To start off some ideas from other sources.
Hygene: A spell to clean a person useful for those in a rush or with limited space e.g someone staying in a capsule hotel.
Depilatory: A spell to selectively shave the body leaving silky smooth skin behind. Again a good time saver.
Rainment: A spell to change a persons clothing in an instant. Useful in the theatre industry where someone may need a quick costume change.
Temparture Control: Adjusts the ambient temparture to a caster desginated one in a certain range. Useful to cheaply maintain an area at a constant temparture e.g. a computer laboratory.
Animate Image: Creates a 3 dimensional image out of written text. Useful in a childrens pop up book or certain technical manuals.
Then two uses of existing spells.
Mass Haste: Can be used in the building industry to speed up construction of new buildings and objects possibly shaving weeks or months off the finished construction time.
Purify Water: Used in the sewage industry to treat liquid waste as a final stage in its water purification plants.
And finally a few new ones by me.
Scribe: Casues a recording device (computer, pen and paper ect) to write down/type whatever it is your saying.
Force Connection: Forces a connection through online sources, requires an existing link. For example if your wireless modem was playing up you could force it to connect or if a website was experiencing log in difficulties you could force it through however if the modem wasn't working because it was broken or you didn't have a valid login account this spell wouldn't work.
Now, a magic spell the equivalent of a Roomba that won't get stuck under the desk, or other magic to do what advanced sci-fi has robots and androids do, that works. But I guess there have been dishwashing and dusting spells around for quite some time, and you could always make your imp walk the dog and water the plants and check the mail. Of course, there is that old saying that sufficiently advanced tech would be indistinguisable from magic, and bring in all sorts of star trek goodies. P6 gets you phyiscs phasers, but magic gets you the same device in P5, or lower. I don't think even P7 would be advanced enough for food replicators and transporters, but again, magic is.
I like the 'get more production from workers' idea but sometimes today with such cheap labor, it will make players think "why waste big magic when you can just hire a few more laborers" I much prefer mass suggest type spells to increase worker loyalty, make them stay longer, and mass buff like improving dexterity or intelligence to make office workers, techy types, science lab people all more productive. The guy designing your election add campaign, is he helped by working faster, or getting better quality ideas?
I've always enjoyed the concept of magic+surgery, especially at specail elven hospitals. Eyes of minute seeing, precision arcane cut, micro-mend. Not so much 'healing' magic as mending a torn nerve or cut blood vessle together the way a DnD wizard would mend a cut rope. Plenty of use for existing spells such as sleep and slow as well as tweaking other spells to work in special medical ways.
Now, don't go too far. No magical shrinking of a ship then being injected into the body to zap germs, navigage the bloodways, etc.
although some spells taht would elongate the fingers and allow you to reach odd spots would be freakycool
As for mine I was just giving a few examples if you want another one hygene as a safety precaution in labs dealing with toxic/corrosive/acidic substances if you splash yourself trigger it and the hazardrous substance is quickly, safely and completely removed.
Or if you want spell uses that can't be duplicated with current technology . . .
Change Sex: Useful for transgenered individuals or for sensativity training - everyone must spend at least one year as a preteen (7-9), young teen (12-14) and young adult (17-18) as the opposite gender. If they get pregnant or enjoy it then they can stay that way permanently.
Teleport without error: Useful in emergencies you may still need to drive out to the location but once your reach the victims bamf your in the hospitals emergency reception centre with them.
Protection from element X: Useful in dangerous occupations e.g. fireman with fire protection fighting a bushfire
Scrying: Want to know what the core of jupiters like take a look, how about a dangerous area (collapsed mine) you can check out the location without risking making things worse.
EDIT
And four more
Speak with dead: Court appointed necromancers to quiz murder victims in order to find out as much as possible about the crime.
Geneology: To determne parentage when uknown, lost or run away children.
Speak with spirits: Make a deal with the spirits of the land e.g. if you help us to get good crops well offer prayers to you at a shrine we'll build (or other deal as appropriate).
Time travel: To retrieve things lost e.g. zoologists go back to get eggs and sperm from extinct animals like dodo's, archivists go back to spend a few years copying the library of Alexandria before it burns down.
I don't particularly care for the spells that can so easily be replaced by very simple technology.
It's a game, dude. Using magic for mundane tasks is purely for giggles. These are the kinds of things that PCs don't bother with anyway. When was the last time you bought a vacuum cleaner for your Gunslinger? Seriously.
Maybe hygene and 'cool temp' would make a bit more sense in some third world nation where the witchdoctor can AC his tent without the need for electricity...as can the big baddie who is down there visiting his diamond mines.
Oh dear. We don't say "third world" any more. That term was outmoded a couple of decades ago because it refers to far too many diverse nations and cultures to be of any use to anyone, unless you're just trying to dismiss all cultures/nations outside of the wealthy Northern hemisphere, in which case it's very useful, but the person who uses it that way is kind of a prick.
As for your "example", what country are you referring to, here? In what culture do you envision that the "witch doctor" lives in a tent? Do you actually have any real knowledge of any country or culture outside of your own? And no, Hollywood movies and TV don't count.
Hygene: A spell to clean a person useful for those in a rush or with limited space e.g someone staying in a capsule hotel.
Depilatory: A spell to selectively shave the body leaving silky smooth skin behind. Again a good time saver.
there is a spell for this: prestidigitation.
Polymorph is always fun............................
Also think of fuel (batteries), weight, space and waste by-product concerns (including noise, vibration, smell and light) - magic is handy for circumventing those.
As for time travel it does seriously screw up events (unless you play the "You create a new universe and can't change your present only make a better one elsewhere" card) and it would probably require either 9th level spells (impossible in normal game) or a very, very difficult and expensive ritual but its something that was on mind as I'd been reading a time travel book recently where the company responsible for it didn't even know who was running things any more as every time they turned their back new projects would show up in their archives entered by someone from the future in the past. Personally its not something I'd allow in a game I'm running but that doesn't man it isn't an option.
As for prestidigitation I don't think it can permanently (or at least day long) shave body parts or wash you clean but I could well be wrong.
Now here's a few more . . .
Scribe Greater: Draws on the caster/users knowledge to write things out. Useful for people writting reports and things for instance you know what happened and how to write a report trigger it and bang you can go off and do something else while the report is written up for you. It only draws on the users knowledge so if you don't know something such as how to write a proper report then it writes a bad one as it still draws on what YOU know.
Glasssteel: an old spell that I think has been dropped for modern at least. Gives glass the strength of steel and presumably you could have other variants e.g. one that give wood the strength of stone for reinforcing houses and the like.
Glasssee: As above but this spell makes an object transparent so you could build a house out of stone or steel and then create windows in it.
Items can be fun too.
Cauldron of breathable air + decanter of endless water + continual flame = a limitless supply of clean breathable air for orbital installations.
Of course the golden egg of magical item creation would be finding a way to mass produce items (even if only on a small scale at first) which I think can be done. Once you overcome that hurdle magic would become as viable as technology for a lot of things.
and finally two possible uses for magic . . .
Translation: Comprehend language would allow people to actually talk face to face with each other (business meetings and the like) without needing a translator for every single language invovled (of course you'd still have translators for situations where there's only two languages involved).
Teaching: Comprehend language is a fairly low level spell so a higher level one could permanently add skills to a person (probably with some limit e.g. 5 ranks per target or something) or even on a temporary basis we need more doctors to treat the injured from that tsunami/earthquake/disaster of choice "You there what do you do for a living? Well your a doctor for the next 13 hours get to work on treating those kids." even if they couldn't perform surgery you've got someone who could stop them bleeding to death until a properly trained one can do the more intensive work.
It's a game, dude. Using magic for mundane tasks is purely for giggles. These are the kinds of things that PCs don't bother with anyway. When was the last time you bought a vacuum cleaner for your Gunslinger? Seriously.
Yea, it's a game. So why do you care what my tastes are? Arn't I entitled to my own likes or dislikes? I think using magic where easy and cheap tech is available feels forced and over the top. You don't have to agree, but I am sticking with it
Oh dear. We don't say "third world" any more. That term was outmoded a couple of decades ago because it refers to far too many diverse nations and cultures to be of any use to anyone, unless you're just trying to dismiss all cultures/nations outside of the wealthy Northern hemisphere, in which case it's very useful, but the person who uses it that way is kind of a prick.
As for your "example", what country are you referring to, here? In what culture do you envision that the "witch doctor" lives in a tent? Do you actually have any real knowledge of any country or culture outside of your own? And no, Hollywood movies and TV don't count.
That's my point exactly. Where would you not be able to take a shower or flip on an AC unit? But I see you got all excited and missed that point.
Yea, it's a game. So why do you care what my tastes are? Arn't I entitled to my own likes or dislikes? I think using magic where easy and cheap tech is available feels forced and over the top. You don't have to agree, but I am sticking with it
I didn't say you weren't entitled to your opinion. I was offering a different point of view in the hope that I could show you why other people might be interested in this little flight of fancy. I'm not sure where you get the impression that I was dismissing your right to have an opinion, or why you'd bring it up.
That's my point exactly. Where would you not be able to take a shower or flip on an AC unit?
There are lots of places where that's not an option, in fact, but the impression that your post gave (accidentally, I'm sure) is that places like that somehow don't count, aren't worth noting, or don't matter in the conversation. They're "nowhere." That's probably why you felt the inherent right to comment on them from a position of ignorance.
But I see you got all excited and missed that point.
You know that ridiculing your opponent is a clear sign that you have no argument, right?
Which is, of course, why Prestidigitation is one of my favorite spells. If you use the old Tome and Blood book from 3e, it had a whole list of what PResto could do. Plus, even just the description in the book gives a lot of great ideas.
You can clean stuff, even the most delicate of delicates, en mass. at 1 cubic foot per round, you can get about 600 cubic feet of stuff clean for one casting of the spell. That's just over an eight foot cube of clothes. Do you know how long that would take in real life? Surely more than 1 hour.
Or take the D&D spell Stick. It's another 0-level spell. Use it as a clamp while your glue is drying. Or if you really want to have fun, use it to make a quick-change outfit. Just lightly tug and the entire outfit falls apart, revealing something (or nothing) underneath. Or, use it to put together a delicate and fragile object that then stays behind glass. No wind, no corporeal creatures to take a move action to dislodge it, just a 2 liter bottle of pepsi handing from the frayed ends of a rope three feet off the ground.
As for the magi-tech spells (AC, Temp Control, etc.), just make them permanent magical effects, and they're worth their weight (or the weight of the equipment they replaced) in gold pressed latinum.
Browse through the Magic Item compendium, you'll find lots of little tricks like that. Just adapt it for Modern, and you're good to go.
You know that ridiculing your opponent is a clear sign that you have no argument, right?
well that is because I don't have an argument. I am simply stating what I like and don't like. But here's my question to you. You don't like my view on how magic should be implimented, okay fine. I don't care. But what I don't get is how you have contributed in a constructive way to this thread.
Basically all you have contributed is "I disagree with akodo's opinion, and bla bla bla cry cry bla"
so where's your suggested spells or usages?
well that is because I don't have an argument. I am simply stating what I like and don't like.
Whether you realise it or not, you were making an argument. In fact, if we scroll upwards, we can see it:
"I don't particularly care for the spells that can so easily be replaced by very simple technology."
You phrased your argument as an opinion statement, "I don't particularly care...", but the fact remains that you posited a thesis and then backed it up with logic. And it's a pretty logical argument, actually. My counter-argument is that the point of the discussion isn't logical or practical, but that many of us derive fun from thinking of ways to use magic for mundane tasks. That's my contribution to the thread, trying to demonstrate to you why someone might take part in it, as opposed to your contribution, which was to wade in and basically tell us all you think the thread is pointless.
What's really fascinating is that you're backing away from your statements about the "third world," and instead you're now launching a counter-attack in which you try to characterise me as childish and weak:
"I disagree with akodo's opinion, and bla bla bla cry cry bla"
Of course, in reality, I'm the one who is on the offensive, here, while you're back-peddling, so your attempt to project weakness onto me just indicates your own. If I had to guess, I'd say you've realised that you shot your mouth off, and now you're trying to take an offensive, high-status posture in order to distract attention away from your own remarkably ignorant statements, or just distract from the fact that you're losing this argument.
.Anyhow, that "air cleaning" spell sounds handy for mining work. Heck, if you can get something that produces air for an entire area, then underground facilities suddenly become a lot more viable.
Of course, unless your society is open magic-wise, you'll need to come up with clever ways to disguise these spells. Devise housings of some kind or pseudo scientific explanations to the public...that kind of stuff.
I like rainment, should help when trying to sneak your way into places, or stop a hostile situation (or even come 'unprepared' for a hostile situation)
akoda and Orion you should take your discussion somewhere, it really isn't adding appropriate content to the thread.
So there will be no need to hide the fact your magically generating a breathable atmosphere for your underground/orbital facilities but you will need to consider environmental impact e.g. limitless water for drinking and showers in a drought stricken country could result in a raising of the sea level.
@Jonathanchance I said spells but I'm perfectly happy with any "supernatural" abilities so a psychic trick to start guards fighting, any psionic or supernatural ability is fine in addition to magical ones.
Hmmmmmm so we need to look at cheap, better or faster for viability. Lets see now what can we do . . .
Here's a few interesting ones from the case of the toxic spell dump.
Spirits as records keepers: Near limitless storage capacity and protection against damage in the material world combined with secure storage.
Enchanted Jewelry: In the book it was an egagement ring enchanted to encourage fidelity.
Supernatural creatures: A vampire hamster trained to remove blood from clothing.
And some where magic would serve cheaper and/or better
Teleport (another use): Getting supplies and personal to and from orbital and moon based facilities.
Radiation protection: Again for space facilities (or nuclear reactors) you could (with the right spell in addition to regular facilitiies) achieve perfect radiation containment (and presumably decontmination).
Gravity: The spell could be used to create artifical gravtiy in facilities both for negating the hazards of prolonged weightlessness (in space) or conducting experiements (designated zero, low and high gravity areas on earth bound locations).
Disintigration: Permanently and safely destroy hazardrous materials that can't be eliminated with conventional methods.
Mending (another use): Damaged tapes, cd's, photo's or what have you that aren't restoreable with conventional methods or only with highly expensive ones.
And a use for the right spells.
Enhancing conventional devices: Inspired by the thaumatech process that improves computer performance magically. Imagine cars that add +5 to drive for safety or if mass production of magic items becomes viable food and drink products that maintain their contents at a specific temperature (ice cold coke in the middle of a desert from a regular plastic bottle). Or maybe a welding torch that works by joining non-organic materials together without the need of high heat and protection.
Anways, back to spells. I much prefer to see spells working with technology. I like "Arcane to Electricity" or some sort of "power electronics/recharge battery" If you think about it, a spell that would allow you to communicate with someone on the other side of the world would be medium level spell, but something that allows you to recharge your dead cellphone battery with magical power, that would be a pretty low level spell.
Also 'power electronics/recharge battery' would be a lot more multipurpose. You don't need to learn a laundrylist of spells that duplicate the function of your technology, but just a handful of spells to keep it working. Plus this works well if you are going to be away from people. Sure you can cast a light spell to guide your own path, but being able to recharge all the batteries in each party member's flashlight allows people to go off on their own.
At higher levels there could be alternate versions of such a spell that allow you to tap into other people to power larger machines and meet larger demands. Power is cut, hospitol generator is sabotaged all in a ploy to get some mob witness on level 10 Wing C. Of course, the mob doesn't care that many people are dying without electricity running their respirators, incubators, and the like. How long can a wizard power the hospital by himself? What about if he joins hands with 5 other people? Plus this is a great spell you can have your baddy misusing, where he chooses to use up people to meet his power needs. Say he wants to use is uber-techy-quasi-magical scrying device, so he brings up a few servants/slaves/captured adventurers, and forces them to provide the extra power beyond what he is drawing from the grid.
Or another angle is police look at unusual grid activity to detect guys with pot grow lights in their house, I am sure the archnemisis doesn't want his evil contraption so easily detected, so using people-power, he can get by unnoticed.
Another type of spell I would expect to encounter would be ones designed to allow you to bypass security measures, things like 'detect password', or maybe a spell that would quickly run through all the possible options on a combination lock.
Regarding spells that are already fairly common but giving them a 'modern' twist, 'darkness' but rather than creating one big pool of magical darkness, in a modern setting the spell would create a handful of dark spots, that you could place in front of security cameras. Illusion spells "imitate room" to recreate the room/hallway as it exists except unoccupied, cast in front of the camera, allowing your group to sneak by. Detect invisible would reveal hidden optic trip-wires, pressure plates under the carpet and other hidden detectors. I also think that there would be technology or magic+technology designed at detecting magic being cast, and there would of course be spells to defeat this detection, or at least severly hinder it for a time
Someone else brought up firefighters casting 'protection from fire', what about the bomb-squad casting slow on the timer to give them more time to defuse it?
1) Restore file: If a file (text, image, other) gets corrupted or damaged this restores it to complete working order by reaching into the past to a time when it was at its best and a time when it had the most recent information and combining them to create a file with the most recent information that is integrity wise at its best.
2) Destroy duplicates: This file quickly searches through a computer finding all files that are identical and destroys the one or ones the caster desires, ignores names and locations so if you have an identical picture in two different folders with a different name you can destroy one of them.
so you don't like the term 3rd world, whatever. I still don't see any contribution to spells on your part.
Yes, that's it exactly. I, personally and arbitrarily don't like that combination of the words "world" and "third." The sound hurts my delicate little ears. Nothing to do with what the words mean or how you were using them. That must be it. It couldn't be because of any of the things I've spelled out above, repeatedly and in detail. It couldn't be because of the inaccuracy and ignorance of your implicit description of "anywhere that isn't rich." It must be me. Le sigh...
But here are some uses of magic in the modern world:
Teleport + Shrink: instantly transport large amounts of food and other basic resources to places where food is lacking due to deforestation, desertification, and the hijacking of local farmland by multinational corporations. No longer could the West claim "we'd love to give you some of our excess resources, but we have no way to get it to you!"
Remove Disease: get an army of spellcasters to start chipping away at that whole "AIDS" thing in Africa.
Zone of Truth: bring that spell to the UN and watch as everybody (especially the rich nations) clamps their mouths shut for fear of saying something that's actually true.
Potions of Cure X: make those in large quantities, pass them out by the dozen. Watch as market forces make them economically worthless because they're everywhere, but still extremely valuable to people.
Stoneskin/Protection from Bullets: put that on every cop and ever soldier. Makes guns obsolete.
This is a fun game.
Zone of Truth: bring that spell to the UN and watch as everybody (especially the rich nations) clamps their mouths shut for fear of saying something that's actually true.
Make it the whole world. Not only the UN have corrupt people, you know...
Flesh to stone: Think of the realistic statues in the park !
Aura of sweat: Now available for those who dont do sports ! Makes you even more unatractive than you are ! Solid debuff.
Tasha's hideous sister: For those moments when you need to scare the living daylights out of someone. (DC 15+relevant casting stat bonus Will save or flee for 1d4 rounds and shaken for the rest of the encounter)
Passwall: what a cat burglar could do with this one!
Dimension door: no more waiting in line at DMV. 'Really, honest, I was here first, you just didn't see me...'
Charm person: no more DMV bureaucrats saying you can't renew your license. '27 outstanding warrants and unpaid tickets, no problem! ANYTHING for you, friend...'
Polymorph: look like somebody else when the officer pulls you over to arrest you for those 27 outstanding warrants and tickets. 'No, I'm Herb. Johnnie just let me borrow his car while he went with the Peace Corp to a third wor...er, developing nation.'
Darkvision: no more fumbling for the light switch in that strange hotel room.
Command: get the moron yakking on his cell phone oblivious to the fact the light turned green to: GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Knock: lose your keys again. Noooo problem. AAA would be out of bidness.
Mage Hand: great for getting a beer out of the fridge while watchin' the Broncos dimension door past the Patriots Battle Mage to score yet another TD...
Magic Missile: I just cast this spell on myself and I'll never have to take viagr.... OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!
Feather fall: I'm gonna jump!! I mean it!! My life stinks!!! Here I go!!! April Fools!!!! Hahah! Hey what are you doing with that wand of fireba......
Message: attorneys can whisper answers to their witnesses while on the stand.
Zone of truth: 'I don't get it: that the 43rd witness today whose taken the 5th....'
Magic Mirror: never lose at dodge ball again.
True Seeing: "With this magic mirror spell, we've got this dodge ball game in the ba...OWWW!"
Bear's Endurance: simple solution to hitting the wall at mile 19 in a marathon.
Owl's Wisdom: don't get the silly idea to run a marathon in the first place.
Gaseous Form: cast it on those annoying guys that do the air purifier infomercials and watched them get sucked into their own machines.
Detect Law: no more getting caught in speed traps.
Disintigrate: "Joey, get outta here with dat shovel! We don't need dat! Put 'dat down and bring dat disentigration wand ovah heah! Yeah, just point it at dah body and...no no no..not that end..othah end...JOEY...oh Joey, you poor ##$$%^. And dat was my last charge."
Hand of rust: perfect revenge on that ^%$#^% that double parks his vintage Corvette.
Open: Child Proof Cap? Noooooo problem!
Deformat Harddrive: Useful if your doing something illegal and the law arrives, Bam your harddrives competely unrecoverable.
Summon Windows: A way to annoy your co-workers by sending their computers into a blue screen of death.
Recall: A counter to those moments when you know you know something but can't bring it to mind (happened recently to someone I know who greeted someone by name when they came in then couldn't remember it when they talked to them a few moments later).
Teleport to Fiction: Sends a willing person into a fictional item (book, movie, painting) where they can influence the events of that item (making their own choices). They return when they reach some circumstance the caster designates at casting e.g. kill the dark or the end of the item (for books and movies). You now have the one of the kind "Return of the Jedi" video starring Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca and Steven. You can learn anything in that storyline barring specific requirement abilities i.e. if you couldn't use the force before you can't when your in there either and things you learn may not work in the "real world" e.g. hyperdrive.
If people can be ressurected, why buy life insurance? (maybe rez insurance) why have doctors at all, just bring everyone to the cleric for healing! Why invent telephones when magical whispers can carry your message? Why invent washing machines and vaccums when you can enslave a lesser air elemental to sweep the house etc.
Magic has to balance as something that is still quite rare and not easily doable. A single "potion of minor healing" or somesuch would probably cost $1000, it would probably stablize a severely wounded patient but not cure them, and have no effect on such things as organ failures or disease and the like. You will still need that triple-bypass, or that new liver from drinking your life away, and you still better wear a condom and avoid AIDS, although STDs that can be cured with a shot of penicilin might be cleared up by them.
Where do you find "healing potions" Well, the ambulance probably has a half dozen, otherwise you probably only find them in a special box on the wall next to the AED (artificial external defibulator) which means at airports, sports centers, and very big businesses, but not many other places. Definately not in the first aid kit.
I also think magic would show up in espionage, another 'thing' that can detect intruders, and another way to keep your secrets secret. For example, step 1 for your secret documents that you need to transport is to encode them, step 2 is to cast a spell on them that will blank the page. If someone gets ahold of your encoded information, if it is long enough, and there is a powerful enough computer, it can unencode it. But that won't work if the whole page is blank, so now they need a magicuser to counterspell it before they can even begin attempting to decode it.
I expect magic users would be somethign like lawyers, there might be a fair amount of lvl 1 spellcasters, but the truely big and powerful guys, retaining them would cost you thousands per hour, and for the most part they spend their time dealing with supreme court cases or workig for the largest, richest, corporations, or governments.
Maybe when the death penalty is likely to be pushed for on a case they pay to have a mage cast truthspells and such, but no for the regular 5-10 breaking and entering and such.
> 'technology' world
For one thing as I said the world I'm picturing only has a relatively small number of actual casters less than 1% of the population and that's before removing those who are very low level, completely uninterested in spending the time to get a degree in thaumaturgy, unable to afford the training, unwilling to touch it for religious/cultural reasons etc.
So in order (oh and I'm cutting sections out of your posts for space reasons just enough to identify what I'm responding to).
> If people can be ressurected, why buy life insurance? (maybe rez insurance)
> elemental to sweep the house etc.
1) Life insurance is ALOT cheaper than resurection insurance, the former coming as cheaply (depending on circumstances/policy) as 30-40 dollars a month while the later even with heavy restrictions on what you'd be resurected from can't be gotten for less than 15 thousand a month. Plus you may have legal/religious objections to resurection and resurected people.
2) Because magical healing is more expensive, may only be available to members of the clerics religion, may be dismissed as unreliable and most importantly relies on the god to grant the spell which they may not. Plus you could have magically resistant (spell resistance) people on whom it just doesn't work or only works with difficulty.
3) Not everyone can cast magic but anyone can use a telephone, whispers is limited in the number of words it can convey phones aren't.
4) Again not everyone can cast the spell and there may be moral objections to enslaving an intelligent being even if it is non-human, the permanent unseen servent, enslaved elemental is a lot more expensive than a vacumn. Not to mention what happens if you move can you take that air elemental with you? Finally they may do a shoddy job in a silent protest against their treatment.
> Magic has to balance as something that is still quite rare and not easily
> STDs that can be cured with a shot of penicilin might be cleared up by
> them.
Good points and again in order.
1) As I said only a small percentage of the worlds population are even able to use magic much less have the interest resources to pursue it.
2) Even a cure light wounds can stabalize someone as you said but I agree there'd be limits. light wounds = stabalization, cuts and scratches (primarily a keep them alive till we get them to hosptal); Medium Wounds = stabalization, gashes, bruising and the like; critical wounds = stabalization, broken bones and so on; heal = stabaliztion, restores lost blood, removes disease etc etc. Again you have the cost issue though if your paying thousands of dollars for the simplest ones how much would a full healing cost you as opposed to regular care? How much a regeneration spell? I also treat all curing spells as only able to cure injury, they don't do a thing about natural problems e.g. a genetic disorder. AIDS and the like on the other hand could be cured by cure disease it'd just be expensive.
Where do you find "healing potions" Well, the ambulance probably has a half dozen, otherwise you probably only find them in a special box on the wall next to the AED (artificial external defibulator) which means at airports, sports centers, and very big businesses, but not many other places. Definately not in the first aid kit.
> I also think magic would show up in espionage, another 'thing' that can
> they can even begin attempting to decode it.
Well yes and this comes under the thrust of this topic "How would magic be used today."
> I expect magic users would be somethign like lawyers, there might be a fair > corporations, or governments.
Yes that's pretty much how I see it too, as I think I said earlier if you have the talent for magic + the resources/opportunity/interest to master it your set for life. Even more so than lawyers/doctors etc because while anyone can learn those careers only those born with the ability can be mages.
> Maybe when the death penalty is likely to be pushed for on a case they pay
> breaking and entering and such.
Maybe then again maybe not truth spells only detect if the person beleives themself to be telling the truth, if they had a mental disorder or truly beleived what they were saying (even if its a lie) it would register as truth.
This also raises the question is magical testimony admissable in court? Its not like it can checked easily. The court appointed mage say's his see the past spell saw the accused stab the victim multiple times (because the victims wealthy family payed him half a million to say this as they were the ones really guilty). How would you defend yourself against that, hire another (really expensive) mage to testify on your behalf only to have their testimony doubted because they're working for you? Have new spells developed to show the results to everyone? Have magic admissable as a means of determining the direction an investigation goes but require scientific (testable) evidence to bring it to court.
Mage gazes into the past "Okay the victim was beaten over the head here, taken to that location and killed then dumped in the east river but they managed to scratch Joe Peterson's face before dying." Whereon the police go to that location and check for blood traces matching it to the victim, fish them out of the east river and get skin samples from under their nails and confirm Joe Peterson has a scratched face.
Even then though you have things like the minority report where what is seen isn't necessarily what happened.
EDIT
Gather useful for when a resturant messes up your order. I recently ordered a mexican pizza from a resturant and when I got it it was covered in mushrooms which I hate and weren't on the menu. A simple gather spell could have safely removed all those mushrooms leaving the proper i.e. menu listed ingredients only.
Gather useful for when a resturant messes up your order. I recently ordered a mexican pizza from a resturant and when I got it it was covered in mushrooms which I hate and weren't on the menu. A simple gather spell could have safely removed all those mushrooms leaving the proper i.e. menu listed ingredients only.
b.s. if you were a magicuser you'd have the money to have you personal servant pick the mushrooms off the pizza for you, and then you'd buy he place and fire the morons who put them on there
Ewwwww why would I want someone elses fingers digging around in the pizza I'm going to eat? It might be tolerable with an unseen servent spell but even so they could miss some. I much prefer gather its a cantrip, it magically moves things so my pizza's not in pieces and it gets all of them.
...someone elses fingers? besides the guy's who just made your pizza you mean. That's at least one person who has had his fingers diggin' around in your pizza. :D
Actually... this would be a fun game setting. Marxist RPGs. I love it.
1) Both parents are rated mages (able to use magic) there's a 97% chance the child will be able to use magic as well.
2) One parent is a rated mage there's a 50% chance the child will be able to use magic.
3) Neither parent is able to use magic there's 1% chance the child will be able to use magic.
If the child is able to use magic then you roll a D10 + 7 to determine magic rating (a new ability I use to determine spell casting ability, bonus spells etc and yes my games are complicated) or in D20 modern D6 + 8 (slightly higher minimum casting ability/significantly lower maximum one).
So you get 8 = cantrips, 9 = 1st level spells, 10 = 2nd level, 11 = 3rd, 12 = 4th, 13 = 5th, 14 = 6th, 15 = 7th, 16 = 8th, 17 = 8th, 18 = 9th and 19 = 10th level spells (which almost no one can cast). This stat can't be raised (of course NPC's don't really get stat increase but such is life)
Magical ability is rated on a letter scale indcating a mages potential power (not necessarily what they're able to cast but a A rank mage will eventually be able to cast X level spells. Incidently this power remains constant from birth a mage just gets better at using it and is able to cast more powerful spells for less energy. This means for incantations the power that can be gained from another mage is determined by your level and their rank because your using your skill to tap their reserves).
So we get the following scale E = Cantrips, D = 1st, C = 2nd, B = 3rd, A = 4th, AA = 5th, AA = 6th, S = 7th, SS = 8th and SSS = 9th level spells. There's also an E rating for GM picked characers who are born with magical energy but lack the ability to tap it (magical ability of 7 or less). Or if you use a 3d6 and drop the lowest system then there would be quite a few E ranked magic users.
If your using the optional spell points (rather than memorized spells) system then you can also adopt the following. Roll 1d6 on a 1 or 2 the mage is less powerful than normal, on a 3 or 4 of normal strength (i.e by the rules spell points) and on a 5 or 6 they're more powerful than normal. For those less powerful than normal roll a D% and multiply the normal spell points by that amount e.g. 50% is .5 * Spellpoints. For those more powerful than normal Add D% to their strength e.g. 1.5 * Spellpoints. This gives your magic users a range of power from 1% of normal up to 200% of normal. I wouldn't recommend implementing this one for player characters though (at least not without talking to them).
To give an indication of this add a + or - ranking to their letter ranking. -- = 1-20% of normal strength, - = 21-79% of normal strength, normal = 80-120% of rulebooks spellpoints, + = 121-179% of normal strength and ++ = 180-200% of normal strength. So a SSS+ mage would potentially be able to cast 9th level spells and have 121-179% of the rulebooks spellpoints to draw on for their current level and yes I do have a system to indicate what a mage is actually able to cast (for which I'm using a skill based system) but this post has gone on long enough and I'm running late for an appointment.
Long story short magic does tend to run in bloodlines although its not 100% certain. I imagine magical accademies would have lots of intake options for those who lack the money (probably at a slightly inflated price like our universities do for overseas students) because if they stick it out they're going to have no problems repaying that money.
EDIT
For some strange reason I'm not bothered by the person preparing the food handling it just the idea of someone else touching it afterwards. Not to mention the amount of damage that handling would do to my pizza.
EDIT 2
Another option for stat generation is the inheretited score (Parent A + Parent B) Divided by 2 = X, roll 2d6 and on a 2 its X - 4, 3 = X - 2, 4 and 5 = X - 1, 6 to 8 = X, 9 and 10 = X + 1, 11 = X + 2 and 12 = X + 4. Of course this method means in a large population where magic users tend not to necessarily marry each other it would get bred out of the population. Plus you have the issue of 18 score mages having a potential 22 score magic user. Although this does offer the possibility of mages with a score of 19+ in magical abilty being able to cast epic spells and being the ones who have a problem with magical effects happening by themselves (weird lights and sounds, safefall occuring when trying to bungee jump etc) till they learn control.
A parent has a magic score of 10, this because they have a pair of chromosomes that add up to 10, but it might be 5 and 5 or 1 and 9.
The child gets one from each parent, so if one parent has a set of 1 and 9, and the other parent has a set of 4 and 6, the child could get the low score of 5 or the high score of 15. Make a rule like a score must be at least 5 to do anyhing magical, and roll 2d10 for the individual, OR, roll 2d10 for each parent (or score -1d10 if you need to establish a parent at some rank of magic for storyline purposes) and then roll two die, (differentiate with color or type) even you get the high chromosome odd you get the low. I think this would be an interesting system, it would make the 'mudanes' able to at least occasionally produce offspring who are decent at magic, and it would allow regular magic users to have a chance of a nonmagical child. Of course, the highly magical (score 15+) would always create a child that is at least somewhat magical, but I suspect the potenial scorn of a 15 and a 15 producing just a 10 would be about the same as a 10 and a 10 producing a 'mudane'
it also brings in the angle of possibly kidnapping highly magical individuals and forcing them into marrage, illicit affairs revealed by the lack or potency of magic, etc etc
Parent A is Joe Everyguy and has a magical chromosomes of X = 7 and Y =2 for a score of 9 but wasn't interested in learning magic.
Parent B is Mary Mightmage and has a magical chromosmes of X = 8 and Y = 6 (probably should have used different letters but oh well) for a score of 14.
They fall in love, get married and have a child.
Said child inherits a chromsome from each parent. From Joe he rolls a yellow d10 getting 10 (even) getting Joe's high one X = 7 and from Mary he rolls a blue d10 getting 7 (odd) and gets her low one of 6 giving him a set of chromosomes X = 7 and Y = 6 for a score of 13 slightly less than his mother.
A little later they have a 2nd child who rolls a yellow d10 for Joe getting a 4 (even) also inheriting his high one for X = 7 and from Mary she rolls a blue d10 getting 2 (also even) leaving her with a score of X = 7 and Y = 8 or X = 8 and Y = 7 for a total of 15 slightly more than her mother.
In a high magic campaign, magic is common and is used by many people. It is sort of a D&D world with 1000 years of technological development thrown in.
(ie: Cast a Deadly Spell)
In a low magic world; Magic is rare, but real. Those capable of using it are an elite few. (ie: The Dresden Files and Bewitched)
In a Rare magic world; Magic works, but 99% of the population has no idea that it exists. (ie: The X-Files and Supernatural
Another factor to consider is the "cost" of magic.
Using the "Law of Equivalent Exchange" can limit the abuse of magic in a campaign. It could cost hit points for casters to fire off spells, or powerful magic such as "Raise Dead" might require a human sacrifice to replace the life that was restored.
That said, here are a few spell ideas:
Circle of Privacy: Creates a 10ft circle around the caster. anyone within the circle can hear everthing said or done within the circle, but can't hear anything outside. Also anyone outside of the circle cannot hear what happens in the circle.
No Signal: This spell prevents all radio signals within 100 yards of the caster. This includes cell phones.
Transmute Sugar to Salt: A low level prank spell, very annoying.