I'm starting a new campaign - with a new campaign world.
I'm going to change from a gritty realism, low magic setting, to a high magic / Gearpunk setting, with there being an emphasis on High Magic, Renaissance level technology, and the interesting intersection of the two.
I'm wondering how much of the population I should make magically capable.
One twist I'd like to do is make most people with magical talents being hedge talents - they have 1 talent @ cantrip level power, possibly restricted to ritual form, and that's it. It makes magic much more common, without overpowering the setting.
I've seen some people say that 1% of the population being magically active seems right for regular spellcasters, so I thought I'd throw in another 1% of hedge talents.
Put in perspective, I work in a corporate office with about 400 staff members, so in such a setting, I'd expect there to be 8 people with magical abilities ( although most of them with 1 trick only ).
Throw in a curve where each class level of spell caster is half as prevalent as the one before it, and - given a major city in the region with a population of 500K, I end up with 10K hedge talents, 5K first level mages ( mostly working in industry ), all the way down to only 9 talents greater than level 10 (5,2,1,1 - levels 11-14).
Split out Arcane vs. Divine magic at 60/40, and I don't think all schools of magic would be equally represented. I can see Evocation, Divination, and Abjuration ( healing/fighting/energy manipulation, predicting, protecting ) being the big thee, with Enchantment, Transmutation, and Conjuration being second tier ( being more specialized in their application ), while specialists in Illusion and Necromancy would be rare. So something like specialization in the first 3 occupying about 20% of the available talents each, Enchantment and Conjuration taking about 10% each, and those concentrating in Necromancy and Illusion making up about 5% of the spell casting population, each.
Back to my city of 500K, and looking at 9th level ( where 5th level spells kick in ), I'd expect there to be about 20 people in the whole city able to wield this level of power, with 12 of them being Wizards, and 8 of them being Clerics / High Priests of their Temples.
Of those 20, there would be ~4 each who specialize in high power Evocation, Divination, or Abjuration - 2 each in Evocation, Enchantment, and Transmutation, and 1 specialist each in Illusion and Necromancy.
On the flip side, at the local hedge talent level of power, I'd expect there to be about 10K such minor talents running around - so most local communities / groups / neighborhoods would have a couple of hedge mages / local healers / minor priests. Any group of 10 random people, and you've got a 20% chance that someone in that group has a cantrip power level magical talent.
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I do think it's an interesting idea, I've thought about making a Homebrew works before but I haven't done much aside from big picture ideas, so I'm by no means am expert.
A big factor that I can think of is cantrips, if 2% (since it continually divides by 2, the total world population of spell casters would be 3% with 2% being at least level 1) of the population know the "Mending" cantrip than that will have an effect on the economy cause there would be no point for Carpenters or blacksmiths to repair anything, or even learn how to repair anything. Another thing to take into consideration is the number of families with spellcasters, if the average family size is 4, than 1/13 families have someone who can cast cantrips and basic spells.
The spell "Unseen Servant" will also have a big impact, cause 1.2% (going by the 60-40 split of spell casters) being able to create a something that can carry 30 pounds and work without complaint for an hour will affect a lot of industries that rely on simple manual labor, also add in the fact that the spell can be ritual cast, and that it doesn't even require concentration means that the servants can work for 6 hours and the spell caster only had to spend 1 of those 6 hours actually using magic.
There's probably a lot more little details like that, but the player's suspension of disbelief is always necessary. One thing however that will definitely come up if your party has a wizard, is that if 1.6% precent of the population are wizards, than it should be very easy to just copy someone's spell book and add the spells to your own.
I think you've raised some really good points about increased magic and it's effect on the economy, but I think the way I'm planning on handling the mix of magic & technology might handle that. I'm thinking of using the Spell Points variant rule in the DMG, and the idea that magic is a finite but renewable energy field. The full discussion is here, but essentially the idea is that you would be able to extend the capabilities of technology, but if you relied too heavily on magic you would deplete the local energy field ( temporarily ) and your magic would shut down.
As for the magical population, I'm was thinking that the total count of magical talents in the world would be 2% - including both the hedge talents and full talents. The number of full talent Wizards, Clerics, etc. would not be different that in the Standard Setting ( I'm just assuming from other people's speculations that it's 1% ), but hedge talents would be an equally sized layer on top of that.
I think where we're understanding things differently is that I see hedge talents as having one cantrip-level power ability ( not necessarily a published cantrip ) - and that ability being more-or-less selected by fate, and not something they can ever change. I'm picturing local healers which can heal 1d4 HP as a part of a ritual; someone who can do simple visual or auditory illusions; simple diviners who can feel for general probabilities in near-future probabilities, etc.
All in all, I don't think that you would have a large proportion of the population which could cast Mending or Unseen Servant.
Still - your point was well made, and I'll have to consider other possible implications, thanks :)
I think 1/13th of families having a magic talent ( of the low level I've been describing ) would be fine. In means that every couple of generations in an extended family you would have a talent or some type. I think that would be fine.
I really appreciate the feedback, and it's given me some stuff to think on.
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I'm starting a new campaign - with a new campaign world.
I'm going to change from a gritty realism, low magic setting, to a high magic / Gearpunk setting, with there being an emphasis on High Magic, Renaissance level technology, and the interesting intersection of the two.
I'm wondering how much of the population I should make magically capable.
One twist I'd like to do is make most people with magical talents being hedge talents - they have 1 talent @ cantrip level power, possibly restricted to ritual form, and that's it. It makes magic much more common, without overpowering the setting.
I've seen some people say that 1% of the population being magically active seems right for regular spellcasters, so I thought I'd throw in another 1% of hedge talents.
Put in perspective, I work in a corporate office with about 400 staff members, so in such a setting, I'd expect there to be 8 people with magical abilities ( although most of them with 1 trick only ).
Throw in a curve where each class level of spell caster is half as prevalent as the one before it, and - given a major city in the region with a population of 500K, I end up with 10K hedge talents, 5K first level mages ( mostly working in industry ), all the way down to only 9 talents greater than level 10 (5,2,1,1 - levels 11-14).
Split out Arcane vs. Divine magic at 60/40, and I don't think all schools of magic would be equally represented. I can see Evocation, Divination, and Abjuration ( healing/fighting/energy manipulation, predicting, protecting ) being the big thee, with Enchantment, Transmutation, and Conjuration being second tier ( being more specialized in their application ), while specialists in Illusion and Necromancy would be rare. So something like specialization in the first 3 occupying about 20% of the available talents each, Enchantment and Conjuration taking about 10% each, and those concentrating in Necromancy and Illusion making up about 5% of the spell casting population, each.
Back to my city of 500K, and looking at 9th level ( where 5th level spells kick in ), I'd expect there to be about 20 people in the whole city able to wield this level of power, with 12 of them being Wizards, and 8 of them being Clerics / High Priests of their Temples.
Of those 20, there would be ~4 each who specialize in high power Evocation, Divination, or Abjuration - 2 each in Evocation, Enchantment, and Transmutation, and 1 specialist each in Illusion and Necromancy.
On the flip side, at the local hedge talent level of power, I'd expect there to be about 10K such minor talents running around - so most local communities / groups / neighborhoods would have a couple of hedge mages / local healers / minor priests. Any group of 10 random people, and you've got a 20% chance that someone in that group has a cantrip power level magical talent.
So ... thoughts? Ideas? Advice?
Thanks
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I do think it's an interesting idea, I've thought about making a Homebrew works before but I haven't done much aside from big picture ideas, so I'm by no means am expert.
A big factor that I can think of is cantrips, if 2% (since it continually divides by 2, the total world population of spell casters would be 3% with 2% being at least level 1) of the population know the "Mending" cantrip than that will have an effect on the economy cause there would be no point for Carpenters or blacksmiths to repair anything, or even learn how to repair anything. Another thing to take into consideration is the number of families with spellcasters, if the average family size is 4, than 1/13 families have someone who can cast cantrips and basic spells.
The spell "Unseen Servant" will also have a big impact, cause 1.2% (going by the 60-40 split of spell casters) being able to create a something that can carry 30 pounds and work without complaint for an hour will affect a lot of industries that rely on simple manual labor, also add in the fact that the spell can be ritual cast, and that it doesn't even require concentration means that the servants can work for 6 hours and the spell caster only had to spend 1 of those 6 hours actually using magic.
There's probably a lot more little details like that, but the player's suspension of disbelief is always necessary. One thing however that will definitely come up if your party has a wizard, is that if 1.6% precent of the population are wizards, than it should be very easy to just copy someone's spell book and add the spells to your own.
Cool - thanks for the response :)
I think you've raised some really good points about increased magic and it's effect on the economy, but I think the way I'm planning on handling the mix of magic & technology might handle that. I'm thinking of using the Spell Points variant rule in the DMG, and the idea that magic is a finite but renewable energy field. The full discussion is here, but essentially the idea is that you would be able to extend the capabilities of technology, but if you relied too heavily on magic you would deplete the local energy field ( temporarily ) and your magic would shut down.
As for the magical population, I'm was thinking that the total count of magical talents in the world would be 2% - including both the hedge talents and full talents. The number of full talent Wizards, Clerics, etc. would not be different that in the Standard Setting ( I'm just assuming from other people's speculations that it's 1% ), but hedge talents would be an equally sized layer on top of that.
I think where we're understanding things differently is that I see hedge talents as having one cantrip-level power ability ( not necessarily a published cantrip ) - and that ability being more-or-less selected by fate, and not something they can ever change. I'm picturing local healers which can heal 1d4 HP as a part of a ritual; someone who can do simple visual or auditory illusions; simple diviners who can feel for general probabilities in near-future probabilities, etc.
All in all, I don't think that you would have a large proportion of the population which could cast Mending or Unseen Servant.
Still - your point was well made, and I'll have to consider other possible implications, thanks :)
I think 1/13th of families having a magic talent ( of the low level I've been describing ) would be fine. In means that every couple of generations in an extended family you would have a talent or some type. I think that would be fine.
I really appreciate the feedback, and it's given me some stuff to think on.
Thanks :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.