So I've come to realize that some spells would really impact society. For example: -Sending means that key information (ie "dragon attack") can move very quickly, and as long as there is someone credible in a settlement who knows a decently leveled mage, human messengers aren't really needed. -Lesser Restoration means that as long as people have to money to donate to their local Cleric nonmagical diseases are no threat. This means that either a) disease basically doesn't exist or b) the plagues are magic-resistant somehow, both of wich are interesting worldbuilding details -AOE spells make the tight-packed infantry formations of real-life medieval combat not so good of an idea
I would like to hear if there are any other spells that would make a medium- or high-magic D&D setting different from the real medieval era
Creating teleportation circles would allow people with "connections" to travel great distances risk free. A large army could be relocated quite quickly.
As you mentioned, clerics and paladins would be very significant. But some cleric or druid abilities would help generate huge crop harvests. Likewise, a simple create food and water ability would be big. A mending can trip would be epic.
Construction would be radically different with move earth, and the ability to turn stuff to stone. You could accelerate the construction of a cathedral by making things from wood and then turning them to stone.
But noble men would be very nervous because these same things could be used to wreck them too.
Imagine some truly holy pleadings using Zone of Truth to rid the countryside of liars, extortioners and thieves?
One should also consider just how common casters are in any given setting. PCs are supposed to be rare and (potentially) powerful individuals. Yes, there are others to challenge them but there are generally a lot more nonmagical common schmucks out there.
A cleric can only use a few spells to cure diseases each day, and there are generally dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of people in most societies per each priest; also not all priests are casting clerics. So it's easy for the magical healers to get over-run. In times of widespread need, such as wars, natural disasters, plagues, and famine how do clerical orders decide who to aid? The most pious (starting with themselves)? Royalty, nobility, and other secular leaders? Soldiers to protect the realm? Whoever offers to pay the most? And how do the large numbers of people who don't get access to divine aid react? Do religious leaders use this ability to leverage power for themselves, demanding public worship, government endorsement and funding of their works and enactment of policies in keeping with their beliefs? Think of how influential the Roman Catholic Church was on Medieval European and renaissance politics without everyday miracles that could be passed out on demand, even at a finite and premium rate.
With magical communication, even a commercial demand for sending messages is going to face a similar bottleneck. In this case it might be possible to create enchanted items to send such messages but even those will only be usable so man times per day and require high level casters and great amounts of time and money invested to make. Even with large numbers of initiate student/intern wizards working on such magic it's still going to be a very limited resource, controlled mainly by the powerful and the wealthy; a typical peasant isn't going to have any hopes of affording the fee to send a magical telegram to cousin Eddie two provinces over.
On a battlefield with wizards that cast fireball, there are going to be a bunch of archers (or other casters) spread around to make sure no enemy mages cast a second big AoE spell. Or any to begin with. Or there might be commando assassin squads that sneak around behind enemy lines, into camps, etc actively hunting enemy mages. Remember most medieval soldiers were peasant conscripts with minimal training, and a typical level one fighter would be comparable to a veteran, and second or third level would be seasoned elite troops by comparison (unless you have a Sparta-esque situation with an entire large population of exploited slaves that allow a relatively small professional soldier, or in this case mage, caste to exist). Unless you have a very high magic setting you aren't going to have enough casters to assign a battlemage to each squad or even platoon in a large army, and the same goes for magic items like wands to distribute amongst regular troops (which also runs the risk of such weapons being captured by the enemy). If you do have a very high magic campaign then battlefields will resemble modern warfare more than medieval, with magic taking the place of technology like not only grenades, flamethrowers, artillery and airpower but also stealth and communication, surveillance, and disruption of those things. In the real world the effectiveness of things like long range artillery and airstrikes has been directly proportional to the priority of targeting the enemy's artillery and airbases with your own; same will go for magic with mages first having to fight the enemy's mages and often canceling each other out or at least keeping each other from being used freely for fear of becoming vulnerable. If one side can manage to gain a decisive upper hand in magical power then that will make an absolutely huge impact on how the war progresses, but again this all depends on how common casters are to begin with.
AOE mages would result in army groups being smaller and more mobile. Both to take advantage of gaps in the enemy’s lines created by a mage and to fill gaps. Mages are going to be extremely recommended to join the army as even being able to cast message would help majorly help manage the smaller groups.
Economically spells like mending wouldn’t change much. Illusions would be an important part of entertainment. That being said mages are going to be part of the government or other large organizations. Depending on the setting mages could be assigned to cities and towns as sending is incredibly useful.
Politically Sorcerer’s have magic that goes in a bloodline so they are probably going to be a ruling cast that may suppress magic school or expand them. Clerics and paladins ensure gods are going to be a major part of most peoples lives and druids I’m not sure how much druids would end up changing things.
Over all the most world changing spells would be sending, fireball/ice knife, move earth and minor illusion.
This is just my thoughts so I probably missed a lot of stuff
Spells like water walk and leomunds hut would lead to squads of 1 mage and nine warriors in army units. They could be used to ignore terrain restrictions.
There are at lest two portals to the past on Faerun. Using one of these you could change or alter history. At spell Level 10 or 11 a Wish spell would allow a wizard to go back in time a few rounds to a turn or more. Such a wizard could alter the not to distant past. I am not sure this is the type of change you are talking about.
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So I've come to realize that some spells would really impact society. For example:
-Sending means that key information (ie "dragon attack") can move very quickly, and as long as there is someone credible in a settlement who knows a decently leveled mage, human messengers aren't really needed.
-Lesser Restoration means that as long as people have to money to donate to their local Cleric nonmagical diseases are no threat. This means that either a) disease basically doesn't exist or b) the plagues are magic-resistant somehow, both of wich are interesting worldbuilding details
-AOE spells make the tight-packed infantry formations of real-life medieval combat not so good of an idea
I would like to hear if there are any other spells that would make a medium- or high-magic D&D setting different from the real medieval era
Proud poster on the Create a World thread
Creating teleportation circles would allow people with "connections" to travel great distances risk free. A large army could be relocated quite quickly.
As you mentioned, clerics and paladins would be very significant. But some cleric or druid abilities would help generate huge crop harvests. Likewise, a simple create food and water ability would be big. A mending can trip would be epic.
Construction would be radically different with move earth, and the ability to turn stuff to stone. You could accelerate the construction of a cathedral by making things from wood and then turning them to stone.
But noble men would be very nervous because these same things could be used to wreck them too.
Imagine some truly holy pleadings using Zone of Truth to rid the countryside of liars, extortioners and thieves?
It would be a very different world.
One should also consider just how common casters are in any given setting. PCs are supposed to be rare and (potentially) powerful individuals. Yes, there are others to challenge them but there are generally a lot more nonmagical common schmucks out there.
A cleric can only use a few spells to cure diseases each day, and there are generally dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of people in most societies per each priest; also not all priests are casting clerics. So it's easy for the magical healers to get over-run. In times of widespread need, such as wars, natural disasters, plagues, and famine how do clerical orders decide who to aid? The most pious (starting with themselves)? Royalty, nobility, and other secular leaders? Soldiers to protect the realm? Whoever offers to pay the most? And how do the large numbers of people who don't get access to divine aid react? Do religious leaders use this ability to leverage power for themselves, demanding public worship, government endorsement and funding of their works and enactment of policies in keeping with their beliefs? Think of how influential the Roman Catholic Church was on Medieval European and renaissance politics without everyday miracles that could be passed out on demand, even at a finite and premium rate.
With magical communication, even a commercial demand for sending messages is going to face a similar bottleneck. In this case it might be possible to create enchanted items to send such messages but even those will only be usable so man times per day and require high level casters and great amounts of time and money invested to make. Even with large numbers of initiate student/intern wizards working on such magic it's still going to be a very limited resource, controlled mainly by the powerful and the wealthy; a typical peasant isn't going to have any hopes of affording the fee to send a magical telegram to cousin Eddie two provinces over.
On a battlefield with wizards that cast fireball, there are going to be a bunch of archers (or other casters) spread around to make sure no enemy mages cast a second big AoE spell. Or any to begin with. Or there might be commando assassin squads that sneak around behind enemy lines, into camps, etc actively hunting enemy mages. Remember most medieval soldiers were peasant conscripts with minimal training, and a typical level one fighter would be comparable to a veteran, and second or third level would be seasoned elite troops by comparison (unless you have a Sparta-esque situation with an entire large population of exploited slaves that allow a relatively small professional soldier, or in this case mage, caste to exist). Unless you have a very high magic setting you aren't going to have enough casters to assign a battlemage to each squad or even platoon in a large army, and the same goes for magic items like wands to distribute amongst regular troops (which also runs the risk of such weapons being captured by the enemy). If you do have a very high magic campaign then battlefields will resemble modern warfare more than medieval, with magic taking the place of technology like not only grenades, flamethrowers, artillery and airpower but also stealth and communication, surveillance, and disruption of those things. In the real world the effectiveness of things like long range artillery and airstrikes has been directly proportional to the priority of targeting the enemy's artillery and airbases with your own; same will go for magic with mages first having to fight the enemy's mages and often canceling each other out or at least keeping each other from being used freely for fear of becoming vulnerable. If one side can manage to gain a decisive upper hand in magical power then that will make an absolutely huge impact on how the war progresses, but again this all depends on how common casters are to begin with.
AOE mages would result in army groups being smaller and more mobile. Both to take advantage of gaps in the enemy’s lines created by a mage and to fill gaps. Mages are going to be extremely recommended to join the army as even being able to cast message would help majorly help manage the smaller groups.
Economically spells like mending wouldn’t change much. Illusions would be an important part of entertainment. That being said mages are going to be part of the government or other large organizations. Depending on the setting mages could be assigned to cities and towns as sending is incredibly useful.
Politically Sorcerer’s have magic that goes in a bloodline so they are probably going to be a ruling cast that may suppress magic school or expand them. Clerics and paladins ensure gods are going to be a major part of most peoples lives and druids I’m not sure how much druids would end up changing things.
Over all the most world changing spells would be sending, fireball/ice knife, move earth and minor illusion.
This is just my thoughts so I probably missed a lot of stuff
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
Spells like water walk and leomunds hut would lead to squads of 1 mage and nine warriors in army units. They could be used to ignore terrain restrictions.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
Spells that might change the world if they are cast enough times include locate object (to find corpses) and animate dead. Enter the apocalypse.
the irony, if everyone could cast friends, everyone might end up as enemies.
goodberry and plant growth
continual flame (though needs materials) and wall of stone
skywrite
There are at lest two portals to the past on Faerun. Using one of these you could change or alter history. At spell Level 10 or 11 a Wish spell would allow a wizard to go back in time a few rounds to a turn or more. Such a wizard could alter the not to distant past. I am not sure this is the type of change you are talking about.