Common Place Magic, and Everyday Alchemy in High Fantasy Games

In some game settings magic is a truly rare thing. Sometimes it’s because it takes a lifetime of mastery, or it is particularly resource-intensive, and thus it is only something that can be called on by the elite of a society. Other times magic is unpredictable, making it unreliable at best and outright dangerous at worst. And in some systems magic is tainted, its powers a gateway for dread powers and forces that should not be named.

All power comes at a price, after all.

However, in high magic games, magic is everywhere. Whether it’s in the inborn abilities of particular species of creatures, the commonality of spellcasting classes, or just in how readily-available items like healing potions, magic wands, alchemical charms and unguents, etc., are. And while there are always GMs who want to dismiss that commonality, you really do get a lot more creativity out of embracing the sheer ridiculousness that can come with magic being something most people have at least heard of, even if they don’t use it on a daily basis themselves.

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How Does This Change and Shape Your Setting?

Consider, for just a moment, the availability of alchemy in a high-fantasy setting.

Now we’re not just talking alchemist PCs; we’re talking anyone with a formula book who can make a particular recipe to create a usable item with extraordinary properties. If you're in a high fantasy game, alchemist is likely a necessary profession in your setting; it might even have its own guild, like the Ingeneurs in my splat book Silkgift: City of Sails (available for PFClassic and DND 5E). Not only that, but since every fantasy RPG has ships sailing and merchant caravans traveling, these items could easily find their way into people’s lives and homes the world over. And the easier something is to make in a particular region, the more commonly available it's likely to be.

Got a new shipment of them just today.

But take a moment to ask yourself what alchemists, or just those who raise and care for magical beasts, could make out of the astonishing materials in your average high fantasy setting, or accomplish with the help of these unique creatures. Just off the top of my head you might find:

- A poultice made with troll’s blood, though it stings like mad, can help quickly stop bleeding, minimizing scarring, and leading to rapid recovery from even wounds. Something that was once dismissed as a swamp remedy that’s now standard practice.

- Cockatrice venom, when applied to darts, can allow for safe capture of dangerous animals and people alike. A common trick used by bounty hunters, city watch, and game wardens alike.

- Cinder lizards are practically immune to the effects of fire and smoke, making them ideal beasts of burden for assisting in large-scale foundries and forges, or for riding across deserts.

From creating new forms of smokeless lamp oil using slow-burning drake bile, to inventing a hard-drying masonry with the addition of unique components into the mixture, to coming up with an explosive mixture of powdered dragon horn and rendered animal fat used for blasting tunnels through mountains, there are hundreds of little ways people’s lives might be changed just with a little applied cleverness. Even the regular presence of healing potions and their equivalent could drastically alter how long people live, and what’s considered a death sentence in the setting.

Not only that, but the entire culture of an area might shift because of the possibilities of a single invention, or the application of particular creatures. Dwarves are always associated with mining, for example, but why not orcs, as they’re strong, tough, and can see in the dark as well as any dwarf? Or tieflings, for that matter? Even if these are just small, regional changes or local shifts in the ways we think of certain species, consider how it might change the setting in big ways and small alike.

And Then There’s Magic

Magic is, in many ways, the icing on the cake. Because in a high magic setting it’s going to be pretty commonly available. There are colleges that train new magic users every year, spellcasters are often found in specialist positions in armies or in mercenary companies, and there are usually entire guilds dedicated to the preservation and teaching of the magical arts.

And this is when things can get a little on the bonkers side.

Now, on the big end you could have places like Moüd, City of Bones (available in Pathfinder Classic or DND 5E), where the city is run by a guild of necromancers, and it is kept intact by a workforce made up of the risen dead. They clean the streets, keep the highways from being covered in sand, repair buildings, tend the orchards, and hundreds of other tasks that would be extremely demanding from a workforce that had to eat, drink, breathe, and rest in the middle of the desert. You might have a natural city where the trees have come together to form shelters, watched over and tended by a cult of druids whose animal companions and spells allow them to do seemingly impossible tasks. There might even be cities tended to by bound djinn, devils, or worse, using their powers on behalf of conjurers to create miracles for the people who live there.

Just sign on the dotted line, here. And here.

But let’s wind that back a touch.

Because even if magic is taught on a fairly wide scale across a setting, not all who study it will excel. Some may reach a certain point and simply no longer be able to proceed. Others may only learn a few minor spells, and be unable to master more than that… but even minor magics, spread wide, can change the face of a setting.

As an example, take prestidigitation. Put into a wand, it could be a method of cleaning one’s home, doing laundry, or tidying up a kitchen that can be done with a flick of the wrist. Whether used on clients’ clothes, or the streets of a city, this one cantrip if known by enough people, could alter communal cleanliness. Everburning torches, which are made with a simple spell, can light homes, streets, vehicles, and more, which is something those of us in the modern-day often forget was a colossal leap forward. Even a simple spell like mount would allow someone to get onto a ghostly horse that needs no food, leaves no waste, doesn’t have to be stabled, and which vanishes once the rider reaches their destination. The ability to cast create water to make clean, drinkable water anywhere could allow farms to avoid drought, would ensure city cisterns are filled, and so on, and so forth, eliminating a massive problem that could befall any nation.

Though it’s true that big, impressive spells could drastically alter the lives and expectations of those in a fantasy setting (teleporting goods and people across continents, shaping raw stone into huge buildings in a matter of hours instead of years, enchanting golems or elementals to act as the brute muscle in any kind of industry, etc.), even little things if commonly available can alter the world in big ways. So even if the magic available is just the ability to preserve meat on long journeys with something like gentle repose, take a moment and ask yourself who is going to use that magic, and what they might use it for.

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