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Hi,
I need a reason the regent in my campaign would outlaw unschooled magic.
The obvious is that its unsafe and uncontrolled, but i would like a more specific reason and im kinda blanking out here.
Help most welcome
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Unregulated magic has been resposible for a great many problems in the past. Everything from demons run amok to magical fires in the marketplace.
After a particularly bad series of events, cumulating with a gnome pyromancer putting on a public display of his talents for the benefit of a local orphanage, magic usage is now licensed, regulated, and taxed. The local lord does not want another incident involving 67 dead orphans.
Watch a few episodes of the BBC TV Show "Merlin."
Rogue magic from unschooled, "wild" sorcerers unleashed destruction on the king's favorite village.
A rogue sorcerer killed the king's favorite servant in a local bar.
The king's wife was treated by a local witch but ended up dying in childbirth.
It can be anything.
If you want to get into political intrigue, the king has been brainwashed by the local wizard's guild.
Is your regent a good or bad guy? Regulating anything is all about control. Why do you want this control? A. Dragon had a great idea except I would not use a gnome as I can't stand them! There might also be "monitors" hiding inside the population to seek out those who would use such evil magic.
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Many laws come into being because of a specific event that made the blanket law seem totally reasonable. In the case of restricting magic, this is probably because in the distant or recent past, some crazy megalomaniac abused "unschooled" magic causing untold death/destruction/annoyance for the neighbors. Write it into your world's history and you're set. YMMV
if your regent is a bad guy, what's preventing him from hiring a band or sorcerers to start a rebellion, killing many civilians, destroying many things, only to be schooled by the Schooled, who come in, save the day and prompt the regent to ban unschooled magic?
It could be entirely political--as others have suggested, the Wizards Guild lobbied for it. Or it could be a case where he wants to tax the use of magic--only established, formal schools have the mechanism in place to administer this. "Rogue" spellcasters undermine the system: they do not have a guild/society infrastructure in place to administer the collection and reporting of taxes, and if they operate outside the tax codes, it will encourage more spellcasters to "go rogue" (which wouldn't make the schools happy, either).
"It's always been that way". Sometimes once the law's been around for a certain amount of time - usually a couple of generations past or more - all that it needs to maintain its place is inertia and status quo.
Enchantment at first level, necromancy from there up. Charm person is a rather terrifying spell, when you think about it and is available to anyone who's spent a bit of time studying. After that you can get blindness/deafness, bestow curse, animate dead and all other sorts of nastiness that could quickly scare a populace into abandoning unregulated magic.
You might throw in an exceptions for alchemists and potion brewers, since these are 'everyday magic' that the average person can afford if they save up a little. People would be much more likely to ban the little things that make pre-industrial live a bit more tolerable...
un-regulated Magic in my homegrown is responsible for entire nations being destroyed, whole forests being turned to ash, Mountains being leveled, other mountain ranges to come into being, the opening of a portal to the hells and the awakening of a sinister god-like creature. All of this happened during the Wizard Wars when the greatest casters fought what could have been personal duels with armies of followers just over personal issues and grabs for power.
There are now only 13 name brand mages (10th level and up)in the whole of the world and lower level casters are contacted fairly quickly by one of these if they start progressing. Magic is feared by the common folk of most nations and several kingdoms have witch hunters roaming the lands to ensure that no new Wizard Wars break out.
There are numerous hedge wizards and political advisers of lower levels that are registered or watched by the 13 but very few off on their own.
So FEAR is the greatest reason to regulate magic for the common folks. Same for the 13. They do not want to get where another war is possible either. They are not all friends but they have a long standing truce.
Just because something is dangerous doesn't mean it should be outlawed. However a historical background on why they hate magic probably would be best.
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If you're looking for a point of origin for such a repression of magic, you don't even have to make anythihg up. Just mine the internet for tales of players wreaking horrific collatoral damage through careless use of magic. That's before you even get into actively malicious use. Some PCs can be absolutely monstrous given a bit a power and a player that doesn't bother to have their character see NPCs as people. The casual, and often thoughtless, abuse some PCs visit upon other characters would be enough to have any society negatively overreact.
This both gives the players something to rail against or struggle within(the repressive society) and a stark reminder of how things got so bad.
So, how is this ban going to be enforced? How many spellcasters are in this realm and what's to stop them using that hideously illegal magic to wipe the floor with their would-be oppressors?
Blackmoor had a similar thing with it, magic is outlawed to those outside the Wizard Cabal even though sorcerers may pop up here and there in gangs. Wizards train arcane warriors to hunt down sorcerers and those who use magic unregistered.Its to keep a 'balance' of the arcane, sorcerers have magic in their very blood while wizards must tap into a outer source to fuel their spells. The idea of sorcerer gangs using magic for evil would scare anyone but a unlawful sorcerer.
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Hi,
I need a reason the regent in my campaign would outlaw unschooled magic.The obvious is that its unsafe and uncontrolled, but i would like a more specific reason and im kinda blanking out here.
Help most welcome
Outlaw magic can have a variety of meanings
On one spectrum you have the ultimate I hate all magicians. all arcanists must burn approach of the Kurranocks of Feaerun. The motivation can be for a series of "A wizard did it" reasons.
On the other spectrum you have highly regulated magic. Ranging from all casters must be licensed, or all casters must be in my personal service. The reason there could be anything from a power grab or a discovery of an immortality process that requires the blood of 100 or more spellcasters.
In the middle you've got the Dragonlance approach... Magic schools itself. The Wizard's Guild polices all magic and hunts down renegades.
Define the question more tightly and the answer will present itself.