Continuing with the prompts from d4 Caltrops’s d100 Table of Topics to Blog About, today’s is, 02 – Are Spellcasters Rare? Common? How do “Normal” People feel about them? I’m going to be splitting these sort of world building responses into two categories. One will reflect my Sunday 5e home game, and the other will be from the setting project I’m starting to work on, tentatively titled the Iron Fist of the Hobgoblin King.

On Any Given Sunday. My home game is set in Ptolus, which I placed in turn in Kobold Press’s Midgard setting. When I originally chose to do this, it was because I figured at some point the characters would wander out of the city onto further adventures abroad. However, other than our jaunt to Hot Springs Island, that hasn’t really happened. There’s a lot to do in Ptolus if you use the Banewarrens and Night of Dissolution adventures as we are. I also stuck Barrowmaze under the Necropolis because the Ptolus big book left that area implied but woefully underdeveloped. It’s a common failing of the setting book, in my opinion, but that’s a critique for another time.

Spellcasters in Ptolus. Ptolus is high magic, like 3rd edition D&D high magic. Whereas Eberron packed in everything from the D&D rules and asked, “now, how would all of this shape the world?” Ptolus just jams it all in and doesn’t bother with the important questions like if the local centaurs wear pants or if they poop in the street like horses. So yeah, magic abounds, people expect it, I guess? There’s an invisible floating pyramid above the city that houses the spellcasters guild, after all, and gnomes selling magic items in dreams. But our campaign has focused on cult-busting and undead-slaying, so it’s a bit more street-level than all of that. We’ll deal with the wizards if and when we have to. I imagine the average person is aware of them but just tries to go about the business of daily life while avoiding being kidnapped by cultists or stepping in centaur poop. (I kid, centaurs are one thing from the setting that I immediately ejected. They can’t use ladders! I don’t have time for sorting out that nonsense, never mind the question of pants.)

The Iron Fist of the Hobgoblin King! Magic is around, but instances of it are singular and often dangerous. It tempts people to chaos, to rend the void and unleash the demons and elves that dwell in that parallel realm. It is sought after, as only the weakest spells can be learned from teachers. It provides the power to tip the scale of battles between armies. And it reflects an older, primal world, before it began to be settled by humans with their agriculture and cities, conquest and industry.

The average person fears it, as they fear many things. They rely on superstitious supplications to stay the wrath of the local demigods, even as they encroach upon their territory. But even a spellcaster will die from a spear-thrust to the gut, and so a dangerous, volatile balance is maintained.

When I say magic is singular, I mean instances of it are often unique. A particular spell might only be found on one scroll, as there might only be one of a certain monster. The mountain peaks are not rife with storm giants and lightning bolt scrolls. If you find that scroll, you’ll have to choose if you archive it or use it when needed before you have the chance to permanently record it. Similarly, there may be only one storm giant in the land, and she rules the peaks as a demigod, beset with anger and sadness over the passing of her kind.