The Role of Magic in the Campaign (POSM)

The Role of Magic in the Campaign It's safe to say that magic in one form or another is present in virtually all AD&D campaigns; only the most historical or unusual settings do away with magic altogether. But, beyond this simple observation, it's clear that each group of AD&D players has their own interpretation of what magic is, how it works, how various spells interact with each other, and what player characters should and should not be able to do with their arsenal of spells and magical items. By altering some of the basic assumptions that are part of the AD&D game's magic system, a DM can infuse his campaign with its own unique flavor and texture.
While the greater portion of this book deals with altering the rules of the game, this isn't always a necessary part of changing the way that the players (and the NPCs they interact with) view magic and its effect on their world. For example, let's say that the nature of magic in a campaign setting can be described by a simple scale that rates the scarcity, mystery, power, and cost of magic on a scale of 1 to 10. Obviously, a campaign with magic that is extremely scarce and weak in power represents a very mundane world when compared to a world where powerful magic is very common.
==Scarcity==
How common is magic in the campaign? Are wizards and spell-wielding priests so rare that even low-level characters are figures of legend, or are they so common that any hamlet or crossroads village has its own resident spellcasters? Most AD&D campaigns take a position between these two extremes, but lean towards the high end of the scale, falling in the 6 to 8 range on the 10-point scale—wizards and priests appear as allies, enemies, sources of information, or even window-dressing in literally every adventure a typical group plays. At the highest extremes, campaigns feature numerous spellcasters and magical items. Even a small town has several wizards of skill, plus dozens of minor merchants, craftsmen, or innkeepers with a spell or two up their sleeve. Wizards are so common that even the most remarkable mages lose their aura of mystery.
So, what does this mean? In a normal campaign, it's safe to assume that anywhere the PCs go, the locals know a nearby wizard, and most people encounter a wizard a couple of times a year. Any sizable town has at least one or two resident wizards and spell-using priests, plus a handful of folks with minor magical powers such as herbalists, hedge wizards, and healers. Large towns or small cities may have up to a dozen or so magic-using characters, and great cities could support several dozen without crowding. Almost any NPC above 1st level owns one or more magical items, even if they're fairly small or expendable, and player characters frequently own about three to five magical items by the time they reach 4th to 7th level.
In campaigns where magic is not as common (say, a 2 to 4 on the scale), the spellcasting characters become truly unique and important. A priest who can actually invoke his deity's power in the form of spells may be perceived by the great clerical hierarchy as a saint or great patriarch in the making, or possibly as a dangerous reminder of the true faith in those hierarchies that have become complacent or corrupt. A high-ranking hierarch without spells will certainly watch a low-level PC cleric very carefully, especially if the PC makes no efforts to hide the “miraculous” effects he creates with simple 1st- and 2nd-level spells. Similarly, if wizard magic is quite scarce, a PC wizard can't help but gather attention, fame, and not a little fear if he publicly displays his skills.
Priests vs. Wizards: A wizard's magic and a priest's magic are not the same thing, and both forms of magic do not have to be present in a campaign to the same degree. Imagine a world where wizards are viewed as the worst sort of villain and persecuted without remorse for decades. Wizards and their spells might be exceedingly scarce, while priests are far more common because they are socially acceptable—thus, the presence of wizard magic might only be a 1 or 2 while priest magic is closer to a 6 or 7 on the scale.
Magical Items: Similarly, magical items might be more or less common than spellcasters. If no one had ever invented the spell enchant an item, it's reasonable to assume that magical items might be a rarity in even the most magical campaign settings. The reverse could be true if there was a lost civilization of highly advanced wizards who left behind great numbers of artifacts and items. The wizards of today might be armed to the teeth with magical items, despite the fact that they are struggling to grasp the basics of spellcasting.
==Mystery==
Can anyone in the campaign be a wizard or priest, or do these characters have to belong to a select set in order to even begin their studies? Do the common people know enough about magic to distinguish between priest and wizard spells? Is the study of magic a study of easily-defined natural laws, or are the forms of magic deliberately obscured by generations of needless rite and ceremony? Most importantly, do the PCs know the limits of a spellcaster's powers?
In most AD&D games, characters “in the know” have an excellent grasp of exactly what each spell available can do. After all, most players are quite familiar with the Player's Handbook and know the spells they can make use of inside and out. But most common NPCs aren't as knowledgeable; the typical innkeeper doesn't know that a low-level wizard can use invisibility to walk out without paying his tab, or fool's gold to cheat him. He just knows that wizards can do things that ordinary people can't, and if he's a bright innkeeper, he never falls for the same trick twice.
In a less mysterious world, the same innkeeper knows to look out for invisibility, charm person, fool's gold, and half-a-dozen other dirty tricks. He may even know enough to request a wizard to relinquish certain spell components to make sure a particularly obnoxious spell (fireball, for instance) won't be available to that wizard while he's in the innkeeper's place of business. In this kind of setting, everyone would know that priests can heal injuries, blindness, or disease, or possibly bring back a loved one from the dead, and priest characters will be constantly asked to use their powers on someone's behalf.
In a world where the nature of magic is cloaked in superstition and ignorance—an 8 or 9 on the scale—spellcasters will generally inspire fear in anyone who learns of their powers. Note that even the wizard character himself may not really know why his spells work—imagine a character who begins a magic missile spell with a thunderous declaration of the names of forbidden powers, just because he was taught to do it that way. Of course, one of the ‘names' is actually the spell's verbal component, and the rest of the nonsense has no effect on the casting of the spell. It's a good idea for a DM with this kind of world to forbid players from looking up spells and effects in the PHB, since their characters only have access to a portion of this knowledge. The DM should also feel free to alter standard spell effects and create new spells just to instill a sense of dread and wonder in experienced, jaded players.
==Power==
What can magic accomplish in the campaign? Is there anything it can't do, and why? Will 10th-level magic be allowed as an option, or is 9th level the most powerful magic available? Can wishes change history or reverse events that have already occurred? To what degree do the gods and their avatars involve themselves in this world setting? In most magic systems, setting boundaries to a character's ability to affect events with magic is vitally important. Typically, an AD&D game assumes that 9th-level spells are the most powerful magic known to mortals, and that the player characters encounter a deity no more than once or twice over the course of an entire campaign.
The impact of magic on a campaign world can be greatly lessened by reducing the maximum level of spells that can work there, although this is getting into rules alterations. For example, by limiting spells to 8th level, mages can no longer make use of wishes or gates. If the maximum is 7th level, mages lose the spell permanency, which is a key part of the magical item creation process. Without this spell, magical items become temporary or disposable—no persistent enchantments can exist.
Another point lies in the emphasis on the power of characters versus the power of magical items. Should a fighter become a killing machine because he happened to find a vorpal blade, or should most of his combat bonuses be derived from skills and training? In earlier incarnations, the AD&D game leaned strongly towards the first option, but with the advent of weapon mastery, style specializations, and other character-based bonuses, it is now possible to create a character who doesn't need a powerful magical item to drastically increase his combat power. The real danger to game balance lies in combining these two benefits—a weapon master equipped with a powerful magical weapon becomes nearly unstoppable. If your campaign features a lot of high-powered magic, you should strongly consider playing without optional specialization or proficiency rules.
==The Cost of Magic==
In fantasy literature, there is often a price to be paid for magical power. Wizards may have to make terrible pacts with dark powers for the knowledge they seek, priests may have to sacrifice something dear to them to invoke their deity's favor, or the spellcaster may pay an immediate price in terms of fatigue, illness, or even a loss of sanity. Generally, the AD&D game is quite forgiving in this regard; when a character casts a spell, he expends a few unusual material components and simply forgets the spell he had known. It's easy to increase the cost of magic by strictly enforcing the requirement to procure material components for spells, especially if the DM is conservative in handing out treasure. For example, find familiar requires at least 1,000 gold pieces of special herbs and incenses, which means that a 1st-level wizard may have to do a lot of adventuring before he has enough money to summon his familiar! The spell scare requires a piece of bone from an undead creature; requiring the wizard character to personally locate and remove such materials can force the player to make hard decisions about which spells are worth the trouble.
Now, imagine a game setting in which magic is far more costly. What if a character risked insanity every time he attempted to learn a spell? Or if the casting of a spell required the character to make a saving throw vs. spell or pass out from exhaustion? A character might even have to risk a permanent loss of hit points or ability scores each time he cast a spell in a world where magic is exceptionally dangerous. (See Chapter 6 for some of these options.) Again, these restrictions are rules changes and not just cosmetic matters, but a few changes like these can make a great impact on a normally routine campaign.
==Creating a World-View of Magic==
How can the DM put all this together? Let's consider a couple of the AD&D campaign settings as examples. First of all, take a look at Faerun, the setting of the Forgotten Realms® campaign. Magic is quite common in the Realms, and only slightly mysterious; everyone knows of the great wizards and the typical powers a wizard is likely to command, but there are a number of unique spells and magical items to be found. Magic is also fairly powerful in Faerun and comes with little cost or sacrifice to any character who works hard enough. The magic of the Realms is about average for an AD&D campaign.
The Dark Sun® campaign has an entirely different approach to magic. Magic is still fairly common and mysterious, but it can be extremely powerful (the sorcerer-kings of Athas command 10th-level magic) and comes at a great cost—the defiling of any living vegetation nearby when a wizard casts a spell. In fact, the destruction caused by Athas' wizards is the chief cause of the planet's dessication and the rise of bizarre, mutated monsters.
Last but not least, the Birthright™ campaign setting
portrays a world in which wizard magic is rare. Mages are mysterious figures with unusual powers. Only a handful of characters have the heritage required to make use of true magic, and fewer still can command the kingdom-shaking powers of realm magic.
Here are a few ideas for alternative magic settings for your own campaign:
The College of Sorcerers: In this setting, all wizards belong to a single guild or society cloaked in rite and mystery. (The imagers of Stephen R. Donaldson's The Mirror of Her Dreams are a good example of such a society.) Spells may require a rare or unusual ingredient controlled by the College, or the College may treat spells as secrets that must be kept at any cost.
Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know: Wizard magic is the province of horrible pre-human powers of the Outer Void, and dealing with them is the worst kind of betrayal. Insanity plagues those foolish enough to delve into the secrets of these elder powers; H.P. Lovecraft's stories are an excellent model of this kind of campaign. Chapter 6 describes a spell point system of magic that reflects this type of setting.
Smoke and Mirrors: Wizards are far less powerful than they appear to be—most are nothing more than alchemists and scholars who can command a few feeble spells. Any spell that creates something out of nothing or summons energy where no energy existed before cannot be cast; illusions, divinations, and minor alterations and summonings are the only types of magic that work. Many magical effects are accomplished through nonmagical means; for example, a pyrotechnics spell is nothing more than a handful of chemical powder thrown on a flame.
The Magical Renaissance: In this world, almost everyone has a magical talent or two. Magic is fully integrated into society, not as a replacement for technology, but as a part of the common awareness and an augmentation of a person's skills. Chambermaids use cantrips to dust and to make beds, royal investigators have access to speak with dead and ESP to enforce the law, and many brilliant works of art are at least partly magical in nature. Even nonwizards may have a small selection of spells in this kind of setting.
The Lost Powers: Priests of this campaign have almost no spell powers. The various deities of their pantheon have lost the ability to grant spells to their followers or have denied their followers spells for some reason. For a particularly chilling campaign, combine this thesis with the Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know scenario to create a world in which the only spellcasters with any power are the insane servants of inhuman powers.