high magic elven society

[Ettina]

OK, so, in the D&D homebrewed setting my brother and I are coming up with, there's a civilization of elves whose society is vaguely modeled after the Highborne from WoW. (Complete with the fall at the hands of their own magical hubris.)

So, pretty much everyone in this society is an arcane caster, with the martial characters generally being gishes. They're long-lived, so many will be high-level, especially the upper classes who engage in a lot of regular training. (Upper class elven society in this setting is very backstabby, almost drow-level backstabbing, despite the overall society being a lot less vicious than drow.)

I'd like suggestions from more experienced players about:

a) how to optimize citywide magical infrastructure to make life easier

b) how a power-hungry subordinate could really mess up their superior without getting caught

c) how to defend against said power-hungry subordinates

[ExLibrisMortis]

For (a), have a look at mythals, from Lost Empires of Faerûn.

(b) and (c) could involve mythals, especially keyed powers. For example, the city's mythal might regulate heating via a keyed magic 'desk' (coincidentally similar to Homer Simpson's), which would be open to manipulation, and would require access protocols, security, and so on, which then require anti-corruption measures, which themselves might be part of the mythal (via zone of truth or the like), which may need to be countered by keyed items that prevent high-ranking elves spilling all their secrets at-will, and then you can screw with those items. Endless possibilities, really fun.

[Melcar]

OK, so, in the D&D homebrewed setting my brother and I are coming up with, there's a civilization of elves whose society is vaguely modeled after the Highborne from WoW. (Complete with the fall at the hands of their own magical hubris.)

So, pretty much everyone in this society is an arcane caster, with the martial characters generally being gishes. They're long-lived, so many will be high-level, especially the upper classes who engage in a lot of regular training. (Upper class elven society in this setting is very backstabby, almost drow-level backstabbing, despite the overall society being a lot less vicious than drow.)

I'd like suggestions from more experienced players about:

a) how to optimize citywide magical infrastructure to make life easier

b) how a power-hungry subordinate could really mess up their superior without getting caught

c) how to defend against said power-hungry subordinates

You have got to look in the two 2ed books: "Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves" and "The Fall of Myth Drannor". They might be 2nd ed, but the lore is awesome! Those books contain answers to pretty much all of your above questions! Check out Lost Empires of Faerûn for conversions and stuff!

[Sagetim]

A Mythal that grants everyone the ability to cast Prestidigitation at will would be pretty solid, since it makes it easy to keep things clean (if nothing else). Furthermore, people who are unemployed layabouts could take on the work of keeping the streets clean for food and lodging. This can form the basis in the culture for a public works projects.

Another handy spell to have on a Mythal would be Goodberry, possibly being auto cast on bushes within the city every day, supplying a steady amount of food for people every day. By regulating the location of the bushes, you can then use them as a pay source to get people to do various public works projects using the Mythal's magic.

This is where things like Mending, Make Whole, and other low level but useful spells could come into play. By keying the stronger effects off of non-magical tokens (worn like a pendant on a string) you could have different tiers of public works that people could build up to, even if their own magical abilities are not up to the task. By having different tiers, and different pay structures (eventually getting actual money for doing work for the betterment and upkeep of the city), you create an incentive for the people involved to keep working their way up.

The tokens, being non-magical, would easily be the most abusable aspect of the entire structure. Someone with good enough crafting abilities may well be able to counterfeit them successfully. This is where your abuse, black marketing, and other underhanded shenanigans come into play. The most sought after things would likely be spells that seem most useful and are the most regulated (token wise), like a token that lets you cast cure light wounds off the Mythal, or Remove Disease.

Being non-magical tokens, the hardest part about preventing corruption with regards to them is actual vigilance from the guards or what have you. Possibly up to and including a list with names and portraits for people who are entrusted with what tokens (like security clearance levels). And having them crack down on anyone who has a token without the clearance. Granting guards the ability to detect magic would be enough to detect low level abuse of the system (like using disguise self to look like someone who is qualified to have the tokens in question). Anything that would require higher level, well, that would be above their pay grade anyway, so you probably don't need to worry about giving the guard Trueseeing.

[lightningcat]

Another source for ideas you may look into is the High Elves from Warhammer Fantasy. They are a highly political, and highly magical bunch. I don't have my books availible for specific titles, but even the wiki might help for ideas.

[Goaty14]

A: See: Eberron.