High Magic Settings in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM

[@WebDM]

Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Get our podcast here: www.patreon.com/webdm

[@theovance976]

Hey where you get your dm screen at?

[@maddoctorscientist9472]

Any chance of adding subtitles to the videos?

[@joshray3855]

"And the Court Magician contacts other plane every day to ask when the monarch is gonna die." Day 63: "We got our response from the other side, Your Majesty. They say, 'if you ask me again, it's going to be right F***in' now..."

[@phizzhead53]

Thats funny as hell

[@tylerhilpisch7850]

Funny as hell and would be a fun adventure

[@Erebus2075]

lol. that would be a gm with the finger on the pulse :P

[@Zomboinie]

"You might have a very individualistic society that sees their access to magic and what they can do with it as the pinnacle of existence" "The right to cast spells shall not be infringed."

[@charlesmayes7020]

Food production skyrockets, average lifespan is hugely extended, low level jobs are largely nonexistent, population centers expand explosively. We get multidimensional Coruscant with bastions of nature (Feywild) for druids and such .

[@baltsosser]

Population is so high there are settlements on ground, low level off the ground, and floating higher as you get into the more wealthy settlements with the great view. Sounds like a fantastic world to go explore.

[@zomtron]

V Star 1300 Adventures *Shaaaaaaarn*

[@narcozero8410]

Sounds pretty much like a Ravnican world to me :)

[@RobertP.Trebor]

or... constant threat from rogue wizards and mystical kaiju's

[@AIWARAS619]

Edgy teenagers summoning fiends and devils....

[@Choomy8542]

I mean Goodberry by itself solves world hunger

[@JPruinc]

This is true! If enough low level casters focused their efforts...

[@stuartharam1742]

Same could be said for cleanse/purify food and drink, it's gone bad? No problem let me fix that for you. Clerics and Druids are MVP for solving world hunger, but you never see them doing so in a D&D setting, may have to gm a world like that - it's expected if you play that class that you help if you're good/neutral aligned, evil would have another motive but maybe still do it; perhaps for indentured service. If you do that mages must have a role in society, preferably against the norm of a nation of their own. Thanks for getting me started..... now it won't stop XD bye-bye sleep

[@stuartharam1742]

Maybe the reverse would be fun, where it's a dystopia and the magic users are the ones who rebel to make life better for others. Helping the oppressed in a shelter in a safe zone, avoiding capture or oppression. Think 1984 but with people who can make that difference.

[@bluelionsage99]

Until the mean DM (read...me) rules that you can only survive on Goodberries for about a month before a lack of some nutrients gets you.

[@ivaldi13]

Not all mages have the same ethics and motivations. Going around the world and feeding everyone prevents mages from spending time learning better spells to make bigger differences. Some have tried this before, but what it ended up doing was creating a culture that took magical food for granted, so some industries were dying, economic ramifications occurred, people were unappreciative, and some helpful mages were killed in order to prevent them from modifying the world like that any more. You have ways to make hunger and disease still an issue in a high magic setting. You just have to be thoughtful about it.

[@emessar]

I actually like the idea of Dark Sun being Eberron after the magical cataclysm.

[@macpurdy]

This is exactly what I was thinking.

[@travisbloom2226]

When I heard their description of an order of mages used by the government I immediately thought of State Alchemists from FMA/B. That would make an awesome setting for a campaign.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

In my homebrew setting all State Troops (read: special forces) get mandatory wizard training, because it's one thing to flashbang a room before you breach, it's another thing entirely to Deeper Darkness a room and pick off targets through Detect Thoughts.

[@tylerhilpisch7850]

Or a warlock based secret police would be terrifying with silence/darkness and dark vision

[@Daszkal]

"The sword of Damocles" anecdotal reference game is on point today, lol. great show guys ^_^

[@JPruinc]

DRESDEN!!!!

[@NightWatchersPet]

"Don't want to have to deal with the white council"... Yes!

[@JPruinc]

NightWatchersPet damn straight! Bunch of pretentious A-holes!!!

[@Jpteryx]

I like the idea of a high-fantasy setting where sorcerers are the dominant spellcasters, forming a sort of oligarchic regime based on heredity. In this kind of 'sorcerarchy' setting, sorcerers basically would be nobles, and social rank might be dictated by how closely descended you are from a known sorcerer. And then there could be an underground resistance force of wizards, warlocks, and bards, trying to take down the sorcerous regime. As for divine spellcasters, they might be bound in loyalty to the sorcerers, controlled closely to prevent them from becoming more powerful.

[@PfcSoup]

Sounds kind of like the Tevinter Imperium from Dragon Age. Although in Dragon Age all mages are born with magic so you cant really learn it, you either have it or you dont.

[@samwilliams6820]

Pretty awesome, though balance wise Wizards are waaaay more powerful, especially in higher levels because -more spells known -wizard exclusive spells are amazing

[@Jpteryx]

That may be, but in a world where a wizardly education is very hard to come by, sorcerers will have the advantage of greater numbers and higher spellcaster level than the wizards.

[@Draeckon]

See, I imagine a setting that's the opposite of this - where Wizards or Warlocks rule the roost in a nation and Sorcerers are the ones having to go underground. Rank in society is determined by your family's ability to afford the costly lessons and components, not to mention the sheer amount of time it takes to advance in magic - maybe even to the point that if your servants know a little magic (emphasis on _a little_ like, maybe a cantrip or two and a couple 1st-level spells) you're just like 'I can't even hold all this magic.' Noble families aggressively seek out and try to buy out any magic tutors they can (especially elves, if they have wizards) either still out on the market or else stealing them (or assassinating them, a last resort) from their rivals. Sorcerers and Warlocks would be anathema to such a society, since they don't need tutors to grow or pass on their power, which makes them exceedingly dangerous. But likewise, Sorcerers are a threat that can be stopped fairly quickly, especially if eliminated early (and hence why they would _have_ to go underground to survive) before they can spread their bloodline powers. I feel like a society of Sorcerers just wouldn't last unless the secrets of wizardry and warlocks were lost somehow for a long, long time - long enough for the sorcerous lines to propagate to the point of being able to remain stable. Putting an end to a sorcerous line is just a lot easier, since you can either assassinate the existing sorcerers (or their offspring while they're young and weak) and/or else render them such that they can no longer have children. Whereas wizards and warlocks don't have that offspring restriction - they can just find an apprentice or whatever to teach their ways to them. Especially if it's a setting that has a god of knowledge or arcane traditions would take steps to ensure wizards continue to exist (Warlocks go without mentioning, since any sufficiently powerful otherworldly entity can make one). Then again, I guess I am making a lot of assumptions about your setting. Maybe the secrets of Wizardry haven't been discovered, or whatever god or maybe even Fey creature that might teach it to the first mortals hasn't done it yet. Likewise, maybe no one has ever tried to reach out to otherworldly creatures for warlock powers or likewise, such beings either haven't taken an interest in the material realm or maybe _couldn't_ do it for some reason that may have changed recently. Having a Sorcerer-only magic society would make more sense in that kind of context.

[@FelineElaj]

Akav Akaku I’ve had a similar idea recently, and made a character based on it. He’s a descendant of a noble house of sorcerers, but he inherited no gift. As a result, he has been mocked and ostracized by his peers; additionally, he has had no claim to any land or part of the estate. So he had to learn magic the hard way and turned to the life of an adventurer to make a living. His dread is to make magic available to everyone. This is bound to have some negative consequences, but he does not care, he’s obsessed with this idea.

[@Jcj_jos]

Something I used in my homebrew world to counteract the high level magic dudes basically running everything was adding a guild of mage killers. Kind of like making nukes to discourage someone else from using nukes.

[@Mentiac]

I've been working on a magical floating city that looks like a Utopia of magic and technology. In the city the techs and mages are competing with each other to keep the city afloat solely based on one way over another. A civil war is inciting and could, if not handled quickly, cause the city to crash back to the Earth or Ocean.

[@noneofyourebusiness7302]

Lawrence Salcido that sounds awesome.

[@stuartharam1742]

Have you heard of the PC game Silverfall? It has something similar, going with a heavy Tolkein base of Nature vs industry and the world evolves based on the players choices. Reproducing something similar for tabletop sounds great, best of luck to you

[@AGrumpyPanda]

See, I've always found the magic vs technology thing to be a bit of a false dichotomy, because technology can use magic. At the end of the day, the combustion engine in your car just spins a rod around at high speeds, so why couldn't you have an 'engine' that consists of a magic gear enchanted to turn quickly and with great force on command?

[@terryfan15]

+AGrumpyPanda I actually don´t think that technology and magic would compete, because especially in high-magic settings magic basicly becomes just another kind technology. So unless you have science-fantasy and go the "Shaddowrun" route where you say that having technology in you makes you worse at casting spells there is no reason why they should compete. However: I do think that having magic as a very convinient solution for most things would make people less interested in developing new technologies. People are convenient and mostly came up with new technology to make some part of life easier. So if magic could solve the problem, why bother with chemistry, steam, and gears?

[@alexmccullough1961]

This episode was lit

[@GreyTide]

Top Comment.

[@SpaceTrump]

Beat me by 54 seconds. :| You win this time Alex.

[@finnianquail8881]

Alex McCullough ayy

[@bAd12cheZ]

Alex McCullough Dope.

[@JPruinc]

LIT AF

[@iBloodxHunter]

Trench warfare is the natural evolution of a high magic setting.

[@Nothingineternity]

Cloudkill and fireball would lead to battlefields being absolute hellscapes

[@kingmasterlord]

"I cast Mass Blight."

[@deadcraft223]

Just want to go out and say that this is one of my favorite episodes you guys have done. My head is churning with high-magic setting ideas and plot hooks. Thank you for brightening my Wednesday with some good D&D thought-provocation.

[@therocketboost]

The teleport network idea is really making me want a Simpsons-monorail style huckster schilling a scheme that ends up incredibly dangerous. “I've built teleport circles from Broadwaye to Olde Haverbrook!”

[@defeatstatistics7413]

"There ain't no teleportation circles, and there never was!" *pulls down shutter on Teleport Cafe*

[@LokNWykLeer]

4d20 blaze damage!

[@JPruinc]

Constitution save or Cough for 1 min.

[@jacopobertolotti5025]

Isn't Planescape the quintessential high magic setting for D&D? Also: Discworld is a setting where magic is essentially everywhere, and the job of wizard is to NOT do magic, because it is way too dangerous.

[@chrisbridges4885]

Discworld is so cool. It would be hard to integrate that into a D&D setting though

[@hipsterbrigadier9428]

I think one of my fave discworld scenes is in one of the witches books. Granny Weatherwax asks a young witch to knock her hat off and she tries to do it with magic, then she asks nanny Ogg to do it and she just picks up a rock and throws it at the hat. That lesson of “magic isn’t for everything” is pretty prevalent

[@rsl5067]

"Maybe you try to make all magic universities free tuition so that you can have a more skilled workforce and continue your great society OR you can just let them twist in the wind, and what about healthcare?" PRUITT 2020

[@JPruinc]

"PRUITT CAN DO IT!"

[@zemorph42]

"My fellow Americans, ready your character sheets!"

[@alexanderchippel]

Yeah we should do that in the real world. All we need to do is make magic real. Somehow.

[@LemanRussVanquisher]

Any chance we could see a video on low magic settings. Like REALLY low magic, maybe where the PCs are some of the only magic users around.

[@Licjr]

Bjørn Windlover Game of Thrones is a great example of a low-magic setting. Even weak magical items are treasured heirlooms that are found only in the most ancient and wealthy of families (the Valyrian steel swords). Any magic, regardless of how strong it is, is a huge deal for everyone in it's vicinity (Bran and Melisandre). And when a being or threat of a magical nature rears its head (the dragons or the White Walkers), people LOSE THEIR FUCKING MINDS, pardon my French

[@kingdom99hearts]

The question is are there still trolls and giants and dragons or Low magic as in just Humans and Animals?

[@Licjr]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand I imagine trolls and giants would still be around, since they can be brought down without magic (albeit with more difficulty, especially with trolls). Dragons would have to be rare if they were there at all, since they resist non magical weapons. Maybe the few dragons that are around are worshipped as gods, or noble houses seek them out to make alliances with them because they're nearly unstoppable

[@kingdom99hearts]

It could work but I think youd have to talk to the players and explain you cant be mages, otherwise the power imbalance would be to great. But it could be done, youd want alternatives to magic weapons and instead have Mithral Adamantine Onyx and other materials be made into weapons to still have the rare ass weapons and cool equipment. But it could work yeah.

[@KyleMaxwell]

Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit) is pretty low-magic when you look closely. Magic exists, but very few people have access to it or have even seen it.

[@mathayusaggripa1437]

Full Metal Alchemist on steroids basically.

[@pmk108]

that intro was great

[@JPruinc]

I don't really remember it...

[@2hotyscotty13]

Favorite opening of all your videos.

[@bigbluenote1010320]

They always talk about Ebberon but I'm really excited to hear more about Dark Sun from them. Could you do an episoide on what you guys would want in a 5e Dark Sun campaign?

[@Harrow_the_Ninth]

Extra-long WebDM let's go

[@Utkarsh2811]

I absolutely loved this episode. I would even go so far as to say this is probably the best episode of WebDM I have ever watched! And it really amazes me to see how deeply you guys think about everything D&D and how much you simply remember by heart.

[@the_rose_garden01]

I'm working on a super high magic campaign. Every aspect of life is affected by it. Agriculture, medicine, travel, combat, law, all of it. It's so common that everyone knows at least one cantrip. Whether that be Firebolt for self defense, or Mage Hand to make work around the house easier, everyone has it. This video just gave me a huge amount of inspiration.

[@NineBreakertwo]

Check out the 3.0/3.5 Tippyverse

[@Nolinquisitor]

In a Zone of Truth trial, if everyone keeps making their Wisdom saving throws... I'd say we would have a problem. LOL

[@indan]

Nolinquisitor Wisdom reducing handcuffs

[@triplecastsleep1924]

Wisdom reducing blows to the back of the head. Still, the spell does say that the caster knows if the person makes their saving throw so they'd probably see people making their saves (you can choose to fail) as a sign of guilt - like repeatedly pleading the fifth.

[@danjal87nl]

Magic counters magic, so if Zone of Truth is a common trial method then organized crime has tools in place to deny it or manipulate it... Spells such as Compulsive Liar for example.

[@PapaBear_Gaming]

The caster knows when someone is unaffected or makes the save, also anybody can choose to fail a save, so everyone agrees to a signed document that everybody present chooses to fail a will save vs the zone of truth spell and done.

[@Bluecho4]

Of course, if organized crime starts trying to subvert the Zone of Truth, the courts are going to bring in minor wizards (or even Wizard Initiates) to Ritual cast Detect Magic. Them detecting any magic _other_ than Zone of Truth will be considered as proof of duplicity.

[@thesupermikey]

Jim giving up on the intro bit's premise part way through is amazing.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

That wasn't him giving up, that was him staying in character as a mindless stoner.

[@joshuaowens2418]

Jim's on Indica and Pruitt is on sativa

[@dravencallisto]

This has got to be the best video I've seen from you guys yet. My DM agrees as well, she is constructing her own setting and this gave her so much more to expound upon that none of us really thought to include and will make our setting that much more complete.

[@CrazyConnor2]

This is less "High magic setting" and more "How magic effects society". Very informative!

[@RafaelElectronic]

This was a brilliant video that made me truly reconsider what I thought I knew about fantasy worldbuilding, thank you so much

[@chrishandy9172]

There is a wizard in my campaign that my players hired who can magically create pizza.

[@finnianquail8881]

The most useful use of magic...

[@ryaneftink7364]

Christopher Handy-Honeycutt Aye, but what kind of pizza?

[@Arrowstorm122]

Hawaiian pizza. He's chaotic evil.

[@finnianquail8881]

Arrowstorm122 *lawful good

[@justinharrell1389]

Finnian Quail *Chaotic Good

[@lukegood8802]

19:50 My Favourite D&D setting, glad you fellas talked about it

[@thechaotimagnet]

I truly think this is the best web dm episode thus far.

[@JPruinc]

Chaotic D&D that's high praise for High Magic!

[@TheMatloch]

This channel literally fucking gold. Go enjoy your what a burgers, you guys fucking deserve that shit.

[@jimdavis141]

TheMatloch thanks! This was one of my fav videos to shoot!

[@DynamoNED]

For a great template of how a high-magic society would function, take a look at Cormyr, particularly from Volo's Guide to Cormyr from AD&D. The Purple Dragons, The College of War Wizards, and the Royal Family all are intertwined and are both dependent on and suspicious of each other. Lots of fun to be had!

[@johnfoerster9853]

This channel is the highlight of my Wednesdays and deserves so much more exposure

[@morganfurnas4242]

I think exandria is the 5e setting like eberron was the 3e setting. It was created by one person, and it subverts some fantasy expectations. It also adds dunamancy to the game. I don't know how well it specifically applies the 5th edition rule set, but it definitely speaks to the widening popularity of D&D through podcasts like crtical role since 2014.

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

In 3.5, the DM guide had a city/town generator where you could create your settlements from the ground up. For a large city (aprox 18,500 souls) , you have like 72% of having at least one magical power center (be it a cleric temple, a wizard guild or a wizardking). Most likely, you had around 45 wizards (and 45 sor/cle/war/bad) and he highest level wizard was around level 12 (then you have level 6, level 3 and level 1 making the most of them). So you have around 12 super-powered players (not counting the bards here) that can do crazy shenanigans, 24 very dangerous guys (they can throw fireballs, fly around, animate dead, heal crowds...) and 144 guys that well, they can cast cantrips and level 1 spells from whatever power they draw. Also in 3.5 you had a NPC class called the ADEPT, that was like a mix between (wiz/cle/dru) and not much powerfull, but they are normally the "GO TO" for the commoners and un-initiated alike, as they could also make potions/scrolls/etc. I think that for Sharn (Eberron-the city of towers), Baker used a similar guideline for making the city so we can say this is a pretty good example of what high-magic city would be like... you also have metropolis, but that's kind of a stretch, Sigil would be a planar metropolis... in a material plane? maybe Waterdeep?

[@DurdleDers]

As a stoner I approve of this intro. Well played boys. Clicked to get advice for my magic city homebrew and got a little extra. This is why I come to Web DM....Well, both reasons.

[@peacecorenathan556]

Watching this back, high magic campaigns seem to be more Early Modern/Enlightenment thematic campaigns rather than classical/medieval. It could honestly be something along the lines of the American/French/Latin American revolutions of the enlightenment, but the magic rather than technology or philosophy becomes the driving force. Even then, magic itself could be a branch of philosophy with Bard Voltaire or Cleric Rousseau and the like.

[@michaelmorey3110]

While you brought up the ramifications of a plague, I thought back to the storyline of Neverwinter Nights where the plague was actually being spread by the priests (who were actually murdered and replaced by evil priests). You also need to take into account the number of evil gods and their followers.

[@cartermullen2531]

This video solidified many ideas that I had for a new setting. I loved it.

[@misomiso8228]

Listening to you talking about Dark Sun, it would be quite fun if you went through EVERY DnD world created, and give a review / history / low down of each one, as well as how big an impact it had on the comunity. The old Mystara setting with the Gazetteers is an unsung goldie imo!

[@jelio123456]

Fertility and contraceptive cantrips! Love it, need to add those to my games.

[@whiskeyhound]

Now I'm just picturing a higher level spell that causes impotency that can't be fixed by normal means, which would be perfect to blackmail royalty with.

[@brittisaacrossman]

Excellent points, boys! Thanks for this and the low magic vids - you've certainly provided lots to chew on!

[@reidtaylor3037]

Every Wednesday is made better because of you guys! Keep it up!

[@JPruinc]

Every Wednesday is made better by comments like this from you guys! Keep it up!

[@nazgulpenguin]

a great resource for high magic settings are the magic the gathering planes (sets), personal favorites are Dominaria and Ravnica , there are novels in those settings of varying quality buy some interesting ideas for societies living with magic everywhere.

[@jimdavis141]

nazgulpenguin the Planeshift series has been great so far.

[@alasdairgoudie9459]

420 Mage it. (Sorry.)

[@DamascoGamer]

Don't be sorry.

[@conradkorbol]

DamascoGamer he is Canadian. It's physically impossible to not apologize

[@alasdairgoudie9459]

I'm British. Moron. (I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, you're not a moron, you're probably a very nice person)

[@conradkorbol]

Alasdair Goudie haha no, I am American. I am just average for an American. I figured ou weren't Canadian, but I wanted to make a joke about the Canadian racial feature of having to apologize. They also get the feature of their banks never crash so it's a trade off

[@alasdairgoudie9459]

Canadian: DnD Wiki Edition +2 to Charisma, +1 to Con. Darkvision. Due to many years peaceful habitation in the dense maple forests, you can see in dim light as if it were daylight, and darkness as if it were dim light, for a range of up to 60 feet. Aggressive Politeness. Whenever an opponent makes an attack roll against you, they must make a Charisma saving throw, or be affected by the spell 'Calm Emotions'. Similarly, you may cast 'Calm Emotions' at will as an action, such is your natural diplomacy. Single-Payer Healthcare. You automatically heal yourself of any disease or illness whenever you make a long rest, as long as you pay 10% of your current income to a body of legislative government once per month. Similarly, when you roll hit dice on a short or long rest, Free Education. You gain expertise in any one skill, and either fluency in any one language or proficiency in any set of artisan's tools, as part of your glorious state-funded college experience. Cultural Sensitivity. You have disadvantage when making Deception checks against any creature whose alignment is not any form of Evil, and may not attack any being that has not attacked you first.

[@benroberts7641]

When you watching in 2020 and they start talking about plagues.

[@TimdeVisser86]

I absolutely love your worldbuilding excersizes. It's such good speculative fiction.

[@Mrdest211]

The prevalence of magic depends on the number of spellcasters in your setting. I remember that 3rd edition had a table with the number of NPC with adventurer classes in a given city depending on its population. I remember that the first time I used the table, I was shocked by how few NPCs above, say, level 3 there were in a relatively big city. I remember then thinking that it sort of had to be that way, otherwise, societies would orbit around these powerful people. If your city had hundreds of lvl 10 fighters, the city guard would be completely useless, especially if you then add other NPCs with even more powerful classes. A high fantasy setting depends on these higher numbers, otherwise, you don't have the spellcasting "human resources" to run the magic. Want your city to have magic street lights? Those Light spells need to come from someone and that person is bringing a rare skill to the city. If you boost the number of spellcasters that live in cities, that affects your campaign. Suddenly, your level 1 party is nothing special. Why would they get the quests to kill the goblins where there's maybe hundreds of level 3 adventurers just faffing about town?

[@yannickdellaert1616]

My Web DM addiction has been fixed. Can't wait to get high again next week

[@JPruinc]

So blunt are our fans with their loyalty.

[@patrickhenry6695]

JPruInc so LIFTED their spirits

[@Pacier]

On the point of teleportation circles there could be a Constantinople of Magical Ley Lines that basically makes it the place where most if not all magical circles lead so it becomes a massive trade hub either by just people come through it, pay a small fee, then teleport to a place that they otherwise wouldn't be able to go or they come to that city to trade because they know so many goods and merchants move through that city.

[@patrickjude2737]

I'm thinking of a high magic setting of a continent split into 10 kingdoms. In 8 of the kingdoms, magic above 2nd level doesn't work unless its the specific school of magic attuned to that kingdom ( divination, evocation, etc) . In the 9th kingdom, no magic works. And in the 10th kingdom, all magic works.

[@df6597]

Don't forget Tenser's Floating Disk for commerce and trade. I envision magic taking the place of technology. Forklifts, pallets? Tenser's Floating Disk. Another thing to really think about is how some of these spells might have evolved given how common they have become. The original Floating Disk, for example, has limitations. Maybe a user needed a bigger disk, or one that can hold more weight, that lasts longer, moves faster, can move higher vertically, or all of the above. In a high magic setting, I would find a way to take this into account. On the other side of the coin, some spells could be toned down to become more useful in an everyday sort of setting. Some force or water magic could make to hot and cold water, and plumbing available in every home. I would personally tap into the elemental plane of water for this, because it could create some interesting opportunities for story lines for any party level. Maybe the magical screen fails and elementals get through, or maybe the denizens of that plane figure out what's going on and plug the portal. Damnit, some high fantasy sounds like a lot of fun. I wish I could get some of the guys back into this again.

[@mbalazs3544]

0:34 Fun, Normal, the reason I started role playing and do so to begin with, love :D

[@dennisillustration]

This was a real interesting one guys, gave me some great ideas for tweaking the world Im building for my players. As always really appreciate the different ways of looking at the source material & the inspiration to create something new and interesting!

[@AD-en5dq]

I wish I even had a 1/10 of your imagination my God are you guys the most creatively stimulating people I have ever had the pleasure to watch

[@cork1576]

KZbin!!!! Why didn't you deliver this tasty video to my feed?! My Wednesday withdrawals kicked in and I had to go looking for this week's vid!

[@N8Dawgg314]

That was such a good episode. I cant wait for my players to be high enough level to introduce them to stealth-based magical spec-ops

[@erichobbs4042]

Jim: "You open the chest and discover a large green glass cylinder with a small stem on one end and a slightly larger opening on the other. There is also a small hole in the tube about halfway up the cylinder." Pruit: "Umm Ok, well I cast identify on it." Jim: "You have discovered that you are in possession of a +420 Bong of Bountiful Funyuns." Pruit:"Mmmmmm Funyuns...."

[@zaneearldufour]

I would love for you guys to put this show out as a podcast. Great episode!!!

[@g3xe49]

Pruitt you're awesome. Can't believe we have a head of the EPA dirty-ing your honorable name!

[@tonycruz4327]

A good example of this kind of world when it comes to warfare is the series of 'The Book of the Fallen, A Malazan Story' by Steven Ericson. In it high powered casters have to contend with the other side casters countering their spells and the battle is decided pretty much by how's casters can last the longer.

[@nickwilliams8302]

You would expect societies in a high magic setting that persecuted all magic users to be less successful than societies that found some way of integrating magic users. A kingdom that burns witches at the stake is going to a) have more than a few internal problems with magic users who are less than thrilled with this practice (perhaps the mages eventually seize power in an act of self-defence) and b) be at a significant disadvantage in any conflict that comes up with its neighbours. It doesn't have to be uniform though. One could imagine a society that was fine with clerics and wizards (and had institutions devoted to training them and regulating their activities), but was less accepting of druids and sorcerers (less susceptible to organisation and control), while warlocks were actively persecuted. Perhaps a society that is more open-slather regarding magic, but enforces a kind of "separation of spell and state". Noble families would often want at least one child trained up in magic use, but magic users can't inherit the title and lands. The army contracts with the wizard's guild for spellcasters, but mages can't actually join and become officers. One could see the primary official role of arcane spellcasters in law and government being to prevent law and government from being affected by arcane magic.

[@take1andpassiton]

well done gentlemen

[@JPruinc]

take1andpassiton Appreciate the support.

[@mbalazs3544]

7:12 definitely zone of trough everywhere if its my city :D

[@brycenerdstrom567]

Eberron actually works even better in 4e, where many things Eberron tries to work around are changed to work more like they do in Eberron. 5e should be a pretty easy translation, as well, just with different assumptions about common/minor magic items.

[@misomiso8228]

Magic is actually one of the hardest things to get right to keep settings coherent imo. If you are trying to make this ACTUALLY work, good DMs need to have thought magic out so they have some kind of idea what is going on. 1. Dragonlance deals with Magic in a great way (Towers of High Sorcery and NO or VERY RARE Cleric Magic). Best 2nd edition rendition of a world in general imo. 2. ‘The Guild’ in Gentleman’s Bastard series is a very cool concept. For DnD you would just need to add a few rebels / enemies (Warlocks, Sorcerors, Lich's) and you'd be golden. 3. Common low level magic (1st lev spells only), but RARE mid to high level is good, but you don't have to go full 'Steampunk' Eberron with trains etc if you don't want them. 4. ‘Magocracies’ (best example is Glantri in Mystara DnD), are surprisinginly fun and 'realistic'. 5. Wizards dealing with big world ending problems also allows for a lot of ‘normal’ conflict. One system that I find works well is to have a ‘low’ magic setting (a little bit more than Conan / LotR), but have a lot of magic items as relics of ancient Empires, but NOT have magic shops, except maybe ONE in the main city (diagon alley esc). For me the problem with Forgotten realms is that the Magic level went BONKERS. If in Thay you ONLY had Szass Tan and a few apprentices, instead of armies of Liches (!), then you could make the campaign work as having a few Arch Mages would spend their time watching each other (Elminster, the Manshoon etc), leaving the rest of world to manage itself.

[@teagan_p_999]

Ooh, lots to think about here. As a first-time GM, I'm excited to play with high-magic, and more than a little overwhelmed by its implications. Lots to think about. Lots to think about that the writers of the pregen adventures I have maybe didn't think about as much as I'd like to. We'll see. 1 in 10 people is a nice number, in the dualistic deity system I was roped into creating, as the prophecized conflict draws closer, lots to think about. Great video, woth the 40 min watch.

[@faviankennedy7171]

sociology of magic 440. Absolutely, amazing coverage looking at the impact on social institutions and social arrangements.

[@Omnocolist]

One thing I've tried is remind the players of what time of day it is after every action that may take some time. That helps pace newer players and keep them from forgetting to camp and renew health/ spells. It also gives consequence for every actions, no matter how mundane. It makes giving the players a 3 day limit on a quest actually have tangible urgency. I'm a fairly new GM however, so do you have any thoughts on strictly keeping time of day throughout the campaign?

[@myboy_]

One of your best episodes. Inspired me a whole lot!

[@Camtrain1989]

This was a great episode! I offer this: we, right now, actually live in this high magic society. Think of how our technology has vastly improved our quality of life, but has also come at physiological and psychological/psychosocial costs. Loved this ep

[@Camtrain1989]

Also, Jim said "pervasive" 7,369 times. In case you were wondering xo

[@miscellaneousshadow7452]

Did you guys ever make a low fanasty, or dark fantasy, etc. Video. I am in need of one right now.

[@primecheese1199]

This episode is giving so many ideas for my next campaign

[@OlinNiord]

As soon as you mention "magic dystopia" my brain goes "Dark Sun."

[@halifaxsteppenwulf7980]

What about druids and Goodberry? A single 3rd level Druid, not a 3rd level spellcaster, but just regular 3rd level could feed 60 people for an entire day and all they'd need is a sprig of mistletoe. Is this a thing in big cities? Do they have convenience stores where you can pick up a goodberry for some copper or maybe a couple silver pieces for the adventurer on the go?

[@IAmTheStig32]

I imagine a really high magic setting would near-certainly be a kind of communist utopia as envisioned in Star Trek: nobody ever goes hungry because food and water can be cheaply and easily magicked up on the spot, nobody has to do menial work because jobs can be automated through magic, everyone has perfect health because healing magic is so available, even money as we understand it might not need to exist. The problem I think is this kind of world does not lend itself well to adventuring. There's a reason most D&D worlds are quite crapsack and most adventurers are homeless and broken individuals with little chance at normal life. However you could take another leaf out of Star Trek's book, and have adventurers be hired by the government and concerned with exploring and charting the planes of the multiverse. You could also have this high magic society face a Y2K-style magic crisis and suddenly have to find ways to procure food and treat sick people with conventional methods that haven't been in use for centuries. Those are just two ideas.

[@ZeroxTheNewt]

@@IAmTheStig32 I tend to rule that magical food of weaker levels just doesn't provide the nutritional value needed to survive. Sure, goodberry will "feed" you, but its like living off of only lettuce. At some point, you'll need protein or something. Magical food keeps you going but it wouldn't keep you healthy for prolonged periods.

[@syzyphyz]

Jim: *Teleports behind Pruit* "It's nothing personal kid" *SHNNNNNNNNNNNG*

[@academic0chris]

Birthright is a campaign setting that I would love to see done in 5E. It was very high Magic but with the AD& D sensibility. This fits 5E to a T

[@mageofmoltor]

But what if there is also an anti-magic social movement, that spreads rumors and fear-mongering about magically formed foods and magical healing?

[@mr.flibble3190]

"Cure Disease spells cause autism!"

[@tb12prophecy85]

I'm dealing with this now I'm my campaign. I'm a wizard and the best town for trade and stuff outlawed magic... Tragic

[@tb12prophecy85]

Advice? Planning on selling scrolls there. Figured get more bang for buck if they are outlawed haha wish me luck

[@NiLowther]

Now I'm curious how magical healing would affect immune systems. If you get chicken pox and have it magicked away would you have the immunity or would you just catch it again in a couple weeks?

[@JoelRiter]

NiLowther Assuming human biology works exactly the same, the body would potentially not have the time to create an appropriate immune response depending on the disease. On the other hand, you could potentially create magical vaccinations. It depends on the disease and biology. There is also the potential for a more extreme outbreak due to everyone having their diseases magically cured allowing for an unadvanced immune system. Like a parallel to real life, we over use antibiotics and sanitation where super viruses and infections are now possible so you could create an interesting campaign where a city was germ free due to healers but a disease had lived to become immune to normal magic so now a massive city is in ruins and your party needs to find a way to help. Or something.

[@jaycobhughes3932]

NiLowther course with magic being so prevalent there’s also a good chance you could throw in “magic” diseases, basically a normal disease that over time has adapted to be resistant or outright almost immune to magic, or directly target magic users and mutate to correspond to it lol

[@TheMimiSard]

Early in this video at 2:44 you mention the idea that all elves know at least a cantrip. I got an impression of something like that from a fantasy novels series, "The Black Jewels" by Anne Bishop. The fifth book - the first full book set after the main trilogy (book four was an anthology of four short stories) - highlighted it when the antagonist was someone who came into his Blood abilities as an adult and then discovered that Blood society viewed him as being practically disabled. So many tiny actions get magic used in them, turn on lights, turning them off, straightening clothing, hair, maintaining a modest hammerspace, using one's jewels as recording devices, destroying items by "vanishing" them - little actions like that. I have made mention before of a setting I have been building, called Nightlands - it is a high magic setting. The three main humanoid races are humans, Kessír - based on my POV of D&D elves - and Quendár - elves based on LotR. The Quendár in particular would be that sort of ubiquitous magic society, using small bits of magic for all sorts of random daily functions. Cooking alone would have lots of magic usage just to make it easier because before the existence of modern cooking appliances, there was a lot more hard work in grounding and mixing ingredients, not to mention stoves with no reliable heat controls. That's just a thought on the "everyone knows a cantrip" idea of ubiquitous minor magic in a culture.

[@TheMimiSard]

Mind you, I love what you say about a justice system using a "Zone of Truth" spell. It clarifies a nebulous idea I had for Nightlands justice. I am of the mind that it is however dependent on which race is available, with it needing a certain level of magic user to cast the like, plus governments have to keep control of them.

[@TheMimiSard]

Also, on teleportation for commerce - I already had the idea of a permanent portal system that is the public transit system for the northern Nightlands. It is run by the Quendár who decided to make it available as a way of making themselves indispensable as humans were expanding. The portals can only be reliably run by the Quendár, so none of the other humanoid races could take the system away from them (there are a few other high-level races who would be able to, but they are non-humanoids like unicorns, dragons and phoenixes and all of them prefer to live in wildlands) but they offset their monopoly by only asking small fees for it's usage. One of the biggest side effects of this is every town with a portal hub will have at least one Quendár family residing there, to run the hub. The Quendár also use portals for other purposes, like plumbing that doesn't need pipes being put through walls and floors, heating and cooling, even mass filtering where a portal separates stuff put into it and deposits the components in different storage containers.

[@whiskeyhound]

Theres the obvious question of abuse of that portal ability, what stops a rogue Quendár from robbing businesses, disrupting existing portals by redirecting them or becoming an evil overlord that can just drop an army wherever he wants?

[@blakebrockhaus347]

hey love the content. when you guys brought up a magical nuke It gave me the greatest idea. One or more spell casters could pour all of their remaining spell slots into one giant explosion that increases in both size an damage for each extra spell slot

[@Syrkyth]

Good stuff, though I have to take issue with the warfare thing. I see it as either warfare becoming more formal to minimize the slaughter of taxable labour, through wargames (i.e. Darksword) or formal battles (i.e. mourning wars of indigenous peoples or some version of counting coup) or each side is effectively equipped with the same sorts of offense and defense. In a high magic setting the borders and number of nations would become static real quick as the nations with less magical might available to them would either succumb or ally with others, creating a situation similar to the Cold War. Wizards and clerics wouldn't be the nukes, but rather would be facing off against the enemy of a similar strength, similar counters. They become magical James Bonds or Chuck Norris' or John Rambos. Sure they can switch on the meatgrinder mode at will but they have better things to do. As an aside, my favourite high magic settings are Wheel of Time (Aes Sedai) and Forgotten Realms (Netheril, Halruaa and Thay-pre-Szas Tam). The Wheel of Time series regiments "magic" in ways that aren't too abusive (at first) and also show the terrible outcome of too much magic and over regulation (The Seanchan). The FR kingdoms and periods are extremely high magic but manage to exist alongside lesser kingdoms because of either regional rivals of similar power or disinterest in ruling other regions due to learning from their history/past mistakes. /ramble over

[@defeatstatistics7413]

I had a wizard who theorized that the Weave is actually spacetime, so just the act of walking across a room is changing the state of the Weave, so everyone is technically doing magic all the time just by existing. That was a fun character to play.

[@tnegras99]

Love this episode! I also recommend Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike for what a high, commonplace magic setting would be like, especially one where adventuring/questing is still prevalent

[@greengenes5129]

A lodge of sorceresses trying to control the kings of the north is a great premise.

[@Ankudamurderer]

Hey Web DM I've been getting this question with an eerie frequency of late: What would a modern town festival carnival combo look like in DnD? You can picture one with all the basic facets, (Stalls, Vendors, Performances etc.) But what would carnival rides look like in a world without mechanization?

[@kynandesouza]

i freaking love your intros

[@pragmat1k]

I would love an adventure where literally everyone is a gish in some way. Paladins, Spellswords, Eldritch Knights, Arcane Tricksters, Arcane Archers, etc.. and that is just the world.

[@theanonymousmrgrape5911]

Amazing idea for a courtroom as a battle between powerful magic users for the hearts and minds of the judge and jury.

[@bluelionsage99]

In my campaign they had the Wizards War 300 years ago. WWMDs - Wizard Weapons of Mass Destruction - are occasionally found or rumored and there is a race to capture or neutralize them.

[@yellowbeard1]

Definitely not medieval but the intro to the most recent Drizzt book involves a bunch Gauntlgrym(sp?) holding the line to defend the people of the village of Bleeding Vines as they evacuate on a tram system. They have trams that utilize permanent reverse gravity spells in certain locations. Drizzt uses these spots to ambush demons who are not used to reverse gravity. Also the village has a druid who is the sommelier(sp?) because they produce a lot of really good wine. It's fantasy but it works. Also anyone who has read the Baldur's Gate Gazetteer knows that city is not medieval in any sense, with their unions, community self defense and a hotel literally filled with anarchist gnomes. Forgotten Realms has left the medieval period a long time ago and given how much time has passed in the setting and they have magic it honestly makes sense that people are making trams, guns and unions.

[@amosericson]

Thank You Guys!

[@SamuelBavido]

Best intro yet.

[@hunterfox6230]

The new zoom intro is magnifique!

[@mattdavis7975]

Looooved this episode, super interesting stuff.

[@lem0nion]

Ive always imagined warfare in a high magic setting to be entirely reliant on small elite groups of people, essentially equivalent to a large party of moderate to high level adventurers engaging in mostly special operations and subterfuge, or even epic 20 v 20 size duels in the middle of nowhere. Almost like Warhammer 40k, where a company of 100 Space Marines can be sent out to subjugate an entire planet.

[@KyleMaxwell]

Best intro yet. (And that's saying a lot for you two.)