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From: robert@weitek.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Social implications of magic
Message-ID: <386@weitek.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Mar-86 15:51:13 EST
Article-I.D.: weitek.386
Posted: Thu Mar 20 15:51:13 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Mar-86 06:47:03 EST
References: <9865@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
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Summary: Man Bites Dog in Werewolf Cult Ritual...News at 11


The biggest problem with D&D-style magic is that Clerics are as
common as dirt. You don't need much in the way of stats to become a
Cleric, and you certainly don't need much in the way of
faith---most PC clerics don't have much!

If the average person can become a Cleric (and he can), and being a
Cleric looks like a good deal (and it is), you'd expect a society of
Clerics!  I don't find the idea very appealing.

Now, assuming for the moment that you want to use D&D rules in a
fantasy campaign that is more or less medieval, you need to do
something to keep the number of spell-casters to a workable number. A
simple guideline would be:

INT or WIS	MAX LEVEL
15		   1
16		   3
17		   6
18/01-18/50	   9
18/51-18/75	  12
18/76-18/00	unlimited		

This allows only 9% of the population to be spell-casters, half of
them limited to first level. Only 0.11% of the population even has
the POTENTIAL to go beyond 12th level.  This would tone down the
magic level quite a bit, but still leave lots of low-level
spell-casters in the game.

If you don't put some kind of limits on spell-casters, things get
wierd fast. Castles simply aren't suitable for defense against
airborne attack, teleportation, large monsters, etc., so they
wouldn't logically be part of the landscape. Men-at-arms aren't
enough to guard towns, so SWAT teams of mages (or something even
stranger) would be necessary. Armored knights would (by and large) be
dogmeat when they encountered their first medium-level mage, so
armored chivalry as the dominant force is highly unlikely.

My own campaign is a medieval campaign with custom rules, which (like
PENDRAGON from Chaosium) has no PC spellcasters, and few NPC
spellcasters. There IS magic, and it IS powerful, but very few people
have the ability to use it. You have to be in the 99.5th percentile
just to have measurable aptitude, but only with 99.99 is the ability
very powerful.


-- 

	Robert Plamondon
	UUCP: {turtlevax, cae780}!weitek!robert
	FidoNet: 143/12 robert plamondon

	"How about a little fire, Scarecrow?"