No weapons

In a world where everyone can learn spells and most conflicts are settled with magic, is there really a need to manufacture weapons/armor anymore?

Like imagine a world where learning magic required as much effort as learning a sword and most spells have the same relative speed as a swordsman swinging a sword or an archer loosing an arrow? Imagine if defensive spells saw more use since they can activated at a moment's notice and didn't add any excess weight to your carrying capacity, would armor still be sought out? Finally, if everyone's shooting fireballs and lightning bolts and shockwaves and shit, why wouldn't militaries depend 100% on teaching combat spells as opposed to weapon drills?

And I know some of you will go "well, a sword can't be negated with an anti-magic field" but let's face it, in a situation where you're fighting something that can utilize an AMF on the battlefield, a sword won't help you anyways.

Anyways, would a world like this make sense?

Sure, anyone -can- learn spells and settle conflicts with magic, but it's way easier and cheaper to just learn how to swing a sword around.

Basically the same reason we still have wars and hatred even though science could take us all to space.

Actually if you stop and think about it, learning spells would be way more affordable and easier to learn than learning how to swing a sword around since swordplay requires physique to perform consistently (not to mention the time and costs to not only build muscle but also to manufacture enough swords for each cadets) while magic only requires you to have the intellect to cast and know the right spell components to perform each spell consistently.

Like a wizard can create his own scrolls as long as he has ink, parchment, and XP to spare while a swordsman would require ingots, a forge, and the know-how to properly smith a blade that can be used in combat.

Not to mention, swordsmanship requires you to step into melee and employ the correct stances while magic is comparably point and click as far as how most spells operate.

>magic only requires you to have the intellect

Looking at our current state of the world, then applying that to moronic peasants of most fantasy lands, and I'd say the "only" is saying rather a lot.

In most historical situations, where most of an army is minimally trained and it's bring-your-own-equipment, no. Most people wouldn't have the resources to train as a wizard or regional equivalent. The landed elite would likely have some training in magic, but they could also afford plate armor and horses, so they'd probably just learn Cure Wounds and a few other useful spells. The people with proper character levels would likely pick up magic for similar reasons as PCs: it's really useful.

In a more modern situation, where equipment and training are given, there would likely be some trained in it, but it's a matter of who would be best suited to it. Some 8 Int schlub probably isn't worth it, but even 14 Int might mean they'd provide a spellbook and education. It could even be an incentive for joining: we'll train you in magic if you use it for us for a few years. This could eventually lead to armies consisting entirely of wizards, but it would be very gradual, and they'd likely still be vulnerable to swarms of barbarians.

All assuming D&D 5e-style magic and equipment costs. Cheaper magical or mundane equipment, requirement of an inborn gift, what sort of reagents are required, and so on would change it (obviously).

See
This would be the case, but only if learning spells was as basic achievement as learning to prepare breakfast.
Assuming that the population in your setting is the generic fantasy type, then building an army wielding swords rather than magic is more efficient because of industry.
Not everyone in a society has the time/patience/will to learn proper swordsmanship, but it only takes a few people to equip a militia. You just toss a pointy piece of metal at a peasant and give instructions to swing it at the guys coming from the other side of the battle field.

Now if, say, magical scrolls could be mass-produced and used by anyone...

The only reason why peasants were stupid was because you didn't need an education to pull turnips and die at the age of 29.

If education was required to fight wars against rival nations, you bet your ass that the royals of the lands would start forcing everyone in the kingdom to learn spells to defend the land.

ITT: retards blather about shit without any context

When will you fucklords remember that DotS ALWAYS applies?

Well I mean, when you consider that learning how to create scrolls is one of the first things that a wizard knows how to do, I could see a more magic focused setting developing an arcane printing press just to manufacture scrolls at a fast rate.

>In a world where everyone can learn spells and most conflicts are settled with magic, is there really a need to manufacture weapons/armor anymore?

Nope, not enough context. and clearly this doesn't elude to any form of setting

...

High education in boring subjects are needed so people will have jobs in our current era.

No see how much people are willing to learn those as compared to those that refuse to learn it because its too boring for them.

The thing is, most curriculum teach us bullshit that we'll likely never use in our day-to-day lives and are stuck with a lesson plan that doesn't take individual talent into account when constructing tests and lesson plans.

However, if you asked most people to take a 9 month course to learn magic, I guarantee you that most people would jump at the call, especially for the more useful utility spells like prestidigitation, comprehend language, or mage hand.

>Imagine if defensive spells saw more use since they can activated at a moment's notice and didn't add any excess weight to your carrying capacity, would armor still be sought out?
yes, at least for this particular point. Active and Passive defenses always fulfill different roles, and you will want variety in any case to cover as many threats as possible. This assumes plate/kevlar does not interfere with spells.

You bet your ass they wouldn't, because peasants both educated and able to cast war magic are a nightmare made flesh. Since things are presumably feudal you've handed vassals competent and independent armies that won't bankrupt them with the kind of expenditure an actual medieval army of mercenaries and men-at-arms would require.

It could work okay in a centralised realm with a strong monarchy, but as soon as a shitty king hits the entire thing is ready to collapse into a fractured mess where royal writ means almost nothing once you're out of sight of the capital.

in pic related all humans have a powerful form of Psychokinesis and can accomplish small miracles with it.

There's some other tricks to the setting, but the humans don't manufacture any weapons because they don't need to. The anime is kinda meh, but I'd recommend it if only for the setting.

Well it obliviously depends on the relative difficulty of learning magic versus learning using weapons I guess.
Or are you asking if they would have developed any weapons at all to begin with as they could have used magic since before metallurgy?

>magic can make fireballs and lightning bolts

Shit setting

Okay, what special snowflake setting do you know that doesn't have fireballs and lightning bolts?

>The thing is, most curriculum teach us bullshit that we'll likely never use in our day-to-day lives and are stuck with a lesson plan that doesn't take individual talent into account when constructing tests and lesson plans.

That's what combat magic is all about.

There are so many unanswered questions before we can really provide you with a good response. Is it Jack Vance style Magic? Are there Mana pools? Mana points? Unlimited magic up to and including whatever skill you've reached? Does the magic draw from surrounding energy or within the caster? Does magic require the favor of the Divine entity to function?

If we're talking about D&D magic, then yes, there's still a benefit to learning how to fight because at some point you're going to run out of spells. And of course there's the possibility of someone with counterspell or anti-magic capabilities. If you didn't bring a sword because anything that can cast an anti-magic field can kill you, any jackass that can cast an anti-magic field will also kill you.

Tldr define your parameters

Not really, because I can think of multiple ways that fireball can be useful in day-to-day life, the same cannot be said for something like geometry or history.

>In a world where everyone can grow guns out of their body and most conflicts are settled with shooting, is there really a need to manufacture weapons/armor anymore?
>Like imagine a world where growing a gun out of your skull required as much effort as learning a handgun and most shots have the same relative muzzle velocity as a policeman shooting a .38 or a rifleman shooting a 5.56?
The answer is not everybody can learn magic and depending on the setting there are disadvantages to magic that can be shored up by conventional arms and armor, and vice versa.

How would you go about using a 30ft radius instantaneous blast of flame in everyday life?

>world where everyone can learn spells and most conflicts are settled with magic

This is what you're doing wrong.

>and die at the age of 29
Not when you exclude the Infant Mortality Rate.

A lot of zeros brings down an average, without infant deaths you'll see average lifespans get significantly higher the world over.

>grilling
>mosquito spray
>clearing out traffic

You just need to think outside the box

How wouldn't you?

>30ft
I can tell you did poorly in geometry.

It depends on just how easy it is. Training to be good with a sword was actually a fair bit of practice, even assuming you had one. But, at the same time, if it was easy enough that a peasant could learn it over the winter with little added instruction, then yeah.

You'd still have weapons though. People would know that a sharp knife is dangerous enough to kill, and if basic defense magic requires some concentration or preperation then a dagger would be preferable to something flashy for assassinations.

It also depends when people discover all this. If the world is in the stone age, then weapons will probably just stay as axes, slings, and daggers that are useful as tools or for hunting. If it's bronze age, you'd still have spears and swords as more ceremonial objects.

The world wouldn't entirely lack weapons, but they'd be niche.

Sure everyone can do that and get counter and dispell magic leaving the most martial of option left.

>Now if, say, magical scrolls could be mass-produced and used by anyone...

We have those, they're called "guns".

>let's face it, in a situation where you're fighting something that can utilize an AMF on the battlefield, a sword won't help you anyways
Based on what reasoning?
If everyone is using magic and most conflicts are settled by magic then what's to stop someone from specialising in anti-magic and shanking people? That seems like it'd be a primary element of tactics, wear down magical reserves/defenses or distract mages so you can kill them any way that works.
I mean, in our world where pretty much everyone uses guns knives can still be lethal even against someone armed with a gun and if you could disable guns it'd be even more effective, it's just that irl gun defence is bulky and shit.

There are also all sorts of societal implications if you're having magic as easier to learn than mundane crafts/trades/skills.

>DUDE what if everyone was a wizard!
So D&D 4e?

Stop thinking small. Who gives a crap about swords and fireballs? In a world that is so thoroughly infused with magic, every single aspect of human life and society will be impacted. It would be drastically different from everything we know.

Iron is anathema to magic. Perhaps the swords we know wouldn't exist, but a good iron rod would have its place.

Bows don't take 8 hours to restock ammo.

Armor has unlimited duration.

Spears can be used as many times per day as needed.

You can cast buffs on a fighter so he can kick the asses of dozens of scrawny mages

You can enchant a fighter's armor and weapons to buff him even more

>In a world where everyone can learn spells and most conflicts are settled with magic, is there really a need to manufacture weapons/armor anymore?

I once played in a Planescape like game with tons of multiple realities. Most realities had something call "Aura", a form of magic that could be formed into objects or used to empower the body. As a result, almost no one was trained in metallic weapons. The party was a novelty purely because we were almost the only people to use normal weapons.

This led to us saving the day when something something anti-Aura happened.

>"Onwards men! Their weeb-shit powers are no match for our sharp pointy sticks!"

Unfortunatelly most people are idiots.
Also you can arm them with spears rather than swords. Spears are very cheap and you can get away with only few weaks of drills to get a serviceable squad of soldiers. Mages could be cheaper than swordsmen, quicker to train and even have higher recruitment pool if they don't require THAT much intellect, but they cannot beat spears in cost/effectiveness, especially if you cannot afford regular army and resort to militia instead.

The setting is that I hope you die a slow and fucking painful death that your parents get to witness

Read sword of joram.

ok but like, in the world of wizards the guy with the sword would be king? Sure your anti-magic shield can unravel a fireball faster than you can spit but it can't stop a well aimed rock.

Eventually physical and magical combat would just be one and the same anyhow since a spell to throw rocks or a spear that has exactly as much reach as necessary would be common place.

Weapons might retain a niche use: If everyone only uses magic, people will be memorizing spells for detecting and/or passively defending against hostile magic, and they won't (know they) have reason to memorize spells for detecting the dagger concealed in your vest.

>start forcing everyone
Without any infrastructure? How the fuck are they going to accomplish that?

>most curriculum teach us bullshit that we'll likely never use in our day-to-day lives
Everything that isn't history IS useful in day to day life. A common case is to severely underestimate how much reading practice there is in basic education, and forget how much it improved literacy.
The same is true of math and physical education.

Redundancy or an alternative which may surprise your adversary
>enemy goes "a-ha!" and manages to fuck your fire spell
>goes in to use the "rape someone's face and throat" spell
>suddenly you pull a dagger and shank the bastard

or
>motherfucker casts fist at you
>but you have armor, so you cast "rape his face and throat" while he's bewildered that you're not down

The real answer is physical armor can't be dispelled, user

>what is disintegrate
>what is metal-to-sand
>what is literally a whole bunch of different spells, some of which bypass armour entirely