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This is more of a fluff / RP question than anything...
But I was thinking the other day, the Dark Ages/Middles ages were a pretty tough place for the common folk: oppression, disease, starvation, etc. I was wondering, in a world with access to nearly routine displays of divine magic: creation of food and water, healing, etc., would the the common folks have more access to better food and health. Could even low level clerics stem the tide of famines, plagues, etc. Stipulate that the political situation would not be much better for the average Joe.
That would depend on how common non-adventuring clerics are -- how many people could they each take care of?
But the real question would be the availability of adepts and what they can do to improve the lives of people. As an NPC class, adepts would be far more common than full clerics. They would be able to cast Cure Light Wounds from the beginning. Spells like Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison would become available at either 7th level (wisdom 16+) or 8th level (wisdom 13+). They would be able to cast Restoration at 12th level (wisdom 18+) or 13th level (wisdom 14+). They would be able to case Raise Dead at 16th level (wisdom 20+) or 17th level (wisdom 15+).
You may see some traveling healers and a few larger towns may have a temple to someone, but for the most part this will not do much. CLW won't mend a broken bone, as written, because hit points are merely an abstraction of pain and not actual physical damage.
Now, the real interesting stuff comes from create water and purify orisons. These would ensure that even horrible droughts wouldn't lead to people dieing of thirst. Unless, of course, the local evil warlord decides to capture and hold all the local adepts so they can't use create water to give to the populace (now there's a fun story hook that can lead to a full investigation into where the drought is coming from and a sandbox style build your own kingdom by trying to provide services to the populace).
The trade-off is that in this world, a lot of famines and plagues and such are magical in nature. This off-sets the low level magical countermeasures.
Additionally it depends how much these healers are willing to provide free of charge.
Most common folk can't really afford the prices listed for spellcasting. A first-level cleric charges 10 gp for a cure light wounds; 5 gp for a create water. A trained hireling (i.e. skilled labor) makes 3 sp a day, according to the same source.
Obviously 5 gp is an exorbitant amount of money for literally 6 seconds of effort (plus getting to wherever the orison should be cast), when nothing but effort is expended.
But the government could fund this, or an appropriate church could do this for the sake of the community.
It's fair to note that most likely, the majority of the staff of a temple are actually just commoners or experts; lay members of the church, not ordained. But if they are all ordained and only 1st level clerics for the most part, that's still enough to do a lot of good for the community with just orisons... if either they're paid, or the church is willing to do it for the community.
This isn't entirely limited to divine magic; there are arcane spells out there which can approximate some of the benefits of technology and progress as well. Imagine a kingdom which keeps enough powerful spellcasters on retainer that it is able to cast control weather on a daily basis and provide pleasant, good weather for crops. But most of the low-level spells that would change things are on the divine side.
One point to note is that Create Water is far more readily available than Create Food and Water, and the former can be cast at will by those who have access to it. Adepts can cast Create Water but not Create Food and Water. So a drought is not a serious problem if enough Adepts are available, but crop failure for any other reason would remain a serious threat.
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The other thing to remember is the loyalty angle i.e. how much is a church willing to help others whom are not members of their church or place preferential treatment on those within their own church. Remember that those clerics probably have other things that they might need to do that needs their divine healing powers so not all of them may have those powers prepped and those that do will most likely aid members of their church and members of their faith before non members and strangers as having access to that divine assistance is supposed to be one of the perks to being a member of that church.
Now In some small villages with a single faith though a lot of these health issues could be very easily mitigated thanks to smaller population whom support you in favor of their actions. Problem is that that divine caster probably won't be able to handle radical changes to the status quo like being able to help defend against a goblin raid or a haunt manifesting or other various issues as they have used up all their spells in prep for basic needs. These other issue also get compounded in larger cities with multiple faiths and much bigger commoner population as the churches will be expected to offer their magic first and foremost to their followers and a distant second to everyone else and might still not have enough power to go around. This would allow things like disease and sanitation to become major issues as local churches wouldn't have the time or man power to handle every disease outbreak or sanitation issue in their region.
There's also the problem that if you rely on a cleric to clear up diseases, you aren't actually pursuing means to prevent future outbreaks. So the repeating bouts of dysentery are annoying but can be cleaned up with a few remove disease... until that cleric happens to be traveling/captured/dead and then the filthy town full of filthy people gets wiped out by the disease.
As for commune, it would work great until the first supernatural storm comes through and ruins some farms. After that no one will trust the cleric.
I think the costs put divine magic out of the hands of most commoners. To the point that stuff which is routine for adventurers is not for anyone else.
So getting those diseases cured is like buying a PC computer in the 70s expensive even for people with money. The churches obviously don't just toss out divine magic for free or there wouldn't be costs listed.
Could even low level clerics stem the tide of famines, plagues, etc.
With the Heal skill? Sure, one rank, a +1 Wis bonus, and a +3 class skill bonus can really put a dent in the spread of a disease (and it only takes 10 minutes per person).
With magic? Not really. You need a 5th-level cleric to be able to cast remove disease, and she's only casting it once per day (or twice if her Wis is 16+). Curing two people per day isn't going to put a dent in an outbreak of anything that's remotely contagious.
Well, that all depends how many casters you have per population.
2 per day is 2% of a 100 person village, and that will actually make a very sizable dent in the infected population, combined with the healing skill. One prevents and fixes, and the other deals with the failures.
If you start talking 1 caster/thousand, then you have a containment problem.
And by the rules, you can find a low level caster in just about any and every village you stumble across. Note that spells that give you bonuses to resist a disease are much easier to cast, and unlike Cure Disease, would grant you immunity to re-infection. Since the average human peasant is probably putting their bonus into Con and has Great Fortitude as the most applicable survival feat (surviving danger and being able to work longer), a boost to a save is probably all they need.
I do wonder why the HEaling domains and subdomains do not have Cure Disease for their level 3 spell. After all, anyone can sack a spell for hit point healing, but Cure Disease you actually have to cast.
==Aelryinth
Keep in mind that human nature also comes into this. In the real world, we've got medication that were it evenly distributed over the world would make a lot of maladies a thing of the past. Fact is, nobody wants to pay for the poor to have those medicines. Look at the excitement in the US over socialized health care.
People are still buying iPads and PFRPG books in a world where other people are getting sick with treatable illnesses. That says it all; altruism only goes so far.
So. In a fantasy world you'd have things like churches refusing to offer their gods' blessings to heathens. If you're not of the faith, you're not given help. With spells like discern lies, it's even possible to enforce that. But over a few generations you'll get parents indoctrinating their children. Dad doesn't believe Iomedae is to be worshipped, but he'll teach his children that she is and they will believe.
Good thread. Has someone written a good article on this subject?
Tayler's First Law: "If the energy you are getting from your magic is cheaper than letting a donkey do it, your medieval economy just fell apart."
This is why spells cost money. Assume someone has a disease. His options are either to get a remove disease spell cast on him and go right back to work or to hire a healer to coax him through a long recovery. The key isn't just the cost of the healer vs the cost of the caster, it also involves the money he loses during convalescences and the cost of housing, feeding, etc the healer and necessary medicine.
Pathfinder does a good job with this, of course, because a basic laborer makes no where near enough money for remove disease. Even the head of a well-to-do farm wouldn't be able to manage the exchange unless the disease is crippling. Even then, he'd have to have up-front cash or suddenly invent the idea of stocks and bonds.
Cure Light Wounds isn't a spell worth much for actual damage repair because d20 doesn't really care about that specific a situation. But if we assumed CLW could cure hairline fractures and sprains, 10 gold isn't worth it. The worse the ability, the longer you're out of work but also the more expensive it is and the two variables rise at different rates.
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What sort of access would the common people have to curative magic. I would guess it depends on how the GM shapes his world.
Here are some exerts that might be helpful
where are all the healerS?
Page 138 of the DMG presents a way to determine how many characters of each class reside in a city. According to this method, the average population of a large city like Korvosa includes 3 12th-level clerics, 6 6th-level clerics, 12 3rd-level clerics, and 24 1st-level clerics. Of these clerics, only nine are of high enough level to cast remove disease. Even including the average of 24 paladins—of which there are only three of a high enough level to possess the remove disease ability—and disorganized numbers of rangers, druids, and visiting NPCs with access to healing magic, this is still less than 0.1 percent of the city’s population. With far more victims contracting blood veil every day, it’s easy to see how the city’s curative magics are quickly overwhelmed, even if every healer in the city were casting the maximum possible number of remove disease spells each day. To a certain extent, wands and potions and scrolls can bolster these numbers, but only as long as supplies hold out. When faced with a plague as virulent as blood veil, magic alone is not enough to save a city.
—F. Wesley Schneider
This was a side bar on page 20 of Seven Days to the grave. It is discussing the spread of a disease and the clergy’s ability to stop it.
According to the Player Compnaion Varisia Birhtplace of ledgends, page 18 the hieghest level spell you can get acess to is 9th level
There of course is the cost of spell casting Spellcasting Caster level × spell level × 10 gp3
Page 253 Inner Sea World Guide
“Magic:
often misunderstood.”
I hope this helps
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Well, that all depends how many casters you have per population.
2 per day is 2% of a 100 person village, and that will actually make a very sizable dent in the infected population, combined with the healing skill. One prevents and fixes, and the other deals with the failures.
Well, if you're specifically talking about the effectiveness of magical healing as compared to nonmagical healing, it's not fair to say "magical healing is viable because you combine it with mundane healing."
In the DMG, the highest-level cleric in a settlement was determined by 1d6 + community modifier. For a hamlet, that's 0 + 1d6, which means there's a 33% chance that your community has a 5th+ cleric who can cast remove disease. A hamlet has 81–400 people. So for an 81-person hamlet, 2 people per day is 2.4% of the population; for a 400-person hamlet, that's .5% of the population. In terms of handling an outbreak, there are a lot of ifs involved.
Let's say Cal the Commoner is infected with filth fever from stumbling into a dungheap while drunk. He's Patient Zero in his village.
It's 1d3 days onset time before he shows any symptoms. Let's assume he's contagious during that time. Let's say he's exposing several people to the disease each day, but because the DC is only 12, only 2 per day get infected.
At best, that's 2 people infected before anyone realizes Cal is sick. At worst, that's 6 people infected before anyone realizes Cal is sick. (And let's assume he's not infecting children or old people, who are going to have worse saving throws.)
Assuming the best-case scenario...
Those 2 people each have a 1d3 day onset time where they're infectious and not showing symptoms. At best, each of them is infecting 2 other people. Which repeats.
So each day, the number of people with filth fever is doubling. About 25% of the infected people will cure themselves in just a few days (DC 12, 2 consecutive saves) without too much ability damage. The rest will linger on a while, sick, losing Dex and Con (making their saves harder), infecting more people unless they're quarantined.
And that's the best-case scenario for a contagious-with-no-symptoms scenario in a hamlet. For a DC 12 disease. In a larger settlement, he's going to infect more people each day because he's in contact with more people. The numbers spiral out of control for the cleric very quickly.
Historically, many, many, many, many, many, many people died from diseases. They didn't have modern sanitation to limit access to trash and sewage. They didn't have modern disease theory to tell them to wash their hands before eating, after pooping, and before and after touching sick people. People were greatly at risk for sickness, and people died from it, a lot, and fast. Check out the Wikipedia list of epidemics. 5 million in Rome from smallpox over 165-180 AD. 100 million in Europe from the Black Death from the 1300s-1500s. 1.5 million people in the Americas (mostly Native Americans, I'm sure) from smallpox and measles from 1500-1900. 100,000 in America from cholera in 1829-1851 (Westward ho!). 75 million people from "Spanish flu" (influenza) in 1918-1920, and that's with modern sanitation and germ theory.
A bit on the Spanish flu, from Wikipedia:
Imagine 5% or even 10% of the people in your home town, dead. Imagine everyone in your home town, dead.
Diseases mess with entire populations. No first-world person who's your age or mine has any first-hand concept of how much damage a real outbreak can do.
And that's just for deadly diseases; some just mess you up for life. Ask your parents about polio; ask them about their parents hearing about polio rumors and keeping the kids home from school just in case there was a child in school who had it. The 1952 polio outbreak in the USA was probably the worst: ~58,000 reported cases, 3,145 deaths (5.4%) and 21,269 (36.7%) cases of partial or disabling paralysis.
Historically, pandemics were incredibly deadly and incredibly hard to control... and being able to cure 1-2 people per day in a village isn't going to stop it. You need other alternatives (such as quarantine and using the Heal skill) to put a stop to them. In the same way that one 5th-level fighter can't actually defeat 100 invading orcs on his own, one 5th-level cleric can't use remove disease to protect an entire village of 100 people.
You're also discounting the effect of "Mass" spells, the ability to memorize lower level spells in higher slots, permanent magic items that can cast effects, alternate sources of curing, and the power of people who are really good with the healing skill.
A simple item that provides a +10 bonus to a healing check that can be alternated between healers will save hundreds of lives over the course of a day. Such an item in the hands of any character with 6+ Ranks in healing is an auto-cure!
If you really want to be a stickler, Cure Disease in a wand is 12k for a cleric. He'll recoup any monetary costs by selling each use of the wand, and the 12 days (8 if he has help) needed to make it he can still cast spells at the end of the day, and leverage his spellcasting ability 4 or 5 times over time.
The 'cure' to find can be arrived at very quickly with divine magic (Commune) or by summoning up an outsider with prodigous stats in the healing skill, and high level characters can locate even raw materials with breath taking speed if need be.
When high level characters gang up to take on a disease, the results can and should be breath taking. In a city the size and wealth of Korvosa, it would not suprise me at all if hundreds of people could not be cured every day with magic, and thousands with the Healing skill.
==Aelryinth
I do wonder why the HEaling domains and subdomains do not have Cure Disease for their level 3 spell. After all, anyone can sack a spell for hit point healing, but Cure Disease you actually have to cast.
==Aelryinth
This has long troubled me and my group. So, we fixed it. Here is our alternate healing domain:
HEALING DOMAIN
Granted Power: You cast conjuration (healing) spells at +2 caster levels and +1 DC.
Healing Domain Spells
1 Faith Healing: Cures 8 hp +1/level (max+5) to worshiper of your deity.(3.5 Spell Compendium)
2 Restoration, Lesser: Dispels magical ability penalty or repairs 1d4 ability damage.
3 Remove Affliction: Cures one affliction affecting subject. (Home brew spell)
4 Panacea: Removes most afflictions. (3.5 Spell Compendium)
5 Restoration: Restores level and ability score drains.
6 Heal: Cures 10 points/level of damage, all diseases and mental conditions.
7 Regenerate: Subject’s severed limbs grow back, cures 4d8 damage +1/level (max +35).
8 Restoration, Mass: As restoration, but multiple subjects.
9 Heal, Mass: As heal, but with several subjects.
Note that Remove Affliction is a home brew spell of mine. We started building this domain, and there were too many 3rd (and 4th) level spells of this sort. Then we got to thinking; remove disease, remove paralysis, remove blindness/deafness, neutralize poison, etc. are all great spells. Except, which one do you prepare each day? We think it is enough that you prepared Remove Affliction. So, here it is:
Remove Affliction
Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Clr 3, Drd 4, Rgr 3
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
This spell ends one of the following conditions affecting the subject: blinded, deafened, diseased, nauseated, paralyzed, sickened, or stunned. Alternately, the spell removes any further effects of poison. The caster chooses which function at the time of casting. Note: This may require that the caster first determine what the affliction is. Remove Affliction does not restore ability damage, ability drain, hit point damage, or negative levels.
-Cheers
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I think the costs put divine magic out of the hands of most commoners. To the point that stuff which is routine for adventurers is not for anyone else.
So getting those diseases cured is like buying a PC computer in the 70s expensive even for people with money. The churches obviously don't just toss out divine magic for free or there wouldn't be costs listed.
It only cost gold for an adventurer for healig spells not the common joe, his local divins do thi for free it is there job. I actually cost only faith for a cure light wounds or a create water spell. And create fod and water, while nurishing, tases like week old gruel.
Lots of relevant stuff
And I'm familiar with and agree with this. The Black Plague comes to mind. The second example I would have given was the Native American population...exposed to European diseases, huge portions of the natives here died off when exposed to diseases bred in European cities. Smallpox alone ravaged them horribly.
But that's not a magical world.
In a magical world, you DO combine the two powers. Furthermore, knowledge of healing and sanitation is well known and widespread because of clerics with the healing domain. The level of technology might be low, and they can't tell a microbe from a virus...but they don't have to.
So, they do know that when they stumble into a dung pile, they might have to get checked out for disease, and take precautions. Furthermore, they probably take care with sanitation that Dark Ages peasants who took a bath once a year didn't bother with. Remember, general education level is the 1800's, not the 600's. (unless you're an orc)
And Quarantines have been around forever, people know them and why they are used.
Standard uses of the Heal skill in a magical world can treat dozens of cases per day, with auto-success (any character with 6 ranks, class skill, and +2 Wis auto passes the DC 12 check). If they can take 10 on the check, they can take the treatment time down to much less, and treat hundreds a day.
Cure Disease then takes care of those that slip through the cracks.
What would happen is Cal would stumble into his dungpile, and there'd likely be common knowledge that doing so gets him caught with filth fever. He'd slouch down to the local adept, get diagnosed, and treated with a take 10, being careful not to touch anyone as Filth Fever would be a fairly common malady with a common origin and he'd know it was contagious.
If he did infect others, word would go out, people would start coming to see the adept, get diagnosed, and those in most danger might undertake simple cures on a pre-emptive basis. The adept would sharply warn him to send anyone he'd been around to her for a screening, not the least because it would drum up business even if they are clean.
Those who didn't see her initially and succumbed would go to the healer and get auto-cured if she has any ranks in Healing at all, and at ten minutes each, and a 12 hour day, she could handle 72 treatments a day.
and if for some reason she failed the healing check, she could cure two of them a day completely and instantly.
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If the disease is new and exotic (like Korvosa), what would happen is the 12th level cleric of healing would summon up an outsider or Commune for knowledge of the disease, the source, and the cure. If not natural in origin, this would definitely qualify as a special event for her religion, and she could likely Call in multiple outsiders to help deal with the healing demands for little to no cost. It would be understood that prices charged for the casting of the spells would be for defraying the cost of bringing in celestials to help with the healing.
Summoned celestials with casting ability could bring in other celestials of their own by changing their lists, resulting in a celestial cascade as the high priestess brings in more and more celestials. She doesn't even have to reveal they are celestials...they could be in human form, 'traveling priests' come to save the day.
The name, cause and cure of the disease would be disseminated rapidly to all healers and the populace, resulting in a +2 bonus to identify and treat it. Capable adventurous types would be dispatched via teleport spells and the like to rapidly secure rare components, or a Called Outsider could teleport, retrieve such, and return. Mass Cure Disease spells would be spent, alchemical things made to grant bonuses to heal checks, Competence boosting devices to healing skills brought into play, and the disease would run into an avalanche of healing ability. Divination spells would track down the source and deal with it with brutal speed and force as needed...nobody takes plague-causers lightly.
Cure Disease would only have to be brought in to handle those who fail the healing check...or who simply scorn being treated. Unless the Heal DC is 20+, take 10's for even moderately skilled healers will rapidly have an epidemic under control.
The Heal skill is far more powerful then modern medicine in the game, because of the existence of high level characters, and the ability to leverage that skill across multiple people over time.
So, you're right..Cure Disease spells won't handle an epidemic that hits thousands. But the combo of possibly magic-enhanced Heal skill and magic taking care of those who can't be treated? We don't have anything like that in our history, unless you want to call penicillin and its variants something like that.
But a level 6 60 year old healer with a bunch of herbs can probably treat the Black Plague better then anyone alive on our world, because skills in the game can do extraordinary stuff, and being able to handle 72 people a day, could easily take care of an entire 400 person village. All she'd need is room, and taking 10 on a DC 22 check, auto-pass.
A full temple of high wis clerics with access to magic? They could treat hundreds, if not thousands, and organize and instruct all the other healers not a part of the temple. A Plague would have to have a heal DC in the high 20's to have any prayer of lasting against a devoted force of healers, because then treatment wouldn't work consistently, and you'd HAVE to be using Cures regularly.
Bonus - are there any celestials that can Cure Disease as a spell-like at will? Just curious.
==Aelryinth
Tayler's First Law: "If the energy you are getting from your magic is cheaper than letting a donkey do it, your medieval economy just fell apart."
This is why spells cost money. Assume someone has a disease. His options are either to get a remove disease spell cast on him and go right back to work or to hire a healer to coax him through a long recovery. The key isn't just the cost of the healer vs the cost of the caster, it also involves the money he loses during convalescences and the cost of housing, feeding, etc the healer and necessary medicine.
Pathfinder does a good job with this, of course, because a basic laborer makes no where near enough money for remove disease. Even the head of a well-to-do farm wouldn't be able to manage the exchange unless the disease is crippling. Even then, he'd have to have up-front cash or suddenly invent the idea of stocks and bonds.
Cure Light Wounds isn't a spell worth much for actual damage repair because d20 doesn't really care about that specific a situation. But if we assumed CLW could cure hairline fractures and sprains, 10 gold isn't worth it. The worse the ability, the longer you're out of work but also the more expensive it is and the two variables rise at different rates.
In the stories I like to write, spells are powered by the energy of the faithful, and there is a finite supply. Sedentary clerics casting magic are returning power to the faithful for specific purposes, as well as working the will of their gods.
Adventuring priests are rare because they aren't tied to a congregation, and in effect draw at the faith at large of the church entire, swords of the faithful against all that threaten them. It makes them both special and outside the political heirarchy of the church, where level generally equates to number of worshippers beneath you. It takes a lot of faithful to support the full casting power of a 15th level sedentary cleric, and he will be a powerful member of the heirarchy out of pure need as much as anything.
Former adventurers who settle down find this happening, too. They have less faith energy to draw on unless they build up their congregation, which incentivizes them to a)not spend power and b)increase their congregation, either by growth, conversion, or rising in the heirarchy.
Tying most priests to their congregations just made sense, and the understanding that the priest is the shepherd of powers reserved for emergencies and the betterment of the congregation was nice, too.
It's also why Evil faiths tend to either completely dominate an area, or are very underground. Taking care of the congregation tends to be low on the list of priorities for Evil faiths, so they aren't popular. Either the congregation is virtually enslaved with no recourse, or they believe they are going to get something out of it, and tend to be secretive cabals.
The truly far-sighted and good faiths tend to endeavor to draw on their accumulated faith energy as little as possible, arranging other means of doing things. This creates faith energy their god can use elsewhere (to establish the church in new areas, and to sponsor 'free' clerics) and also insures that when something big happens, there's a massive supply of faith on hand to deal with it.
Churches that blindly spend their power sooner or later run into something they can't handle, and suffer for it.
Mithar, the LG paladin war god of my stories, grants no spells to clerics at all (paladins only, and their power actually comes from being paladine, not him). His worshippers give him their faith to make themselves stronger and rely on him as an exemplar. The faith they send him he conserves for instances where he must intervene for problems they can't handle...and he passes off some to other Good gods for the same reasons. He's a LG paragon, but popular even with the CG gods, because they know Mithar has their back. Mithar is very up with empowering the common man, loves technology and magic and martial skills of all sorts, anything to help the average man survive in a magical world. They take care of the little stuff, and he deals with the big stuff they can't handle.
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But note one thing. Any member of a congregation with a healer can work off the debt over time by doing favors for the local priest...which is exactly how payment is going to be worked out. A priest isn't going to let one of their people die because they don't have some gp. The whole reason the priest is in the town is to have that kind of magic available if needed. Payment to the faithful has always been flexible for locals.
An adventurer coming through? Pay up, hawk your sword or shield, perform a needed task, etc.
==Aelryinth
Cure Disease then takes care of those that slip through the cracks.
I'm just sayin, two remove disease per day isn't going to cut it. Most of the work is being done by the Heal skill, but unless everyone is really diligent, you're going to get outbreaks. And, as AIDS has shown us, despite the risk of contracting a deadly disease, many, many people fall into the "this won't happen to me, so I won't take precautions" mentality.
And sometimes it's not Cal falling into a dungpile, it's Cal having a rat in his house that was on the dungpile, so Cal doesn't know that he should check with the town healer. And Cal doesn't know if him having a fever is from filth fever or a relatively harmless cold or just being hot from working in the sun all day; if he dismisses his fever as something other than filth fever, he's exposing more people to his sickness. And my example was an onset time of 1 day... with the 3 day onset time (out of 1d3), that's more people he's exposing while he feels fine. His wife is exposed, and can infect other people. His children are exposed, and can infect other children.
And Cal doesn't know if him having a fever is from filth fever or a relatively harmless cold or just being hot from working in the sun all day; if he dismisses his fever as something other than filth fever, he's exposing others to his sickness even while he's showing symptoms.
Those who didn't see her initially and succumbed would go to the healer and get auto-cured if she has any ranks in Healing at all
The Heal skill never gives you an auto-cure. Assuming she Takes 10 on her Heal check (which beats the filth fever DC), Cal just gets a +4 on his save, so it's still quite possible for him to fail. (You may be thinking 3.5 Heal, which lets you use the healer's skill check as your save).
And even if he's under the healer's care, it still takes 2 consecutive saves to cure the disease, so that's 2 days that he's still contagious... 2 days that he's "not feeling too bad" ... 2 days that he "really needs to get to work because I'm losing pay when I stay home sick." There's often a disincentive for Cal to stay home, which means he's going to work and exposing more people.
Could someone link my average joe thread? I think it's pretty relevant since it covers the wages of the "common man." I would post it myself however that's a pain to do on a cellphone.
Sean touches on a good point too, as incubation and infection time matters a lot. The heal skill is rather useful however, and I would point out some alchemical items would be useful too.
Some cantrips like prestidigitation (for cleaning well and quickly) and purify food and drink would probably be the real game changers when it comes to keeping people healthy.
It would make sense for priests in the major temples to be using Commune to look out for major epidemics or droughts or the like so they can mobilize a response team to nip the situations in the bud. This should keep most major black plague level destructive diseases to a minimum, but not generally help with minor fluxes or quick hitting hamlet-destroying diseases.
Then there's the question of a church wanting to help, nations wanting to let the churches help, the people trusting the church, and no one trying to stop the church from helping.
There is no Red Cross here. Looking over the major gods, I could healing missions undertaken by Saranrae primarily, though Torag, Abadar, and Erastil could be seen to do so as well (though more as traveling helpers, not necessarily wardens against epidemics). There are a lot of other gods who would either not care, or actively promote sneaky outbreaks.
The problem is that not all clerics work to heal and prevent disease outbreaks. Just because they could cure disease doesn't mean they fill their spell lists with such things. They would help as a reaction to a break-out or when paid, but they aren't going to be proactive above it all.
a lotJust wanted to correct your number on the Americas
I was just using Wikipedia's numbers from the epidemics page. I'm aware that there is evidence of pre-European plagues killing huge numbers of Native Americans.
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Now, the real interesting stuff comes from create water and purify orisons.
Create water gets a lot of press, but purify food & drink would affect medieval real-world assumptions *hugely.*
Great quantities of food have been lost to spoilage, particularly pre-refrigerations and various tactics (pickling, smoking, salting, canning, etc.) have been used to try and preserve food for longer periods. Even if the average peasant doesn't have an adept on retainer to cast purify spells on their foodstuffs, you can bet you bippy that a large trading house or mercantile concern or caravanserai does, and since they have the guy permanantly on-staff, they aren't paying the per spell rate that a PC would pay to hire some dude to cast a single spell. Food that could never be transported effectively, because it spoils so rapidly, could be shipped halfway around the world, with the occasional 'freshening up' by cantrip from the caravan or merchant ships spellcaster. It arrives at its destination, possible *months* later, having spoiled into inedibility on a daily basis, and be as fresh and salable as it was the day it was picked / harvested / butchered.
Ship travel would also be revolutionized by not having to carry fresh water, since a purify orison can turn salt water into drinkable water.
On the other hand, for the purposes of fantasy games, I've always assumed that the existence of create water, purify water, wall of iron, remove disease, etc. etc. is already factored into the nature of the setting. If one area is an arid desert with occasional water shortages, create water isn't new to the world, it's been there the whole time, and the existence and use of create water is the reason that this region isn't totally uninhabitable.
With remove disease, the existence and occasional use of the spell is the reason why the world isn't *more* plague riddled than it is, not a reason why plagues would never happen. Whatever plagues afflict the fantasy world have developed in a game world that has *always* had magical solutions, and whatever rate of infection exists would be worse if curative magic didn't exist.
It's probably best not to think too hard about how remove disease works, anyway. Technically, anyone cured of an infectious pathogen via remove disease *would contract it again immediately* from their own clothing, their home, their family, etc. Whatever conditions exposed them to the disease still exist, and cleaning the bugs from their system could result in them being cured for a matter of *minutes* (if it's on their clothing) or hours (if they catch it again upon returning home from family or furniture or fleas or whatever).
Diseases would also last a lot longer, as individual species, as many diseases end up killing their golden goose by killing off the people most susceptible to infection, and artificially creating entire populations that are resistant to that disease, causing it to die out (or mutate into a new strain). With segments of the population being 'saved' magically (the rich, the nobles, church leaderships, etc.), the diseases that have 'died out' among the poor (who mostly died if they got it) would still have isolated groups of nobles, wealthy folk and clergy, who remain vulnerable, due to their short-term magical solutions. These sorts of diseases would, like the condition of hemophilia in the real-world, probably end up being associated with the upper class, since they would only afflict those who were able to afford magical cures. The poor would never suffer from the 'Scarlet Shaking Pox,' because any poor folk who contracted it died generations ago, leaving those least susceptible to it to breed and fill the gaps with Pox-resistant folk.
That could lead to odd setting quirks, like a nobleman of scandalous lineage (one of his parents was a little too fond of the help, as it were) faking the symptoms of the latest ailment that's sweeping through the upper crust, so as to 'prove' that he's really a pureblooded noble, and doesn't have any filthy peasant blood like the scurrilous gossip suggests.
Easily explained by being different strains of filth fever. You know how many variants of the flu, common cold and pneumonia there are? You just get immune to a specific strain, then it evolves and a whole new one slams you.
==Aelryinth
Is this a world where most people are higher than level 1? Adept has both craft and profession on their skill list. Further, adept is not a class that requires a lot of training time (unlike say, a wizard). Wouldn't really be surprised if a level of adept was considered value added skills for most of the peasantry (how many peasant have a Wis of at least 11 I'll leave up to you).
Level 0 - Mending, Purify Food & Drink, Light.
Level 1 - Cure Light or Endure Elements.
Of course, if you're bright and can't make it as a adept (low Wis), you can always strike a deal with supernatural entity (see the witch class).
Edit - And Sean, I'm not sure Europe in the middle ages is the best model for the amount of medical knowledge in a fantasy society. You could have an Ars Magica type situation - where the various superstitions concerning disease are correct. On the other hand, the use of divination magic, may mean that the healing skill is much more advanced than medicine was during the middle ages. Things looks a bit different if the society has antibiotics, aspirin, and a grasp of sanitation. Hell even detect poison is going to get people to stop drinking out of lead cups pretty quickly.
Here's a question. If you have a disease, and then are cured of it by a Cure Disease spell, do you have resistance to it in the future, like people who usually survive a disease do?
I'd say no. As Ael said, there's nothing in the rules that says overcoming a PFRFG disease (whether naturally or with a spell) makes you immune to it), and if you get re-infected it's probably a different strain of the disease.
That's a bit of a fallacy. Have you had only one cold in your entire life? Most diseases will still hit you just as hard if you get them again, especially those of the viral kind.
No, it's not a fallacy.
All the colds you've had over your life are different kinds of bacteria and viruses making you sick, not the same bacteria or virus re-infecting you over and over.That's the whole point of vaccination—smallpox is caused by a virus, and we've eradicated it with vaccination. Polio is caused by a virus, and vaccination has made great progress in preventing outbreaks and limiting its effect on human populations, because vaccination gives you immunity.*
It's basic science.
*Okay, it greatly heightens your immune response; it may not be perfect immunity, but it's pretty close.
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You and I have very different expectations of a low level caster. The cantor of a village is most likely a cleric who never made it past level 3. even more likely to be an adept of some sort. Adventurer classes ARE exceptional people, it's important to remember that.Well, that all depends how many casters you have per population.
2 per day is 2% of a 100 person village, and that will actually make a very sizable dent in the infected population, combined with the healing skill. One prevents and fixes, and the other deals with the failures.
If you start talking 1 caster/thousand, then you have a containment problem.
And by the rules, you can find a low level caster in just about any and every village you stumble across. Note that spells that give you bonuses to resist a disease are much easier to cast, and unlike Cure Disease, would grant you immunity to re-infection. Since the average human peasant is probably putting their bonus into Con and has Great Fortitude as the most applicable survival feat (surviving danger and being able to work longer), a boost to a save is probably all they need.
Actually, I'm going by the rules, that say any village of 100 people will have a caster of level 1-6...as well as other people of that level. Sure, they might be adepts, experts, warriors and commoners, but there'll still be a priest around.
And that's in the rules. If you want nobody with PC classes or higher then level 3, we need a different ruleset (points at Eberron).
Fact of the matter is, people in PF live in a dangerous world, and are going to pick up levels because it's a dangerous world. IF not, they are going to get extinct. Levelling is the only defense people have against creatures that are born with 2-10 Hit dice.
==Aelryinth
Additionally it depends how much these healers are willing to provide free of charge.
Most common folk can't really afford the prices listed for spellcasting. A first-level cleric charges 10 gp for a cure light wounds; 5 gp for a create water. A trained hireling (i.e. skilled labor) makes 3 sp a day, according to the same source.
Obviously 5 gp is an exorbitant amount of money for literally 6 seconds of effort (plus getting to wherever the orison should be cast), when nothing but effort is expended.
It's also important to remember that those prices are written with traveling adventurers in mind. Traveling adventurers that have a lot more money than the common laborer or farmer.
The Order of the Stick once made a joke where the residents of a particular town were preemptively alerted to the arrival of the titular order, and artificially inflated the cost of all their goods and services to get as much money from the group as possible; a good real life equivalent would be working at a place in a famous tourist location, charging the locals less while charging the tourists more.
That's honestly how I see it.
Do the gods know how diseases really work? While they're powerful, they're hardly all-knowing and their grasp of the workings of reality seem no more advanced than that of their followers.
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Do the gods know how diseases really work? While they're powerful, they're hardly all-knowing and their grasp of the workings of reality seem no more advanced than that of their followers.
In Golarion;
1) Urgathoa refused Pharasma's judgement.
2) ???
3) Disease!
The germ theory of disease might not apply at all, considering that negative energy, antithetical to life, can *create* disease, and ghoul fever is just one example of a disease that can apparently thrive on meat that is supercharged with anti-life-energy. Also, positive energy, which creates and sustains life, can be used to kill disease.
If disease in Golarion were based on micro-organisms, negative energy would be the ideal way to kill them, and positive energy could cause them to multiply like mad, possibly overwhelming a patient's defenses, but, since that's not the case, it seems likely that Golarion diseases have nothing to do with 'germs.'
Being linked instead to Urgathoa cutting in line and refusing to go gentle into that good night, disease in Golarion seems to be the symptom of some sort of fundemental universal imbalance, sort of like ancient earth religions / myth-cycles that describe a first race of perfect immortals who messed something up, and now we have death and disease and hunger and all that stuff.
If disease is a symptom of a universe out of balance, holistic / 'restoring the body to balance' type remedies might be far more relevant to removing disease in Golarion than washing your hands, boiling your water or not coughing on people when you're sick.
There was a time when disease-creating undead were based on positive energy. :P
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This is more of a fluff / RP question than anything...
But I was thinking the other day, the Dark Ages/Middles ages were a pretty tough place for the common folk: oppression, disease, starvation, etc. I was wondering, in a world with access to nearly routine displays of divine magic: creation of food and water, healing, etc., would the the common folks have more access to better food and health. Could even low level clerics stem the tide of famines, plagues, etc. Stipulate that the political situation would not be much better for the average Joe.
Commoners in D&D/PF are nothing like dark age commoners unless it is do to excessively poor management/leadership. Commoners in 3.x/PF make plenty of money (earning about 5 gp / week for untrained laborers taking 10 on Craft or Proffession checks unless they are extremely inept, and the average cost of living a middle class life in Pathfinder is 10 gp / month). Magic naturally helps in functioning, and commoners can afford magic within reason.
While actual Clerics (as per the class) may be somewhat rare, it was assumed in 3.x (and I see no reason not in Pathfinder) that Adepts are far, far more common, even in rural communities. These spellcasters can very easily fill the role of physicians, professional magicians / artisans, and spiritual advisers.
These low-level spellcasters can bolster the survival of small communities in exceptional ways. For example, a single 1st level adept with a 10 wisdom can cast purify food and drink no less than 4 times per day, removing spoilage from 4 cubic feet of food. You can fit a LOT of food in 4 cubic feet (it is literally a 12 by 12 inch block).
The same adept could instead provide up to 8 gallons of water per day. Or cast mending 4 times per day to do repairs on things. Or use stabilize 4 times per day to prevent injured people from dying. If the Adept has an 11 Wisdom then he or she has access to 1st level spells including cure light wounds which means an adept could use healing spells. Your typical adept also has 13 Wisdom by the standard rules, so your adept also receives a bonus 1st level spell (allowing them to cast up to 5 spells per day).
Adepts qualify for magic item creation feats, such as scribe scroll, brew potion, and craft wondrous item. Most magic item creators are probably 3rd level adepts. They can very easily get Spellcraft modifiers that are high enough to craft most anything they darn well please, and thus can provide the lion's share of common magic items like minor wondrous items, elixirs, dusts, and magic traps. For example, here is an adept from my campaign that is a professional item enchanter.
Valerie Surefire, CR 1/3 (135 XP)
Medium humanoid (human) adept (favored class) 3
Init +0; Senses Perception +0
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AC 10, touch 10, flat 10
Hp 7 (3d6-3); Fort +0, Ref +1; Will +3
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Adept Spells Prepared (CL 3rd)
1st~cure light wounds, endure elements, comprehend languages
Orisons~ detect magic, mending, purify food & drink, create water
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 9, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 11
BAB +1; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Skill Focus (Spellcraft)*, Skill Focus (Appraise) (1), Craft Wondrous Item (3)
Skills Appraise +12, Knowledge (Arcana) +7, Knowledge (Religion) +7, Knowledge (Nature) +7, Spellcraft +12
Equipment (250 gp) masterwork tool (appraise), masterwork tool (knowledge {arcana}), masterwork tool (knowledge {religion}), masterwork tool (knowledge {nature}), masterwork tool (spellcraft)
SQ summon familiar
Languages Common + 1 other
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Notes: Valerie has a pet raven familiar named Siggy that grants a +3 on appraise checks and speaks common. The raven has 3 hit dice, 3 hp, +2 natural armor, 7 Intelligence, and the following special abilities--Alertness, improved evasion, share spells, empathic link, and deliver touch spells. Siggy helps her out around the shop, uses aid-another whenever needed, and watches customers more like a hawk than a raven.Ad-Hoc CR Adjustment: Valerie's CR has been calculated based on Bestiary rules (setting her base CR at 1) has no combat equipment or combat capabilities and her CR has been reduced by 2 to reflect this (-1 CR for effectively being naked, -1 CR for lacking anything offensive or even defensive). Valerie is not a threat, but her shop might be (see Valerie's Shop below).
Item Creation: Valerie has a +12 spellcraft when in her shop with her tools as well as the Craft Wondrous Item feat. Assuming that she has to ignore a single required spell to create an item, she can take 10 and create any wondrous item up to 12th caster level.
Valerie's Shop: Valerie creates a lot of magic items for would be consumers and takes comissions. Because of the valuable nature of her wares, she has outfitted her shop with several magical wondrous traps to protect her and her investments:
G.I.N.A. (CR 3, DC 27 Perception, DC 27 Disable Device, Cost: 8125 + 2376 gp): "Gina" stands for General Incident Neutralizing Agent, and is Valerie's basic security system inside her shop. Gina is a female personality sentient magic item resetting trap with a true seeing visual trigger. Gina is capable of responding to unwelcome intruders verbally and can take verbal orders from Valerie or Siggy. G.I.N.A has a +30 Perception modifier and her 120 ft. radius sensors can detect the entire shop. If the system detects a thief or threat to the security or safety of Valerie, Siggy, the shop, or its legitimate patrons it neutralizes the threat without mercy or prejudice.
Gina has a resetting magic missile spell at 9th caster level that is used against any intruder or thief until they are neutralized. If Gina detects that the magic missile spell is of no use due to either the shield spell or spell resistance, Gina will instead switch to stone call every round which bypasses spell resistance and damage reductions and makes the area difficult terrain (but specifically ignores non-creatures, thus not risking the damaging of merchandise or the shop). Gina also comes equipped with a create water sprinkler system in case of a fire.
Gina's true seeing was granted by a single use magic item that cost 1,188 gp to create and apply during her construction.
F.A.S.S. (CR 3, DC 27 Perception, DC 27 Disable Device, Cost: 4,000 gp): "Fass" stands for Floor Attack and Subdue System. Fass works in tandem with Gina to protect the shop from burglars, robbers, or hostile intruders. Fass is actually the very floor of the shop and is a resetting intelligent male personality trap. He can detect anything within 60 ft. of the floor through sight and sound (which includes more or less the entire shop). Hiding from Fass is nearly impossible (there is virtually no way to find cover or concealment vs the floor). If a threat is detected, Fass strikes the intruder with repeated frigid touch spells (+10 melee touch to hit). Frass can only target one intruder at a time, but is merciless in his usage of frigid touch until the culprit surrenders or stops moving.
Fass, like Gina, responds to the verbal commands of Valerie or Siggy.
A.L.D.A (CR 2, DC 26 Perception, DC 26 Disable Device, Cost: 1,500 gp): "Alda" stands for Automatic Lock Down Assistant. Alda is a security measure to ensure that would be thieves or vandals do not escape the ravages of the security system. Alda is a female personality intelligent resetting trap with a 120 ft. sight and sound range of sensors. If either Gina or Fass become active, or upon request of Valerie or Siggy, Alda proceeds to cast hold portal every round on each exit to lock the doors and windows and add +5 to the break or unstuck DC. Since she casts it each round, it makes it very difficult for a would be lockpicker to get out, as the thief must spend his entire round picking the lock and then opening the door, resulting in the trap shutting and locking the door again immediately.
Alda, like Fass and Gina respond to the verbal commands of Valerie or Siggy.
In my campaign setting, there is a culture that insists on learning magic in some way. In this culture, they have no citizens of the commoner class, only adepts or spellcasters (spellcasting martial classes such as Paladins, Rangers, Bards, Magi, and so forth are fine as well). The government of the society requires everyone to learn some magical training (and will send you to adept school for free because they consider it a boon to the overall defense and mantainence of their society).
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These low-level spellcasters can bolster the survival of small communities in exceptional ways. For example, a single 1st level adept with a 10 wisdom can cast purify food and drink no less than 4 times per day, removing spoilage from 4 cubic feet of food. You can fit a LOT of food in 4 cubic feet (it is literally a 12 by 12 inch block).
The same adept could instead provide up to 8 gallons of water per day. Or cast mending 4 times per day to do repairs on things. Or use stabilize 4 times per day to prevent injured people from dying. If the Adept has an 11 Wisdom then he or she has access to 1st...
Adepts may be able to cast unlimited cantrips a day.
Note that James, IIRC, doesn't particularly like Adepts, and would prefer that most divine spellcasters, PC *and* NPC be clerics, oracles, etc., anyway.
As for your 'everyone casts spells' nation, it reminds me of Halrua, in the Forgotten Realms, where even the non-spellcasters often picked up a feat allowing them to use a cantrip or two, just to not be totally shunned by their more magically adroit countrymen.
Since, presumably, not *everyone* can learn magic (even if it's ridiculously common and mundane in a setting, it's possible that there are folk born with literally *no* aptitude for that sort of thing), it might be possible to have a two-tiered society, where anyone who can pass a test of magical proficiency (which requires casting at least a cantrip) is a 'full citizen' (with higher degrees of citizenship / status for those who can cast higher level spells), while those who can't even squeak out a cantrip are stuck at second-class citizenship status... (and might do questionable things, like make pacts with devils, to gain the ability to cast a cantrip or two, just to qualify for full citizenship!)
You and I have very different expectations of a low level caster. The cantor of a village is most likely a cleric who never made it past level 3. even more likely to be an adept of some sort. Adventurer classes ARE exceptional people, it's important to remember that.Well, that all depends how many casters you have per population.
2 per day is 2% of a 100 person village, and that will actually make a very sizable dent in the infected population, combined with the healing skill. One prevents and fixes, and the other deals with the failures.
If you start talking 1 caster/thousand, then you have a containment problem.
And by the rules, you can find a low level caster in just about any and every village you stumble across. Note that spells that give you bonuses to resist a disease are much easier to cast, and unlike Cure Disease, would grant you immunity to re-infection. Since the average human peasant is probably putting their bonus into Con and has Great Fortitude as the most applicable survival feat (surviving danger and being able to work longer), a boost to a save is probably all they need.
Actually, I'm going by the rules, that say any village of 100 people will have a caster of level 1-6...as well as other people of that level. Sure, they might be adepts, experts, warriors and commoners, but there'll still be a priest around.
And that's in the rules. If you want nobody with PC classes or higher then level 3, we need a different ruleset (points at Eberron).
Fact of the matter is, people in PF live in a dangerous world, and are going to pick up levels because it's a dangerous world. IF not, they are going to get extinct. Levelling is the only defense people have against creatures that are born with 2-10 Hit dice.
==Aelryinth
I both agree and disagree with you. Individuals higher than 1st level aren't super uncommon (but easily outnumbered by the 1st levels on an extreme scale). However, I disagree that you will auto-extinct vs creatures with 2-10 HD. Humanity didn't go extinct just because there are animals bigger than ourselves, and in D&D/Pathfinder humanity has a great equalizer -- magic and numbers. The vast majority of creatures you find roaming the material world are generally brutish, lack energy resistances, and lack magic resistances.
A group of about 10 1st level warriors can completely thrash your typical CR 5 troll. If each of them toss an alchemist fire on the troll (an easy prospect given the trolls poor touch AC) then the troll suffers around 70 points of fire damage, and likely will not kill more than 1 of them before he goes down. That's assuming they want to take the troll down fast. Otherwise, setting your arrows on fire with some pitch (1d3 fire damage as a torch) and shooting the troll prevents it from regenerating at all during any round it's shot (AC 16 is not that hard to hit), which means a troll can easily be dismantled by some low level weenies.
IMHO, that's why low-level NPCs form these awesome communities and such. Often with walls (wooden palisades), watch towers, and so forth. Virtually nothing within even mid-fantasy range can stand up to a militia of 1st level NPC warriors, some alchemical items, and some cheap potions and oils. That being said, it takes about 12.5 trolls to make 10 1st level militia guys level up to 2nd level militia, assuming you use the medium XP progression. If you assume that NPC classes need 1/2 the XP as PC classes (not a rule but a decent guideline based on NPC CR benchmarks) then at least 6 trolls would be needed to get 10 1st level militiamen to 2nd level warrior, 9 more trolls to get to 3rd level warrior, and 12 more trolls to get to 4th level. So assuming the same warrior survived encounters with a total of about 27-29 trolls, he would get to 4th level.
Of course, the more NPCs we add to the party, the more effective they are at killing us some trolls, but the further XP gets passed around. A troll has no prayer against 20 warriors, but would level those warriors 1/2 as quickly (requiring about 56+ trolls to reach 4th level in warrior, or 112 trolls to reach 4th level in a PC class).
But pretty much all the staple critters humans would fear that might roam about on the surface world fall into the same shtick. If you can kill a troll, you can kill manticore, ogres, gray renders, dinosaurs, wyverns, whatever. If we get engineering into the mix with things like bolt throwers on towers, you can put down some pretty big critters with just a little manpower and numbers.
These low-level spellcasters can bolster the survival of small communities in exceptional ways. For example, a single 1st level adept with a 10 wisdom can cast purify food and drink no less than 4 times per day, removing spoilage from 4 cubic feet of food. You can fit a LOT of food in 4 cubic feet (it is literally a 12 by 12 inch block).
The same adept could instead provide up to 8 gallons of water per day. Or cast mending 4 times per day to do repairs on things. Or use stabilize 4 times per day to prevent injured people from dying. If the Adept has an 11 Wisdom then he or she has access to 1st...
Adepts may be able to cast unlimited cantrips a day.
Note that James, IIRC, doesn't particularly like Adepts, and would prefer that most divine spellcasters, PC *and* NPC be clerics, oracles, etc., anyway.
Awesome, great news. I love adepts though. I don't expect every caster to also be a great war priest (IE - druids / clerics). Just need one for arcane casters.
As for your 'everyone casts spells' nation, it reminds me of Halrua, in the Forgotten Realms, where even the non-spellcasters often picked up a feat allowing them to use a cantrip or two, just to not be totally shunned by their more magically adroit countrymen.
Since, presumably, not *everyone* can learn magic (even if it's ridiculously common and mundane in a setting, it's possible that there are folk born with literally *no* aptitude for that sort of thing), it might be possible to have a two-tiered society, where anyone who can pass a test of magical proficiency (which requires casting at least a cantrip) is a 'full citizen' (with higher degrees of citizenship / status for those who can cast higher level spells), while those who can't even squeak out a cantrip are stuck at second-class citizenship status...
I wasn't familiar with Halrua. Sounds cool. ^-^
The civilization in my setting has a similar (but honestly lower) bar. Every one of their citizens has to be able to use magic in some way, at the very least being capable of operating a spell-trigger item without Use Magic Device. If you can't do that you are considered broken and in many ways similar to being mentally retarded (the reason I say this bar is pretty low is even wizards with a 7 Int can cast spells via wands). If you are such a fail spellcaster that you can't even manage cantrips on your own without mental buffs, they can at least put you to work activating spell-triggers.People who have no understanding of magic are typically viewed with curiosity, some confusion, and sometimes pity. Fighters, Barbarians, and so forth are rare and most of them outsiders. Ironically, their lack of magical aptitude and penchant for success as adventurers sometimes garners them more respect from this magic using society, because they are seen to be a success while possessing a terrible handicap.
Spells common on your average citizen in said magical country include Endure Elements (cast each day, generally), create water, mending, and purify food & drink.