Mechamorph said:
As Zykon has noted, it is mainly because of of the way the Realms were written in crunch for modules and in the novels that the crazy inflation of levels came about. Yes, those high level NPCs SHOULD be extremely rare. Oerth had that kind of ratio. Krynn had even less than Oerth but Faerun? The second incarnation of the Circle of Eight were noted to be spectacularly powerful as they were all late ten to twenty-odd level wizards. The Realms have multiple factions that contain more than eight such characters. PaulH might note that if you didn't read "the suggested books", whatever those are, you would not think of magic as being that accessible. Thing is that while the DMG might preach it, everything in the novels, the game lore and the game mechanics support this notion that while magic is not exactly a dime a dozen, it is not exactly impossible to attain either.
Right, you just have to be insanely knowledgeable about what you're doing. Let's say you uncovered a ring, without being murdered for it on the street, of Polymorph Any Object Once/day. An insanely difficult thing to turn into a ring, of which those who could be likely counted on both hands and feet (being generous) ... let me remind you, the only permanent polymorph spell in both vers. of 3.x that, unlike Polymorph Other, won't leave a lvl. 1 NPC-class character debilitated (-2 to all rolls involving a 'stressful' situation) is polymorph any object... secondly, how do you even know how to use it? Would you even know what you're looking at? If I was a lvl. 1 Adept, I'd fail any roll to recognise it for what it is, even with the appropriate skills maxed out.
Given that 99% of any population is effectively a lvl. 1 character, and that the only people that can afford the means to access this sort of stuff are likely to be any adventurer with the good fortune to survive for a long enough amount of time to earn the moolah, there's so many causal garbage in my way to make the idea of Mr/Mrs. Nobody finding magical powers as to be mathematically improbable. D&D is about mighty heroes arising ... talented individuals who are
talented from the get go, as if touched by the gods themselves (and often are), creating epic tales for themselves through their actions that bards will tell stories about for centuries.
So no, I don't buy the accessible magic argument. Maybe magic gets AFFLICTED on people beyond their will in terrible numbers, but RARELY with outcomes beneficial to your average scullery maid or butcher, and even more rarely by their own actions of bringing forwards. The reason why heroes in D&D are heroes ... it's because the benchmark to be one is deciding that you can shove a pointy bit of steel into a 300 tonne flying dinosaur that breathes fire, and
get away with it. Hence the whole 'Dragon' part in the title. (I make obvious exceptions for characters like Volo, but even Volo has sorta, not really Elminster on his side)
Mechamorph said:
I have listed numerous groups, cities and dwellings where such high level mages can be found. In a way, the design of the Realms encourages this. As each author adds their own villains, heroes and supporting cast, the power level inflates along the way. Starting with Ed Greenwood of course since naturally a 29th level wizard just living in a farming dale is the kind of thing that crops up in the Realms. Alias in Azure Bonds literally crosses paths with Akbar, a mage capable of casting at least 3rd-4th level magic at random in a bar. The Harper books added dozens of high level wizards. The Seven Sisters has five members who can cast the requisite magic. Thanks to the novels covering the vast majority of the Realms, we are taught that a wandering merchant from Turmish is at least a 5th level wizard. Giogi Wyvernspur simply meets a 6th level mage. He does not regard her magic as anything special, mainly because his own relatives are even more powerful wizards than her. Danilo Thann, a Waterdhavian noble, is supposed to be a fop and a fool. He is not noted for the power of his magic despite his last known stats putting him as a 9th level wizard. Power creep? Definitely. Wise? Hell no. However that is what the Realms looked like in the early 2000s. By the time the novels surrounding the transition to 3E came out, the main character is a 7th level wizard who is considered nothing special. She is the daughter of a merchant and a two-bit adventurer. The fact that she became the new goddess of magic over so many other more powerful individuals came as an in-universe surprise.
But this, once again, comes down to improbability. People do not
know magic. That's why it terrifies people, and that's why you need to spend sometimes 8 years in a tower to simply master how to make something glow brightly .... ONCE A DAY. It's just as likely that a 7th level wizard isn't treated as 'something special' is precisely because the average person doesn't know which wizards can go without a lantern and which wizards can turn entire buildings filled with screaming, burning people into them. It's also power creep, yeah ... but D&D is a power fantasy buffet. It's not like a Tier 1 Hunter game with only 5 XP starting with no option for morality dip. But it still doesn't change the guides themselves that say that peasants are fodder. Well, non-mob template fodder, at least.
Mechamorph said:
Can a Polymorph Other spell cost a lot of money? Yes. In real life many people have to save assiduously to gather money for their operation too. If you are basically making minimum wage it is really difficult to scrape together that kind of money. Same goes for the peasant but at least if you are born in the right location, you do have the chance to convince someone to cast Polymorph Other on you at a discount if not for free. Going by the PHB, you really ought to take what the designers stated about economics with a grain of salt. If a copper a day is a reasonable living expense the 200gp equipment that a 1st level fighter can get represents nearly 50 years of living expenses. If a 100gp is a fortune, why even bother adventuring?
What chance? Who would you even know to ask? And let's say you were even a lvl. 1 Fighter (which is a PC class) ... they blatantly spell it out for you in the PHG that you're already experienced. You spent those years training, you spent that time doing practical education ... lifting wallets out of people's back pockets, or disarming traps under a master thief's guiding tutelage. You learnt those feats in combat from years on the battlefield, or drilling extensively in a professional army. You went to that bardic college and spent time performing in front of crowds. Let's say you're a bard ... +3 Charisma, +4 Performance skill, even without a starting feats or using any number of the numerous enchantment spells or bardic music/alternate base class bardic music abilities, you've got a 65% of producing an 'Enjoyable Performance' on your ownsome, without your troupe you trained under or even a masterwork instrument .... earning .... d3 Silver? d6? Point is, you're already making a
very good paycheque, and chances are you'll be stealing a bit of gold and charming people into giving you a room and food for free if you play in their inn.
The point is, PC classes are already special, but they are that very special type of creature where skill met with opportunity. No matter how low level they are. They are
earmarked for greatness. This not always true ... for instance Malarite packs (my personal favourite FR/Planescape deity to worship) tend to have far higher PC class membership than your average village with a shrine to Chauntea ... but that also makes an in-universe sense, given the weak
die off.
Also, the detractions that come with Polymorph Other (might I add, a 5th level spell requiring a 9th Level Wizard, good luck finding a Sorcerer that; A: you know, B: that you know and isn't already leaving town after being found out by the locals, C: Would bother learning Polymorph Other) ... -2 to all skill checks, save checks, etc. A peasant has 0 + Con fort... They'd die as soon as they catch a cold. Not to say that it wouldn't be an option and it's better than nothing ... but why
wouldn't you be trans and an adventurer if you had the skill there? Moreover, why wouldn't you still consider yourself trans despite going through all that? Hell, if anything it might even be a source of pride... might even be why she was so bad ass that she could be a cleric ... and that earning her name is an important feat in and of itself, as if finding it is a testament to her faith.
Isn't it far more likely, that as a trans person, you're going to look to adventuring as a solution to finding that money if it's already worth risking your life over? And if so ... wouldn't it pay to be upfront and personable about being trans to people that you meet? Fellow adventurers and mercenaries who are looking to recruit someone? After all, you're going to be sharing a tent and the discussion is going to come up. In 3.x specifically, there's very few options, and if you can make it as an adventurer ... and I mean one of the greats ... that once/day Polymorph any Object ring is likely what you're going to be aiming for, if polymorph was indeed right for you. And even then, you might not want to use polymorph. But pretending like such an item, or access to such power, is indeed accessible to most people without adventuring is far and away not going to be very likely.
A lvl 1 PC class is already the creme de la creme of whatever new generation that little hamlet in the countryside produced. There's even regional only feats in FR that basically go so far as to say; "you're a chosen one of the realm."
Luck of Heroes regional feat, for instance. Also, not really getting the 200 gold thing from. Polymorph Other would be 450GP from a 9th Level Caster. Which is a
lot of money for a lvl 1 character to have on their person. That's almost half a +1 weapon right there. If all peasants had 450 GP, I'd be burning down more villages.
Mechamorph said:
For better or for worse, Faerun had long discarded the ideas in the PHB and DMG regarding high level characters by the time 2E was done. It might not be
easy but it is feasible. Out of reach of anyone who isn't an adventurer? How about nobles, skilled workers the many, many people who had mages in their circle of friends or family (astonishingly many of them happen to be novel protagonists
) anyone who could avail themselves of the charity of the many good aligned casters, etc. From Realms lore you could meet a suitable caster just about anywhere. Does this reflect the reality of the Realms? Maybe, maybe not. However it is the Realms that anyone who read the novels or gamed in Faerun experienced. It was frankly mental but that was written down as Realms lore. Sure you might be able to swagger around as a 7th level wizard in a two-bit town but cause enough trouble and the War Wizards/Harpers/Insert half a dozen groups here would show up to intervene.
Perhaps? Maybe? But even taking the novels seperate from campaign building guides set in the DMG/PGtF/etc I fail to see how a level 1 PC/NPC class could reliably find a wizard to owe them so much, with so little effort, as to do something like a Polymorph Other ... much less a Polymorph any Object in 3.5 ... more over, I fail to see why that even if there were a slim possibility of being able to get an obviously powerful wizard locked in their tower or in some magical academy of sufficient level to owe them, how exactly they would do so in the first place. Perhaps after she became a cleric, definitely not before.
Every adventurer loves a walking bandaid dispenser.
