Why Do Adventurers Go Adventuring?

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Well, in the middle of a different discussion, I may have found a reason.

Magical gear brings trouble to it. Literally. The higher quality and more numerous the magic items in one spot are, the more that many of the nasties of the world feel drawn toward them--like a shark drawn to blood. Of course, one of the best ways to protect your gear is... to get more and better gear to fight off the monsters. Which brings more and meaner ones after you, but you've got a better chance of handling them with better gear.

You could ditch all the gear and live free of monster attention, and a lot of people do. But when other people come by to bother/kill/oppress you, you're more or less at their mercy.

So why are dungeons filled with treasure? Because most people don't want the trouble those magic items will bring them, and/or can't handle dealing with the monsters they'll attract. So if they ever stumble upon a magic item of any significance, they pick a convenient cave and chuck it inside. Dungeons are filled with monsters, because they're drawn to the treasure that accumulated there over the years--or perhaps some warrior heavy with magic items perished or was buried there.

As for adventurers? They're the people who want to be able to have influence among other people; be it to impose their will upon others, or just keep other people from pushing them around. They're tough and canny enough to handle most of the attention their magic items will get.

Or maybe, they were one of the people who would rather live a peaceful life, until they day they picked up a cursed item--and couldn't get it off. But magic is magic, and it will still draw monster attention. Now, they've had to leave home--perhaps even at swordpoint--to keep that attention away from their community. And the only way they're going to keep themselves alive is to get enough helpful items so that they can handle whatever comes after them. Hence, adventuring.


I'd like some help fleshing this out. Criticism is also welcomed--I'd like to see if this breaks down anywhere. What are your thoughts?

[mikeejimbo]

Actually, there are many reasons for adventuring.

I adventure for the lulz.

[Stupendous_Man]

We adventure not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

[Eldariel]

Why? For fame beyond the realms. For knowledge of things outside reality. For riches kings can only fantom. For power to protect or to oppress. For fulfillment to an empty life. For love, dignity, passion. For a test of mettle. For courage...to question.

[Kris Strife]

Money, fame, glory, power, teenage angst, boredom, you got the baron's daughter pregnant, your king said 'Or else,' your god said 'Or else,' to prove your strength, to gain strength, to blow stuff up, to kill things, to steal things, revenge, to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women.

[Innis Cabal]

How else would you keep the population of PC races down?

[Doomsy]

Because you make your own hours, get to kill people without going to jail and steal their stuff, get to blow things up, toy with glowing weapons, and you make a lot of money doing it.

The risk of horrifying death, undeath, being cursed, maimed, devoured alive, infested by That Which Should Not Be, stranded in peculiar and distant parts, or turned into a living lava lamp is there, but it still beats a day job.

As for the risk to life?

Everybody has to die some day, but only some people have a couple thousand gold and a friend who can do resurrections.

[Kris Strife]

How else would you keep the population of PC races down?

Considering the frequency that adventurers attempt to seduce NPCs, I dont think thats an effective method.

[ClericofPhwarrr]

I would appreciate it if people would read more than just the title of the thread before responding.

[LibraryOgre]

"BLAA! That sounds unbearable. Why would anyone want to become a paladin?"
"So others don't have to." (http://www.goblinscomic.com/d/20061223.html)

[monty]

Considering the frequency that adventurers attempt to seduce NPCs, I dont think thats an effective method.

That's why no adventurer's pack is complete without a Dwarven Defender.

[Emperor Tippy]

I actually like your reason Mr. OP. It works and it makes sense (at least as much sense as anything in D&D does).

[Yukitsu]

I'd have to guess the economic/protection theory doesn't hold, and it's more true that they're just an ADHD lot (evidenced by this thread), and can't sit still in a town longer than 5 minutes. May want to consider that instead of your protection/freedom/equipment paradime.

[monty]

I'd have to guess the economic/protection theory doesn't hold, and it's more true that they're just an ADHD lot (evidenced by this thread), and can't sit still in a town longer than 5 minutes. May want to consider that instead of your protection/freedom/equipment paradime.

paradigm

And this is more support for my theory that adventurers should never be Lawful.

[Kris Strife]

That's why no adventurer's pack is complete without a Dwarven Defender.

that is the 37 most disturbing thing I have ever heard.

[KKL]

That's why no adventurer's pack is complete without a Dwarven Defender.

I laughed heartily.

[Innis Cabal]

That's why no adventurer's pack is complete without a Dwarven Defender.

Awsome....

[mikeejimbo]

I would appreciate it if people would read more than just the title of the thread before responding.

I did, I just think that's not the ONLY reason to adventure.

[Raum]

Why Do Adventurers Go Adventuring?Because mom kicked 'em out of the house!

On a more serious note...
Well, in the middle of a different discussion, I may have found a reason.

Magical gear brings trouble to it. Literally. The higher quality and more numerous the magic items in one spot are, the more that many of the nasties of the world feel drawn toward them--like a shark drawn to blood. Of course, one of the best ways to protect your gear is... to get more and better gear to fight off the monsters. Which brings more and meaner ones after you, but you've got a better chance of handling them with .Is this attraction a quality of the magic, of the value, or something else? If it's magic attracting monsters, are they also attracted to casters? (This could explain why few towns have / allow casters and why commoners don't have access to magic.) If it's value attracting the monsters, do they also head towards stacks of gold? (This may necessitate a barter economy.) If it's something else, what is it? Are there any other affects?


As for adventurers? They're the people who want to be able to have influence among other people; be it to impose their will upon others, or just keep other people from pushing them around. They're tough and canny enough to handle most of the attention their magic items will get. Do they want influence or is that simply a justification? Maybe they have that same monster quality which creates an attraction to treasure... :smallcool:


I'd like some help fleshing this out. Criticism is also welcomed--I'd like to see if this breaks down anywhere. What are your thoughts?Hope that helps spark a few ideas...

[ClericofPhwarrr]

I actually like your reason Mr. OP. It works and it makes sense (at least as much sense as anything in D&D does).

Thanks. Knowing the amount of thought you put into your settings, yours is the affirmation I'm most glad to have.

Some other thoughts on this:


Ye Old Magic Shoppe will probably not be in existence. (Not really a problem, since I've only seen it used believably in a setting once, maybe twice.) Most people wouldn't take magic items if they were free. The people who are going to want the magic items the PCs find will probably be in positions of power, or adventuring themselves. So instead of shops, you'd see lots of bartering between the people who are packing magic, trade fairs, the like (with plenty of care taken to try and prevent someone with a +5 sword from just taking your +2 sword).

Vow of Poverty could be reworked into something that's more fitting for a ranger than anything else--a way of life designed to let you come close to matching the people with magic items, without attracting monsters. Or you could treat it as a new style of war, known only to a few. Maybe it's something some high-level adventurers came up with so they could retire in peace.

Trying to build cities around magic items like food/water/material generating items is going to bring a near migration of nasty things. Something Cthulu-esque could even notice the imbalance there (whereas before the magic would be like crumbs on the floor, now it's like a tasty treat). If you want to really knock down caster dominance in a setting, you can expand the idea so that not only are magic items going to draw monsters, but magic users themselves.

PCs aren't going to be wanted in inns. Or towns, in many cases. Unfortunately for the commoners, it's hard to say no to someone fully decked out in magic items.



On a more serious note...Is this attraction a quality of the magic, of the value, or something else? If it's magic attracting monsters, are they also attracted to casters? (This could explain why few towns have / allow casters and why commoners don't have access to magic.) If it's value attracting the monsters, do they also head towards stacks of gold? (This may necessitate a barter economy.) If it's something else, what is it? Are there any other affects?
I figured it would be the magic itself. Which means some people will want payment in gold only, (you can keep those dangerous magic items to yourself); and others would be far happier to pick up a spare +1 adamantine dagger. The magic draws things in, and once they're there, they see lunch.

The other affects is what I'm hoping to figure out in this thread.


Do they want influence or is that simply a justification?
Well, if you want a peaceful life, don't care about politics, and would sooner just go about your business, you probably aren't going to go looking for magic items to bolster your combat prowess. If you want to have power, be it for good or ill, you need to be able to back up your words. Hard to be a paladin when you can't smite the evildoers. Hard to be an overlord when the peasants don't fear your anger.


Maybe they have that same monster quality which creates an attraction to treasure... :smallcool:

I like this, a lot. Exactly the sort of idea I'm looking for.

[Ethdred]

I thought they all went adventuring to seek revenge for their murdered parents.

More seriously, the answer to the question in the title is what you are supposed to put in your PC's background so it will be different for everyone (or if it isn't then you're probably not interested in that side of the game enough to worry about the question in the first place). so the OP just seems to be coming up with a very complicated and limiting theory to explain something that doesn't need it. It's like saying the reason people go to work is something to do with the inherent nature of open-plan offices.

[Tengu_temp]

I would appreciate it if people would read more than just the title of the thread before responding.

You're being too hopeful.

[BobVosh]

Wouldn't this buff wizards even more?

Unless wizards detect as magic.

Anyway, rope trick, extra dimensional spaces, etc. Small amount of magic, attract small monsters. The big bad wizard does "blah" and poof. Small monster gone.

Same for any class that can be really good without magic.

[Weiser_Cain]

Ever witness an Orc Raid? Ever notice that not only aren't the adventurers peeing their cod pieces, they're actually smiling?

[Adlan]

Mosters, particularly laws of phyisics braking monsters. Such as Dragons.

Suppose they need magic? Not only are they attracted to it, but they activly feed off of it? They need to be around it to stay alive, if they go to long without it, they collapse as reality takes over, and the griffon can nolonger fly, as it's power to weight ratio's all wrong.


Make wizards another source of monster attracting magic, and away you go, sounds like a fantastic setting.

[BobVosh]

Poor beholders. As if getting magic food wasn't hard enough already.

Wouldn't a bunch of rope trick + create food & water kinda wipe out dragon/griffon/whatever kind then? Leave the rope trick/demiplane/whatever only to recast and hide again.

[mostlyharmful]

This is an interesting world project/thought exercise... if we posit that significant buffs act as attractants in the same way as long term equipment then the buffanators like Wizards and Clerics get pulled down to something more manageable, better than that actually since they'd be shining like little suns with all their permanent stuff too.

-Mundane gear and funky materials would get a lot more valuable since it wouldn't have the big drawbacks, adamantine fullplate would be damn expensive.
-Buffs would be very selectively chosen, you might get a flying invis wizard but you wouldn't find a blurred, blinked, flying, magearmoured, greater resistant, heart of X line, etc, etc...
-Teams would be even more aware of how much weight each of them is pulling in relation to the amount of loot they get, if you've got someone who can keep up without fifty bajillion gp worth of crud on them they're more valuable than the christmas tree that all the gribblies are staring at.
-The state would demand an acount of all magic items and casters, they'd need to be insured to meet the cost of defence against the attracted monsters and there'd probably be the equivilant of vans circling the city with magic anttenee to detect the magical pulls at work.
-Mage towers and temples would be heavily fortified, no more high graceful architecture and vaulted entrance halls, all choke points and fortresses from here on, often situated outside urban areas but not too far away to go to for help (like nuclear power stations, they're useful you just don't want to deal with the fallout in your cornflakes)

[Gardakan]

In my currently game the dwarf fighter in my game is on a adventure to research all the items that his father was having. He cross 3 continents, just to save the honor of his clan.

My Wizard is a Sun Elf. He travels with the dwarf because he needs to ran out of the Sun Elves. They want him to die because he know the secret of the Elders.

[Jayabalard]

We climb the highest mountains
Just to get a better view.
We plumb the deepest oceans
‘Cuz we’re daring, through and through.
We cross the scorching desert,
Martinis in our hand.
We ski the polar ice cap
In tuxedo, looking grand…
We’re reckless, brave and loyal
And valiant to the end.
If you come in here a stranger,
You’ll exit as a friend.
---Adventurer's club creed

[bosssmiley]

Well, in the middle of a different discussion, I may have found a reason.

Magical gear brings trouble to it. Literally.

This is good. It ties in with some of the K & Frank ideas I've been using already (magic <=> awesome, the Three Economies, adventurer = class levels + magic item set-up, etc.)

Yoinked. :smallbiggrin:

[ClericofPhwarrr]

You're being too hopeful.
Yeah, I could have sworn that I'd posted this in Silly Message Board Games, not Gaming.


More seriously, the answer to the question in the title is what you are supposed to put in your PC's background so it will be different for everyone (or if it isn't then you're probably not interested in that side of the game enough to worry about the question in the first place). so the OP just seems to be coming up with a very complicated and limiting theory to explain something that doesn't need it. It's like saying the reason people go to work is something to do with the inherent nature of open-plan offices.
I'm trying to explain why dungeon crawls and the whole loot-gathering system could work to begin with. As Wizards presents it, it doesn't make any sense, and you end up with a very inconsistent world. K & Frank had their own take on this which was very good (looking at what happens to an economy when you can get free wishes from binding Efreet, for instance). It won't interest everyone, since some people don't care beyond the hack/slash part of things.


Wouldn't this buff wizards even more?

Unless wizards detect as magic.

Anyway, rope trick, extra dimensional spaces, etc. Small amount of magic, attract small monsters. The big bad wizard does "blah" and poof. Small monster gone.

Same for any class that can be really good without magic.
Easily remedied. Rope Trick, Magnificent Mansion, and other extra dimensional spaces generate the pull of both the ongoing spell and whatever magic items are inside. Normally, finding a Rope Trick is not likely to happen, but if you're pulled right to it like a shark to blood, it wouldn't take too long.

Classes that are good without magic have their own reward.


Ever witness an Orc Raid? Ever notice that not only aren't the adventurers peeing their cod pieces, they're actually smiling?
Ever witness a raid of old dragons? Not only aren't the adventurers smiling, they're actually running.


This is an interesting world project/thought exercise... if we posit that significant buffs act as attractants in the same way as long term equipment then the buffanators like Wizards and Clerics get pulled down to something more manageable, better than that actually since they'd be shining like little suns with all their permanent stuff too.

-Mundane gear and funky materials would get a lot more valuable since it wouldn't have the big drawbacks, adamantine fullplate would be damn expensive.
-Buffs would be very selectively chosen, you might get a flying invis wizard but you wouldn't find a blurred, blinked, flying, magearmoured, greater resistant, heart of X line, etc, etc...
-Teams would be even more aware of how much weight each of them is pulling in relation to the amount of loot they get, if you've got someone who can keep up without fifty bajillion gp worth of crud on them they're more valuable than the Christmas tree that all the gribblies are staring at.
-The state would demand an count of all magic items and casters, they'd need to be insured to meet the cost of defense against the attracted monsters and there'd probably be the equivalent of vans circling the city with magic attendee to detect the magical pulls at work.
-Mage towers and temples would be heavily fortified, no more high graceful architecture and vaulted entrance halls, all choke points and fortresses from here on, often situated outside urban areas but not too far away to go to for help (like nuclear power stations, they're useful you just don't want to deal with the fallout in your cornflakes)
I like this. Instead of magic in general, or magic items specifically, the draw to monsters could be continuously active magic. If someone were to try an Incantrix-style buff machine with 50 or so persisted buffs at once, not only would they singlehandedly cause gigantic migrations of monsters to wherever they went, but... things... normally not seen by humanity might wake up. Furthermore, the life expectancy for classes traditionally buffing is going to be lower than those who don't need to, unless they carry less gear; they'll pull in more challenging monsters thanks to their buffs, and at some point the pull will outmatch the buff benefit.

You're quite right about quality mundane gear.

The state would most likely be made of the magic item wearers. And they'd probably each be responsible for keeping themselves safe. If they can't handle what comes after them, too bad--they shouldn't have been carrying so much gear, then.


This is good. It ties in with some of the K & Frank ideas I've been using already (magic <=> awesome, the Three Economies, adventurer = class levels + magic item set-up, etc.)

Yoinked. :smallbiggrin:

Those articles were the base behind a lot of my thinking on this. I'm glad you like it! :smallsmile:

[Pronounceable]

Without reading the thread: XP and loot. Which translate in character to bloodlust and greed.

[R4ph]

Wow..the number of people deciding not to read the first post is kind of depressing.

OP: That's a really interesting idea for a setting, nice work!

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Wow..the number of people deciding not to read the first post is kind of depressing.

OP: That's a really interesting idea for a setting, nice work!

It is, isn't it? This being GitP instead of /tg/, it really caught me off guard.

Also, thanks.

[RPGuru1331]

It is, isn't it? This being GitP instead of /tg/, it really caught me off guard.

Also, thanks.

....Funny, I would pretty readily liken the place to /tg/..

[chiasaur11]

Fortune and glory, friends.

Fortune and Glory.

Edit: To be more responsive to the first post, it's an interesting idea. Also helps fix (not saying it solves the whole problem) the caster noncaster gap. Sure, Fighter McWarrior can't shoot deathrays or make himself immortal, but at least Mindflayers won't come after him like ants to honey.

On the ever so slight downside, this does make some criticisms of Tome of Battle slightly more valid, but such is life.

[monty]

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll? That's why every party needs a bard.

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Edit: To be more responsive to the first post, it's an interesting idea. Also helps fix (not saying it solves the whole problem) the caster noncaster gap. Sure, Fighter McWarrior can't shoot deathrays or make himself immortal, but at least Mindflayers won't come after him like ants to honey.

On the ever so slight downside, this does make some criticisms of Tome of Battle slightly more valid, but such is life.

I don't think it'll make PC casters and noncasters more balanced without further steps taken. But it does (I hope) provide a plausible explanation for why a mageocracy, or a full-fledged Tippyverse, isn't in place; namely that it's extremely difficult for most casters to survive, let alone have the opportunity to set up a means for magic to solve all of society's problems.

Could you elaborate on the Tome of Battle comment? I'm not sure what you're getting at there.


....Funny, I would pretty readily liken the place to /tg/..

Oh? I think it's normally a lot more civil here, to say the least. Usually it seems there's also more in-depth thought here, even if it's limited to D&D. Less creativity than /tg/, though, and much more emphasis on mechanics than fluff.

[RPGuru1331]

Oh? I think it's normally a lot more civil here, to say the least. Usually it seems there's also more in-depth thought here, even if it's limited to D&D. Less creativity than /tg/, though, and much more emphasis on mechanics than fluff.

I consider it about the same, on civility. Veiling your insults is not superior to making them obvious. And outside of the D20 board, i'ts /40k/.

[TheCheshireHat]

I like it. Amusing and yet makes a good deal sense, given the evidence. One thing that comes to mind is that some kingdoms might intentionally track down as many magic items as they could find in their lands, and create secure nuclear waste magic item dumps in remote locations to avoid random monsters wandering around their territory.

[mostlyharmful]

I don't think it'll make PC casters and noncasters more balanced without further steps taken. But it does (I hope) provide a plausible explanation for why a mageocracy, or a full-fledged Tippyverse, isn't in place; namely that it's extremely difficult for most casters to survive, let alone have the opportunity to set up a means for magic to solve all of society's problems.

I've been thinking about this and something to bare in mind is that this idea makes sure that casters get continuous feeds of XP. If they live they get better faster than noncasters just because they get challenged more regularly.

Also there may not be that many that reach higher level (there will be without other power edits) but those that do manage it get there fast and hard.... if you really really want to optimize a mage you can have them chew through encounters at CR+ on a regular basis and this idea would make it a very darwinian group of casters that reached the top. No more NPC wizard that got to level 20 by reading in their studys, every high level mage and cleric is a battlehardened badass with no real ties to the society around them (ties require a sedentary presence for the most part, which is undermined when big angry gribblies turn up on a daily basis).

[trehek]

The topic on this thread is quite different than the questions asked in the OP.

Why do adventurers go adventuring?
*Fame
*Wealth
*Desire for knowledge and/or power
*Benevolence and wish to help
*Duty to one's superiors
*Madness
*etc.


Why are dungeons filled with treasure?

*Wealth buried with persons for religious (or other) reasons, like Egypt.
*Wealth hidden for fear of robbers/trouble.
*Wealth kept on display, either because you live in the location or because it's a good "museum" spot.
*Wealth hoarded by monsters such as dragons, just for the fun or need of it.
*Wealth kept by subterranean and/or evil races as currency/trade goods.


Those come to mind quickly. :smallcool:

[Yulian]

I'd like some help fleshing this out. Criticism is also welcomed--I'd like to see if this breaks down anywhere. What are your thoughts?

I think a valid criticism here is the fact that this only applies in a rather high-magic setting wherein magical items attract monsters for some unfathomable reason.

It's a bit limiting.

My RL group, when we play D&D, usually ends up playing in the Ravenloft setting, and almost never as outlanders, but natives of the demiplane. So the automatic reason "To find powerful items to allow escape." never comes up. The characters I've seen have been investigators, roaming scholars, mercenaries, wandering priests, near-feral children, performers, exiles, and so on. They travel because that's what they do (all those career paths sort of require it) but they "adventure" because they need to survive and meet the challenges they face while traveling in places many do not tread.

That aside, if that's the conceit, I think you've missed some other potential uses.

If it doesn't matter what magic is on an item, just how much, then you suddenly have weaponized monster-attractants. Just toss a bunch of useless spells on an item, throw in a Permenance, cloak it with say...Improved Invisibility, then "seed" enemy territory with the things. Depending on the local monsters you can find or draw in, you can weaken a foe by making them repel continual monster assaults for as long as you can keep your mages in supplies. Druids and Rangers become insanely dangerous agents, depending on how you want to run it.

You'll also need rules for how the monsters exhibit their manavorous natures. Do they just passively absorb dweomer? At what rate? Do they drain it dry after a time, or does the magical object maintain or rebuild a charge? Do the monsters drain any ability while around it, rendering it temporarilty useless after a "feeding"? Do they need to physically consume the item? Et cetera, et cetera.

- Yulian

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Check out this thread on the WOTC Character Development board!

1001 Backstories (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1093933)

While it says "backstories", it's really more a list of potential character motivations.

[Eldan]

Okay...

Now, let's assume this actually works. We can now finally make sense of the wealth per level tables: it's the amount of magic you can pack without monsters stronger than you can handle showing up.

[Asheram]

*removed in a hurry*

[Ethdred]

I'm trying to explain why dungeon crawls and the whole loot-gathering system could work to begin with. As Wizards presents it, it doesn't make any sense, and you end up with a very inconsistent world. K & Frank had their own take on this which was very good (looking at what happens to an economy when you can get free wishes from binding Efreet, for instance). It won't interest everyone, since some people don't care beyond the hack/slash part of things.



It's always made sense to me, but obviously YMMV. So to me your idea seems like a solution in search of a problem, but to you it may serve a particular need. I've never had a problem justifying 'the whole loot-gathering system' but then I've been RPing for a very long time so I may have missed the subtleties of how it's currently presented. I do that a lot with later editions - I just assume that things are like they were in the old days, until someone puts me right. Heck, I even think direct damage is a viable choice for a wizard :smallsmile:

Not familiar with K and Frank (which to me sounds like an unsuccessful 80s rap duo) but I'm quite good at rationalising how things work in a (at least MY) D&D universe. Basically if something seems stupid or broken or generally Tippyfied then I ignore it and go for the option that allows the game to continue and the universe to function. Which I find acts as a much greater spur to my imagination than just trying to break the game. But I have come to realise that I am not representative of the bulk of posters on this forum (after all, I actually read the posts in a thread before responding).

[Ascension]

This idea has bothered me since I first read it, and I think I've just put my finger on why... You're really limiting both players' motivations and the DM's campaign hooks. The characters aren't going on some quest to accomplish some goal and merely upgrading their arsenal incidentally, the hunt for loot will always be a primary component of the campaign, even if their ultimate goal is altruistic rather than selfish. Every player character must be materialistic by default. That bugs me. Sure, your scheme helps justify kicking down the door and taking monsters' stuff... but there are a lot of ways to construct campaigns that don't even involve that at all, much less revolve around it. I'd rather not have my character defined by an overpowering need to collect magical items (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GottaCatchThemAll).

[Yahzi]

Magical gear brings trouble to it. Literally.
This is excellent, and also an explanation for all those crazy monsters. Here's what I would do: each magic item has a 1% chance per day of attracting/summoning/creating a hideous monster of CR = CL necessary to create said item.

Any spells cast have a 1% per spell level chance of attracting a monster of CR = CL. So busting out with a 9th level spell is positively dangerous, since it's a 9% chance of creating a 17 CR creature directly opposed to your alignment and goals.

You don't even have to have the monsters appear near the players; just the knowledge that you're creating these monsters out there somewhere should give players the heebeejeebees. Eventually of course they'll come and try to eat the players.

I'd make it CL + 1d8-4, just for a little randomness. So casters can use spells when they need too, knowing that half the monsters that get created aren't very dangerous, and half of them won't even be an immediate threat. (Maybe the lower level monsters start out further way from the source). But they'll be reluctant to bust loose with the big spells (heck, they'll be casting the little spells at lower caster level!), and even if they restrict themselves to low levels, eventually enough monsters will build up to make an assault.


Edit: the monsters don't eat the magic items, they just hang around them 'cause they like shiny things.

The rift in spacetime which allows magic to function is unpredictable, and occasionally results in randomly larger rifts, which do things like meld owls with bears. And since magic is will-directed, these perversions of the spells are always opposed to the will of the original source. So the monsters are the cost of magic. This supplies what D&D has always failed to have: a cost associated with the awe-inspiring, earth-shattering power of magic.

:smallsmile:

If I didn't already have an entire 100-page world setting, I'd use this one!

[RS14]

A couple remarks:

The traditional armed "monstrous" races, such as gnolls, are going to have almost as much trouble with monsters as societies with adventurers will. A bit less, though, as they're somewhat tougher than their magic items would suggest. This actually may give a small boost to races with LA.
Weaker races, such as kobolds, are driven underground, not because they're weak, but because they like magic items as much as everyone else, so they draw tougher monsters than an equally powerful band of gnolls.

Rapid leveling can be achieved by means of a magical-item stash in the middle of an ambush. This might even be a tactic of dragons; they hoard to draw adventurers in a predictable way for the slaughter.

[Stupendous_Man]

http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/slides/adventure2.jpg

[random11]

Interesting idea, I like it.
Especially since it means that adventurers will be hired and respected by commoners when they need to be saved, but kicked out a day later because now they are actually a threat to the village.


What about the people who actually make the magical items?
Do they still exist, or is it an ancient lost art?
With the exception of unique items that are created for a specific purpose, what motivates the item's creator to invest time and money in creating something instead of simply taking an abandoned stuff from a cave?


Is this a way to beat the system, or something you can use in your campaign? You decide:
Some magic item users decided to make their lives easier. They gathered as many items as possible and placed them all in specific caves in abandoned areas.
Most of the monsters are drawn there because of the strong magic, and they can use their magical items without drawing too much attention.
It makes the said adventurers stronger than the average person without items, but also stronger than the monsters since most will be drawn to the stronger location.

[Coidzor]

I always figured that paladins did not choose to be paladins, but were instead chosen and received the Call, which knows where you live.

[Lorien077]

XD Nice setting idea. But what do you do about innately magical PCs? Do spellcasters themselves attract trouble, or just items? Does that sorceress have to adventure because monsters keep showing up, or is it the same reason as everyone else?

[BardicDuelist]

We adventure not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

Some of my best adventures happened because I was easy.