibr]

I was wondering, what is the percentage of people who can cast magic in your world? I'm including even the martial ones like Paladins, Bards, and Rangers? And what percentage of that percentage is higher than level 5?

Because even in a small town of 10000 people, at even 1% at level 5, that would be 100 people. Is having magic as part of everyday life in a fantasy campaign ideal?

Has any campaign setting ever listed the amount of people who can cast magic?
I live in a town of population ~500. 10,000 is huge.

[zergling.exe]

I live in a town of population ~500. 10,000 is huge.

Indeed. 10,000 is a small city. A small town would be 901-2000 people.* You live firmly in a village. :smalltongue:

*Going off of D&D standards.

[Milo v3]

Hmmm... Let see... about 5% in one setting, 40% in another, and 100% in another.

[Banjoman42]

I have a high-magic, low-fantasy game, where magic is common, but the population beyond level 4 is pretty much non-existent. I'd say about 15% of the population can utilize magic to some extent.

[Blackhawk748]

Like 1 in 10-20 thousand for full casters, they just tend to hang out in cities so it seems like theres more. Pallys Bards and Rangers are more like 1 per 1000ish

[martixy]

Hmmm... Let see... about 5% in one setting, 40% in another, and 100% in another.

The thing is... many do not realize Create water is a 0 level spell.
Many of the spells that adventurers completely ignore because of their lack of mechanical significance would have a major societal impact in a world where magic was even slightly more than very rare.

[Milo v3]

The thing is... many do not realize Create water is a 0 level spell.
Many of the spells that adventurers completely ignore because of their lack of mechanical significance would have a major societal impact in a world where magic was even slightly more than very rare.

My cultures love using cantrips and command use magic items, infinite castings of a weak spell can be so useful.

[VoxRationis]

The thing is... many do not realize Create water is a 0 level spell.
Many of the spells that adventurers completely ignore because of their lack of mechanical significance would have a major societal impact in a world where magic was even slightly more than very rare.

Depending on the number of clerics, it can be tough to supply a civilian population, but what Create Water is really good for is extending the range of galleys. Water is heavy, and galley crews rowing in the heat require more of it than they do food, so galleys never have any serious provisions. But with a single cleric on each ship, doing nothing but summoning water, that limiting factor is gone. Fill the hold with a few containers of high-calorie dry foods, and you've vastly increased the range of the ship. (Still not exactly blue-water material, but you can probably skip a night or two between pulling ashore.)

[Masakan]

Theoretically, I would create a world, where every humanoid is capable of magic. If your gonna put it in your campaign anyway, might as well make it common place.
Thing is not everyone would be like got wizards naturally. Cantrips are pretty much common Knowledge to the point where even a child could learn them, with level 1-2 spells being taught for self defense and the like, level 3-5 spells would be considered military grade and usually reserved for adventurers or spellcasters in the military, these spells can also be learned by anyone but are considered dangerous and would require you enroll in a magic academy and obtain a licence to use them, failure to do so will result in your immediate arrest. Since this is a magic heavy world, The need for mage slayers is heavy to keep people from abusing it.

Those who know how to use Level 6-7 spells are exceedingly rare and those who know them would more than likely be high mages or have significant authority. And those who have mastered Level 8-9 are often herald as deities, either having it granted to them from some other force. Or being born with such a proficiency with magic that they can learn them by the time they are......70.

So yeah all things considered there would be a big gap between magic capacity.

[Milo v3]

In one of my settings every human was born a 10th level sorcerer.

[Tvtyrant]

About 10%, with 90% of those having the magical training feat or some innate psionic powers.

[Curmudgeon]

Depending on the number of clerics, it can be tough to supply a civilian population, but what Create Water is really good for is extending the range of galleys.
On a galley you don't want Create Water; you want Purify Food and Drink instead. You've got unlimited access to impure (salt) water, and Create Water only creates 2 gallons/level while Purify Food and Drink purifies 1 cubic foot/level of food or water. A cubic foot is 7½ gallons, so you're nearly 4x ahead on the water and you can fix the food that goes moldy or rancid with the same casting.

[Malroth]

between 20-40% usually adepts healers or mage-wrights mostly in the lv3-6 range with those above that very rare.

[BWR]

It depends on the setting and the locations in the setting. Mystara, for instance, is a very magic-rich setting but there are variations there. All elves, back in the day, were casters, which ends up being a lot of casters. The empire of Alphatia has somewhere around 25% of its population able to use magic to one degree or another (down from 99%) and has a council of 1000 lvl 36 magic users (which was the max level in BECMI/RC, so equivalent to 20th level casters in 3.x), and that is probably not all the 36th level casters they have. Other places like the Northern Reaches have a much lower percentage.

Then you have settings like Krynn where magic is quite rare and people generally don't become as powerful as certain other settings and have a number of other restrictions (like the Order). I'm pretty sure there are far fewer magic users per capita there than Mystara or FR.

[danzibr]

If your gonna put it in your campaign anyway, might as well make it common place.
Why? I like the rare mysterious stuff.

[VoxRationis]

On a galley you don't want Create Water; you want Purify Food and Drink instead. You've got unlimited access to impure (salt) water, and Create Water only creates 2 gallons/level while Purify Food and Drink purifies 1 cubic foot/level of food or water. A cubic foot is 7½ gallons, so you're nearly 4x ahead on the water and you can fix the food that goes moldy or rancid with the same casting.

Does Purify desalinate? I forgot about that spell.

[Curmudgeon]

Does Purify desalinate? I forgot about that spell.
It removes any contaminants which make the water unsuitable for drinking. If there are any fish in with the water it'll also clean the fish (remove the guts, bones, scales, and anything else inedible).

[Crake]

My campaign setting as an incredibly small percentage of spellcasters, though they tend to work together, so you'll rarely find one on their own, which gives the impression that there are more than there actually are. I believe in a city of several million there was something like 1000 spellcasters, with 3 epic casters on the whole continent at the start of the game, 4 by the end.

That's just the mortal races though, when you look at the hidden cultures of magical creatures, well, obviously it's higher, they're magical, and if you include their population in the whole thing, well, that percentage goes up a fair bit.

[Mystral]

I was wondering, what is the percentage of people who can cast magic in your world? I'm including even the martial ones like Paladins, Bards, and Rangers? And what percentage of that percentage is higher than level 5?

Because even in a small town of 10000 people, at even 1% at level 5, that would be 100 people. Is having magic as part of everyday life in a fantasy campaign ideal?

Has any campaign setting ever listed the amount of people who can cast magic?

Well, everyone CAN cast magic, attributes provided. For the number of people actually going through the trouble instead of farming carrots...

Maybe 1% of people is not a commoner. Out of those, maybe 80% are expertes and warriors, 5% are aristocrats and adepts, the remaining 15% are PC classes. Out of those, most are fighters, rogues, barbarians and other mundanes. So maybe 25% are spellcasters.

That's 25% of 15% of 1%, or in other words, 0,004%.

[Der_DWSage]

In my campaign worlds, it tends to be about 30% that at least have cantrips. Of that 30%, only about 5% rise above 3rd level...which still makes for a decent amount of people that get to high levels. I don't believe in 'Only the PCs get to rise above 6th level' in a world, as that makes things get out of control rather quickly. I do believe in 'potent magic is rare,' but that's more a matter of 'Stuff the PCs don't normally get access to.'

[Masakan]

In my campaign worlds, it tends to be about 30% that at least have cantrips. Of that 30%, only about 5% rise above 3rd level...which still makes for a decent amount of people that get to high levels. I don't believe in 'Only the PCs get to rise above 6th level' in a world, as that makes things get out of control rather quickly. I do believe in 'potent magic is rare,' but that's more a matter of 'Stuff the PCs don't normally get access to.'

At the very least magic is common enough so that people have a base understanding of how it works.

[Curmudgeon]

I tend toward what I think of as a heavy proportion of spellcasters (in which I include users of SLAs) at about 3-5%.