D&D 5E What would a 'real' D&D society look like?

[The Crimson Binome]

If the world is going to resemble pseudo-Medieval Europe in any meaningful capacity, then magic needs to be so rare that it has no effect on daily life. Off the top of my head, that would mean no more than double digits for any single spellcasting class.

The important question that everyone has ignored so far is how rules-as-physics would make the world a really weird place, since it's impossible to suffer a non-fatal wound that doesn't heal overnight. Even if you posit the existence of healing potions, for whatever reason, they would be essentially worthless if they cost a year's wages and were less effective than a nap.

 

[Imaculata]

First, there would be no cemeteries, to keep the zombieapocalypse at bay. Assuming the people had any brains at all, and wanted to keep them. (Cremation, beheadings, or whatever else constituted 'permanent' death would be the way to go.)

In my current campaign setting, priests and paladins perform rites to specifically ward cemeteries against necromantic rituals and spells. And the local church has paladins to patrol cemeteries to keep necromancers at bay.

 

[texastoast]

I think X-Men would be a good foundation, in the sense that you need an otherwise unheard-of prison structure to handle magic-wielding criminals. If you can't separate physically an evildoer from his tools of power, you have to find a way to isolate him altogether from the rest of the world. I suppose that what percentage of the magical population prove to be evil/criminal determines how significant is this factor.

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[Wrathamon]

so what would a D&D society actually look like?

people go around killing everything for their stuff ... and monsters attacking villages all the time, many beings have a nuclear arsenals of magic laying around, and crazy gods/planar beings are interfering all the time, and it seems the world could end at any point because some evil thing breaks loose from a dungeon or a wizard/cleric tries to use some ritual to become a god ...

seems like a very scary place to actually live in ... why those kids kept choosing to stay instead of getting back home is beyond me.

 

[dagger]

Alphatian Empire from Mystara maybe? Wizards and clerics are basically high born.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I think X-Men would be a good foundation, in the sense that you need an otherwise unheard-of prison structure to handle magic-wielding criminals. If you can't separate physically an evildoer from his tools of power, you have to find a way to isolate him altogether from the rest of the world. I suppose that what percentage of the magical population prove to be evil/criminal determines how significant is this factor.

You're assuming this society uses prisons for criminal justice. Historically, most human cultures don't; the notion requires a pretty strong centralized state. Think instead in terms of restitution, exile, outlawry, corporal punishment, or of course death.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

One of the assumptions many people make is in applying modern, first-world logic to a fantasy setting. One of the biggest impediments to fishermen having Shape Water is that there's no-one who can actually train them, or if there is, why would they? Why would that person train this fisherman? They spent years learning their craft just to give it away? Plus, it gives them power. Giving peasants power is not a very popular option. Knights didn't train squires who were nobodies.

 

[tardigrade]

If the world is going to resemble pseudo-Medieval Europe in any meaningful capacity

I agree, but I'm essentially asking the opposite question: "what would society look like if these assumptions are true?" rather than "how do the assumptions need to be changed to result in this society?".

The important question that everyone has ignored so far is how rules-as-physics would make the world a really weird place, since it's impossible to suffer a non-fatal wound that doesn't heal overnight. Even if you posit the existence of healing potions, for whatever reason, they would be essentially worthless if they cost a year's wages and were less effective than a nap.

Absolutely. As I mentioned in the original post I'm interested in the implications of the full set of rules, not just the magic.

 

[tardigrade]

I think X-Men would be a good foundation, in the sense that you need an otherwise unheard-of prison structure to handle magic-wielding criminals. If you can't separate physically an evildoer from his tools of power, you have to find a way to isolate him altogether from the rest of the world. I suppose that what percentage of the magical population prove to be evil/criminal determines how significant is this factor.

Actually I had been thinking of a follow-up post along these exact lines: "what does an effective prison look like in a D&D world?"

I remember there was an old Dragon magazine article on rethinking fortifications for the Blood War, with flying, teleporting opponents. Or the prison in The Stars My Destination, which was kept in permanent darkness to prevent jaunting. Maybe underwater (with appropriate magic items) to prevent verbal spellcasting - but what about sorcerors?

 

[tardigrade]

One of the assumptions many people make is in applying modern, first-world logic to a fantasy setting. One of the biggest impediments to fishermen having Shape Water is that there's no-one who can actually train them, or if there is, why would they?

Agreed, but by the rules vhumans get to pick a feat; even though it's called Magic Initiate, that isn't necessarily equivalent to an apprenticeship annd it's probably simpler to think of it as a spontaneously manifested ability like a psionic wild talent (or the X Men analogy mentioned above). Initiation can be an instant thing.

In medieval Europe the manpower shortage resulting from the Black Death shifted the balance of power in favour of the workers and encouraged a number of political reforms; the same would probably be true here (basically you'd probably treat peasants better if one of them might have class levels), except that if things were like this since the Paleolithic I'm not sure you'd ever have those Earth-classic power structures to begin with.