Everyone on earth is now a level 20 mage

Do I get to pick my spells?

There aren't that many game systems where "level 20" is a thing, and in the game systems I know with level 20 (D&D and Pathfinder) "mage" is not a class. Wgat would they be? Wizards? If so, does a spellbook suddenly appear and they realise how to use it? Or are they clerics? If so, what do they worship?

I mean, considering the game system implied, it could be a random table with every spellcasting class, but I cannot be sure from the OP alone.

Mage Wars from the Discworld backstory?

I don't know or care
I would immediately planeshift to the astral or maybe somewhere cool like celestia and take up permanent residence

>global death toll skyrockets as previously vile people become dark sorcerers
>Global markets collapse as people realize scarcity is now effectively gone
>Governments break down as they can no longer rule a population of reality warpers
>Anarchists cream themselves as they get everything they've ever wanted

First one to cast a Wish spell and make every other person on Earth except them lose their magical powers is the winner.

I'm literally doing it right now

My friend and I have had debates on what if magic was real.
Assuming almost everyone on the planet has some ability to do magic(and everyone has different natty skill levels), literally fucking everyone would become a wizard. There'd be no point in not using magic to accomplish menial bullshit tasks and the whole world as we know it would become powered my magic. Old world systems would collapse because there's no need for any of that shit when necessities are able to be summoned from the fucking air, and economies would become knowledge and material component based(Ex, some yew leaves for mistletoe or some other basic shit).

Then, if it didnt happen almost immediately, all-out war would break out and annihilate most of humanity, because your top soldiers are walking fucking nukes who can be anywhere at anytime. Reclusive wizards and monks might survive but anyone in a major city of the warring parties is fucked

First, what type of mage?

Wizards? If so, do they get a spell book with a full listing, either random or picked? If not, then nothing really happens since casting spells requires preparation each day. No spellbook, no casting. Best option.

Sorcerer? The death of millions if not billions. Though many of the more destructive spells are thankfully hidden behind extremely costly material components.

Witch? The death of millions or billions and a massive increase in suffering for everyone. Service animal laws get a major overhaul to account for familiars.

Cleric? Chaos and death on an unimaginable level. Also a major revolution for religion as we finally find out just which gods are real.

Druid? Death and the end of civilization. Global Warming goes away.

Summoner? We jojo/pokemon/digimon now, also death and destruction on a global scale.

The rest of the various "mage" classes? Pretty much death and destruction.

I'm going to guess that you mean D&D/Pathfinder and that Mage means Sorcerer.

With those parameters, most of the population would still be unable to cast really high level spells. There are stat requirements, you need 19 charisma to cast level 9 spells. If 9-10 is the average, only those with the absolute strongest personalities will be doing the really crazy shit. Most people would be able to cast cantrips (some wouldn't even be able to manage that).

If you wanted to switch Sorcerer out for Wizard the intelligence requirements would place similar restrictions.

>level 20
>mage
What did he mean by this?

Depends on what system you're talking about. If you go by D&D, you're going to find that wizardry is going to be a very limited thing. The most powerful spells that most people will be casting is basic cantrips that do practically nothing. Prestidigitation will be the most useful and widespread spell. On average over half of the world will be unable to cast any spell. Their mind space is literally unable to hold the arcane energies required for casting a spell. Most will be of average intelligence, casting 0-level cantrips and maybe a couple 1st level spells. Maybe 25% of the world's population might be able to cast one or two 2nd or 3rd level spells.

As we approach higher level spells such as 5th level the numbers of people able to cast them starts plummeting quickly. It is very unlikely that more than a few thousand worldwide would be capable of casting 9th level spells. Every single one of them would be on a major government payroll and highly restricted in their actions and activities.

Of course casting higher level spells requires training and experience. Without that, higher level spells are off limits. This drops the number of high spell level caster's to maybe a dozen at most with maybe a couple experienced enough to cast 9th level spells. Most people will not know anything greater than the single 3rd level spell they finally figured out on their 50th birthday.

Lots of people vastly overestimate how widespread spellcasting would be.

...

i give the whole of reality 3 days to survive, and thats being generous.
some shithead will somehow destroy all that is, just for shits and giggles.

using 5th Edition D&D core rules only (no varient human) how would you make Columbo but with magic?

>using Wish
>not knowing the unforeseen consequences

Gnosis 20 archmasters ala chronicles of darkness

I cast Gate to a plane that isn't going to explode in the next twenty four hours and move there.

I'd probably do the same, and then build the most bitchin wizard tower ever.

>unforeseen consequences
Like, what, a cascade resonance?

Not much. In order to cast a spell, you need an Int score of 10+the level of the spell cast. Lets assume that your real life int score is you IQ divided by ten, rounded to the nearest whole number. Over half of the world can't even cast cantrips. And that's before we get into spellbooks and material components (good luck getting weird shit like Ogre Magi eyebrows).

Who's the DM?

Resonance Cascade, you got it backwards my dude
I would voluntarily join the Combine and become a transhumanist I terdimensional battlemage like the Adepus Mechanicus with an even cooler aesthetic and also magic

>when you don't know much about Veeky Forums but you roll a bluff check anyway

In AD&D 2E, the various mages, specialists, and other non-divine dedicated casters were referred to under the umbrella term of "wizard", but Mage was the name for the most common type of class.

>I would voluntarily join the Combine
Enjoy being brainwashed and mutilated, I guess.

How strange.
Shouldn't that image say "Grenade"?

...

>I would voluntarily join the Combine
Your dick gets chopped off. You get parts plugged into you and varying degrees of surgery to "improve" shit. You get brainwashed so that you can't disobey orders, and since you do the same shit as the other soldiers you never use your magic powers or other bullshit. You get a uniform that makes you look identical to all other soldiers, and a shitty SMG.

Then you get herded into combat against a fucking resurrecting bunnyhopping revolver-wielding damage-soaking ubermensch that will instantly kill you before you fire off maybe 2 rounds and fail to hit him.

Being a Combine soldier is fucking shit. Go join the Metropolice if you want to keep your dick and get to beat poor malnourished dumbasses into a pulp instead of fighting armies of terrorists and Gordon goddamn Freeman.

White genocide
Pretty much immediately
>TFW two world wars killed a shit load of your people and you went from 25% of the global population to 10%
Also baby boomers with magic powers is a setting I would never want to see

>Cleric? Chaos and death on an unimaginable level.
This is an extremely silly conclusion only people we would have to worry about are mussies and they aren't 50% of religious people... Yet...

>Forced High Intelligence stats
Religion would cease, thus bringing an end to war.
Humanity Would begin rebuilding its self and we would look to the stars with our new found powers, and reach out as far as we can and help other civilizations as we have been helped.

>Athiests never fight wars
>High intelligence = athiest
You seem to be making a lot of assumptions here friend

You tiny-brained retard, do you honestly believe that religion is exclusively for morons?

Religion is a way of coping with the crushing reality that everything is literally pointless and eventually we will cease to exist, a fact that cannot be averted by any means. By giving yourself the promise that you will have a good life forever in another place if you abide by certain morals and stay going for the entirety of your life (no suicide), you actually have a reason to live.

That is just one of two reasons that religion exists (the other being a method by primitive cultures of explaining facts of reality), but it's the most important of them.

High intelligence has nothing to do with religion. Go back to your Reddit board and whine about how "nice guys" like you never get actual companions, blaming it on religion as usual.

>a fact that cannot be averted by any means
Not in this scenario.

Golly. That was kinda mean dude :/

Hello newfriend. You have to go back.

Smart people would prepare for some serious conflict with their fellow mages.
Smarter people would get away from Earth as soon as possible, either transporting themselves to another planet, dimension or reality.

Up yours, roody poo, I've been here longer than I've been porking your mother.

The earth is destroyed in fire and storm.

I take my family and friends to a Demi-plane almost identical to earth where we vow never to use our powers again.

Do you realize how many people want to fucking blow up the world? The only thing stopping them is the fact that they lack the means, and you just fucking gave it to them.

We all die, except for anyone who flees as soon as they get their power.

...

Fuck the consequences, I'm moving into my waifu's dimension and becoming a powerful backstory character who will probably be awakened from an eternal slumber or some cliche shit at some point.