bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2008-08-12 09:55 am
bluegargantua) wrote2008-08-12 09:55 am
Entry tags:
I'm Bob, the NPC Sage
Hi,
So there's an old saw about D&D where people point out that the magic-user can cast fireballs, cause earthquakes, summon horrific monsters, but doesn't really have anything like "build a shack", "ensure good crops", "dig a well" or any other spell that a local community would really have a need for. Basically, magic-users are walking bundles of barely contained destructive arcane energies and who really needs that? Clerics have more useful spells in this regard, but they've got a built-in framework to be part of a community. Wizards are better off in towers far away.
I was thinking about Ritual Spells in 4th. ed. Ritual spells are mostly spells of long duration and/or questionable utility. By way of example, one of the ritual spells is "magic mouth". There's been a lot of complaining that Rituals are taking all of the quirky "cool" spells while the magical powers the Wizard can actually use on the fly are all blaster-type spells good only for combat. But frankly, I'm OK with that -- most magic-users simply stock up on attack spells anyway. Are you really going to take Magic Mouth over Magic Missile?
Ritual spells also solve the early problem of a wizard's place in a community. Now a "wizard" can simply be a guy who's got the Ritual Caster feat and has a bunch of Rituals. The Rituals all do useful, community-oriented things. Without delving into dungeons, this guy can hang out a shingle and provide useful services. I think that's pretty neat.
later
Tom
So there's an old saw about D&D where people point out that the magic-user can cast fireballs, cause earthquakes, summon horrific monsters, but doesn't really have anything like "build a shack", "ensure good crops", "dig a well" or any other spell that a local community would really have a need for. Basically, magic-users are walking bundles of barely contained destructive arcane energies and who really needs that? Clerics have more useful spells in this regard, but they've got a built-in framework to be part of a community. Wizards are better off in towers far away.
I was thinking about Ritual Spells in 4th. ed. Ritual spells are mostly spells of long duration and/or questionable utility. By way of example, one of the ritual spells is "magic mouth". There's been a lot of complaining that Rituals are taking all of the quirky "cool" spells while the magical powers the Wizard can actually use on the fly are all blaster-type spells good only for combat. But frankly, I'm OK with that -- most magic-users simply stock up on attack spells anyway. Are you really going to take Magic Mouth over Magic Missile?
Ritual spells also solve the early problem of a wizard's place in a community. Now a "wizard" can simply be a guy who's got the Ritual Caster feat and has a bunch of Rituals. The Rituals all do useful, community-oriented things. Without delving into dungeons, this guy can hang out a shingle and provide useful services. I think that's pretty neat.
later
Tom
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(I mean, do you want a couple of Tensers floating disks, or some plate mail for the imperial guards?)
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"There are some economic difficulties, though... "
A club costs 1gp, there are a lot of economic difficulties in D&D.
later
Tom
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That stick you pick up off the ground-- improvised weapon.
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Baby.
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Actually, that's the trigger mechanism. The mouth basically plays back everything your mom said when I fired my magic missile into her.
heh
Tom
p.s. hi, Mikey's Mom!
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No, give Twitch a cow and she can make charcoal. That's a little different.
later
Tom
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So the idea of having a wizard hanging out a shingle on the basis of a ritual book and the Ritual Caster feat is not infeasible. You simply have to develop a set of rituals that are low-level enough that local communities will want them, and can afford them.
What becomes the framework or guiding principle of that set of rituals becomes more important, though. Duny/Ged/Sparrowhawk in A Wizard of Earthsea knows names to call hawks to his fist, and gather the goats, and so on. Will these work for the wizard in community? Maybe, maybe not.
Love rituals? More appropriate for the cleric.
Restful dead? again, cleric.
blessing fields? again cleric.
Warding community boundaries? That could work... defensive lines akin to building walls.
Educational illusions? Community entertainment... rituals that create the equivalent of classic movies broadcast onto the side of the village temple. Homer or the game-equivalent in 3-D?
Home economics? wards of preservation on root cellars or cheese caves or wine cellars?