Social Impact (In Game) of Public Spell Casting

[Muse.]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clark

I encounter advanced technology every day - stuff that is effectively magic to me.

I have yet to run from the room when I encounter it.

If I were to encounter someone dressed in armor, carrying what looks like weapons, I am not even going to notice the guy beside him wiggleing his figures and speaking funny.... I'll avoid from the guy carrying the weapons. The guy talking funny and making odd hand wavings? Heck, I work with a number of people who speak several languages I do not know. I'd just figure he's talking with a message spell - I mean on his bluetooth.

...
A long time ago, in that other RPG system... I was running a game, and in setting the mood for a dungeon crawl once I had a small bat flutter thru ... and the PCs went crazy. I think the final effect was a full attack multiple shot from the Ranger Archer and a Fireball from the Wizard...

Me: "Guys! It's just a bat!"
Player #1: "But... you mentioned it! It wouldn't have been noted unless it was dangerous!"
Player #2 - still not 'getting it': "I'm switching to silver arrows, and with my +1 bow that makes them Magic & Silver to get thru DR."

Some players (and judges) assume that if it's noted, it's dangerous. To them "95% of all magic is attack magic"

Here's a slightly different take on things - most magic isn't dangerous, it just isn't mentioned to the players. It's just the magic mentioned to PCs that is dangerous.

So when the PCs go into the gnomish laundry, do they realize the clothing was cleaned by magic? Nope, it's not mentioned.

Why is it that most take out food doesn't taste as good after an hour (the duration of the spices from Prestiditation)? Not mentioned again.

Heck, Enlarge Person and Reduce Person spells may have first been developed for use during childbirth? and only later "weaponized"...

I could see a Law common in most cities in a Pathfinder universe requiring all clerics who prepare spells in town to prep the create water orison... just in case of fires. A 5th level cleric puts out the same volumn of water as a fire hose...

[nosig]

It appears to me that what we have here is clashing view points on campaign settings.

Some posters view magic use one way (common usage - lots of people know how magic works). Others view it differently (Unusual, almost never seen, and greatly feared).

Full disclosure: I'm very much NOT in the (Unusual, almost never seen, and greatly feared) camp, and so may be overstating it.

I view magic as the Tech of the game universe. A serf on a farm is central Cheliax may view it differently than a silk merchant in downtown Absolam. But they both know what it is. Magic.

(IMHO) both know magic does things they do not understand. Both might have seen or heard some things about it. If a person reaches into a cloth bag and pulls out what appears to be a flaming torch... will they run from the room to get a farm tool and attack the torch holder? I think that most likely they will chuckle and say "Ah heared about that kind of thing! It just looks like a flame right? Hay, can I see that a minute?" and hold the torch and 'feel' the flame and be delighted. It's magical...

Now - if we as DMs teach our players that the "correct reaction" to the use of magic is fear and aggression... our players (and they become judges later) will come to expect that.

I kind of hope to start changing that agressive reaction from the people I play with to be more mello. But, I can play with it either way... I just would like us all to be doing it the same way (and I'd kind of like it to be closer to the way I see it... ;).

[blahpers]

Handheld electronic devices generally can't dominate a person's mind*, cause trees or buildings to spring into being in an instant, or reverse gravity. They can cause some amount of destruction, and indeed even tech-familiar (if not tech-savvy) people in the real world sometimes freak out and call the police when they encounter an unfamiliar electronic device. Magic largely puts those devices to shame. And a spell is much, much harder to identify for the average peon than an electronic device.

TL;DR: That analogy isn't particularly cogent.

[baggageboy]

The attitudes towards magic should be directly related to how ubiquitous it is in a given setting, and modified as appropriate for a given community. Some communities will be exposed to magic on a near constant basis and so it will not be novel or scary. Though everyone understands that there are bad things that CAN be done with magic they also understand that 99.9% of the time nothing majorly nefarious is going to be done.

If a community has particularly anti magic views then expect social responses to be adjusted appropriately.

In other words this is a part of the setting, and your players shouldn't be caught off guard by this as long as everyone has an understanding of what the basic expectations are.

[ShroudedInLight]

To continue with blahpers point, a 15 spellcraft check is needed to successfully identify a 0th level spell. A 25 Knowledge Arcana check is necessary to identify a 0th level spell that targets you, a 20 will identify a 0th level spell already active. Both of these can only be attempted either as or after a spell is being cast, and most spells do not take a full turn to cast. This means you have about a 3 second window to react to the casting a spell.

Most notably, Spellcraft is a trained ONLY skill which means that unless an NPC invests into spellcraft they can't identify a spell as its being cast anyway. Spellcraft is not a common skill choice amongst the common populace, as they do not need to know HOW magic works. Even in a high-magic game setting, they only need to know that Magic does indeed work. Most people have no idea about HOW their smartphone works, only how to work it.

Now imagine a smartphone that can make someone willingly hand you 20 bucks, go on a date with their daughter, and let you borrow their horse. That smartphone is called Charm Person and it takes a 17 spellcraft check to identify while its being cast or a 27 Knowledge Arcana check to realize you've been zonked. In other words, you need a Bachelors Degree in computer science to even know someone is trying to zonk you and Doctorate to realize you've been targeted.

Just because a spell has no visible effect other than "magic happened" DOES NOT MEAN THE SPELL WAS HARMLESS.

[InvisiblePink]

I don't like magic trivializing social encounters in my games, so I run pretty hard with the logic of Spellcraft and Spell Manifestations in a world where magic is common. Any level 1 Sorcerer can Charm Person you, so everybody knows that common magic can be equivalent to a mugging.

If you just try to cast Charm Person on an alert city guard in the middle of a conversation without warning in my games, they're going to notice the blatant Spell Manifestations, (probably) fail their skill check to identify it, assume the worst, roll Initiative against you, and (if they win) punch you in the face as an attack of opportunity.

If you want to use spells like Charm Person successfully without turning the social evening into a combat encounter, you have to make them think you're casting something beneficial on them and put them at ease first (with a Bluff/Diplomacy check), instead of doing the magical equivalent of pointing a pocket crossbow at their face.

I believe this has a positive impact on the game because it keeps social skills relevant and forces my players to be more creative. They seem to enjoy the scenarios it creates, too.

[GM Rednal]

I've always liked the way Bard's Gate handles it.

"Open use of magic is frowned upon — particularly spell casting. The casting of low-level personal spells is tolerated, though not in shops or stores. Destructive spells or spells affecting others are always outlawed, though unless done in the open one most likely avoids detection. This draws the attention of the constables and a sheriff, and possibly a low-level wizard with the sheriff."

Why does this suffice for law enforcement? Because the city of Bard's Gate also has an enormously powerful and phenomenally well-known Wizard's Guild that has a vested interest in magic remaining accepted within the city and you'd have to be a complete idiot to cause magical trouble bad enough to get high-level casters involved. Especially when they completely understand the concept of Divination spells and how to circumvent your lower-level protections through creative application of magic.