Continual flame provides a cheap means of keeping an area lit at all times.
Assuming we aren't paying a premium to the caster, just the cost of the spell:
One Continual Flame casting costs as much as five thousand torches. While it makes much more sense in the long run, how many people living day to day in that kind of society would think that far ahead when they could instead spend much less now on the torches they need for the immediate future? And that's assuming that we're talking about someone who has that kind of wealth just lying around. I'd suspect that most people are somewhere in the Destitute(0gp/month), Poor(3gp/month) and Average(10gp/month) brackets and likely would have a very hard time justifying something like that.Continual Flames illuminating your home almost certainly seem like they'd be a sign of opulence. And that's one of the cheaper things you've mentioned.
That isn't to say that there aren't things that could be done, but they'd be specific to a particular locale. A city whose streets are lit by continual flames due to someone binding a lantern archon or enlisting the services of an archon-blooded aasimar in helping protect the citizens would not at all be outside of the realm of possibility, but to say that the average home or small business would have that kind of thing is to miss just how out of the ordinary adventurer wealth really is.
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I'm going to chime in with the crowd saying "same reason most people were illiterate in medieval europe"
In order to become a wizard you need the following things
Above Average Intelligence, literacy, someone who knows how to do magic and is willing to train you, books, ink, components, A LOT of time (there's a reason why wizards are among the classes with the highest starting age).
The part of finding someone who knows how to do magic and is willing to train you is probably the most difficult bit. Someone teaching such a difficult subject is probably going to want to be payed a lot of money. I'm talking several gold pieces a day, if not hour, and a gold piece is an amount of money that the average commoner rarely if ever gets to see in the same place.
So we can safely assume that studying magic is something that the vast majority of people simply can't afford, both for monetary and tme constraint reasons.
As for governments investing heavily in magic training. I would assume they already do as much as is reasonable, but you still need people out there tending crops and producing food. A lot of people in fact. Then you need soldiers, you can't afford to build your army entirely out of elite spellcasters either, you would end up with very few actual soldiers and a very slow rate at replenishing war casualties. And finally you need to finance high level spellcasters as teachers as well as each student for years on end, probably over a decade each.
So I don't think it's logistically possible to have a lot of magic users in the population, unless there is a sorcerer boom or something.
In my Golarion, Sorcerers have an innate gift of magic, and need only very little 'training' (they just play with their magic). But that gift is mostly reserved for PC's.
This is how I see it, sorcerer magic first awakens through their bloodline abilities. Then through discipline and/or recklessness, expand their power into basic spells, i.e. cantrips (Unlimited use spells? Yes please!).
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In all seriousness, the average human Int score is 11.1666666666 (10.5 average, and that +2 racial bonus distributed evenly). 50% of people, no matter how hard they try, will never be able to master a spell more complicated than magic missile. Something like a third (those with an Int of <=9) can't even figure out how detect magic works.
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Why should magic not be ubiquitous? Look through the official APs. Nearly every NPC with a longer stat-block carries a Healing-potion with him, even the goblin commandos and warchanters in Burnt Offerings. The doctor in The Skinsaw Murders has a +1 armor. The ogres of The Hookmountain Massacre have magical ogrehooks for big humanoids.
If creatures like these carry magic weapons, I wouldn´t call magic ubiquitous.
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In all seriousness, the average human Int score is 11.1666666666 (10.5 average, and that +2 racial bonus distributed evenly). 50% of people, no matter how hard they try, will never be able to master a spell more complicated than magic missile. Something like a third (those with an Int of <=9) can't even figure out how detect magic works.
Apparently I can't math. The average human Int score is 10.8333....
The rest of the point still stands.
I would say, to the OP, no. Magic population is primarily based on the designers intent.
You could IMO easily justify a wider-spread use of cantrips anyway. One elder could teach generations of children through young adults enough basics of magic to have people coming of age with the ability to use the lowest level of magic, though, culturally, you have to look at a small number of spells that a community would teach everyone. Even then, id say a minority of people would have the ability and dedication to learn, depending on social pressure.
I have a world (non-golarion) where the population comes of age into a pc class and racial pressure to pursue a craft. After they "prove" themselves they don't have to pursue class levels but do to the hostile nature of the world they live in most have to fight for collective survival on multiple occasions.
Golarion just wasn't set up that way.
By the time you're powerful enough to start crafting magic items, money becomes less of a concern.
Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager
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You could IMO easily justify a wider-spread use of cantrips anyway. One elder could teach generations of children through young adults enough basics of magic to have people coming of age with the ability to use the lowest level of magic, though, culturally, you have to look at a small number of spells that a community would teach everyone.
Can you imagine a village who's teenagers can all cast Daze, Mage Hand, Dancing Lights and Ghost sounds. I sense some hilarious hijinks would happen... until someone pokes an eye out of course.
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You could IMO easily justify a wider-spread use of cantrips anyway. One elder could teach generations of children through young adults enough basics of magic to have people coming of age with the ability to use the lowest level of magic, though, culturally, you have to look at a small number of spells that a community would teach everyone.Can you imagine a village who's teenagers can all cast Daze, Mage Hand, Dancing Lights and Ghost sounds. I sense some hilarious hijinks would happen... until someone pokes an eye out of course.
Then it becomes a critical hit.
I am really enjoying the reasoning laid out for the tech/magic level in most games. +1, and dot for interest.
The same.
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So I did some more detailed math, because I wasn't quite sure I was handling the racial bonus correctly: My average was correct, but that doesn't mean it was representative when rounded off (since you can't have a 10.833, either a 10 or less or an 11 or more.)
My assumption is that non-heroic NPCs are 3d6, rolled in order. Following that philosphy, I assumed the human racial bonus was randomly allocated to one of six score, rather than always the highest score or something like that. I could try that tomorrow.
The result was that 34% of the population cannot cast any Int-based spells. 12% can only learn cantrips. Another 12% will never make it past first-level spells. Likewise for second level spells, and then the chances start dropping off steeply.
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Take a look at the world in the Xbox 360 game "Lost Odyssey" They have a magic fueled world that has a lot of machines powered by "Magic engines" very much like Eberron but less elementals.
I do like the idea of a "magic engine" but if everyone could cast 2nd level spells they wouldn't be all that interesting.
I imagine some of the higher claims like garbage disposal with Disintegrate...would have a genius, experienced battle hero being reduced to a janitor?
Magic item creation; bankrupts the nation with overwhelming taxes on the populace. This could lead to revolution, where the Battle hero wizard must now decide; do I go back to garbage disposal, or use that disintegrate spell on my fellow citizens.
High Magic just seems like one of those things that demands coming into a massive influx of cheap magic, talented help, or money; IE getting lucky on a national scale.
It's in the Core Rulebook, page 169
Flight still renders castles pretty stupid.
Not necessarily. Enough guards and the occasional flying monster is perhaps a minor problem, but the castle is still relatively useful against opposing armies.
Flight still renders castles pretty stupid.Not necessarily. Enough guards and the occasional flying monster is perhaps a minor problem, but the castle is still relatively useful against opposing armies.
Not to mention that guards on the battlements can still shoot things that fly with arrows.
Nice. Most people are too stupid to learn magic. I doubt any wizard would bother to train an apprentice with less than 14 int. It would be waste of time and resources. At least a 14 int character could eventually get to a 16 int with experience. A 12 int character... fuggetabout it. No wizard will waste his time.
Don't forget that arcane magic can also be based on Charisma (bards, sorcerers, summoners, etc.) And divine magic is just as powerful in its own way.
All in all, if people don't learn magic, it's because they:
- are untalented (low stats);
- don't have the time or ressources (can take years, costs money);
- are uninterested because some parts of magic lessons are unappealing (I need eye of newt for what?!) or don't need most spells when magic items or mundane skills do the same.
Might as well ask why everyone doesn't become a doctor. You need good grades, years of investment, and have to touch icky stuff and sick people.
Anydice is calculating the odds assuming the human racial bonus always goes into your highest score, but it's taking it's sweet time - It does have 6^18 outcomes to calculate (It looks to be a brute-force system.)
If it finishes, I'll fill things in here, but I suspect that it will make the odds of low-level magic actually worse, because under my previous math, a 9 had a 1-in-6 chance of being rescued and becoming an 11. Under this math, a 9 is very unlikely to be the best of six scores, and will remain a 9.
Still, better than straight 3d6 in order, but not by much.
If Anydice never finishes, then I'll break out some math I haven't used since college and calculate it myself.
Anydice is calculating the odds assuming the human racial bonus always goes into your highest score, but it's taking it's sweet time - It does have 6^18 outcomes to calculate (It looks to be a brute-force system.)
Link will be here if it ever finishes.
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For the original poster -
Golarion does have "plot holes" to allow for a relatable fantasy world. The fact that not everyone has easy access to magic items, or that magic isn't used more often for mundane yet important tasks is one of those plot holes.
Same as Castles (wouldn't be built like middle ages castles due to teleporters and such), or building big wooden ships for carrying cargo. In the end, castles, pirate / cargo ships, and non-proliferation of magic for mundane use is all for the sake of making a world that is similar to most fantasy fiction out there. It creates a world relatable to the largest number of gamers, even if it folds under close scrutiny.
I like the answers Ross came up with.
Also the comparison to real world math and science was also pretty apt.
And castles don't need to worry about teleporters/fliers as much as people claim. Fly is a level 3 spell, so it can only be cast by characters of level 5+ and as I pointed out only 6.25% of the world's population even reaches that level(half are only level 5, the rest are higher). Then consider that only Wizards and Sorcerers can cast Fly and you divide 6.25 by 12(11 core classes + 6 APG + 5 npc classes + Magus + Gunslinger). Now you have 0.52% of the population capable of even casting the spell. Now consider that not every wizard/sorcerer knows Fly , that multiclassing is actually very common amongst NPCs and commoners are probably more common than Wizards.
Actually, it's a grand 6/24 classes (pre-ACG, since that hasn't come out yet) that have Fly on their spell lists (Sorcerer 3, Wizard 3, Witch 3, Alchemist 3, Summoner 3, Magus 3), plus (assuming an even distribution of domains, subdomains, and alignments across clerics) 1/27 of all clerics gain access to it as a third-level spell (or an additional 1/648 of all classes, not counting archetypes because I'd rather not math all day), for a total of 163/684 of the assumed-evenly-divided Level 5+ population (ignoring the fact that summoners and alchemists get it later than 5th level for the sake of not sitting here all day doing math), which means the actual number, before adjusting for things like more realistic worldviews, is 1.5%. And then, again, note that wizards are much less common, and subdomains are far less common than standard domains, Sorcerers have to wait until 6th level to gain access to Fly because it's a third-level spell and they don't get those 'til 6th level (thus putting them in the 3.125% share instead of the 6.25% share), and that Alchemists, Magi, and Summoners gain access to third level spells at 7th level, thus taking their share out of the 5th-level and subbing it into the 7th-level share (which, if my math is correct, is 1.5125%), which lessens the availability of Fly even further. Add that Fly is a spell that only targets one creature per casting, and mass fly is only Sorcerers and Wizards (and a 7th-level spell to boot), and you can see that this is quickly becoming something that's much less cost-effective than raising a massive army and sieging a fortress.
Yeah, I looked at D20 PF SRD's version to get the math. And, again, that's not getting into even further mathematical computations about whether Random Adult Humanoid X has it or not, nor is it even getting into things like creatures with fly speeds (and, to be honest, it's large groups of low-CR burrowing creatures that would make me more wary of building a castle than a few high-CR fliers).
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So I was driving on my way home from work today, and I was thinking about a campaign I want to run and I began to wonder why arcane magic wasn't completely ubiquitous in Golarion yet. What I mean by that is that arcane magic has been studied in the world for something like 10,000 years, so why isn't a magic a bigger force in everybody’s life? I can understand why divine casters are rare, after all you have to appease a god, but arcane magic merely requires training and a desire to learn. Furthermore, it seems like even low-level arcane magic would solve a lot of civic problems and high level magic would solve the rest.
Ray of Frost provides means for both food preservation (refrigeration) and climate control (air conditioning). Continual flame provides a cheap means of keeping an area lit at all times. Access to a magical item that casts fabricate at will (costs around 90,000 gp) and a competent craftsman will make a factory that would make modern production lines weep with envy. A little work with create demiplain and permanent gates will create transport hubs will make goods and people a breeze to transport. Disintegrate makes garbage and sewage concerns non-existent. Unseen servant could handle a majority of labor jobs that don't require a large amount of strength (such as harvesting and plowing fields); golems and elementals can solve the rest.
Long story short, arcane magic’s ability to flip physics the bird and solve so many problems means that, by all rights, Golarion should make the modern world look like a bunch of ants scratching in the dirt. Is there an in-game reason why it seems to be permanently stuck in the Renaissance? I mean, I understand that it’s a fantasy game and that’s what we want to play; but I was wondering if there was something in the lore that explains it.
You may want to look at the Eberon Setting. I think one of its premises was "what happens if magic is very prevalent and functions as technology". The Eberon setting books might answer some of your questions.
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You could IMO easily justify a wider-spread use of cantrips anyway. One elder could teach generations of children through young adults enough basics of magic to have people coming of age with the ability to use the lowest level of magic, though, culturally, you have to look at a small number of spells that a community would teach everyone.Can you imagine a village who's teenagers can all cast Daze, Mage Hand, Dancing Lights and Ghost sounds. I sense some hilarious hijinks would happen... until someone pokes an eye out of course.
Hence, the last sentence of my comment. I suspect the list of spells taught on a communal basis would be very small. Dancing lights would probably on the list though. Way too useful.
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Azlant etc. probably had a higher proportion of spellcasters for some reason.
Azlanti got straight +2s, so the average Int score would be 12.5. A much greater proportion of Azlanti would be able to learn at least a few wizardry spells (83% at least able to learn cantrips, 74% at least first level spells), and I'm guessing a side effect of Aboleth breeding programs would be a greater number of active sorcerer bloodlines, meaning more people able to get use out of a 12.5 average Cha, too.
And bards!
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Since anydice seems to have gone kablooey trying to figure out the distribution for 3d6, assuming the racial +2 is allied to a highest or equally-highest score, time for some old-fashioned math.
To use cantrips, you need a score of 10. In order to do that, you need to roll a 10, or roll an 8 or 9, but have that be your highest score.
I'm rounding here, to make it easier on myself, but the result will be accurate to three significant figures.
62.5% of people roll a 10 or higher.
11.5% of people roll exactly a 9. A roll has a 25.9% chance of being an 8 or lower: the chance of all 5 other scores being 8 or lower is .116%. So .116% of those 11.5% get the +2 to Int. There's also a chance of having another 9: .741% of these people don't have any other scores above a 9. Subtracting out the ones that don't have anything else over an 8, leads us to .625% have one or more other nines, of these half (or less, since you could have three or more 9s, with each having an even chance) would get the +2. So we have .116% + .312% = .428% of 11.5% getting a 9 pulled up. That's an additional .049% of the original population getting at least first level spells.
9.72% of people roll exactly an 8. A roll has a 16.2% chance of being a 7 or lower. The chance of all other rolls being 7 or lower is .0111%. The chance of having an 8 (but not more) is .105%. As before, less than half of those would get the bonus. So we have .0111% + .0525% = .0636% of the 8 Ints being pulled up to cantrip level (with no other ability score above 8). Thats .0062% of the original population.
So our racial bonus has given .0551% of the population the ability to use cantrips. That's basically a rounding error on the original figure of 62.5%: Rounding UP at three significant figures merely raises it to 62.6%.
There is a larger impact at higher levels of magic, as a high score is more likely to be the highest score, but for getting in the door its hardly any help at all.
Yeah, I looked at D20 PF SRD's version to get the math. And, again, that's not getting into even further mathematical computations about whether Random Adult Humanoid X has it or not, nor is it even getting into things like creatures with fly speeds (and, to be honest, it's large groups of low-CR burrowing creatures that would make me more wary of building a castle than a few high-CR fliers).
Your link should point to d20pfsrd.com. I'm not sure what d20pfsrd.org is, but it's making my browser show unhappy warnings.
It should, but it's not letting me edit the dang thing.