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.
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