Magic For The Common People
Header Art: Player’s Handbook by Wizards of the Coast
Many spells are, strictly speaking, violent. Few spellcasters who spend their days studying in a library need to know how to throw a globe of fire at their enemies, but it makes sense. When spellcasters go adventuring, they are going to need spells that deal some damage, that scare and frighten their opponents, or help them survive against horrifying monsters.
While our rulebooks are covered in adventuring spells, what spells might the common folk have? What magic do the nobles and tradesmen utilize? Would there be a spell as ubiquitous as fireball among the social elite?
What are Utility Spells?
Commoners, nobles, priests, and more all have different needs from magic to best match what they are trying to accomplish - they aren’t, typically, trying to defeat monsters. Instead, they are trying to overcome obstacles, make their lives easier, and even just amuse themselves. They are going to be drawn towards, and further research, spells based on their utility.
Utility spells are specific spells that rarely, if ever, have a use in a fight, but rather help to solve obstacles and problems. This might be using the knock spell to open a locked door, though a farmer or noble is probably not going to bother learning anything about that spell, a thief probably would be interested in it. On the other hand, a thief is probably not going to care about plant growth or protection from evil and good. Utility spells have niche uses, with some being encountered often while others may only appear once in a commoner’s lifetime, like needing to use pass without a trace and avoid the notice of the guards, criminal elements, or invading monsters.
Magic for Commoners
Depending on the world, commoners may have never seen actual magic before or may have a few members to almost everyone able to do a bit of slight magic. But regardless of the world, they probably aren’t going to have any stronger magic than a 1st-level or 2nd-level spell as the stronger the magic, the more time investment is required to practice and learn it. Most commoners, at least in a fantasy setting, are going to be busy with menial labor and hard tasks that require them to exhaust themselves at the end of the day to continue living with at least a moderately comfortable lifestyle.
Skilled tradesmen and the like are going to be the ones with the stronger magic, simply due to them having a bit more expendable income to help them on their path towards magical knowledge and odd spell components.
A Commoner’s Requirement
For a basic commoner, who isn’t especially skilled or trained in a specific role but rather does menial labor, if they are going to gain access to minor spells it’ll be the broadest application of spellcraft. Their magical ability will be like a puddle, incredibly shallow but quite wide. Any magic they have will be useful in a wide variety of cases, but it won’t completely solve the obstacle in front of them.
For example, knock is a very specific spell that does one thing and solves the obstacle, which is unlocking a door. A commoner might have some uses for that spell, like if they forget a key somewhere, but it isn’t something they would use every day to help them overcome their normal tasks. Instead, a very useful bit of magic for them might be something like mending which can be used in a wide variety of cases but can’t simply solve the problem for them. If there is a tear in their clothes, they can spend a bit of time patching it up, and the patch, while fixed magically, may not be as clean a fix as someone who has devoted their life to magic.
A commoner might even be limited to what they can use their mending spell on simply because they haven’t explored its uses across many different materials. A commoner who spends their time most often cooking and washing clothes may only be able to use mending on fabric because that is the only thing they have mended before. It may even require them to pull out needles and fabric and then cast the spell, concentrating intently on the magic as the needle slowly moves its way through the fabric and magically sews the tear closed.
A Tradesmen’s Requirements
Working in a trade, a crafter is often going to be doing the same thing over and over for many years. While this probably won’t quite be as difficult work as menial labor is, it will still take quite a bit of effort and skill to properly complete the work. Tradesmen are going to find magic that helps them increase their productivity, thus increasing how much money they can make each day, thus increasing their lifestyle. A blacksmith isn’t going to waste their time with magic that helps plants grow faster, but they would be keen on learning how to conjure hot flames so that they can get their forges hot quickly.
Similar to our analogy with the commoner, a tradesmen’s relationship to magic will be like a puddle, where it will be shallow but quite wide. They’ll want magic that can be used for a wide variety of uses, but this ‘puddle’ will hide a deep connection to magic, similar to potholes that are filled with water. While it may appear quite shallow to outsiders who study magic, they may have a very deep connection to a specific spell that has allowed them to unlock odd ways of utilizing that magic that goes against what is talked about in magical universities.
For example, a cobbler spends their time making shoes from wood and leather. They have learned the mending cantrip, allowing them to fix minor mistakes they might make while working on shoes. BUT, unlike others who use mending to just fix mistakes, they have also learned how to use that simple piece of magic to ‘unmend’ items in a very specific fashion. They can use that same magic they use to repair items, to cut items in the desired shape, but using the same incantations and focus that the cantrip normally requires. By altering their will with the spell, they can cause it to operate in a different way simply because they were never taught in a structured system, like in a university, about how magic is ‘supposed’ to work.
Similarly, a blacksmith knows how to use conjure flames inside of their furnace. They then have taught themselves, perhaps simply after dozens of years of working with fire, to channel that heat out of a furnace and into the piece of metal they are working on. They still have to keep their furnace roaring hot, but now they no longer have to stick the piece of metal they are working with back into the blaze. Instead, they channel that nearby blaze into the metal they are working with, saving them hours of effort and helping them produce material and goods faster than their rivals. They may not even know how they do it and can only ever do it while they are near a furnace, never outside of a forge simply because that’s just not how they learned to harness their magic.
Magic for Nobles
Nobles, regardless of the magic level in most worlds, will normally have always been exposed to magic in one way or another. This could be just during a king’s feast when he has entertainers show off minor displays of magic or in a high-magic world where they can hire spellcasters to assist them in a variety of ways. Because nobles rarely have to do the same menial task over and over, since they have gold to pay someone else to do it for them, they are not going to learn magic simply through repetitive tasks - in fact, they probably look down on people who learn magic through years of doing the same thing over and over because it means they have learned ‘hedge-magic’ and aren’t learned people.
A noble has the leisure of learning magic through books, teachers, and intense study, but isn’t something that all of them would want to do. For many, they may see it as a curious distraction, the same way they might see a noble who likes to sew their own clothes instead of relying on a seamstress to do it for them. For them, magic is a leisure to learn and there isn’t a huge reason for them to harness it because they can simply hire someone else who has already done the hard work of learning it. For poorer nobles, they might seek to have one of their second- or third-born children learn such a craft as a way of cutting down on their expenses, but that child would be forced to learn very specific magic that would most benefit that family - like animating quills to help scribe notes and letters or crafting magical items that would take weeks or months to complete, a very costly expense for hiring a mage and requires too much time for a commoner to devote towards its completion.
A Noble’s Requirement
Nobles who decide to learn magic are going to have a specific school of magic that they are focusing on. Unlike commoners whose magical ability is like a puddle, their magical ability is more likely to be a narrow pit, with its depth determined by how much money they have. Their pit isn’t very wide, as they are going to focus only on magic that interests them, but thanks to their money and leisure time, they can afford to learn as much as they want and afford. While they may have no ability to cast magic as strongly as their knowledge, they’ll have a great understanding of said magic and can probably recite the incantations and somatic movements of more powerful spells - they just don’t have the ability to cast that magic except in very weak forms.
By utilizing their money, they can afford to hire mages to help them unlock more spells they are interested in and thanks to their leisure time, they can afford to practice their magic. Their style of magic will be by the book, very restrictive in how they cast the magic because they’ll trust in the source material they follow. There is no need in learning how to augment or change a spell because they have the time to simply learn a new spell or bit of magic that does the thing they are interested in doing. Their thinking of magic is liable to be a more rigid structure, and they’ll rely on that rigidity when negotiating deals or planning how much additional production an orchard might produce if they contract a druid to bless their trees and increase their yield.
For those nobles who learn magic to help their family, since they may be unable to afford magical services, they are likely to focus on the creation of minor magical items that can be used in a variety of ways. They may enchant a quill to scribe spoken words, a process that may take more than a week to complete depending on how magically rich your world is. They are also the most likely ones who create common or uncommon magic items like rings of protection or driftglobes, hoping to sell them to adventurers as a supplemental income for their estate. They aren’t going to produce rare and specific magic items, like a giant slayer or dimensional shackles unless they know that there is a need for such an item, someone is willing to commission such a piece from them, and they have the knowledge and power to actually produce it. Most likely, they will lack the magical knowledge to create complicated items, like dimensional shackles, and adventurers will have to find a mage who has the magical power.
Depending on the noble family, they might even have set aside a small chemists shop - though that might be a secret. Depending on the land, and the knowledge of magic, many might find potion-craft to be akin to hedge-magic due to the oddity of ingredients needed to craft them. For those lands where it isn’t seen as odd or peculiar, noble families who produce magic items probably rely greatly on their knowledge of producing potions of healing and may be seen as the physicians of the nobility class - typically a family to avoid socially unless you are sick.
Magic for only the Rich
Magic is restricted by the classes, as only the wealthy can afford mages and spellcrafters of any minor ability. The lowest class, that of commoners, are never going to be able to afford a potion of healing, simply because they earn 2 silver pieces a day and a potion costs 50 gp. That would require them to spend over eight months to afford a consumable potion, while at the same time they must still pay for their lifestyle, which requires all of the money they would normally make in a day (2 silver pieces). Because of this, if a family has a piece of magic, it has been passed down throughout the family - reserved for very specific cases. Perhaps they scrimp and save for years to afford a potion of healing for very rare cases where they can’t afford to just wait for their injury to finish healing for weeks or months or else they’ll starve.
On the other hand, the nobility are going to be more willing to buy such consumables and use them. If they get a more than a minor scratch, like say they fall off a horse and sprain their wrist in a painful way that will take a week or more to recover, they’ll be willing to consume that potion of healing they have. They likely have several on hand, but they still aren’t going to take a potion for every scrape or bruise they get. It’ll be for injuries that would take several days to heal from and are seen as aggravating or irritating. A bruise on the leg isn’t a constant annoyance, but a twisted ankle may be enough of an annoyance for them to take a potion, especially if they are planning on attending a ball in the next day or so.
It’s an expense, but one that they can afford, though not at consistent regularity. They can’t take potions every day, except for the top of the nobility, simply due to the cost of such potions. They spend 10 gp a day to maintain their lifestyle, if they were to buy a potion of healing every day to deal with their arthritis, it would increase their lifestyle expenses by 500%. Only the upper nobility would be able to afford such a thing for their aging patriarch or matriarch, and such an expense might be shown off to showcase how wealthy they are or hidden to maintain a mask of propriety.
Resurrection
A magic service that only the wealthy will ever be able to afford is that of resurrection, typically in the form of a raise dead spell. This spell costs 500 gp in diamond dust, and that doesn’t even cover the cost of hiring a spellcaster who is powerful enough to cast the spell. If a spellcaster requires an equal amount of gold, or even double that amount, that is a very costly spell to have cast and would be enough to wipe out the extra funds of a lower noble class for a year or more.
It’s a significant cost for almost every family and one that they would think over carefully before they would hire someone to cast the spell. While the pain of losing a child or loved one is great, the cost of hiring someone would be felt for many years except for the ultra-wealthy, like a king. In such cases, the spell would only be cast on the head of a family so long as they weren’t already aged or didn’t have any heirs yet. It would also be cast on the heir to the family, especially if the family didn’t have another child already that they can train to take over.
In cases where the person in question is very old, it wouldn’t even be a question if they would spend the resources to bring the person back. They may only have a few years of life left, and the family would still feel that financial sting longer than that person would be alive. If the person is middle-aged, they might very well bring them back since they would have dozens of years left to help recoup the costs and train the next generation to properly manage the family and their assets. For someone like a king, they could be brought back even if they were old unless the heir was quick and could consolidate power, stopping anyone from carrying out any orders to have the old king raised from the dead. A king is most likely to have an agreement with a church that, no matter how old they are, they are brought back to life and for the church to attempt the spell even if they had died of old age just to be sure that they can’t live just a little bit longer.
Time
Within our rulebooks, we are used to knowing that most spells are going to take 6 seconds to cast, but that is because if they are any slower, then they just aren’t going to be useful in combat. What this means is that for adventurers, they are going to avoid combat-oriented spells that take a minute or longer to cast because it isn’t useful in a skirmish, but rather outside of combat, where time isn’t as big of a deal, spells can have greater effect without expending as much energy. There are ritual spells that take 10 minutes to cast, which is effectively 100 times longer to cast than a spell that requires six seconds to cast.
For adventurers, where time spent doing anything else but adventuring is them losing money, a tradesman might be willing to spend an hour casting a powerful spell to help them. Because it takes them so long, it doesn’t take as much physical exertion from them or, it might require the same exertion, but they can have a greater effect than if they had simply expended a spell slot and cast a spell in six seconds.
An example of this could involve a locksmith who is attempting to unlock a magically protected chest for a noble who has lost their magical key. The chest has several magical and mundane locks on it, to keep it secure, and would require two or more knock spells to successfully open it. An adventurer who is dealing with a horde of monsters in a dungeon isn’t going to be able to spend hours with the chest and try to unlock the chest but will spend 12 seconds to cast knock twice and open the chest. The locksmith, on the other hand, can spend an hour or two with their mundane tools, muttering incantations as they attempt to open the chest. During this time, they still cast a knock spell, but it doesn’t require as much energy (potentially meaning they never expend a spell slot) and can open the chest with that one casting of the spell. It just took them one, three, or five hours of focusing on the lock and using their innate magic to force the magically protected chest open.
A noble is willing to spend that time, and money, to open it because they have time and money that they can spend. An adventurer will never learn, or rely, on magic that takes less energy to use but requires hours or days to cast. They are going to rely on fast spells because time is valuable and their goal is to make as much money as they can, all the while avoiding dangerous monsters. A locksmith in a town doesn’t have that time pressure or the threat of being mauled by a feral monster and so can spend hours harnessing strands of magic without using as much of their own energy. In fact, a locksmith would probably never be able to use knock as a six-second spell because that isn’t how they learned to cast that magic.
They learned to cast magic by taking their time, gathering strands of it, and slowly making their way through a lock, the same way that a farmer isn’t going to learn to cast druidcraft as a six-second spell. A farmer will spend months effectively casting druidcraft on their crops, slowly sending tendrils of magic into their field and encouraging the growth of their plants.
Magic for the Common People
Commoners, nobles, tradesmen, and more have a very different understanding of magic and its uses in their life. Magic, to them, does not require as much energy as it will for an adventurer or mage who will expend more energy to cast their spells, but do so faster. Magic can take a multitude of forms, depending on who is using the magic, and for many people, it will be something that they learn only as they spend years repeating the same task over and over. When someone becomes an apprentice to a cobbler, they aren’t just learning how to cobble shoes by hand but also learning from the cobbler how to draw the strands of magic together to help them cobble shoes.
When a farmer is showing their children how to grow crops, they show not just how they plant seeds, but odd rituals they perform to help encourage their plants to grow. This might be how they sprinkle water on their crops, how they spread the seeds while muttering incantations they half-heard from a druid in a tavern one night, to just using their mind and projecting it into the ground, telling their children to feel the earth as they plant the seeds, and that by feeling a connection to nature, they can increase their harvest every year compared to other farmers.
This type of magic could even be a closely guarded secret, a tanner may have stumbled upon a use for a piece of magic that they learned, effectively increasing their production. They reserve the secret of this magic to only their trusted journeymen that they are confident won’t run off to a competitor, something that may take a decade or more before they share the secret of their magic with them.
For the common people, magic comes to them slowly and only serves to help them complete their tasks, not completely do them. Magic for them takes time and is only good for very specific tasks that have to do with how they make money. Their skill with magic is not something they can often hire out to others, because their magic is what they use to produce goods and materials to keep them alive. They may not even know what they do is magic, simply assuming it is a skill or luck on their part.
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