Quote Originally Posted by awa View Post
also remember in a society with magic the very smartest people will be working magic rather then the smart inventors will be studying magic not technology dramatically slowing technological growth.
on top of that you can't just teach someone how to cast magic their are no shortcuts after someone invents a 9th level spell he can teach it to other people but if they want to use it they still need to be able to caste 9th level spells.

that's not even including the tendency for wizards to horde and jealously guard their magic.

in regards to ancient empires with little in the way of technological advancements. first off elves and dwarves are often depicted with better technology then humans elven chain mail and dwarven plate just to name some examples. but it also makes sense that they would advance in technology slower both species are extremely long lived this means that the leadership has lots of time to get set in their ways. for example elves have a cultural affinity for swords and bows its quite possible such a society would consider trying to replace them with guns as an insult to their culture preventing them. you might argue that any society that is unwilling to adapt or change would eventually die out, but remember those elven and dwarven empires are usually depicted as having greatly declined.
Um…..you are assuming that all geniuses would focus on magic or not be able to see the downsides of it, and wouldn't instead opt to develop what everyone can use instead of magic which wouldn't be much use to anybody.

and that is even assuming we are working with DnD magic! there could be magic that works completely different than you think!

and furthermore, the long-lived people can always go the shorter lived humans to show their inventions and get a fresh viewpoint, thus making the humans develop the technology while the older ones suddenly have to adapt to keep up with the short lived ones….