How different would your setting be in the most powerful mages were all 10 cm-tall at most?

That really depends on how powerful "the most powerful mages" are, really.

Obviously it would depend on the mage in question. Some may have a small wizards' manse complete with a tower and a sunbed on top carried in a backpack; others may be content with a hammock slung down across their bearer's chest like a bandolier. Others may go for a classic chair on a hat or the cosy pocket option. There's plenty of variation to play around with here.

Well, it still depends; do people use mages like basically a doll that can cast a fireball or make a light or something, specialising in a single spell, are they still considered 'human' or citizens or such? Or is it all dependent on how powerful that mage is; with less potent mages treated like equipment or a pet at best and more powerful ones being more independent?

Well, mortal magic already isn't all that great in a fight, so being easily squished isn't that much more of a liability. I don't know whether I'd let them use smaller-scale ritual objects and spaces but if not that may be a struggle for them. They'd probably be more reliant on using apprentices or laymen as assistants for all rituals in that case.

Then I suppose it depends on how rare the little critters are, too

very perplexing

oh, come to think of it, being smol can be a big tactical advantage when your powers aren't limited by range

then again, that puts you at the mercy of the bad guys' familiars

I think it'd be best to have them about as rare as magic users typically are in a setting. Perhaps there's less around as many people would be a bit less willing to seize arcane might if they were turned into a dorky floof ball at the same time.

Mage guilds would be the most adorable things though; I imagine them being basically having a single or a suite of rooms for normal sized people then the rest of the building is split up into doll-house sized cloisters and rooms.

Also if mages are treated a bit harsher in this setting, you can have them all in bandoliers with each one having a different specialty. Pluck the one from the pocket you want, say a Fire Mage or a Healing Mage and go to town.

Hence why I think any mage worth their salt would have a burly fighter body guard to rescue them from any creepy familiar running around.

>Mage guilds would be the most adorable things though; I imagine them being basically having a single or a suite of rooms for normal sized people then the rest of the building is split up into doll-house sized cloisters and rooms.
like the Smurf village!

>Also if mages are treated a bit harsher in this setting, you can have them all in bandoliers with each one having a different specialty. Pluck the one from the pocket you want, say a Fire Mage or a Healing Mage and go to town.
bet that'd be a little uncomfortable for them and for the wielder

That doesn't look like a trustworthy bodyguard, it looks like a scruffy gremlin-ogress-thingie!

And she looks hungry too; I bet she's the kind of rogue who would just pick up a chibi mage and chomp her down as soon as she saw one!

Precisely; albeit a lot more ornate and chaotic; each mage getting a little section of the normal sized building to make into their solar, or with other areas dedicated to public use; perhaps with windows or shutters to allow normal folk to look or interact with the spellcasting floofs inside.

And perhaps having a bandolier of cute doll-sized magic users wouldn't be the most comfortable thing for all parties, but it's a convenient way to pack a large amount of magical force and firepower into a single adventurer!

Having such a scruffy, rude and boistrous ogress bodyguard would be a sign of great prestige and standing I imagine; having to track down and tame such a powerful beast, ply her with drink and magic and convince her to serve you properly and not just use you as a plaything would be a sign of a real mage's prowess.

I doubt even such a fierce ogresss like here would be willing to harm a cute mage. Even the Purple Terror of the New Ports wouldn't be so mean.

10 cm artillery is still artillery.

I see, then that's what the collar is for, it's a magical artifact of binding.

>Also if mages are treated a bit harsher in this setting, you can have them all in bandoliers with each one having a different specialty. Pluck the one from the pocket you want, say a Fire Mage or a Healing Mage and go to town.
Alternatively if they only know a few spells they might not be a full mage yet, so they might voluntarily work for an adventurer in order to fund their studies.

Could the little buggers even carry a purse full of gold pieces by themselves?

That's another way of controlling her, sure; probably came up to her while she was in a drinking session and offered it as a sweetener for a bodyguard contract. Now she's still a boisterous servant but doesn't do too much harm to hew new mistress/master.

I still think that only upon becoming a true mage is when you shrink, but it's a nice concept. It also would explain why you would have a mage guild; someone small than six inches would struggle to carry gold around themselves, so you'd need an organisation to guarantee the payment and keep their money safe.

To me it makes more sense if the shrinking is something you have to do before you can even start learning magic, like you have to become part fairy before the magic will take to you, but you still have to learn the spells before you use them.

I'm not sure which one I like more; having to shrink down first to become a being/take a form that is capable of using magic, or the shrinking being a side effect of using magic; the more you learn and the more you use, the smoller you get.

I don't really have mages in my setting but the not-newtype psychics would be seen as a lot cuter on the propaganda material.

The first version lends itself better to the bandolier scenario, since a lot of starting mages wouldn't know enough magic to function independently, so for them it would make a lot of sense to sit in the fighter's pocket until he asks them to cast one of the spells they do know. Of course the fighter would have a strong incentive to treat them well since he wouldn't want them to hold a grudge if they do reach the high levels.

Plus it's harder to keep hiring smol mages when you mistreat them and they're so useful.

Would they also be involved in other areas of society?

anal

would they still be suitable as propaganda material then?

Don't lewd the smols.

depends on how much urban society trusts them

the murderhobo community is a different thing altogether

...

Oh certainly, except that they'd be more cute mascots and such rather than noble paradigms of martial and spiritual perfection (the propaganda as really they're hella crazy and such).

Do they lose their sex drives as they grow smaller or what

certainly not

Murderhobos would appreciate their compactness, the lower upkeep they'd take in travelling, ability to sneak and hide and such plus the magic.

I think most places in the main areas would be pretty accepting of them. It'd be adorable to see them running cafes and such but really they wouldn't be doing so; perhaps some rich and powerful like to keep mages on retainer to serve them or act as advisors and such; pocket assistant.

Most likely not; although there's usually an inference of magic users and sex not being too interesting to them. But you can't just abuse them like that; pushing a 4 inch fairy-like humanoid up your ass may sound kinky, but that's a mage and they likely know a few spells that'll ruin your day.

It'd make travelling a lot nicer for the small magic users.

>Everyone else has the usual bedroll, tent, shelter, etc.

>Due to your size, you've asked one of your party members to carry your little house with you.

>About the size of a foot cubed, it has a combination living room/kitchen/workshop and an upstairs study/bedroom complete with bathroom.

Just imagine how comfy it would be as everyone else is moaning about the weak stew in their little cauldron while you're sipping coffee on the balcony of your little house, enjoying the evening.

No, but most of them didn't want to go in your ass before they were small. Keep to cuddling and everyone will be happy.

Well, looking through the thread, I think a few points I want to make have already been made, but basically it depends a lot on the conditions. The power and/or prestige would have to be pretty high for people to choose to live their lives as tiny doll-sized creatures just to be able to cast magic. That would reduce the amount of mages available. Alternatively, if mages were born and never grew larger than a foot or so and they were fairly common, I could see them being much closer to normal populations of magic users.

...

congratulations, Halflings and gnomes are no longer the most annoying species in the setting...

Would mages be classed as a different species? A sub species?

When they shrink, would they keep their old proportions or would they be cute and SD?

A smol cute magic user would be superior to a halfling or a gnome.

Juat stick to headpats.

I mean I guess it would mean that my wu xia troop would be carrying around a literal pocket fang shi rather than just a metaphorical one?

Oh and they would probably tumble that the some of the courtiers are secretly spell casters a lot faster too probably.

On the one hand, disguising a magic user as a nomal person would be far more difficult.

On the other hand, you could hide them far more easily.

You think you're talking to some local mandarin in his little palace and everything but under his fancy hat? It's a smol spellcaster.

they would definitely be chibi

precisely!

That'd be a fun scene. Especially if the party is from elsewhere and either have a good idea of what the magic user used to look like or have different expectations.

>Be sent to meet the Witch-Countess who rules the town.
>Pass by portraits of her before she became a magic user.
>Get told of her beauty, power and grace.
>Reach her chambers to find no one there.
>Tiny floof headed chibi thing pokes her head out of a drawer on her desk and pads along towards the party, looking puffed up and smug.

My current character is 5'8", so nothing changes.

At that size, their use would be less as PCs and more like grenades.

do spellcasters explode when they get bonked in your setting?

they better not mistake her for a rodent!

>Handing over the trussed up or knocked out floofball to the Steward, saying that they couldn't find the Countess but dealt with something rustling around in her drawers.
>Having to flee town rapidly as the furious smol wakes up and tries to have them executed.

No, but think about the tactical advantage of throwing a little inches high creature with all the powers of a PC spell caster into a gang of enemies. It'll have the same impact as a grenade.

How are they supposed to bow down to her to show respect if they're still taller even when bowed down?

That's why she's on the desk, so they can kneel before her. She didn't become that cute without brains, you know.

then she could be a recurring antagonist out for revenge, classic stuff

It'd be a nice way to set things up in the campaign if the PCs messed up like that as well as a good lesson in how mages work in the setting. Plus I bet she'd be just adorable in her rages against them.

A lot of the responses in this thread have all magic users being about four inches tall; when OP's statement was just the most powerful.

By and large in my setting, the most powerful mages tend to not really go around much unless there's something absolutely grave and world threatening that requires their attention; they usually rule small city states and such. Largely it wouldn't really change my setting all that much except that it'd make having an audience with them a whole lot more awkward/cuter.

>Due to the intense level of magic in their bodies, their feet even make that squeaky padded noise walking around the place.

cute!

Ridiculously so.

don't trick that Mink, you're gonna regret it!

Nah, this is just how recruiting mages to your party will work in this post-SD paradigm shift.

I suppose one should really use things that would appeal to floofheads though, like parfaits or cake.

gotta keep that high metabolism running

So do SD mages work on Slayers magic rules? High mana consumption to be replaced by calories?

I can't imagine the smaller stature would require large amounts of food.

no but it's gotta be high-calories stuff for that same reason

So, they're like ants?

or fluffy bumblebees

>party is hired to steal an item from the countess
>they bypass the traps, drop the chest into an antimagic container (can't be too careful), and escape without being detected
>once outside, they pick the lock and check the contents
>they stole the wrong chest
>this one contains a miniature bedroom
>with the countess still sleeping inside

Bumblebees is a cuter way of putting things, so let's go with that.

I love it. Now they've got to deal with the consequences; perhaps they can recruit the Countess as she's amused by their failure and has work for them, or lie to her and say they saved her from a thief themselves, or perhaps have to deal with an irate noble magician who's used to being served a hot thimble full of the finest hot chocolate upon being woken and now finds herself in the hands of smelly murderhobos.

Let's go through various settings and discuss the ramifications for this. Who wants to start us off?

Raistlin Majere napping on Tanis's head.

That is wonderful.

Would the process also involve their hair going super floofy?

sure, why not? static energy from ki/tejas/vril making their hair stand on end

or just because hair is not as affected by gravity on a small scale.

Pretty much every setting will work under the following new paradigm;

Magic users are all incredibly small and physically even weaker than before; those settings with battlemages and such will find have to find a new way of making the concept work as it's hard to be an effective spellsword when you're smaller than six inches. Because of this, mages will have to find a new way to interact with the world; normals may have more leverage than normal, but the arcane power is still a balancing force to prevent outright exploitation, unless the society was already organised in that way. The convenient pocket size of mages will mean that one can secrete them on one's person, thus allowing a single individual to carry on him several people's worth of magic.

So not only can we identify the most powerful mages by their small new bodies, we can also determine which of the mages is the most powerful by how floofy and voluminous their hair is.

>the arcane power is still a balancing force to prevent outright exploitation

Unless shit like this happens

Well, I'm playing Warhammer Fantasy, so I suppose it'll change the dynamics a lot; the Faye Enchantress and her Damsels are now a tiny little women who probably have to ride around on top of a night's head. Imperial wizards probably are a lot more vulnerable to witch hunters and such and probably operate much more in secrecy and behind walls and such. On the battelfield, they're probably held by the army's general in a safe armoured box or such. Elves are going to be interesting; Malekeith's mum is going to be a ridiculous little imp badgering her son, and Teclis will be action figure sized; so possibly less expeditions for him. Chaos is going to have a field day with their sorcerers; Slaneeshi socercers are probably going to be into GTS and bondage fairy stuff, Tzeentch probably loves the way his most dedicated followers become little corrupt balls of scheming floof. Skaven probably suffer a lot more and aren't as successful as there's no way grey seers are going to last being bite-sized. Same for orcs; when your shaman is the size of a snotling, they're not going to stick around much, so they probably get turned into weapons at best.

BOOOOONDAAAAAGE FAIIIIIRIIIES

Most settings won't have spellcasters sucked into other realms where more powerful entities exist.

Also wouldn't the Arch-Devils also be smol?

>Morathi standing on Malekith's shoulder squeaking about what he should do, how he should be the Phoenix King, etc, etc.

Adorable.

>Uugh... Moooooom!

All the while he's thinking about whether he can just put her in a coffee tin for a while but he also doesn't want to have to deal with her when he lets her out.

>Leomund poking his head out of his Tiny Hut
>Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion is just an extradimensional dollhouse
>Otiluke rolls around in a Resilient Sphere but gets carried off by a bird
>Tenser and pals going for a ride on a Floating Disk
>Drawmij's Scent Mask is a necessity for living because you're downwind of everything

The Circle of Eight would be like some kind of 4koma

Basically nothing will change. Day 17, they are yet to realise they're in a magical realm.

That's the best feeling as a GM.

Details?

Conclaves of mages would be far cuter.

Best thread on Veeky Forums right now.

>one of them gently the countess while the discuss what to do
>eventually she tires herself out trying to attack the finger pinning her down
>promises to forget the whole thing if they just let her out of the field
>afterwards she admits that it would have been a perfectly executed kidnapping if it hadn't been an accident
>now she wants to hire them to capture one of her rivals

>tiny sorceress constantly perched on hero's shoulder pad
>"OH OH OH OH OH!" at full volume right next to his/her ear

One of the most powerful magic-user in the setting was a huge buff guy and horrifically scarred ugly motherfucker. Now he looks like this I guess.

Give me one GOOD reason (that doesn't feel like an asspull) for why the "most powerful" mages just can't shapeshift thenselves into having nornal height.