utility magic
Mar. 5th, 2023 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliRead a witty little bit recently where someone talked about the changes for the worse with wizards, since the happy days of Gandalf who kept a magical sword to do his fighting.
Nowadays (D&D) wizards use magic for their offense and defense, which meant that, yes, they could give away magical swords to companions, but that they had to concentrate on those magics, to the detriment of their utility magic, not to mention curiosity, wonder, and advancement of knowledge. And owing to the resulting arms race, it's unlikely to change.
Well, I'm not writing a D&D book. There are wizards. Their chief advantage over magical knights is the great diversity of their spells; disadvantage, the weakness of them. Consequently, a spell that would make your socks whole without darning, dry, warm, and not sliding down your feet to give you blisters would be exactly the sort of thing that your knights would love. A wizard, besides making knights, is a support figure. Mind you, you still have to fight, because attacking supply lines has a long history, but perhaps you use enchanted objects. (And perhaps you are snug in a tower with deep defense.)
How much food can they conjure? Maybe two people's worth? So they are useful for more than feeding themselves but it's not serious for an army, since you would need a wizard for every knight. Not practical, especially when the other side gets the notion to kill the wizards. (It's important that they aren't too useful for provisions.) But they are invaluable for the trivia of camps.
Nowadays (D&D) wizards use magic for their offense and defense, which meant that, yes, they could give away magical swords to companions, but that they had to concentrate on those magics, to the detriment of their utility magic, not to mention curiosity, wonder, and advancement of knowledge. And owing to the resulting arms race, it's unlikely to change.
Well, I'm not writing a D&D book. There are wizards. Their chief advantage over magical knights is the great diversity of their spells; disadvantage, the weakness of them. Consequently, a spell that would make your socks whole without darning, dry, warm, and not sliding down your feet to give you blisters would be exactly the sort of thing that your knights would love. A wizard, besides making knights, is a support figure. Mind you, you still have to fight, because attacking supply lines has a long history, but perhaps you use enchanted objects. (And perhaps you are snug in a tower with deep defense.)
How much food can they conjure? Maybe two people's worth? So they are useful for more than feeding themselves but it's not serious for an army, since you would need a wizard for every knight. Not practical, especially when the other side gets the notion to kill the wizards. (It's important that they aren't too useful for provisions.) But they are invaluable for the trivia of camps.