In your setting, why haven't mages taken over everything? They're an evolved master race. What's stopping them?

Magic is a semi-finite resource.

What's stopping one from deciding to actually use the gifts he's been studying and gain power? Every single person who learns magic just happens to be indifferent and inane?

>spells can increase your charisma
>spells can mind control others
>spells can wreak havoc and all lords and kings descended from generals who conquered land with their military might

What's stopping a shrewd and charismatic person from using magic?

How did you houserule it?

This. There's no reason whatsoever for a wizard to go to the trouble of conquering and actually ruling a local polity when he can spend all day snorting cocaine off the belly of a succubus.

Same reason they haven't won yet irl

>the Fighters keep catching onto their shit and kicking them out

Because then the guy that punches mountains in half and cuts time with a sword comes and takes their shit.

Studying IS gaining power.
Let's look at time investment:

For 1 year, I could spend like a week of it taking over some country, and the rest of the time micromanaging it to the point where it has some decent returns (Assuming the kingdom doesn't just eat it's own profits to have it grow at a steady rate). And don't even suggest delegation. Someone is bound to fuck up your order of bat guano or medusa hair thinking 'Oh, the kingdom doesn't need this.'

Or maybe I could become a Vizier and be the power behind the throne and have my work be interrupted every day or so with inane questions or 'proper' shit I have to do like attending meetings or whatever other garbage (Making a spell that'll attend meetings for me will take a bit of time to research as well).

This isn't even considering the time of POLITICS that you'll have to do. Contrary to popular belief, you can't just charm person/fireball your way to victory. Other, dumber mages take offense to you nuking their castle because it interfere's with your lighting at 12:04 pm during winter solstice. And the last thing you want is some wizard showing up in your demiplane and not wiping their feet, or having someone wink out the sun during the winter solstice at 12:04pm because they're a petty little shit.

OR

I could spend that year making this polymorph self spell to make my thighs a bit thicker and my hips a bit wider so my ass jiggles juuuuust right for the somatic components of nearly every other spell I'm going to be casting in the next century. Not to mention it'll go excellently with Jeans once they get invented in 40 or 400 years.

Now tell me, what would you prefer to spend your time on?

They can literally cook the fighter in his own armor with a fireball from nowhere.

Why rule the world directly? With their power and reputation they basically already run the place. Direct control just riles up the idiots and gets you shiv'd in the middle of the night.

Presumably the family and friends of those that can afford to become wizards would also want favors and access to what the wizards create with their magic. Why would anyone with the ability to become a wizard not become a wizard?

A race of Fire barbarians naturally immune to magic.

Because they're not nerd revenge fantasy for dbz fans but deeply traumatized individuals wielding fairly subtle and not very versatile powers that in no way supplant mundane skills.

Magic is pretty good for trickery and evasion, but vastly inferior to "stick pointy bit of metal in their chest" for actually killing people.

And what would you do with that polymorph spell? Could you sell versions of it? Would you use it to attract other people? Who?
What's stopping everyone with the ability to become a mage from becoming a mage, if it's such an attractive prospect?

They're rare and quite suceptible to being murdered if they tried fucking shit up too much

So covert empowerment is what they're after. Do they secretly manage who can and cannot become a mage, in order to consolidate that hidden power?

>deeply traumatized individuals
Does learning magic involve undergoing trauma? How do the house rules make magic mundane enough?

Powerful Witches usually just want to be left alone, and less powerful ones who make power grabs to fast, usually end with a destroyed house.
That and very angry and greedy Postmen ready to collect their bounty.

>I could spend that year making this polymorph self spell to make my thighs a bit thicker and my hips a bit wider so my ass jiggles juuuuust right for the somatic

Implying you're even a woman and it's not just your fetish running away with you again as you show a complete inability to control your libido.

Mechanics > Lore

Dragons strongly resist magic and find powerful magicusers very, very tasty.

Are wizards corrupting our youth with their degenerate and unholy spells? Today, we talk with Paladin Markus about how you can protect your children from these hedonistic abominations.

What rulebook do you use?

>In your setting, why haven't mages taken over everything?
Studying magic takes time and specific education. In a subsistence economy where most people's welfare is judged by how much they can farm rather then how much money they make, most people cannot afford to do this.
In addition, much like Doctors in modern day, the education is extremely complex, time-consuming, and ongoing even when you're "done" with it. This often prevents a wizard from learning the skill necessarily to rule effectively. That's why so many Wizard-Tyrant types make such incredibly poor decisions despite being so intelligent; they literally don't know any better because nearly all of their time is spent studying a completely different field.
>They're an evolved master race.
No they aren't. In theory anyone of intelligence can be one. Evolution does not come into play.
>What's stopping them?
Not all mages are 20th level casters.
Most aren't even 10th level.
Eventually they run out of spells and then you can shoot their unarmored ass with crossbow bolts and stab them with pointy implements just like everyone else.

>What would I do with the spell.
What does a rogue do with a dagger? Same thing.
Lure people into dark alleyways and do horrific things to them.
>Why isn't everyone a mage?
Because people aren't intelligent. You think you'd have a handle on at least that concept, but if you need me to explain:
Superstitions. Magic bad, sword good! Barbarians beat their chests proclaiming that.
Believing it's out of their reach: Most people believe they're stupid, so they never bother to better themselves.
Believing there is a better path: Like sword mages or Psions or even baisc Fighters, they're deluded into believing that their path is the right one.
Not having the right mind set: Seriously; who else do you know spends years making a spell that makes you vomit spiders. Or whoever made Guards and Wards. Or turning people into books.

Not everyone is cut out to be a wizard. Not everyone thinks a wizard is all that cut out to be. It's a lot of work, you know! It's not all glory! Many people died so that I could make the dwarves commonly use the word 'Woggle' so I could fill my dwarven book collection with something that started with 'Wog'?

Unless, of course, they can't. The question OP posed was about how things work in "your setting", not, say, in DnD.

Vacian Magic and 4 billion goblins.

Boy! When did I even said I was a woman? What's the purpose of ultimate cosmic power if you can't make yourself look cute?

So you make most NPCs in your setting morons? That's one way to do it.

Then why didn't you just say you'd use magic to give yourself a sex change too?
I don't have a problem with it at all. but man the fuck up (so to speak) already and own it like you mean it rather then carefully choose your words to pretend like you might already be a woman.

Don't half-ass things, especially here on the Internet where there's absolutely zero consequences to admitting it man.

Does your setting not have elemental magic?

...

Where'd he imply he's a woman? Looks like a pretty masculine post to me.

Martial arts mastery and mass combat are both even more overpowered than magic.

Are you really saying that guys can't want amazing asses?
Also, turning into a trappy qt3.14 is exactly the sort of shit I'd be tempted to do now and then.

this got a chuckle out of me
Because being a woman means I'd have to change my formulas again because it'd ruin with my somatic components. That's like an extra year of work.

Plus I prefer going to the bathroom standing up.

Stop thinking like a martial.

Right now there's a country on planet Earth that appears to be living in a political environment where if people's "feelings" tell them something is true even if they have no evidence to support, make no attempts to FIND evidence to support it, and in fact has much evidence to support that the OPPOSITE is true, then for them it is absolute irrefutable truth.
Keep in mind that this isn't even the second dumbest thing people have ever done in history and you have a solid idea of just how stupid people actually are, especially taken as a group.

Veeky Forums is quite often filled with relatively clever and imaginative people, and sometimes I thinks it forgets just how dumb everyone else can be as a group.

Why haven't the physicists taken over this world?

"Managing personnel" is a skill that trumps "throwing lightningbolts." You can't solo your way to the throne, you need a coalition backing you. Any personal ability you might have as a wizard is far less important than your ability to convince 30 other wizards to support your faction and join in the benefits of rule. That's the key; not being able to open planar rifts, but being able to get 30 mages working together.

Or just make a bunch of simulacra of yourself?

>Are you really saying that guys can't want amazing asses?
I try to keep mine relatively firm, actually. Not jiggly.
>Because being a woman means I'd have to change my formulas again because it'd ruin with my somatic components. That's like an extra year of work.
I suppose that makes sense I guess?
>Plus I prefer going to the bathroom standing up.
That makes even more sense.

>I'm not lazy
>but let me houserule 3.5 "through hell and back" instead of learning literally any other tolkien system.

Their powers don't work outside of their own country. Plus they're all bonkers.

The setting with guys like this is the setting I like to play in. Fuck mages, I want ultimate god-like martial power!

Magic isn't really that rare. Different species just have natural access to different kinds (and the Fae are already the dominant kingdom in the setting anyway).

>Veeky Forums is quite often filled with relatively clever and imaginative people, and sometimes I thinks it forgets just how dumb everyone else can be as a group.

The problem is that those with access to hedonism tend to always take advantage of it. Most people get stupid when it comes to long term consequences and learning anything outside of their own experiences. But everyone likes good sex and drugs. Cocaine is popular among all powerful people. Why wouldn't the powerful also turn to magic pretty much all the time for their uses? Do mages keep these things under lock and key? How do they keep mundanes away?

snorting a line off a mirror is easier than bending reality to your whims.

Also who do you think made cocaine?

>Why wouldn't the powerful also turn to magic pretty much all the time for their uses? Do mages keep these things under lock and key? How do they keep mundanes away?

I have a challenge for you then.
Go be a Doctor. Get up and do it.
There's almost certainly nothing legal stopping you from studying medicine, so get up and start committing yourself to go get all that sick-ass money that makes doctors some of the best paid and most socially respectable people on planet Earth.

You can do it. Why haven't you?

Physicists are limited by resources. Knowing how to make a deadly machine doesn't translate to having the machine. But if every Elliot Rodgers could learn to mind control others, or kill them with instant lightning bolts from the mind...

And what's stopping mages from working together when they all are connected by their inherent might over mortals? Why wouldn't a mage feel a stronger connection with other mages than they would with those who know no magic? Why wouldn't they teach their kids and grandkids, family and friends?

Yeah, that's a standard spell that most wizards use a lot. It gives you no competitive advantage.

>Also who do you think made cocaine?
Those bastards!

>any other tolkien system

Because some mages prefer blue, and some prefer red. Even mages who prefer blue could differ between sky blue and navy blue.

Purple is not a compromise.

But thankfully, reason and logic and the magical equivalent of a nuke wins out in the end, and that's why the sky is blue and not red.

A d4 hit die and the fact that so few of them survive their fist goblin spear thrust. You take people that are less than 1% of the population, kill 99% of them on their first adventure, and then throw in the fact that the few who remain are usually either too busy with their own projects to care about taking over or, if they do try to take over, get stopped by other mages, and it's pretty easy to understand why mages don't rule the world.

Even doctors can't magically cure everyone, unlike magic. Your'e a lot more likely to be a shitty doctor or suffer a malpractice suit than you are to roll a 1 on a healing spell. The study:reward ratio for being a doctor must be scaled into your setting to account for the power that magic brings.

Because they're fags that wear dresses

Fucking trannies, I bet they even use those weird pronouns

So in your setting, mages DO have infinite power over others and dictate the rules of reality? And everyone is fine with this, or else?

>having kids
You realize that's a ton of work, right? That's at least 5 or 6 years out of your own research to make sure it doesn't grow up hating you.

If you want a kid, golems are typically easier to make and you don't have to worry about things like 'Finding a significant other' or 'mental problems brought on by ignoring the kid.'

Or you could just take one. Hell, they're all over the place. Just drop out and grab one.

Even if you did get a kid, you'd still have to teach it. That's even more years out of your research just to make sure he doesn't end up as some sort of god or other inferior being.

They're ROBES and we prefer the pronoun Wizard(Singular), Witch(Self referencing), or Warlock(Plural)

Have you ever met an academic?

You could make the same argument for soldiers, but pretty much every nation has its origin under military rule.

What? No, don't be silly.
You're thinking Gods. We're a step above.
All the power, none of the responsibility.

Rich people raise their kids from a distance all the time. A mage could easily sell his potions and hire a sitter. Or make a golem, like you said.

It used to be that having a family was so normal that everyone did it. It's a very common human instinct for lots of people to want kids to carry on their genetic legacy. Are all mages magically immune to this instinct?

How can it be hard for a powerful reality bender to find a girl attracted to power and prestige to marry? Or even another intelligent mage?

So the solution would be to make magic difficult or impossible without extensive components, facilities, and time, like creating technology is? That seems appropriate for a more ritualistic style of sorcery.

In my setting 99% of all creatures generate mana, magic users just channel it outwardly in the form of spells while others channel it inwardly to gain prowess in battle

In other words a grand magus' city-leveling fireball can be completely nullified by a great champion's mighty shield block

That, plus humans sell magic nullification field generators at very reasonable prices [spoilers] and they are not nullificators at all, but mana-harvesting devices they use to power their constructs [/spoilers]

So in your setting, gods DO have infinite power over others and dictate the rules of reality? And everyone is fine with this, or else?

People must live in fear of mages in your setting. One wrong move and they have the power to fuck everyone over. That has to influence the setting.

Because Op, it's s as silly as asking;-
>In your setting, why haven't countries with nukes taken over everything? They're an have an ultimate "I win" button. What's stopping them?
The other mages might decide they don't like you or might think you're going to get in the way of their own research and have you removed.
Just because two people are mages, it doesn't mean they're any more or less inclined to work together.

And the more sensible mages realise there's not a lot of payout to ruling everything considering how much you have to pay in, in the first place.
Why waste the time and effort in conquering the mortal plane, keeping it under control, suppressing rebellion, challenges to your rule etc. when you can just fuck off to your own plane of existence after a sufficient amount of research?

There's a reason why peasants are a little wary about even minor magical practitioners.

Do you concern yourself with the politics of ants? Do you care if one of them bad talks you in their mound of theirs?
Do you shit in your lawn?

Son, I'm going to pass down some wisdom you can't find in books.

Don't marry another mage. It never works out. Just trust me on that.

That's why I think all spells should have physical components. Physical resources add the necessary limitations.

So you give every mage in your setting one single personality then, and that personality is decidedly inhuman and also somehow trusted by everyone.

Why rule this shitty world when I can sit in my personal pocket dimension full of sexy clones of myself for eons at a time?

>In your setting, why haven't mages taken over everything?
They tend to get possessed by demons and/or explode whenever they try to use their powers too heavily.
>They're an evolved master race.
They're disgusting mutant filth, is what they are.
>What's stopping them?
The aforementioned exploding problem. Also other wizards, the Inquisition, demons, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together who wants to wake up in the morning the same shape they were when they went to sleep.

>implying countries with nukes aren't constantly using them to leverage power
>implying countries with nukes aren't constantly trying to restrict other nations' access to them
>implying nukes haven't decided wars
>implying nukes aren't images of a nation's power and prestige
>implying nukes aren't widely feared and heavily controlled

When did I say anything about trust?
This wizard gets it.

>Implying a country with nukes can tell another country with nukes who has interests contrary to yours what to do

Oh shit! They know boys, pack up!!

No refunds, knife-ear, you got scammed fair and square!

>Why waste the time and effort in conquering the mortal plane, keeping it under control, suppressing rebellion, challenges to your rule etc. when you can just fuck off to your own plane of existence after a sufficient amount of research?

If I could see Buddhist monks literally ascend to heaven before my very eyes, you can fucking bet I'd drop everything and become a monk right now.

So in your world, mages are powerful, but everyone has mages? Does this mean special measures are taken to make sure that mages don't defect to other countries? If nukes had the ability to defect or rebel, that would definitely influence their treatment.

Heaven is hyped up. It's okay, but a bit bland. You want to transcend to a better plane?
Check out Purgatory. It's where all the cool kids are.

Not him but...In a setting where flamethrowers exist and can be wielded, it doesnt stop from someone that owns one to be stabbed to death. Having a gun doesnt make you imune to be choked. And owning enough ICBMs to blow up the whole world doesnt necessarily means you are imune to raped to death by a gorilla.

Magic isnt necessarily always just snap your fingers and the desired effect happens. It's usually involve formula and knowing where things are and when and how to target then. Many settings, the wizard's brain can't take the weight of oniscience, when its even avaible, most of times is not. They have to scry for specific things and they can miss some stuff. If a fighter kicks down the door to your tower, it doesnt necessarily means you have something you can use to fry him before he reaches you. And hey, maybe you can but you missed his sneaky friend with a dagger behind you, or that his mage friend put a shield around him. Or he's just too damn fast and your spell isnt an auto hit.

People assume magic is "all doing" and never missing. But that's not always the case. It certainly makes for boring settings, too.

People have been afraid of mages as long as the concept of magic users has existed. Look at all the stories where someone is cursed by a witch or a gypsy for some petty grievance, or just because the wizard didn't like your face. Now imagine that those stories are actually true and that you could be next at any time. Anyone you meet could be a witch or wizard in disguise, ready to curse you with a donkey head and eternal diarrhea for bumping them in the supermarket or tailgating them. Feel that creeping paranoia and that quiet desire to thump and lynch the first mage you find? Fantasy people live with that *every day*. Welcome to the magical world, folks, it isn't pretty.

That's the problem when gods are real. Heaven is a surefire thing and so the tension of life fades a little.

That's what I've been asking, how your specific settings handle these things. What limitations are best at creating a similar society to the real world? What happens when there aren't limitations? All interesting worldbuilding ideas to think about.

For every mage that can throw a fireball there's a fighter that can take it to the face, get pissed off at his sudden lack of eyebrows, run up to the mage at 70 miles per hour, and hit hard enough to leave a crater where the wizard was standing. That's not even accounting for archers or experienced gunslingers.
Fucking adventurers, man. There's a reason they have a guild to keep them in check.

And you wonder why wizards fuck off to their own demiplanes.

Really though minor grievances aren't worth the magical power expenditure. It's easier to fireball someone than give them eternal diarrhea (A lot easier; as keeping them alive and capable of producing a never ending stream of shit is a lot harder than you'd expect).

So all those stories you hear about that? Probably blown out of proportion. Doesn't stop other people from making fun of your robes, though.

Er, that's not what I said user. It's an analogy, don't be autistic and take everything literally.
The powerful mage *is* the nuke.

What I am saying is, powerful mages may be able to control and dictate non-mages but when their ambitions may possibly interfere with the interests of another mage - h's gonna have a problem with you (like say, you're taking over the land he needs for a ritual or you're trying to destroy the world he happens to be living on) and when two epic-level mages have a problem, everyone has a problem.

It's better off for everyone for mages to just sit in their towers and research ways for them to have sex with a metaphysical concept.

One of the reasons I prefer low-magic settings.