This is an understandable perception given the relatively few mentions of more mundane magic use in the official sources (where as Eberron makes a point to heavily emphasize widespread magic use). This is not aimed at attacking Eberron, but rather to see just how far magic suffuses the setting of the Forgotten Realms for constructive purposes. Previous sources have mentioned non-destructive uses of magic, so this thread will try to catalogue and reference them, to see how much there really is. There could be pages of examples or so few that the criticism is accurate and warranted. I'm willing to bet the number and scale of examples will be surprising one way or another.
I will admit I am not at all qualified for this (my knowledge in the Realms is very limited), but I will try my best to help organize the information. The outcome of this will be a thread listing off the various examples of constructive, practical magic use in the Realms. Perhaps this will give people a better image of how life is in Faerun. I am not aware of any effort to do this before, but I would be very happy to hear about any previous listing compiled for this area of Realmslore. Like previous efforts in other threads, this is a community effort, so write in if you see or recall something of note.
A few basic guidelines, I would like to limit this to official sources, source books, novels, web and magazine articles, author and designer commentaries, essentially primary sources. It would be ideal if page numbers and other such references accompany each entry to facilitate easy finding for any interested reader.
The sorts of magic use we're looking for there will focus on non-combat, constructive, practical uses. That is not to mean it cannot be used for combat purposes, but the primary reason for this magic is not with fighting or offense in mind. These examples can include spells, individual examples in history, individual casters or organizations of spell-casters who use their magic for creative or utility purposes, any magical items used for such, wards, enchantments, guilds, etc.
I'll start the ball rolling with a few entries off the top of my head, additional entries, references for page numbers and sources to follow as I look them up. The entry format will grow in sophistication as the list improves.
Compilation below.
- Goldenfields outside of Waterdeep:
- Minimals:
Magically miniaturized animals, notably used by the Harpell family of wizards to reduce the space needed to keep livestock.
- Plateau-wide wards and enchantments of Thay:
Increases rainfall on the otherwise arid landscape of Thay. Necessary to help feed Thay's population.
Architecture and Urban Development
- Magic of Wealthy Calishites: (Source book: Races of Faerun, Calishite Magic Items)
"Magic is an important aspect of Calishite culture, and many mundane objects are crafted to pamper the whims of Calimshan’s idle rich. Doors and gates that recognize those allowed inside and open automatically for them, clothing that sheds stains and dirt, torches that extinguish and relight automatically as needed, or levitating feather fans to keep air circulation constant and cool are all examples of Calishite arts of this sort."
- Imaskari Architecture: (Novel: Darkvision (The Wizards series) by Bruce Cordell)
Imaskari construction makes grand scale use of extra-dimensional space.
- Magical Street Lighting in Ankhapur: (Novel: King Pinch (The Nobles series), by David Cook)
- Narbondel in Menzobarranzan:
A construction in Menzobarranzan that uses faerie fire for time keeping and lighting purposes.
- The Trade Way across the Calim Desert: (Source book: Empires of the Shining Sea)
The paved road across the desert enchanted during the Shoon Imperium. The enchantments prevent damage to the roads by purple worms burrowing beneath. Magically warded minaret flank each side of the road every two miles. At the top of the arched parapets for each tower is a brazier that when lit cloaks the road in a magical blue field. This fields keeps sand off the roads, reduces the winds blowing over the roads by half and reduces the glare of sunlight over sand and salf flats.
Health and Medicine
- Crystal Prosthetics: (Novel: Darkvision (The Wizards series) by Bruce Cordell)
Travel and Transporation
- Crossroads and Backroads: (Source book: Magic of Faerun, page 44 - 47)
Magical routes tied to fey magic known only to fey, and some druids and bards. Backroads can be used for travel, much like portals, and for communications, carrying a vocal message to another site as if the speaker stood at the other site. Crossroads are watched over by guardians who can allow or deny use of a backroad. Fey can access backroads whenever, wherever they wish without restrictions. Druids have mapped out or created portions of these backroads. Some have regular schedules that use the communication features of backroads to quickly spread news and information.
- Halruaan Skyships: (Source book: The Shining South (2e and 3e))
- Magical Portage at Featherdale: (Source book: The Dalelands, page 27)
The wizard Cholandrothipe used to provide a portage service to boats around Featherdale Falls. He diminished the boats and then dispelled the effect on the other side. Red Wizards later killed him. The dalesman upgraded the old non-magical portage equipment after his death.
- The Moonbridge of Silverymoon: (Source book: The Silver Marches)
A gigantic force construction (much like a wall of force) that spans across the River Rauvin connecting the two parts of Silverymoon.
Labor, Production and Maintenance
- Gold Dwarf Magical Craftsman Tools: (Source book: Races of Faerun, Gold Dwarf Magic Items)
"Magic items particularly prevalent in the Great Rift and the trade cities at its edge include anvil of the blacksmith, belt of dwarvenkind, forge of smithing, hammer of the weaponsmith, and tongs of the armorer. These items can be purchased at a 10% discount in the Great Rift."
Information and Communication
- Crossroads and Backroads: (Source book: Magic of Faerun, page 44 - 47)
Magical routes tied to fey magic known only to fey, and some druids and bards. Backroads can be used for travel, much like portals, and for communications, carrying a vocal message to another site as if the speaker stood at the other site. Crossroads are watched over by guardians who can allow or deny use of a backroad. Fey can access backroads whenever, wherever they wish without restrictions. Druids have mapped out or created portions of these backroads. Some have regular schedules that use the communication features of backroads to quickly spread news and information.
Arts and Entertainment
Defense, Security and Investigation
- Temple Security: (Source book: Magic of Faerun, page 50)
Some temples rely on extraplanar for storage of sacred relics. Others use magic to hide the relics in plain sight. Some special sites are protected by divine power. Gods can place geas or curses directly on a site to prevent theft or even violence (or at the very least heavily punish those transgressors).
- Elven Mythals
- Netherese Mythallars
- The Udoxia of the Twelve Cities of Jhaamdath
I will admit I am not at all qualified for this (my knowledge in the Realms is very limited),
Are you kidding? You always struck me as a person who knows what he's talking about.
I'm thinking Automatons that are designed to handle the routine maintenance of the cities, but unfortunetly most of the destruction has been beyond their ablity to 'fix'.
Could it be a form of Prestidigitation that they cast upon the buildings after they were built? (So that they naturally repair and keep themselves clean.)
I remember earlier editions had quite a few mainteneance/non-combat orientated spells, but most of those got down-graded to cantrips. No ones going to take Polish Boots over a Fireball... ;)
I believe a good deal of Eds replies over at CK dealt with this day-to-day sort of stuff, so that would be a good place to start searching, DW.
It could easily be cantrips overlaid in a single-building mythal-type effect, but since they have already been associated with Automatons (thats where the Raumather supposedly got the knowledge), I just thought that little 'Maintenance Droids' with would be kinda cool, ya know, scurrying around a site serepticiously, making the PCs all nervous as hell...
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto?
Domo... :D
Mythals are also in the utilitarian section, they are not only defenses. Evereska's Mythal has a Spider Climb effect so anybody can go from one level to another. Myth Drannor's had a Fly effect.
A Spider and a Fly effect?
So I thought I'd creat something similar in the realms. Only instead of slaves, I took a single powerful necromancer, and his small army of undead. The premis was that a necromancer decided to settle down and build his tower near a small mining camp. Using magic, he quickly built a tower, using move earth and many, many, walls of stone. He then made a deal with the camp. He would trade with them for basic supplies from time to time, and they would leave him alone. This worked well, until orcs started attacking the camp. The Necromancer didn't like the inconvienience, so he used his magic to fortify the camp, and his undead to patrol, and hunt down goblinoids in the area. The camp became safer, and soon grew into a small town.
Since the Necromancer had already taken the place under his protection, he began building the town the way he liked it, and soon undead were helping construction efforts, keeping the town clean, patroling, and defending it. He helped improve the roads, so trade flourished, bringing even more people. At first the people were repulsed by it, but when Obould and his horde came, the Necromancer became their savior. The Necromancer turned back the invading orcs, and the town was soon swelled to capacity with refugees.
Thus came the adventure hook... The party learns of a powerful and evil necromancer that rules over a small city with an iron fist. Several Harpers have gone missing trying to stop him. When they get there, they learn that the people of the city revere and respect the Necromancer. Even worse, they learn that if they kill him off, the city would be defenseless against the hordes of orcs at it's doorstep. So they must decide, let the evil necromancer live, or defeat him and leave the town at the mercy of the orcs.
Example: GOLD DWARF MAGIC ITEMS
Gold dwarves favor magic items that aid in combat, facilitate craftwork, provide personal protection or comfort, guard against theft, or are adorned with fine metals and gems. Blades and axes are commonly crafted with keen, holy, lawful, mighty cleaving, sundering, and stunning special abilities. Hammers and maces are commonly crafted with holy, impact, lawful,
returning, stunning, sundering, and throwing special abilities. Armor is typically crafted with fortification, invulnerability, reflection, and spell resistance special abilities, reflecting a long tradition of battles against the drow and other creatures of the Underdark.
Common Magic Items: Magic items particularly prevalent in the Great Rift and the trade cities at its edge include anvil of the blacksmith, belt of dwarvenkind, forge of smithing, hammer of the weaponsmith, and tongs of the armorer. These items can be purchased at a 10% discount in the Great Rift.
As you can see items like the tongs of the armorer or anvil of the blacksmith are not for combat, but items used by a craftsman.
Another example: CALISHITE MAGIC ITEMS
Magic is an important aspect of Calishite culture, and many mundane objects are crafted to pamper the whims of Calimshan’s idle rich. Doors and gates that recognize those allowed inside and open automatically for them, clothing that sheds stains and dirt, torches that extinguish and relight automatically as needed, or levitating feather fans to keep air circulation
constant and cool are all examples of Calishite arts of this sort. Weapons are generally crafted with flaming, keen, shock, and spell-storing special abilities, reflecting Calishite culture’s longstanding fascination with magic and the elemental natures of geniekind.
You can see their culture has quite a few common non-combat uses for magic as well as combat uses.
Quite a few of the various realms books mention magic being used for different things, you just have to look...
1. this building is still maintained and frequented thanks to its enchanted
baths that magically refresh the water and stay at constant warm or cool temperatures, no matter what season.
2. The numerous palm tree groves that are planted within the walled courtyards and the many magically maintained fountains make this sabban a
peaceful area for contemplative walks during the day.
You can also look in the FRCS on page 94, under Magic Items, where it talks about the the two broad categories that most magic items fall under -- gimmicks and adventuring magic. Gimmicks amuse, delight, entertain or do something useful in a small way. Things like a pot that can make itself hot or a broom that can sweep by itself, etc.
Coral Growth: Coral growth is popular for constructing buildings and statues out of coral in Halruaa. It is also a favorite of various aquatic races for building underwater cities.
Darsson's Chiling Chamber: This spell was originally developed as a means of preserving food (cast inside cellars), but wizards quickly determined that it could be used as a deterrent (on long hallways or in treasure vaults, for example) or for creating a comfortable environment for cold-loving pets.
Darsson's Fiery Furnace: This spell was originally developed as a means of cooking food (cast inside cauldrons, brick ovens, and smoke houses), but wizards quickly determined that it could be used as a deterrent (on long hallways or in treasure vaults, for example) or for creating a comfortable environment for heat-loving pets.
Sea Legs: You grant a creature the ability to maneuver easily while aboard ship, even during inclement weather. Any creature affected by a sea legs spell automatically succeeds on Balance checks (DC 20 or lower) made due to sloped surfaces and slightly slippery conditions. Furthermore, the creature can move at its normal speed while balancing on a ship’s deck, rather than half speed.
Sparkles: This spell is popular during festivals in Halruaa, where the wizards cast it over the cities from their skyships and let the motes decorate the celebrants. However, others have found more practical uses for it, including exposing invisible and hiding foes.
They are discussed at some length in either Evermeet or CE, I forget which, but there were no rules. I cobbled together some for 3e, but they haven't been play-tested. Rules aren't really my thing, and the magic-creation rules for 3e are SO confusing that I'm not sure if I got it right.
I like that idea mentioned above about the portage - applied to movement of materials in general. Think about how efficient it would be if a merchant could shrink down everything before traveling. You could fit ten times the cargo on a single ship or caravan!
Maybe thats where those Minimals came from... :D
Think that's Harpell actually, but close enough really. Think they called them minimals, though I'll be damned if I can remember where that reference is from...
I think it was one of the Drizzt Novels, I recall the reference but not exactly where.
Just Imagine trying to BBQ one of those cows
You roast them like marshmellows
I just thought of the MOST excellent utilitarian Cantrip!!!
Redirect Fart
Causes both the noise and any obnoxious odors to emanate from someone else's trousers, skirt, or dress. Range = (5ft x caster lev); best used in a contingency fashion. Highborn ladies of Waterdeep, Cormyr, and other prominent cities have had some of their finest jewelry bespelled with this effect. On the other end of the spectrum, certain churlish young nobleman have had great fun getting an Orc drunk and feeding him large quantities of cabbage, eggs, and other noxious substances, and then bringing him outside the window of a fancy dinner party, using the spell's magic to redirect the ensuiing cacophany and smell into the room.
A Halfling from the Tunland Marshes was said to have used it with a Catoblepas, but he was later hung because of the resulting deaths.
The single most important feature of Calimshan geography is the Calim Desert, which dominates the western half of the country. It is a flat, trackless waste where only the hardiest cactus and desert flowers grow. The final leg of the great Trade Way road cuts directly across this desert on the way to Calimport. For traders from the north, the desert is a final challenge to a long, wearying journey; for those heading north, it is an early test.
The Trade Way across the desert was once a fully paved stone road capable of allowing three carts or six horses to travel abreast. While sections of the pavement are buried in the sands or broken, the Trade Way still sees some brave traffic taking the shorter, but by no means safer, land route to Memnon and points farther north. Some basic magical protections and tricks of construction built into the road during the Shoon Imperium are still extant, and these prevent the road's destruction from beneath by desert purple worms. Of course, naturally occuring sinkholes and erosion groun beneath the stone-paved road have broken the road and its enchantments in places, but it is far more intact than many travelers would expect after millennia of desert abuse.
Pairs of minaret towers constructed during the Shoon Imperium still flank the road every two miles, though the bases (and entrances) of many are partially obscured by sand and rocky debris. The tops of the slim towers feature open parapets surmounted by pointed roofs no longer gilded and glistening in the sun held up by misleadingly delicate-looking arches. However, while the archways appear to be open apertures, many of them have old spells in place that bar the passage of anything more solid then air into a tower's top.
On the rooftop parpet of the lookout post rests a brass brazier set into the stone and visible through the archways from outside. Lighting the braziers in an adjacent pair of towers cloaks the road in a translucent blue magical field. This field extends away from the towers, up and down the road, for 1500 yards. The braziers were constantly lit, and thus the field constantly in use, during the Shoon Imperium. The field keeps blowing sand off the road, reduces the force of the wind traveling over the road up to 100 yards by half and screens out much of the bright glare off the salt flats and sand during the day.
Minimals were in 1e, and later appeared on their own island in the 2e Pirates of the Fallen Stars. RAS didn't create them (nor did the Harpells), he just used them in the story because they are weird (both the Harpells and the Minimals).
I just thought of the MOST excellent utilitarian Cantrip!!!
Redirect Fart
Causes both the noise and any obnoxious odors to emanate from someone else's trousers, skirt, or dress. Range = (5ft x caster lev); best used in a contingency fashion. Highborn ladies of Waterdeep, Cormyr, and other prominent cities have had some of their finest jewelry bespelled with this effect. On the other end of the spectrum, certain churlish young nobleman have had great fun getting an Orc drunk and feeding him large quantities of cabbage, eggs, and other noxious substances, and then bringing him outside the window of a fancy dinner party, using the spell's magic to redirect the ensuiing cacophany and smell into the room.
A Halfling from the Tunland Marshes was said to have used it with a Catoblepas, but he was later hung because of the resulting deaths.
-Narbondel and other applications of Fairie Fire in Menzoberranzan. practical. how would you measure time w/out the sun in the Underdark otherwise?
-Clockwork music boxes w/ imbedded Ghost Sound
-Basic Continual Flame street lighting, sometimes indoors as well
-Permanent Gentle Respose FX in tombs of heroic fallen, etc.
Elminster's would float in the air near him, so he could still use his hands for other things.
Hmmmmm... smoking DURING, rather then after... OH, that El! :D
Also, wasn't there an entire Netherese Enclave that acted as a fishing ship, and the whole bottom of the thing worked like a refrigerator, storing all the fish in deep-freze until needed?
I think it survived, and is sitting upside down somewhere, IIRC.
I'm still working to add entries for some of the lore mentioned, but most of it is up, including a few for the bare bones entires I started with. Keep them coming, there's a lot out there. I'm trying to track down bits and pieces I recall reading somewhere but really don't have compiled enough solid information worth putting up yet (i.e. portals).
@ Rinonalyrna: Thanks for the early vote of confidence. I guess I do know a few things regarding my usual favorite bits and pieces (and I do mean itty-bitty bits and pieces) of Realmslore, but for something like this it helps to have wider interests and knowledge. I do hope other fans will chip in with pieces they recall or discover (and so far it's worked wonderfully).
Special thanks to rjfras and Jiggawha (I'm still trying to figure out how to list individual spells) for providing lots of lore and references. Not that anyone else's efforts aren't appreciated, but they made it really easy. :P
@ 1 ton ghost: Do you recall where the reference is to Thayan use of weather magics. I could have sworn they had some very impressive enchantments in place, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm over looking something.
Also any additional city/street/home lighting references would be greatly appreciated, because that is the biggest "illogical misuse of magic" people seem to get caught up on.
the default Continual Flame gaslight districts aren't specific to one book that i know. that is, i've seen it referenced in many, and i'm not talking just Eberron here either.
yeah, it's pretty liberal, but given the spell descriptor, lack of XP and it's permanence, you could get one Hell of a concession from city hall for dumping 1 every 40ft on a street over a period of a week really. i mean, assuming you're not doing Item Creation or are spoken for magically speaking, how many spell slots/permanent lamps is that for the good ppl of town 'x'?
you'd get popular really fast and save the ppl/govt. alot of $ in the long run. plus, no storm, rain, snow, etc. is an issue and it would facilitate law-enforcement and commerce. it's blatant to be sure, but a really nice donation from a goodly caster, a trade for a land grant, simple cash for services rendered, whatever...
The refrigerator-Netherese Fishing Enclave I KNOW is in the Netheril box set, but I also remember reading about it more recently, perhaps in either LEoF or the GHotR.
Since your serious about this, I'm going to dig through some of the older books now (I think the spellbook Pages from the Mages may have had a little something as well.
The incident was used to highlight the wild magic effects that ran tampant during those three novels/modules.
Which of the three novels I am blanking on...:embarrass sorry.
I hope that I have been of some small help...selunatic2397
There's a scene in (I think) one of Ed's novels which shows a mage-for-hire levitating trade goods and is an insightful glimpse of mercantile wizardry. I'm blanking on where it is.
If you can think of it, tell us.
Some FR ones would be :
Pirates of the Fallen stars
Sea of Fallen Stars
Core:
Of Ships and Sea
Stormwrack
Plus there are dozens of mentions in other books, including a description of Thay's 'Ironclad', the Red Scourge, and some stuff about Thayan Bombards. I know those applications are military, not mercantile, but as far as sea-trade goes (and piracey), they often amount to the same thing.
Also, in one of the Drizzt novels they make a big deal about 'any respectable ship' having a shipmage, both for combat, and to help out with the weather. Also, all of the methods into and out of Skullport are magical, so every nuiance of seaborne trade uses 'utility magic' in some fashion. After all, what is a portal, then the ultimate form of utility magic? And FR is rife with them
On another track altogether...
Don't know if it was mentioned yet, but the Dupari have been experimenting with magical crystal prosthetics.
* Tsarra has a magical version of a shower, I think. She traded with the priesthood of Sune to get it, so it's probably fairly common. That's in the novel Blackstaff, but my copy's in storage, so I can't find the exact page.
* Mention of Red Wizard weather meddling goes all the way back to the original Old Empires, because it mentions the problems the Mulhorandi and Untheric priesthoods were having combating the Thayans' habit of stealing all the available rain clouds.
* Tzigone uses a magical version of a tape recorder in The Floodgate to record a conversation. No mention is made of how much the device (likely created by Elminster) could record, but playback was flawless.
* Cormanthyr mentioned that Khelben's father created a spell to duplicate the famous ice and snow sculptures (I think), thus annoying some of the craftsmen, and I believe the sculpting them spread into things like fire and water and other odd materials.
* Cadderly made a flashlight out of a closable tube and a rod with a continual light spell on it. (Cleric Quintet)
* Most of the elven high magic rituals were utilitarian, whether building cities, creating permeable wall of force windows, returning cities to loam, creating objects (like elven chain) or gates. That's all in Cormanthyr.
* Drow cities use continual faerie fire spells much like we would use neon; to highlight art and attact the eye. Narbondel was actual fire, however, since it needed to heat the stone.
* Extra-dimensional buildings - everywhere. Netheril, Cormanthyr, Cormyr's Sword Heralds, the Hidden House.
The throat-clasp functions as a limited-use walkie-talkie (once per day), and they have an 'escape pocket' that allows an emergency teleport.
The Old 2e spell Dig was insanely useful, for many things.
Flying carpets (and Brooms) are perfect examples of utilitarian magic, as are flyng ships, come to think of it.
I know there was a spell somewhere, probaly in 2e, but maybe 1e, that allowed you to keep food (and other things) fresh for an extended period of time.
Though I do recall that anti-crop one being mentioned as well... could be a Chauntea specific one perhaps. Can't check amusingly enough, since both of the books it would probably be in are off visiting a player of mine for creation of a new character of his.
There's a scene in (I think) one of Ed's novels which shows a mage-for-hire levitating trade goods and is an insightful glimpse of mercantile wizardry. I'm blanking on where it is.
FRE1 Shadowdale adveture page 7
I just read through the module last week, I campaign I'm running is taking place at the same time and my PC's are about to arrive in shadowdale just before the Zhent Army arrives with Bane
They also had Blast Spikes, which looked just like normal iron pitons. they could be hammered into a crevice and used the same way, but when struck with a second Blast Spike they would cause a huge explosion (like a blasting cap). The were used in mining, and in emergencies to clear debri.
And then there are Glowstones, developed by the Dwarves of Cormanthor, because they couldn't 'handle' magic the same way the other races could. Bottom Line - they were batteries, and stored magical energy that could be used to power magical devices like wands (stuff that Dwarves normally couldn't use). They were also modular! You could just 'pop one off' of a device, and slap it onto the side of another, and you were good to go.
Also listed in that product were various technological things the dwarves had, like pumps and elevators and the like, but those are not magical so they really don't fit the topic. I just thought I'd note that the Dwarven 'tech level' is somewhat higher then the surrounding humans.
Minimals were in 1e, and later appeared on their own island in the 2e Pirates of the Fallen Stars. RAS didn't create them (nor did the Harpells), he just used them in the story because they are weird (both the Harpells and the Minimals).
I just thought of the MOST excellent utilitarian Cantrip!!!
Redirect Fart
Causes both the noise and any obnoxious odors to emanate from someone else's trousers, skirt, or dress. Range = (5ft x caster lev); best used in a contingency fashion. Highborn ladies of Waterdeep, Cormyr, and other prominent cities have had some of their finest jewelry bespelled with this effect. On the other end of the spectrum, certain churlish young nobleman have had great fun getting an Orc drunk and feeding him large quantities of cabbage, eggs, and other noxious substances, and then bringing him outside the window of a fancy dinner party, using the spell's magic to redirect the ensuiing cacophany and smell into the room.
A Halfling from the Tunland Marshes was said to have used it with a Catoblepas, but he was later hung because of the resulting deaths.
that's great :rotfl:
(Cast Raise Thread)In the city of Procampur in the Vast:
* The priests of the temple of Deneir attempted to create a golem that would work as a scribe. It rammed a quill through a wooden desk. Now it acts as a guard and porter. ("Patronage" by David Cook, Realms Of Valor)
* There are magical streetlamps in the Nobles District. ("Patronage" by David Cook, Realms Of Valor)
* Quimby's Enchanting Gourmet: The mage Quimby of Procampur created this variant on the Unseen Servant spell dedicated to cooking and serving food, as well as cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. It has served as a bartender at least once. (Pages From The Mages)
In the duergar city of Gracklstugh:
* There is a red dragon known as the Wyrmsmith (Themberchaud is the latest of several dragons in this role) that keeps the forges hot with his fire-breath. (Underdark)
* On the Darklake: "Some of these ramshackle barges are powered by mindless undead, such as skeletons or zombies, that are bolted to the oars or paddlewheels and used as tireless necromantic engines." (Underdark)
In Baldur's Gate: (Volo's Guide To The Sword Coast)
* "Lonthalin Mintar is one of several minor mages who work from stalls in the Wide (open market) of Baldur's Gate. He specializes in adornment spells that give clients temporary fantastic hairdos, tattoos, body scents, and hue changes and cause daring costumes to adhere."
* "Talessyr Tranth: This tall, courtly, mustachioed man is actually a woman wearing a semipermanent disguise... She runs a stall in the Wide (open market) in Baldur's Gate where she creates shortlived magical disguises, body adornments, costume alterations, or the like for clients who wish to impress at parties, hide their true likeness, or shock friends or social rivals."
* "...And several minor wizards [including the above two] who specialize in spells that temporarily arrange a client's hair into intricate patterns, cause areas of the body to glow or to adhere to certain scraps of garment or pieces of jewelry, alter skin and hair hue, and even cause scents to wax, wane, or move around the body - sometimes accompanied by radiances."
* The Elfsong Tavern is lit by blue-hued driftglobes.
* Felogyr’s Fireworks sells enchanted fireworks amongst various alchemical products.
* The mage Halbazzer has made a fortune off a spell that banishes mildew and moisture. He keeps the details to himself, and the Baldurian authorities protect him from Amnian and Calishite thieves who try to steal it. He also runs a side-business using mending to fix household objects.
* Gond's Hall Of Wonder is lit by enchanted glowing globes. Ward tokens control access to the building, and gargoyles act as security.
In Daggerford, the gnome jeweler Korbus Brightjewel is said to use magic to make his works more beautiful. (Volo's Guide To The Sword Coast)
Cormyr's Castle Crag has begun employing psionicists to quickly send emergency mental messages to Purple Dragons in Arabel. (Cormyr, Class Chronicles)
The Jhaamdathans used reildoxia word crystals that psionically recorded thought images. (Grand History Of The Realms)
The Jhaamdathan city udoxias allowed users to swap their psionic powers and feats. (Lost Empires Of Faerun and Candlekeep Web Enhancement)
Candlekeep is protected by wards that prevent anything from burning except for candles, not paper. They also kill moulds and insects, in addition to blocking teleportation and other defenses. Wards and tokens are used to limit access to important areas. (FRCS 3e, Volo's Guide To The Sword Coast)
The Friendly Arm Inn on the Sword Coast is rumoured to have iron golems magically disguised as maids. (Volo's Guide To The Sword Coast)
The hamlet of Kheldrivver on the Sword Coast has a local mage who regularly casts a spell to repel insects from local places. (Volo's Guide To The Sword Coast)
Volo's Guides are full of these things.
Of course, there's all the usual applications of defense, magical spying, teleportation blocking, priestly healing and curing, and so on.
I'll do more later.
The town of Roaringshore on the Sword Coast has the Broken Goblet tavern, where a ward that prevents offensive spells and safely redirects thrown objects. It also prevents glasses from breaking. (Volo's Sword Coast again.)
Dauravyn of the Way Inn has magical communication with the Lords Of Waterdeep, in emergencies. (V's SC)
Somewhere in the Raurin is the Skysea, a desert of glass that becomes baking hot under the sun. To get across, one can use the cloudskate, which absorbs the heat and magically converts it into hovering power and propulsion. The cloudskate then becomes a hovercraft. This is something of a legendary artifact however, not in common use, at least by the start of the DoD module. (Desert Of Desolation)
Bloodforges of the Utter East, which produced the Basal Golems. Not just for war, they could also be used to build buildings and walls. The land is also home to Artificers, who combine magic and technology. (Blood & Magic) Take that, Eberron!
The Drakelight on the Bay Of Chessenta: an 800ft high lighthouse, supported by magic. However its only lit when pirate fleets enter the bay, and no word on whether its a magical flame or natural. (OE) I assume the former.
Some courtesans in Chessenta get enhanced with magic, including colour, scales, claws, wings. (Elminster In Hell)
Detect Magic is used on athletes before competition in Chessenta. (OE). Like drug-testing.
Jhaamdath made use of pocket dimensions for storage. Now that the ruins are above water, many of these are available for exploration. (Of course this is technically utility psionics, but still...).
Like the silly muggles know the difference, har har har....
Oh wait, wrong setting.
Excellent finds BCM. I think I'm just going to link them (in the morning, cause it's late here) to the first page because it's clear and detailed the way you posted it.
Jhaamdath made use of pocket dimensions for storage. Now that the ruins are above water, many of these are available for exploration. (Of course this is technically utility psionics, but still...).
Is that canon lore, or homebrewed? I hadn't found anything about that in my researches. I do know Dhinnilith was strangely retconned from being the First City to be being a "pocket plane" refuge accessed via Naarkolyth, which went from being a Palace to being the First City. Weird.
Is that canon lore, or homebrewed? I hadn't found anything about that in my researches. I do know Dhinnilith was strangely retconned from being the First City to be being a "pocket plane" refuge accessed via Naarkolyth, which went from being a Palace to being the First City. Weird.
There was one in cannon, a storehouse for Dhinnilith. (IIRC)
I may be thinking of what you wrote above though.
Excellent finds BCM. I think I'm just going to link them (in the morning, cause it's late here) to the first page because it's clear and detailed the way you posted it.
Thanks. :D
And I'm just going from my notes on my hobby topics (ie the ones I DM or have grown curious about): Chessenta, Sword Coast South, Psionics, Raurin and the Utter East, and the Vast (I'll do that later). That's only a small chunk of the setting. I daresay almost every region of FR should turn up similar examples of utility magic, in quantity.
The Realms can afford to be more subtle and less ostentatious than Eberron. ;)
Here's a cookie.
When was Dhinnilith retconned?
Grand History Of The Realms
Dhinnilith was first established as the First City Of The Sword (ie the capital) in Lost Empires Of Faerun, and survived as the phantom city that materialised above the waters of the Vilhon Reach.
The Class Chronicles series on Psionics created the Palace Of Naarkolyth, now in a ghostly extraplanar state, obviously intending it to be a part of Dhinnilith. It was inhabited by 12 suspended elans, Abysm, and Bpdethrys, the thing that dwelled in the Dhinnilith of LEoF.
Whoever did Jhaamdath for GHotR somehow managed to confuse the palace with the city, and went and rewrote every reference to Dhinnilith as Naarkolyth, and said retconned "the magical refuge of Dhinnilith, a secure pocket plane accessed through the palace at Naarkolyth." And now Naarkolyth lies at the bottom of the sea. What precisely does appear floating on the sea is now a mystery.
It's one of the strangest retcons I've ever seen, as I don't know how anyone could have confused it, and it's so much effort to go to. Perhaps they thought a floating ghost city was too big?
For my game, I'm keeping Naarkolyth the palace, Dhinnilith the city, the former is a part of the latter, and the whole was shunted into the astral plane only to reappear on the Reach every now and then.
* In an inversion, the dead magic zone of Tantras was a popular locale for people seeking to avoid wizards, for safety or for magic-neutral meetings. (City Of Ravens Bluff) This has shrunk due to repairs however.
And Sossal:
* The people of Sossal trade with other realms "beautiful items of shaped wood" and "ornate and smoothly shaped furniture", which is not carved at all but "sculpted by the minds of Sossrim 'carvers'". (FRCS 3e) This is probably wood shape and similar spells, cast by druids.
Magical torches (ie everburning torches) used for illumination, at least in some underground tunnels, in the Shining Lands. (The Citadels: Neversfall)
I've been looking at Wheloon while running the Cormyr: Tearing Of The Weave adventure, and turned up some more examples of utility magic.
Volo's Guide To Cormyr: In Wheloon
* The Falconstar Shipping wharf is lit by driftglobes. (I think these are floating glass spheres with magical lights inside.)
* The Fish House fishmonger is run by a retired wizard who sells frozen fish and ice with the aid of his ice magic (a ring of frost, like an endless wand of frost in 2e terms).
* The Silvery Sembian Snail festhall run by a cleric of Sune sells cheap wines magically altered to taste like better vintages, supplies sober-up spells, and magical lighting. Also has a tale about a dancer who uses flying illusions in her act.
Cormyr: Tearing Of The Weave: In Wheloon
The Temple Of Mystra is lit by everburning torches. It was constructed with the aid of magic. They have a pet otyugh to clean up sewage, and use silent image spells for demonstrations.
Elsewhere, there are various efforts to use portals for long-range transport and trade. There was an attempt in Cormyr: Tearing Of The Weave, and an Impilturan mage plans to gain control of the Longsaddle-Gray Forest portal (Class Chronicles).
The Volo's Guides are chock full of utility magic, at all levels. An assumption should be made that FR as a whole is dense with the stuff, perhaps more so than Eberron. It's just optional for taste, and lacks big stuff like the lightning rail (a train through dangerous monster-filled wilderness is just asking for trouble).
During my research into 'lands forgotten', I often come across utility magic... in fact, far more often then I realized before this thread brought it to my attention.
Can't think of anything specific ATM, but if you start going through ALL of the Volo's Guides, you'll see that magic is fairly common and even tiny villages usually have something of interest going on (and in most cases, some sort of specialized use of magic, which pertains to this thread).
Just doing this to bump up this little (oft neglected due to my own fault) compilation so it doesn't fall into the nether. Thanks to all those who bumped it through the months.
-The Fortress of Sentinelspire was a volcano altered by the Imaskari to have it's heat channeled elsewhere, have cold air brought in, have fresh water brought in, etc. (Sentinelspire)
I would have prefered Sentinelspire blowing up to the Spellplague. Magical disasters are getting old in my opinion. Give me a good meteor stike that devastates vast areas, and causes the masses to flee from the affected areas. Causing people to lose faith in the gods...Still working on this idea. I will post it one of these days.
Kool thread. I can't believe I've missed this one.