A certain percentage of the population has the potential to use magic. IN YOUR OPINION, what is the perfect percentage...

Maybe I should of just asked what percent of people in your ideal setting ARE spellcasters, not what percent have the potential.

Of any quality or career spellcasters? Do we include people who make shoes but use controls to return stuff and the baker who knows shock spells, or only those who outs down "wizard" on their tax forms?
Basically, do I count the people who can light their cigarettes, the people who can taze you but little else or just the ones who pelvic thrust physics through the glory hole which is magic?

1 in 10,000 seems like it won't interrupt anyone's work.

Seconded.

Though if you want arbitrary restrictions, 1/100 is low enough that it's still common, but also highly noteworthy.

How about instead of magic jizz or having to study it. It is the next step in the human evolution.
Like some generations ago the first human with magic potential was born and from then on they have been expanding but this was recently enough that there is still normal people and in time magic will be the norm

8/10 can sense magic in some capacity
1/10 can weakly produce one small effect with about six years training
1/20 can master a single digit number of tricks
1/50 can produce an additional substantial effect
1/200 can be called a mage

Seconded, but I like there being some sort of barrier aside from simple effort, whether it's some ritual of "unlocking ability" or something else

1/Everyone and that person is me.

For games, .

100%, with some people better at it than others, and full-on "Wizard" requiring as much training--and licensing--as a doctor or lawyer.

I've never held any truck with the notion of inborn magical ability for a small few: no other human ability works that way.

But what about me? I'm DIO as well.

No, you're merely "Dio" as well.
There is only one "DIO", in allcaps.

Me personally? I like certain types of magic being avaliable to everyone. Folk magick- stuff like protective amulets that may or may not ward off bad luck, herbalism that may help healing or against curses. It's minor and subtle, but it's there.

Then real wizard magic- that stuff is really rare. It's a mix of natural talent and learned skill. Every village has a wise old man who can probably cast a couple spells or summon real spirits to protect the village, and they always get an apprentice or two to keep it alive. In big cities and magical meeting places they are much more common.

Acording to the lastest census, there are 123.416 magic users in a population of 100.092.065 citizens. I suspect there are more people with the potential, but not all have the means or opportunities to become a magic user.

At the magitech nation, where standards of living are so good that people have hypertension, the odds are about 1/100.

That's semantics. What about DIO from eyes of heaven?

8/10

>to be a wizard, you must chain your mind to that of a familiar of your choosing
>it grows their lifespan to match yours, or vice versa
>both of you gradually take on traits of the other:
>those with owls move quietly and prefer the night, but discomfort others with their staring
>wizards who pick cats often move gracefully, but are exceedingly vain
>they who link with snakes have excellent smell and can do sort actions at blinding speed, but are often lethargic and prefer infrequent, large meals. And they're probably vorarephiles.
>wizard familiars are significantly more intelligent than their feral counterparts, and some take to learning magic for themselves
>aquatic familiars are very rare, for reasons of proximity
>those who have them almost invariably learn a waterbreathing spell as their first
Sounds kinda neat, actually.

I'd say close to 100% with some standouts and failures, but standouts should not be capable of crushing large numbers of the average person as a general rule. True heroically powerful ones might appear, but these should be limited to a few in a generation at most. Capability shouldn't be tied to genetics, instead just to chance, randomized blessings, the soul or what have you.

The reason I say these things is because if you have definite tiers you have a very stratified society, even more so if it can be predicted by lineage. This doesn't really allow players much mobility. The more magic appears and vanishes without rhyme or reason the more you allow nonwizards to gain power too through wealth and politics.

>123.416
Oh dear, what happened to that 0.416 guy?
>100.092.065
Ah, European.

A miniscule percentage like 1 in 10,000 capable and even less discovering it but magical effects last for an insanely long time so if some wizard enchanted a sword to shoot fireballs from the tip 1000 years ago it'll still work like brand new.

What about dogs?

Hmm. Good sense of smell, forms strong interpersonal bonds, but doesn't take much seriously.
It would depend on the breed of dog, I think; a corgi wizard would be charismatic while a Doberman wizard would prefer intimidation, etc.

95%

The remainder have no magical presence and thus, while completely incapable of casting magic, are also immune to magically generated illusions, mind reading, scrying, divination, and detection. Additionally, they cannot see ghosts, and undead/magical constructs ignore them, unless directed otherwise by some sort of magic user.

1/1

What about rats?! I love rat familiars for wizards.

Or pigs as well if you feel like doing some of these for fun.

Heading to sleep now, it's 01:20 here.. this is fun, though.
Rats: good sense of direction, good at staying hidden. Somehow always looks a bit shifty, no matter what they're doing.
Pigs: hygienic, despite any and all appearances to the contrary. Mumbles a lot.
Both usually have crooked teeth.

3/10 are talented enough to use simple spells without training.
4/10 have the potential, otherwise can just sense magic. While their potential is still locked, spells have a noticeable failure rate on them.
the last 3/10 have no potential, but are also immune to a variety of spells, particularly mental spells.

Regular animals are 50/50, with whatever spells they cast accidental/instinctual.

Mindreaders and Mindcontrollers play a dangerous game of russian roulette.

One in a million, if magic is common it isn't special. Rare magic lets you have secret wizard wars and conspiracies.

I'm a fan of this as well. I like to rip off The Force and have magic be created by a combination of practice and mental discipline, offering tremendous-but-subtle power to those who master it but only simple tricks and nonsense to someone who dabbles.

Sounds like the X gene though X is eventually revealed to have been a temporary phenomenon, with new mutants not being born past the first few generations

How does it work?

>percentage
>1 in 10
>1 in 10000
just as a note, these are not percentages
percentage -> per cent (cent is the Latin root for 100 eg. Century = 100 years, Centurion = Roman commanders of approximately 100 men) -> for each 100
So really percentages in this format would have to be X in 100
Why am I discussing this anyway
my fkn autism again
I'd say either 0.1% or between 45% and 55%. Make it either very rare or make it a topic of dispute that splits the world in half.

People with the power of punch ghosts along with actually having punch ghosts.

Out of 2-3 billion, maybe 1-2000 thousand at peak time such as a war between two bored gods; more realistically about 1-300 hundred: 2-3 billion. Magic is the ability to control the fundamental forces of creation. It doesn't and can't be passed down; destroyed or otherwise transferred in any way, shape, or form other than from god -> mortal and back again by the god alone. It's not something mortals can or should be able to manifest or control with any reasonable or realistic level of precision, which is why they're only given a minor amount. A minor amount that seems a lot to ones that couldn't conjure firestorms that easily engulf skyscrapers with a thought before, but still a minor amount.

>They made fun of you all your life.
>Then zombies happened.

Da normies will inherit da earth.

In my ideal setting; everyone. It's an attribute that can be strengthened like dexterity.
Ah, my man

In a fun setting; depends on the scale of power, restriction and responsibilities that come with magic. In a setting like Dark Sun, where magic is actively harmful for every living being? One out 10 or 100, depending on population density.

1 in 1 million of humans
All non humans are magic
Which means that you have to kill all non-humans and 1 in each million of humans are blessed by god

If you're still doingthese, how about spiders, horses, and sheep (for an odd choice)

The seventh son of a seventh son.

Whatever you want to count as a spellcaster. Jesus fucking Christ. Do we need to hold your hand?

I swear, Veeky Forums is like a child asking "why" over and over again. But instead of asking "why" they just keep adding variables to avoid actually answering the question for no reason.

spider for sure
ive always wanted a spider friend

In a modern-day fantasy sitcom I'm writing, everybody has magic potential, it's just a long process to unlock it.

Becoming a certified magician requires attending a specialized classes in high school, a magic-specific program in college, and multiple years of graduate school. Along the way, you learn obscene amounts of math, science, and history, and your body undergoes some degree of non-visible physical changes that increases your required caloric intake five-fold.

Most people don't bother. Many learn enough magic to cast simple utility spells, but the vast majority just buy magic wands for their spell casting needs. The sitcom douses around a firm that engineers those wands.

Once you do learn magic there's a variety of types of magician, organized by type of magic use, and different classes of skill within them, organized by an international certification organization.

Spider: often specializes in traps and detection wards, usually in combination. In close combat, will use a poisoned blade to great effect, but is incredibly weak defensively. *Really* likes burritos.
Horse: quick and strong, generally more physical than most other wizards. Very stubborn. To their dismay, bartenders often ask them "why the long face?" and look very pleased with themselves for doing so. hung like their familiar, but little sexual stamina
Sheep: has a very fluffy beard. So fluffy. Fluffy forever. Something's unnerving about their eyes, but nobody can quite figure out what.

Bats and crows?
Because, let's face it, you know some would want them
Also bears, because bears

Everybody can use it but certain individuals are just naturally more gifted. Most people can light a candle or move small objects if they devote time to learn the spells. However, it is a rare truly attuned wizard who has also been trained that can summon comets and earthquakes and stuff.

>Your ideal setting.

100%. Magic suffuses everything and everything (and by association, everyone) is magical. Saying "I use magic" doesn't make any more sense than someone saying "I use muscles." The question is how. Swordsmanship, sorcery, martial arts, general athletics, stealth, socializing, and basically every other effort of endeavor or will is intrinsically magical, and enough magical power elevates any to the level of a miracle. Being unable to use magic is like being unable to breathe.

100%.

Anyone can learn a cantrip within a month as long as they are capable enough at studying (I.e. are literate/can get through primary education without trouble).

For a lvl 1 spell you need to be a sane adult capable of learning a craft/finish high school.

Anything higher reequires the capacity of entering university.
Bachelor's -lvl3 spells
Masters -lvl 5 spells
Doctor's -lvl 7
True genius lvl 8 and 9 spells

Parrot familiar
Greater ability with wind and water magic.
Excellent at learning new languages but get annoying as they like to repeat a new phrase over and over.
Wizards who use them often drink alcohol and reek of it. Many of them also have peg legs and are too lazy to have it healed.

This is my style as well, with the main caveat preventing everyone from wizards being that teachers are insanely selective.

But not just expensive, oh no. That'd be boring class divide nonsense. Rather, wizards choose their disciples for weird and arbitrary reasons that outsiders can't figure out if they're the secret to magic talent or just the crazy whims of crazy teachers.

One teacher only accepts students with an odd number of freckles, another asks impossible questions that students have just guessed the answer to (and they're never the same), yet another has an entire harem of chocolate elves as a student body...

Wizards are weird, man

1 in 10,000 have the potential. 1 in 100,000 are practitioners, 1 in 1,000,000 are advanced practitioners, and 1 in 1 billion are world shattering powerful. In modern times people are less attuned to magic so all those ratios are multiplied by 10, in biblical/mythical times people are more accepting of the supernatural and the ratio is divided by 10.

Octopus familiar, no doubt

Some of the smartest lil' fuckers in the animal kingdom and eight arms? Losing the one spell slot to have a permanent bubble of water floating behind me would be so worth it.

>entire harem of chocolate elves as a student body
Living the dream right there

1 in 1. I like magic to be something akin to science or mathematics, or some kind of academic / scholastic phenomenon, something anyone could attempt but that those with exceptional intelligence / POW can do better than other people.

The avatar route. The greater the population, the smaller the rate.

Bats: prefers the night, often uses a good scanning spell upon entering a new place. Wears thick glasses, and claims to think better doing a headstand.
Crows: smart and analytical, likes finding like-minded friends. Often seen as a bad omen, and chaos follows them despite any precautions they might take
Bears: MUSCLE WIZARD really I can't think of anything more interesting

Contrary to the common assumption, bats actually have excellent eyesight.

I like enough for it to be not uncommon, but not enough that there would be enough of them to establish themselves as the upper class and rules of the people.
Because if the number was the same historically, the normal folk would still be screwed.

On the same note, maybe a few countries where they ARE the rules, sure, but not enough that it's true EVERYWHERE.

Theoretically that but some people have more affinity than others, making it practically 30%.

>Implying portion of the population matters
For the players unless everything is randomly rolled to "ensure" the magic users are of that percentage you'll get magic users at the rate you get in other games.

For the DM there will be a magic user whenever the DM wants one odds be damned.

It's a pointless execrate and only breeds "super specialness" mindsets on the subject that players are general terrible with dealing with. IE "lets be super racist!" or "Defend the special people!" that backs the entire game into a corner on how it's going to be run.

The best situation is no one cares about the percentages given and moves on, making it the mana weaving of game world design.

Galapagos tortoise?

They don't have terrible eyesight, but it's somewhat average, not too exceptional.
Would it be better that they wear sunglasses instead?

Sunglasses would work, they have eyesight like that of cats, very good in darkness (they can even see colors at night).

In my modern setting, roughly 22% of the population have some measurable supernatural power. Actual powerful ones (even slightly useful ones are a big deal) are extremely rare. It is theorized to be much higher, but people go through life unaware of the fact that they have a supernatural power, or pass it off as normal.

The majority of them is some kind of perception, being able to perceive abstract things or perceiving things with the completely wrong sense. For instance, being able to "see" difficulty, or smell lies.

A significant part of the setting are the laws surrounding supernatural powers. Those with them are protected from discrimination or favoritism, it's given the same level of privacy as medical records, and information gleaned from supernatural powers are considered inadmissible in court. One part of the backstory involves a criminal who got off because it was argued (and successfully ruled) that using clairvoyance to look into a private residence was considered trespassing.

Everybody can use magic, but nobody learns it the same way.

>Lobster wizard

I'll live forever with cure disease daily.

>For the DM there will be a magic user whenever the DM wants one odds be damned.
Sorry about your GM being crappy, hope you get luckier in the future.

This is pretty much how learning to program works and how it feels. I CAST PLAY BADUMP-TISS.wav

It's actually this way in real life.

1 in 10 000 for weak stuff like the power to lift a pen a meter above ground, 1 in 1 000 000 for power rivaling normal weaponry.
The percentage may increase drastically in future generations depending on wether ESPers stop being vivisected for science or not.

Came here to post this.

Wizard schools won't take anyone with n intelligence of less than 14 to begin with. Work that into an IQ/Population curve. Just as everywhere else, particular cases might occur, or someone having a personal teacher even though they are average. Etc.