sending scrolls are just a little part of this whole thing. you forget SENDIGN STONES! imperishable sending tools, they work once a day only but still are very good. a wealthy person can commision several and have a "sending operator" with a cabinet full of labeled stones like old time telephone operators
As someone who’s playing a character who’s part of an guerrilla spy network, Sending Stones and Sending Paper is an extremely useful resource that’s sent between operating cells and any kind of local HQ, to the point where a good few of the agents in this organization are a cross between telegraph/phone operators and data analysts. Even then, since they’re working out of a private logistical organization to coordinate caravans and transportation of goods, it’s more for urgent and important news, as well for questions and fact-finding that needs to be done in an expedited manner.
@@mephistophelesdearchon9870I played once in a campaign for a short time. As i come up with a spy build and background, the DM made my spy guild give me that spell as a mandatory training for every spy. Of course... 😅 never thought about it until then - even as a DM myself
If the king is funding your research, you're going to war, whether you want to or not. Massive government budgets for scholarships and research programmes would be a thing. Then consider the sorcerous bloodline. No schooling required, a family just has this free pass to globally significant power. There should be a lot of sorcerer queens and kings, far beyond however rare the bloodlines are. A video on sorcerers specifically might be interesting actually.
I love talking about sorcerer kings - as a massive fan of dark sun (even though they're technically wizards/psionicists) There's a lot of ground to cover in a discussion like this, and sorcerer may be a cool thing for the future, thank you!
@@Randomdudefromtheinternetoh for sure, there are definitely nobles that hire spies to sniff out sorcerers to hijack the bloodlines into their family through marriage, or even more unscrupulous means. Mayhap some even try to outright STEAL the bloodline power!
@@syrion5521 dragon bloodline (and every older sorcerer subclass) should have gotten optional rules to add expanded spells (and some the option to cast with sorcery points or some other additional effect) with a shortlist of spell schools they could swap the spells of. Dragon should have gotten spells like absorb elements, dragon’s breath (reprint in Tasha’s to facilitate or have direct replacement option), etc. and have evocation and… idk, transmutation, abjuration, or something else. This would allow for sending! This and the obvious storm sorcerers would obtain sending this way. Currently, abberant minds and divine souls DO have access to sending. So a line of divine messianic figures, likely taking a papal role, and a line of secretive, otherworldly, alien freaks would have rather great power. They could even be directly opposing factions!
The entire world would be so different and most people wouldn't even know why things were the way they were. For example, even the most basic door lock (basically a bar over a door) would be 11 pounds because Mage Hand exists, and that'd be the only size you could get them in. Bigger door bars would be 61+ pounds, to also counter act Unseen Servant, and this would be determined by security professionals. The Alarm spell would be used extensively, as would Detect Magic, Snare, Arcane Lock, etc. in every location of power. The Clergy would not only have Short Hand for Sending, they'd have codes that covered a bunch of common scenarios and their outposts would update the center of power daily. I'm not the biggest fan of FR books, but one of the Elfsong books took part in Waterdeep and even pubs/taverns frequented by the wealthy had powerful mages come in and cast permanent Dispel Magic auras on them, so much so that even the Blackstaff himself was outed when went in disguise to one and his magical disguise vanished in front off a a crowd full of people.
True, in my longest running campaign clerics living in a particular nation were usually drafted as security for the important buildings and VIPs, tasked with casting detect magic on a rotation at the entrance to say museums or the palace like a metal detector to make sure magic items were left at the door.
So basically, the only way to make a world that's actually fun is to make sure that Magic is sufficiently rare that common folk won't know shit about it, and aren't going to take action against it
@@OtakuNoShitpost or don't located it in a center of power. I'm sure small towns of ancient ruins would be fine, but low level magic spells and cantrips shouldn't be enough to get you into the White House equivalent in the fantasy world.
Magic should be uncommon enough that such security measures can really only be afforded, though limited, to the nobility or even just the royalty alongside powerful merchants, but also this means such defenses aren’t necessary for the average folk as they don’t have a NEED to defend against magic to this extent, but when the time arises, adventurers would need to be called as freelancers that can deal with magical crimes at an affordable price.
_Scrying_ would also be used for communication, if less often. You send a head's up using _Sending_ that you'd like to talk to another 9+ level spellcaster and you both cast _Scrying_ and then you have a conversation for 10 minutes.
The biggest effect would be on the size of nation states, since communication speed is historically one of the main limiting factors on empire size. In worlds where sending is common, there would be a natural pull towards a small number of large polities rather than city states or independent principalities.
Depends on just how tightly controlled access to sending is. Empires and nation states operate on centralized control. If learning to cast sending was just a matter of education, the benefit is so huge that it would be difficult to prevent the spread of this knowledge. Democratization of technology (ie magic) distributes power widely and flattens class divisions. You would see splintering factions, independence revolutions, and divisions along cultural lines rather similar to the French Revolution, the dissolution of the USSR, or the Arab Spring. If we're going by 5e rules, though, I'd say expect copper to become expensive and tightly regulated.
World-spanning empires existed at a time when the best way to deliver a message from one side of the empire to another was to not even try. I'm not sure I buy the idea that communication speed was a limiting factor, especially when compared to, say, resource distribution, or actual physical travel speed.
@@blackshard641 In D&D, sorcerers are literally born with it due to their bloodline. Wizards learn it by being taught. Clerics are dedicated to a specific organization that already has institutional power. Druids are insular communities... the only democratization of magic here are Warlock pacts and Paladin oaths. Those are pretty restrictive, and in the case of warlocks come with an inherent pledge of fealty toward an already powerful entity. While you could spin all this into a flatter divisions of class, the natural tendency would be the opposite.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 Well, yes... you're kind of proving my point. I did say it "depends on just how tightly controlled access to sending is" - those are all different ways that access to sending might be tightly controlled. I also didn't mean to suggest that the world would continue toward equality (that is FAR from guaranteed!), just that broad access to sending would redefine how power is distributed. If competing factions can instantly communicate any distance, the geographical size of an empire is a lot less important than cohesion and coordination. In fact, the size of the empire can become a liability. Or to put it another way, with access to sending, a relatively small faction could in theory secretly coordinate to gain control of an empire's critical resources; without sending, you'd be better off trying to brute force it with an army.
@@blackshard641 Consider our real world, and how extremely recent the notion of public education is at the lowest level. And then consider how large empires treat higher education to this day. Those in power are incentivized to do whatever they can to monopolize that power. Especially when it provides no personal benefit to them not to. A king doesn't need his people to be able to communicate more effectively to gain a strategic advantage over rival kings, he only needs his inner circle to be able to do so.
I suspect they would come up with a language like German where you can make single words out of combining multiple concepts into one word. But even more complex than that.
A more reasonable/'realistic' version of the spell would probably limit it to the number of syllables rather than the number of words to prevent such schananigans and stretching magic further than intended. I could still see such a language being made for such a spell, but it likely wouldn't be as ridiculous.
Consider how the spell might be limited to a written message with 255 characters. Now consider the difference between European and Asian ways of writing their languages.
In my nautical campaign the magic in the world has been adapted to suit the needs of ships having to travel long distances. Tomes of sending that allow people to write back and forth to each other instantly. this is great for the trading business as orders can be placed and confirmed ahead of time. My players have not cracked the usefulness outside of this yet after 4 years of play. Sending stones are more common, and larger political or economic areas have basically sending stone switch boards. the leader does not have a stone going directly to her, it goes to an assistant on a stone board who can pass the message on. This also means that you have to be very clear because it is being sent to another person. Also I get to do the great "Thank you for your information. This will be processed and passed on in the order of importance. We will be in touch for further information" as a kind of automated message. And when they have gotten a personal sending stone to a leader it is a huge deal. My artificer player has created stones with more than one use, and she is currently trying to create a network that allows multiple stones to come back to one central point. After that she wants to open the network up so that you can contact anyone in your network. She is basically making a phone network within the system of the game and I am all here for it. I don't think she understands how powerful it can be as she just thinks it is a fun cool idea :D I also have other magics that have grown to fit the needs of the settings. My question was simple, what difficulties does a world like this have, and how would magic help fix it over time?
I introduced the mighty king of a nation as a tywin lannister type. Always at a desk writing letters managing key aspects of the realm... and now i feel like a fool
This was good but you forget about how the war machine creates innovation. If the world was set up as you described then there would be a huge market for magic that could intercept and even replace a sending spell. Old school D&D allowed for wizards to make new spells and this would be one created for sure. And that option to interrupt or replace a sending spell would reset the world to neutral, meaning kings could no longer trust the sending spell. I would make this a part of a story
This assumes such a spell is even possible or practical to use in 'real' world situations. For example if you had to be touching the person casting or receiving the sending spell in order to replace the message.
@@rainickI think detection, decifering, and determining involved parties would definetly be possible and inevitable. The spell uses magic and thus should be tracable. Decifering and countering of the spell should definetly be possible as well, but rewriting would be almost impossible as the spell is sent almost instantly and any delay to think of a new message of the sent message(which would warrant the response to make less sense to the original caster) or the response(delaying which could warrant suspicion itself) would raise suspicion. In addition, there could also be spying spells that would allow the caster to listen in on a sent message without interfering.
@@rainick you would only really need to send a message but make it seem like its from someone else for it to become mostly useless, that doesnt seem like a major alteration to the base spell
@@VoidplayLPnot useless as such, but you would need passwords and other identification. Which could be stolen of course, leading to an information arms race of sorts...
Ed has also mentioned that the stagnation of industrial technology in the realms is due to proliferation of magic. No need for a cannon that might misfire if a wizard can throw a fireball.
@@martinithegr8Cannons are pre-industrial technology though. Joan of Arc was quite the fan of them. Plus, industrialization stems from many factors including agrarian capitalism upending feudal content, imported slave produced goods, peasants deprived of their land in droves creating a mass market, etc. For magic to prevent that, it has to effect the foundations of how people make their means of survival. Given some magic effectively bypasses production and transport, you’d have to have political and structural contrivances for why there isn’t a post-scarcity society industrialized or not. It would basically turn into Star Trek Spelljammer.
I have had these thoughts, and it's why I was relieved to see that Pathfinder 2e moved the spell to 5th level, cutting down on it's availability and thus world impact.
If I recall correctly, Sending was a 5th-level spell in 3.5e and earlier editions. There was another spell similar that was basically Sending but not Instantaneous, not infinite range, not auto-understood, and not extraplanar called Whispering Wind that was a 2nd-level spell which did the same thing over shorter distances but more time.
@@teeteenine2222 It also isn't automatically understood, which Sending does; does not have infinite range, which Sending does; does not arrive at the destination instantaneously, which Sending does; and does not travel to other planes, which Sending does. Those are things that were understood to have been mentioned in my reply.
playing a lvl 13 wizard in a 5e political (intrigue light) game right now and oh my god sending is so useful. getting information to and from other places, coordinating everything you do and being able to verify information is extremely valuable. depending on how the dm rules it, you can also either use it to find out whether someone is dead (no valid target) or get messages to AND FROM dead people (you can target creatures on a different plane of existence from you). combine that with the fact that we have a crystal ball of mind reading and we can stir some real trouble.
some time ago we met a wizard who sadly was cursed by an evil stone we destroyed, thus having him dissapear from in front of us, we weren't sure if he was missing or dead so the cleric sent him a sending and all he got back was screaming and a description of burning alive iincapable of dying it's been real akward talking to that wizard's father ever since
My idea for sending to the dead would require their actual true name, or something close to it. It’s described that mortals kind of only have their name as a true name, save for any pseudonyms they might have. You could take the Earthsea approach where every being has an actual, deep truename separate from what they are normally named as mortals. Like their soul has its own intrinsic name, though perhaps one that can be overwritten by their common name, or at least the common name would have vestigial power over a person and a sending spell of sufficient level would reach the dead with their common name. Or your world can simply have everyone receive two names, a true and a common one. Perhaps the true name must be found by scrying or deep mind probing. Just ideas, went on a bit of a tangent. It’s especially important in a world with true name magic to know how common people avoid being controlled, though that’s assuming mortals are that tied to their names in life to where they can be controlled or have it used against them at a moment’s notice. Perhaps the true name magic doesn’t work until the afterlife. It’s up for more work to implement.
@@jemm113 yeah, i love the concept of true names, but making it work for player characters in dnd is so much work that it isn't worth it in my opinion.
There's ways you can use Magic Mouth to essentially make a magic computer, it'd be cool if you made a video about it. It has all the necessary components to make logic gates, for basically any computation you could think of. Besides this, you can use less complex configurations to make things like basic telegram cables, sensors, or a wireless earpiece. It has a moderate upfront cost, but can make permanent reusable devices.
My favorite D&D podcast; Flintlocks and Fireballs has a lot of special interactions with sending. Because it's set during the new world exploration era, battles of information are of top priority. In their homebrew the private sanctum spell prevents the use of sending. Meaning they have dedicated sending rooms where mages go to pass on messages. There are also spells to capture sendings if they are sent specifically to sending rooms.
I love this idea. However a mage order might evolve around controlling communication, like Comstar in the Battletech universe. A world were sending is so important counter spells and spy spells would come about.
To keep it balanced, it’s likely that the counter to sending would require to be at or near the location of either the sender or receiver to spell. Though perhaps higher level scrying spells would allow you to intercept the spell near anywhere.
My sorcerer found a pair of linked sending stones on a pair of matching necklaces when the party had to continue on chasing the cult we were following, leaving the band (and her crush now girlfriend, the singer) we were escorting as cover, allowing me and her to keep in touch and therefore me to find her when we're done with the adventure. It's interesting too since my character is a wild magic sorcerer scared of her power, so guaranteed having to cast a 3rd level spell every day is a fun way to move along her character growth on that front.
Yup. My PCs were just ambushed by a highly organized and tactically savvy group of bandits. They found from the captain‘a journal that sending stone were being used by an organized crime syndicate in all sorts of activities.
An untappable, and unhackable reliable tweet lenght message is OP, when speaking of communications and war I tend to think of Parmenions message to Alexander magnus, that stopped him going for Darius at Granica, I think this would make wizards into the foremost generals of any nations a la Sima Yi in the three kingdoms period in China. Well done new headcannon installed.
Wizards would definitely be the best of the best military commanders one could ever have, perhaps next to eldritch knights given sufficient level as even low-level spells tend to be perfect for the role. You’d also see a lot of multiclassers in this regard, fighters that take up the books as they then weave the two arts into one. Bladesingers would make the ULTIMATE frontline commanders! Even artificers would likely be top officers rising up the ranks of the military engineering branches. Sorcerers would outright become noble or royal bloodlines, either by the sorcerer forcing their way up that totem pole, forging one for themselves that people decided (or are forced) to follow, or by being married into an existing clan or house as the magic meets the highborn into its own new political power! And if that sorcerer bloodline produces a Paladin, whoo boy! Or they succumb to temptation and make a pact with a power beyond their control or comprehension! Also I’d imagine more nobles would end up with or have ancient pacts with powerful entities to secure their bloodlines. A multigenerational pact would be a powerful thing, though a costly one which is likely why they could be so uncommon.
It's not untappable or unhackable. If someone impersonated you and that's the only way the target knows that impersonator, they would think it's the actual you just as they thought the impersonator was you. The problem with the idea that magic would revolutionize warfare is that it works both ways. And illusion magic just happens to be that much more dangerous than utilities that have real life analogues.
I wonder if there could be some sort of elegant way to these sorts of utility spells into their own category, perhaps called 'utility' or 'trade' spells, so that it could be communicated to DMs and players that NPC spellcasters are likely to have these spells prepared as part of their roles in society, (it also explains why the wise town wizard can't go wipe out the goblins himself; his spell slots have to be used to communicate with regional leadership)
A high enough wizard could probably wipe out the goblins with cantrips, and save their spell slots. The more realistic reason imo isn't saving spells, but rather that they need to stay in town in case an important message comes in or needs to be sent on a moments notice.
The DM part of me trembles a little every time I think of Sending. I'm not saying it's broken, it's just as you say world breaking. Okay, maybe it's a little broken. Or maybe it's just CR. No. It's broken. Absolutely. And you've nailed exactly all the things that worry me about it. (The player part of me, of course, is suspiciously silent on the subject.) Might as well just give them magic phones and unlimited free wifi. Information is King. Knowledge is Power. You want Skynet? This is how you get Skynet!
I once played a tortle bard who was a magazine journalist. When the party found him he was traveling from orc and goblin tribes sampling the tribes foods and exchanging recipes. When he had a article for the periodical he would used Sending, as many casting over days to send it to his publisher.
In terms of military use, a commander would probably have a team of casters dedicated to casting sending to each of their generals, so commands could be issued across the battlefield in a structured manner, similar to a radio communications room from wwii era.
I'd like to add to the discussion the Diplomat's Pouch (Magic item in MCDM's "Strongholds and followers"). Serve many of the same functions, but by physically sending an item it can be used to sign agreements in secret, literally conduct trade across the world, and Nobility can show off the size and craftsmanship of the pouch.
Devil: The power I can give you is so desirable and unique, there are thousands who sold their souls for it. Courtmage: Eldritch blast is a nice cantrip, but it's not that much better than firebolt Devil: oh that's just a bonus. I was talking about this tome that let's you cast sending without spell slots Courtmage:
I love the cantrip called Message in Pathfinder 2e. It acts like Sending but with limited range (max range is 120 ft at lv 1 and upgrades to about 400 ft at spell lv 3?, iirc. It is not meant for long-range comms, but you get unlimited uses so there is no downside to playing around with it. It’s like all my PCs with it have a codec on them 🤩
One of the Dragonmarked Houses in the Eberron setting has the ability to cast Sending as a spell-like ability, they've basically built up a neutral telegraph service that operates in all the main continent's kingdoms. You could have an order of wizards or clerics dedicated to a messenger god who perform a similar function in your setting.
This is great and all, but falls a bit flat when your DM is like "uhhhh, you need to have seen the person first before you can cast sending at them. No it's gotta be in person, sketches don't count".
Not related to the video at all, but you listing Sun Wu King, Enkidu, & Merlin in the same sentence made me so happy. Not everyone knows all those characters and many less consider them peers of talent. I got chills & subscribed
For when frequent communication is particularly important, a Warlock with Far Scribe is the best at this. At the same level that anyone else gets to cast Sending at all they can contact 3 individuals an unlimited number of times per day. All information could flow through an interconnected network of them (where each one contacts the next in line) or all of sendings between a small number of metropolises could go through a smaller number of them.
I researched how magic would affect worldbuilding some time ago and yeah, if magic was prevalent, the worlds would _not_ look quasi-medieval. Flight, communication, teleportation, etc. would have _huge_ impacts. I especially researched what spells a castle would have and it'd be a _lot._ I'll just copy over the list I made: - Arcane Locks - Continual Flames - Magic Mouths - Nystul's Magic Aura - Glyphs of Warding for: > Traps, including summon spells, Dispel Magic to counter buffed enemies. > Alarm, Sending and Skywrite, for a permanent alarm. > Create or Destroy Water, for a sprinkler system. > Darkness or Fog Cloud, for emergency visibility prevention. > Daylight, for emergency night-time light, perhaps outside the walls. > Control Water, Control Winds, Wall of Stone and Mirage Arcane, to manipulate the surroundings at a moment's notice. > Guards and Wards, to for extra protection in extreme emergencies. Making it permanent is not a good idea, because either your guests will be affected by it, or the password you specify to become immune would be too easy to get. - Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, probably only with the effects preventing divination, teleportation and planar travel. - Hallow, probably with the Courage effect. - Teleportation Circle either just outside the gate or in a special building, for easy travel but without bypassing the defences.
Another hugely important and underrated spell is Glyph of Warding. It lets you store any spell in an object for a 3rd +1 lvl slot. Thats the basis for a whole economy of one time use spell devices. People could have checkbooks of sending spells.
Agree and love this. Entire messenger guilds come to mind, trained in shorthand and send out to either the recipient or to a local messenger trained to decode shorthanded messages and deliver them.
I think the use of coded paper messages would actually have significant use for spymasters. Mages would all have the information used for sendings, a vulnerability. But use of an loyal messenger could subvert a treacherous mage, and makes a great potential adventure.
Great video! Was hoping you'd touch more on the geopolitical impact of such a spell also. You talked about the consolidation of power around courts who could afford (or coerce) spellcasters. I'd go farther and say there wouldn't be courts, atleast not ones that look like the ones we had in medieval times. One of the big factors in the rise of feudalism was the slowness of travel, in particular of information. That's why the king needed barons and dukes and princes etc, to represent his authority in the other size of the kingdom, squash rebellions before they get a chance to grow and so on. With sending and sending stones, that's no longer a concern. Add to that how create food and water would massively add mobility to armies and lay on hands, druidcraft and cure diseases and you remove the other material condition for feudalism: low population growth and very poor agricultural yields. Just found out your channel, so maybe you touched on that on other videos, if not, would love to see your take on those spells!
As soon as I saw "Range: Unlimited" in the spell description... hooo, boy. As ever, great examination of the effects of that and similar means of communication. That 10th level spellblaster will be worse than useless... unless a message spell makes sure they're in the right place at the right time. THEN they can heroically turn the tide of battle, while the 5th lvl Bard who passed on the commander's message is likely ignored or forgotten!
Elsewhere, there is a manga called Nano Machine, that within that wuxia world there is a similair menthods using ki pulses etc, whilest known to all, practiced by many and only effective on a 1:1 The kick is, the main protagonist recieves a infusement of nanomachines from a 'futuristically lookin person', allowing to eventually becoming OP, with the exclusive capabilities of tapping into any/all ki sendings within Range, allowing to exploiting enemies in-situ planning, surprising them spectaculairly
The thing about half the PHB spells is that they are holdovers from the oldest editions of the game that worked wildly differently from the current game. When Gygax and Co. first played their game they mostly played it in two phases. 1. Getting to the Dungeon. 2. Exploring the Dungeon. The Getting to the Dungeon phase was actually the harder part of the game. Why? Because whenever they had to run outdoor exploration they would pull out another board game called "Outdoor Survival" published by Avalon Hill. A game where the board is a hex grid of a stretch of undeveloped forests and mountains. A game with an incredible difficulty curve that killed many of the earliest D&D characters who neglected to prepare for the journey by purchasing weeks worth of food and equipment. Outdoor Survival by Avalon Hill is why spells like create food and water, continual flame, fire shield, tiny hut, and half the druid/ranger spells have been in every edition of the game. The board game set in a modern national park had such a fatality rate for medieval knights in armor that the wizards at Gary's table all researched wilderness survival spells. Hell, just look at the magic items in every DMG. They made sending stones, decanters of endless water, folding boats, and instant fortresses because the camping board game they used was too hard without walkie talkies, water canteens, inflatable rafts, and tents.
There is a warlock invocation for pact of the tome, in tashas, that basically gives you unlimited sendings to a select group of 5 people that would be perfect for networking stuff, a warlock serving a noble that has 5 must contact people you can send to them at any time very useful
My world was magic heavy, and the jail had spells built into the walls that would alert the guards if someone used sending to speak with someone inside.
I love the idea of an empire built using sending and fabricate. Essentially, they mass produce decent arms and armour using fabricate and use sending to spy and find where/when to send their mass-produced products to market. The campaign is set as a quest from another kingdom, one who relies on metal exports, to see how the lands of magic suddenly started producing so much metalwork and getting it to market so quickly.
Also if you want to get wacky like One Piece, have an artificer make a device that can cast the spell Sending via an awakened snail to another awakened snail. Now you have Pagers.
I feel like it speaks volumes that I keep giving my players sending stones to contact different people because none of them has the sending spell. We do have a cleric now but they've yet to prepare it. I've shown two organizations using sending stones to communicate.
It's important to realize too that you don't need to be a spellcaster to cast sending. You can instead use Sending Stones. My world has a whole industry of manufacturing Sending stones and each officer is rewarded one when they reach the rank of lieutenant.
The worldbuilding video focused on the effects of a single spell or mechanic does sound pretty interesting. I've seen a discussion of the ramification of sending for gameplay and setting aesthetic but this went further and I appreciate it a lot.
13:38 rather than being compared to firearms, I'd posit that sending (particularly in high-magic settings) would be perfect analogs to military radio operators; enhancing coordination, providing command with information, and receiving orders made with that information. It's interesting to think about the military implications; for example, would such a setting's siege weapons designed with range as a priority, to take maximum advantage of spotters using sending? would some mages be organized into scouting parties, to track the enemy's movements in real time?
You forgot to mention: Sending to other planes includes the afterlife. (Dont ask me why, thats just how d&d works.) So if you ever wanted to ask say, someone who just died who killed them, or if this is the correct version of their will, just send them a post in the afterlife.
only problem there is would the dead care to respond to such a message or maybe since they are spending their afterlife would they wait to respond after all what is a month, 100 years when spending it in a afterlife.
If an afterlife exists, it necessarily is a place that can be gotten to somehow. That's how existing works. As to why such a low level spell can send messages to other planes... that's a much better question.
Most petitioners have imperfect if any recollection of their mortal lives, and only regain their memories if called back to the mortal world via a speak with dead spell or being raised or resurrected.
@@LinaFootpad That's so wrong I'm surprised you even posted it. Speaking strictly of 5th edition, there's nothing to suggest that those in the afterlife have little or no recollection of their time alive. And the spell speak with dead directly contradicts what you just said. It has nothing to do with the spirit and only calls up memories that the body holds.
@@fortello7219 Maybe do some research before you hop up on your soapbox. It varies based on the plane, of course, but many petitioners lose their sense of self. Soul larvae for example are described as having "faint memories of its previous life", as well as having their intelligence lowered to 6 regardless of what it was in their past life. That quote comes directly from the 5th edition Dungeon Master's guide by the way.
Suggested complementary spells: -Listen to sendings (wizard spell) -Randomly modify sendings in a credible way (evil trickster god gives it a a ritual to makes sure it's used AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE) -Anonymous sending. For the whistleblowers, and generally useful for being a twit.
It is likely that "Sending speak" would develop into its own language that is informationally dense and incredibly inscrutable to anyone else not in the know. There would likely be a multitude of these languages so written records of these sendings would still be in a way encrypted. There would also be something like phrases that have predetermined possibilities or meanings. so a sending that says " Black Flowers grow toward the sun." could mean " an undead army is approaching from the east toward the capital."
"Man, i hate all this new age sending shii. All day, nobody ever wants to check upon thee, but as soon as im about to exorcise my demon all i get is 'ayo can a wizard borrow an eye of newt?' Wizards be so busy sending that they forget aint nobody tryna recieve their broke, hermit ass. I keep the crystal ball out the bedroom for a reason, damn"
Sending is one of the spells I consider to be the bane of my existence for my campaign setting, I ended up making any and all instantaneous large scale effects slower and more limited in range due to the sheer scale of change it would have across the world
In second edition, there was a book published that I love called Aurora's Whole Realm Catalog. It was inspired by a very early Sears Roebox catalog and it basically was a detailed list of specialized equipment people could purchase that had impact on people's stats. In the flavor text it discussed their business and how they operated with Enlarge/Reduce spells and teleportation spells. Sending would have fit right in, and in my world, it does.
I'm working on a setting where industrialism is on the rise, and I've been looking for ways to work the resulting economic and social displacement into the story. This is perfect viewpoint into that, and a great hook for explaining the rise of adventuring. The world would be full of mid-level casters who used to enjoy a comfortable middle-class living, but have been put out of work by radio operators and telegraph companies.
sending language would probably extensively use compound words and with an endless variety and combination of pre/suffixes. you'd have sending messages that takes up half a page written out. also verification of sendings could be done with detect thoughts which is only 2nd level. which is even more crucial to have for any political figure.
This helped me out a lot. I am running a world that started as non magic but due to events magic was introduced so the entire land is figuring out magic in different ways. Now i have ideas on how to handle sending and ways to introduce it into the world without it just being there and such. Thank you
"When performing the Sending spell as part of your official duties, remember your format: 25 words, organized in very standardized fashion 1. Priority level(Routine/Urgent/Emergency) 2. Shorthand term for office sending the message 3. Authentication codeword associated with that office 4. Response required (yes/no) 5. Is message sent under duress? (Yes/no) 6-24. A series of specific words relaying the information 25. End of Message? (Yes/No) Always ensure to have your templates, and your authentication word, memorized."
There's also sending stones, which free up spell slots to a degree for other things and can be used by literally anyone, compared to the spell requiring a spellcaster to cast it.
Love this, had a sudden image of a 'choir' of bards mass casting an emperors desires to all corners of his empire (inspired by the 40k astropathic choirs). It could everything from actual important news (such as new trade deals/current events/war updates) to him just flexing on the other kingdoms by saying 'good morning, work hard, and the emperor is watching' to his subjects! It might be hilarious if this style of casting lets each member of the 'choir' extend the spell length to get around the character limit!
I've got a long-distance communication spell in my own fantasy world, but I've placed severe restrictions on it to keep it from becoming too OP, especially because this is a low-magic setting. It involves using magical energy to influence the mental state of another person, thereby allowing you to give that person a dream. But: 1. There are no audible words. Only images and feelings. 2. The person has to be asleep to receive the message, since it's a dream. 3. It's a high-level technique. Out of a million people, only a handful would be able to reliably perform it over a distance of more than a mile or two. Now that i think about it, I suppose it'd be possible to give someone a waking hallucination as well. It'd be harder though, since people are more resistant to that kind of thing when they're awake and conscious of their surroundings. It'd also be more dangerous, since breaking through a conscious person's mental defences could have long-term consequences for their mental health.
In my world which changes from high to mid magic depending on the time setting. Theres a contry ran by a college of magic and they own all magical guilds and have a strict hold on the sale of magical talents and scrolls. Though there are self made mages kingdoms rely on paying the "real" magic users allowing the kingdom to not have to worry about attack from anyonr due to their supply they have made a demand for
I think the coolest thing about having a world like this, where you've intricately planned how Sending is used and it being a fundamental communication tool in the world, is how much more useful and worth using the spell becomes for players, as there's a high chance that the person they're familiar with does in fact use the spell themselves and can thus communicate back. The party wizard could keep a list of important friendlies they can communicate with whenever necessary.
I'm running a Fantasy Scifi game right now. Think Spelljammer, but more Star Wars than Star Trek. I introduced an item that had the 'clean' function of Prestidigitation, applicable to people as well as objects, and easy enough to produce that they were readily available. The moment I said it the next five solid minutes were me reckoning with the ramifications. Ditto a Final Fantasy-inspired game. Linkpearls (magic walkie-talkies) are an ubiquitous technology, except for a couple factions. But there are places of high magic concentration they don't work. But Sending, a spell only the people who don't have the linkpearl tech remember, does. The PCs averted around 3 political assassinations at once the instant they clocked this.
I have never played and only watched a few games, but another point in that desciption said creatures with intelligence of at least 1. I don't know what all is included, but if some monsters are included I imagine it can even be usefull in battlesince they still get the meaning even if they don't speak the language. Like giving the order to retreat or of a danger from some other direction without the monster knowing where it got that message from. Because it said you have to be familiar with it and maybe just seeing it counts. AND it only recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, but maybe it hasn't seen you yet or you could say seeing you doesn't count as knowing. But all of this relies on the interpretaion of being "familiar" with some creature
I like Magic Mouth for similar reasons, it's so vaguely written that it makes it powerful. "So long as the condition is met" Talking dolls can be used to similar exploits. In PF2 magic mailbox is another that can be utilized to great creative affect
In my dnd scenario most big figures communicate by sending and travel by teleportation circle to a point that for kings and big merchants the world feels much smaller. I tend to limit sending range by spell level, tho
Yeah... I accidently caused a world ending apocalypse when my character got so pissed off with deities screwing with her she started direct communication between them using Sending.
Here's something to consider. Construct creatures like the iron defender and the expeditious messenger have an ability called telepathic bond. This works anywhere on the same plane, if I remember correctly. Construct creature who instead of being a war device that is capable of getting up and doing the fighting for you, you have a typewriter? Or even a creature that can speak out loud and relay messages to you directly?
Great video. I love how you approach famtasy world building with logical structures. I'm comment on your other videos for the algorithm bc this is the way I keep trying to get people to approach world and character building. Thanks for making these!
I just love your videos, they start chains of thought that is even making me consider bringing more fantasy into my games because of the way we think the world. If we think about spell history, we could have very easily accessible spells while some might require much hardship to find. All that regardless of level. We would need to think the implication of every spells in everyday life.
Rings of sending. Normally come in pars but can come in bigger sets. Need attunement. Alow the wears to cast sending to the other ring(s) 2 x a day. (Each ring can do it 2x a day) Would very likely be invited and used quit a bit.
By sending the 25 words slowly, and consistently through multiple days, every few minutes, a party with sending might be able to prevent an enemy from sleeping. Giving the enemy exhaustion before then engaging with them. There is no save the spell, and sufficient communication can prevent rest.
I think sending etiquette is less likely than sending compression algorithms. You know, like, when you want to shorten a Twitter url and it comes out looking like a jumble of different characters? I bet you could develop a spell that would do the compression and extraction automatically…or train telecommunications mages in understanding it intuitively. This would increase the bandwidth and effectively allow for longer messages but would also necessitate telecommunications mages to receive messages as well as send them.
At the same aspect but completely different genre, in Minecraft modpack Crash Landing using already overpowered Steve Factory Manager along with PneumaticCraft Aerial interface by using last slots on the player inventory as ways of communication, allowing player to instantly replenish different types of food/water/ammo, all using preprogrammed inventory conditionals
thank you for covering the topic of magical means of comunication. it is a worldbuilding challenge to think how a magica mean of comunication shapes de world depending of its characteristics. in some of the books of Trudi Canavan the mages could use telepathy, but it wasn't a private mean of comunication since any mage could hear it, unless some forbidden magic was used. so maybe those conditions prevent it from shaping the world of those books. In the manga one piece they have snails that work like cellphones and a very efficient newspaper service, and I think it is well shown how this means of comunication shape the world of the series. again it is an interesting topic, and again thanks for the video.
Personally I think Sending is not the most powerful worldbuilding spell. ZONE OF TRUTH is. First, it's second level, not third, meaning even more casters get to get it. Second, it makes clerics and bards even more important than wizards, for wizards get only sending while those two get both spells. Third, Zone of Truth allows you to be sure that the scheming magical advisor is telling the truth and NOT trying to betray you. Really tho, just consider for a moment a state where the priests can cast this thing. They would be handsomely rewarded for attending court hearings, meetings with foreign dignitaries, interrogations, and can you imagine how their power grows by having an iron grip on TRUTH?! This single spell basically invalidates schemes, given that someone has enough clerics available and enough gold to pay them for emptying their spells on your paranoia. Imagine a magical inquisition looking for practitioners of dark magic, and those that would dare summon fiends, or make pacts with eldritch beings. Imagine important merchants not signing a contract until they ask the other party i they intend to adhere to it, or a mob boss asking if someone has a gig on the side, or a noble wife asking if her husband sleeps with anyone else. This spell simply nukes lying, and fundamentally changes how the world works and looks like.
A fair point! The title may be a little hyperbolic, but perhaps an in depth look into the worldbuilding consequences of Zone of Truth may be fun to make! Watch this space... (although not this week or next lol)
I have just subscribed and rung the bell, so... I think I'll be in touch :) As for Zone of Truth, I think exploring that can be mroe terrifying than fun once you realise that you need not be a good-aligned cleric or bard to use it. What if some lawful evil theocratical state has laws that not answering a question while under the zone's effects is itself a crime? What If the priests ask very invasive and personal questions, to have dirt on EVERYBODY? What if they basically form a police state where anyone they don't like gets questioned, and only the purest of the pure will not give them any dirt to work with? Zone of Truth can be TERRIFYING when used like this. The mere THREAT of someone getting captured and questioned changes how schemes may be conducted. Not to mention that you can pair it with COMMAND spell to force them to "Answer" or "Confess". This, my man, is why I think Zone of Truth is the most altering worldbuilding spell... But there are some notes I'd like to add on Sending some more: - I agree that SENDING is a very important spell, but it is not a be all end all of communication. Assuming that casters 5-8-th level are present, but not necessarily cheap as dirt to use (say, 20-50 such casters per a big city with an academy, some clerical temples, etc), it's still gonna be like, 35 casters per 50k people. And NOT EVERY CASTER will choose to be a glorified telegraph machine. So, say... 15 casters, each with 3-5 spell slots to spend on it per day. Is that many castings gonna revolutionize Everyone's way of life, with just 25 words per casting? I don't think so. - there is also one GIANT LIMITATION OF THIS - the caster HAS TO KNOW the person they are sending to! In other words, if some desperate mother is worried for her son, and wants a mage to send a message to her? "I do not know him, sorry, can't help". A guild wants to know what happened to their captain with impotant cargo? "Have I met the guy"? Basically, the caster has to be accuainted with EVERYONE the guild or ruler or general or noble wants to have contact with, else Sending is useless. - Because of the above, I believe that there could be a web of communication for mages that are in the "Sending Guild" that might form. Every few months or every year all the people from ALL THE CITIES across the region meet up in one place, so that the new recruits can meet everyone from other cities, and vice versa, so the old ones can meet the new. Then they can do simple messages like "Neverwinter(a)dress: London Tipton. "Get your ass over back home or I'm killing your pet pony. Signed: dad" by simply picking one of the Sending Guild mages from another city. But that service costs like few dozen GP per casting, because they have to maintain all those logistics. - Personally if I want soemthing that allows DIPLOMACY, I'd prefer something like a magically enchanted mirror (Very Rare rarity) that can offer a conversation with the paired one for up to 10 minutes or (luxury!) an hour. This could be what rulers of powerful countries use. Basically unique magical items. All the rest have to deal with Sending's limitations.
I also have some notes on other spells: - Familiars should have an OUTRAGEOUSLY good effect on caster's mental health! Seriously - it's basically an AI assistant you can cuddle! You can talk to it telepathically and (depending on how liberally you interpret it's intelligence as a summoned otherworldly spirit) it could talk back! It could tell when you had enough to drink and will bap you for staying up too late, it'll notify you when you're too much of an ass and have to apologize, and it's gonna be great assistant at brainstorming ideas! Seriously, I haven't seen most of the players roleplay even 10% of familair's potential at the table! - Mending is ABSOLUTELY BONKERS when you consider the economic impact of it. All the hours of labor that were suddenly freed up because your neighbour 1-st level sorcerer or wizard has that spell! I even had to limit it somethat in my setting, saying that there are "Mending Marks" left on the item after being repaired this way. Think of welding marks or how items influenced by alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist had a "texture" to them. Nevertheless, if you have enough levels or if you make a good enough casting ability check, you can make it appear as it was before. It certainly adds a little more flavor to the world when you see a second-hand vase have mending marks :P - Mold Earth is absolutely INSANE as something to speed up earthworks! How long would it take a guy with a shovel to excavate 5ft/5ft/5ft of dirt? An hour? Well, this 12 year old sorcerer kid can do that in 6 seconds, which is 600 TIMES FASTER! But even besides farm work, imagine great canal building or well digging projects! Imagine easily making anti-flood earth mounds, or helping in making proper roads! Of course, you still need casters willing to be glorified magical shovels, but the fact that those could be 1-st level, not 5-th as with the Sending, means you get a lot more poor volunteers. - The presence of Raise Dead changes how assassinations are performed. It's no longer just the ruler tripping and falling off the stairs, hetting shot with a stray arrow during the hunt, or getting poisoned. 500 gp diamond and a priest that wants political favors is all that's required for the king or noble or whomever to stand back up. No... With Raise Dead around you need to cut off the head and run with it. Hide the body for longer than 7 days. Actually use acid to burn away irreplaceable organs or the whole body. Or burn it to the bone. Of course, once 7-th level RESURRECTION enters the chat, it's way fucking easier, you just need like a finger left of the ruler to bring them back. But my assumption is that the number of casters capable of casting a given spell level descends LOGARITHMICALLY the higher you go, and thus most assassins only concern themselves with Raise Dead. Still, imagine the assassin immediately casting Animate Dead and making the ruler's corpse into a zombie so they cannot be resurrected or even spoken with using Speak with Dead! (Speak With Dead says the corpse can't be undead). Of course, for the wider population it changes nothing, but for high-profile fugures that spell is quite the life-extender, heh! - On the first look, it may seem like Fabricate is gonna break the economy... But we live in a society. If some wizardly academy has multiple mages of 7-th level or higher that are trying to flood the market with cheap-ass Plate Armors, well... What about the smithing guild? "Excuse me, did you just produce armors without OUR PERMISSION AND MEETING OUR QUALITY STANDARDS? That shall be a fine and an edict to stop or else you will be banished, as per the rights given to our guild by the king!" Such things should and likely ARE regulated, especially that a caster that wants to use Fabricate to produce items of high complecity needs to have the tool proficiency in the first place... And where else would they get that proficiency if not from the guild? They would need to be a member and thus be subject to their limitations, price ranges, and all the bureaucracy! But more importantly... WHAT IF THEY COULD MAKE THINGS MORE SOPHISTICATED THAN REGULAR CRAFTING?! What if someone with glassblower's proficiency and alchemist supplies proficiency could mix specific elemnts together with high quality sands to make... ARROWPROOF GLASS? Or sheets of glass that are METERS across, WAY bigger than anything a regular glassblower could make? That way wizards with Fabricate kind of go around regulations, because they don't to "regular" products, they make "a wizard did it" products that can be sold with higher profits just for the uniqueness of properties and scarcity of supply! What about machining parts that have no flaws and are unable to be cast by munane means? What of making waterproof shoes that don't have any seams, composed basically of continuous leather sleeves? The sky is the limit!
I’m envisioning that Star Trek episode that spoke in stories. “Shaka, when the walls fell.” Use well known myths that have dense meaning. Or cypher codes. “Page 25, paragraph three of cypher text”. Or “implement order 66”
sending scrolls are just a little part of this whole thing. you forget SENDIGN STONES! imperishable sending tools, they work once a day only but still are very good. a wealthy person can commision several and have a "sending operator" with a cabinet full of labeled stones like old time telephone operators
As someone who’s playing a character who’s part of an guerrilla spy network, Sending Stones and Sending Paper is an extremely useful resource that’s sent between operating cells and any kind of local HQ, to the point where a good few of the agents in this organization are a cross between telegraph/phone operators and data analysts. Even then, since they’re working out of a private logistical organization to coordinate caravans and transportation of goods, it’s more for urgent and important news, as well for questions and fact-finding that needs to be done in an expedited manner.
@@mephistophelesdearchon9870I played once in a campaign for a short time. As i come up with a spy build and background, the DM made my spy guild give me that spell as a mandatory training for every spy. Of course... 😅 never thought about it until then - even as a DM myself
My spelljammer campaign features a Couch of Sending cause there had to be a quest where they moved furniture from a wizards tower, just too silly.
If the king is funding your research, you're going to war, whether you want to or not. Massive government budgets for scholarships and research programmes would be a thing.
Then consider the sorcerous bloodline. No schooling required, a family just has this free pass to globally significant power. There should be a lot of sorcerer queens and kings, far beyond however rare the bloodlines are.
A video on sorcerers specifically might be interesting actually.
I love talking about sorcerer kings - as a massive fan of dark sun (even though they're technically wizards/psionicists)
There's a lot of ground to cover in a discussion like this, and sorcerer may be a cool thing for the future, thank you!
Heck, if I was a noble, I’d try to start a sorcerous booodline if I wasn’t already part of one.
@@Randomdudefromtheinternetoh for sure, there are definitely nobles that hire spies to sniff out sorcerers to hijack the bloodlines into their family through marriage, or even more unscrupulous means. Mayhap some even try to outright STEAL the bloodline power!
Ye, problem is sending is not a sorcerer's thing
@@syrion5521 dragon bloodline (and every older sorcerer subclass) should have gotten optional rules to add expanded spells (and some the option to cast with sorcery points or some other additional effect) with a shortlist of spell schools they could swap the spells of. Dragon should have gotten spells like absorb elements, dragon’s breath (reprint in Tasha’s to facilitate or have direct replacement option), etc. and have evocation and… idk, transmutation, abjuration, or something else. This would allow for sending! This and the obvious storm sorcerers would obtain sending this way.
Currently, abberant minds and divine souls DO have access to sending. So a line of divine messianic figures, likely taking a papal role, and a line of secretive, otherworldly, alien freaks would have rather great power. They could even be directly opposing factions!
The entire world would be so different and most people wouldn't even know why things were the way they were. For example, even the most basic door lock (basically a bar over a door) would be 11 pounds because Mage Hand exists, and that'd be the only size you could get them in. Bigger door bars would be 61+ pounds, to also counter act Unseen Servant, and this would be determined by security professionals. The Alarm spell would be used extensively, as would Detect Magic, Snare, Arcane Lock, etc. in every location of power. The Clergy would not only have Short Hand for Sending, they'd have codes that covered a bunch of common scenarios and their outposts would update the center of power daily.
I'm not the biggest fan of FR books, but one of the Elfsong books took part in Waterdeep and even pubs/taverns frequented by the wealthy had powerful mages come in and cast permanent Dispel Magic auras on them, so much so that even the Blackstaff himself was outed when went in disguise to one and his magical disguise vanished in front off a a crowd full of people.
True, in my longest running campaign clerics living in a particular nation were usually drafted as security for the important buildings and VIPs, tasked with casting detect magic on a rotation at the entrance to say museums or the palace like a metal detector to make sure magic items were left at the door.
@@MorganwrathInteresting, but yes, magic being used like metal detectors would make sense.
So basically, the only way to make a world that's actually fun is to make sure that Magic is sufficiently rare that common folk won't know shit about it, and aren't going to take action against it
@@OtakuNoShitpost or don't located it in a center of power. I'm sure small towns of ancient ruins would be fine, but low level magic spells and cantrips shouldn't be enough to get you into the White House equivalent in the fantasy world.
Magic should be uncommon enough that such security measures can really only be afforded, though limited, to the nobility or even just the royalty alongside powerful merchants, but also this means such defenses aren’t necessary for the average folk as they don’t have a NEED to defend against magic to this extent, but when the time arises, adventurers would need to be called as freelancers that can deal with magical crimes at an affordable price.
Bard casts sending: You up?
*seen
"Into the sea. Inwards now. Try hearing each. Come looking onto chill keys."
-My wizards last sending spell, sent to the rogue.
He knew what it meant.
_Scrying_ would also be used for communication, if less often. You send a head's up using _Sending_ that you'd like to talk to another 9+ level spellcaster and you both cast _Scrying_ and then you have a conversation for 10 minutes.
Ah, scrying as a video call.
Good idea.
Fantasy facetime
The biggest effect would be on the size of nation states, since communication speed is historically one of the main limiting factors on empire size.
In worlds where sending is common, there would be a natural pull towards a small number of large polities rather than city states or independent principalities.
Depends on just how tightly controlled access to sending is. Empires and nation states operate on centralized control. If learning to cast sending was just a matter of education, the benefit is so huge that it would be difficult to prevent the spread of this knowledge. Democratization of technology (ie magic) distributes power widely and flattens class divisions. You would see splintering factions, independence revolutions, and divisions along cultural lines rather similar to the French Revolution, the dissolution of the USSR, or the Arab Spring. If we're going by 5e rules, though, I'd say expect copper to become expensive and tightly regulated.
World-spanning empires existed at a time when the best way to deliver a message from one side of the empire to another was to not even try. I'm not sure I buy the idea that communication speed was a limiting factor, especially when compared to, say, resource distribution, or actual physical travel speed.
@@blackshard641 In D&D, sorcerers are literally born with it due to their bloodline. Wizards learn it by being taught. Clerics are dedicated to a specific organization that already has institutional power. Druids are insular communities... the only democratization of magic here are Warlock pacts and Paladin oaths. Those are pretty restrictive, and in the case of warlocks come with an inherent pledge of fealty toward an already powerful entity.
While you could spin all this into a flatter divisions of class, the natural tendency would be the opposite.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 Well, yes... you're kind of proving my point. I did say it "depends on just how tightly controlled access to sending is" - those are all different ways that access to sending might be tightly controlled. I also didn't mean to suggest that the world would continue toward equality (that is FAR from guaranteed!), just that broad access to sending would redefine how power is distributed. If competing factions can instantly communicate any distance, the geographical size of an empire is a lot less important than cohesion and coordination. In fact, the size of the empire can become a liability. Or to put it another way, with access to sending, a relatively small faction could in theory secretly coordinate to gain control of an empire's critical resources; without sending, you'd be better off trying to brute force it with an army.
@@blackshard641 Consider our real world, and how extremely recent the notion of public education is at the lowest level. And then consider how large empires treat higher education to this day.
Those in power are incentivized to do whatever they can to monopolize that power. Especially when it provides no personal benefit to them not to. A king doesn't need his people to be able to communicate more effectively to gain a strategic advantage over rival kings, he only needs his inner circle to be able to do so.
I suspect they would come up with a language like German where you can make single words out of combining multiple concepts into one word. But even more complex than that.
... oh no.
What have you done?
A more reasonable/'realistic' version of the spell would probably limit it to the number of syllables rather than the number of words to prevent such schananigans and stretching magic further than intended. I could still see such a language being made for such a spell, but it likely wouldn't be as ridiculous.
Example word: feelingofsmugsuperiorityknowingyoustillhavetwentyfourmorewordstosendbutyoudontneedthem.
Consider how the spell might be limited to a written message with 255 characters. Now consider the difference between European and Asian ways of writing their languages.
In my nautical campaign the magic in the world has been adapted to suit the needs of ships having to travel long distances.
Tomes of sending that allow people to write back and forth to each other instantly. this is great for the trading business as orders can be placed and confirmed ahead of time. My players have not cracked the usefulness outside of this yet after 4 years of play.
Sending stones are more common, and larger political or economic areas have basically sending stone switch boards. the leader does not have a stone going directly to her, it goes to an assistant on a stone board who can pass the message on. This also means that you have to be very clear because it is being sent to another person. Also I get to do the great "Thank you for your information. This will be processed and passed on in the order of importance. We will be in touch for further information" as a kind of automated message. And when they have gotten a personal sending stone to a leader it is a huge deal.
My artificer player has created stones with more than one use, and she is currently trying to create a network that allows multiple stones to come back to one central point. After that she wants to open the network up so that you can contact anyone in your network. She is basically making a phone network within the system of the game and I am all here for it. I don't think she understands how powerful it can be as she just thinks it is a fun cool idea :D
I also have other magics that have grown to fit the needs of the settings. My question was simple, what difficulties does a world like this have, and how would magic help fix it over time?
I introduced the mighty king of a nation as a tywin lannister type. Always at a desk writing letters managing key aspects of the realm... and now i feel like a fool
This was good but you forget about how the war machine creates innovation. If the world was set up as you described then there would be a huge market for magic that could intercept and even replace a sending spell. Old school D&D allowed for wizards to make new spells and this would be one created for sure. And that option to interrupt or replace a sending spell would reset the world to neutral, meaning kings could no longer trust the sending spell. I would make this a part of a story
This assumes such a spell is even possible or practical to use in 'real' world situations. For example if you had to be touching the person casting or receiving the sending spell in order to replace the message.
@@rainickI think detection, decifering, and determining involved parties would definetly be possible and inevitable. The spell uses magic and thus should be tracable. Decifering and countering of the spell should definetly be possible as well, but rewriting would be almost impossible as the spell is sent almost instantly and any delay to think of a new message of the sent message(which would warrant the response to make less sense to the original caster) or the response(delaying which could warrant suspicion itself) would raise suspicion. In addition, there could also be spying spells that would allow the caster to listen in on a sent message without interfering.
@@rainick you would only really need to send a message but make it seem like its from someone else for it to become mostly useless, that doesnt seem like a major alteration to the base spell
@@VoidplayLPnot useless as such, but you would need passwords and other identification. Which could be stolen of course, leading to an information arms race of sorts...
Ed Greenwood mentioned recently this same concept in reaction to the Sending Stones in the movie, but he didn't go quite as in-depth
Ed has also mentioned that the stagnation of industrial technology in the realms is due to proliferation of magic. No need for a cannon that might misfire if a wizard can throw a fireball.
@@martinithegr8Cannons are pre-industrial technology though. Joan of Arc was quite the fan of them.
Plus, industrialization stems from many factors including agrarian capitalism upending feudal content, imported slave produced goods, peasants deprived of their land in droves creating a mass market, etc. For magic to prevent that, it has to effect the foundations of how people make their means of survival.
Given some magic effectively bypasses production and transport, you’d have to have political and structural contrivances for why there isn’t a post-scarcity society industrialized or not. It would basically turn into Star Trek Spelljammer.
i like the idea that nobles and those holding positions of power might have a ring with a couple charges of sending on them at all times just in case
I have had these thoughts, and it's why I was relieved to see that Pathfinder 2e moved the spell to 5th level, cutting down on it's availability and thus world impact.
I agree it's a good move. It does really help sort things out to say about less than 50% of all spellcasters can use it at all
If I recall correctly, Sending was a 5th-level spell in 3.5e and earlier editions.
There was another spell similar that was basically Sending but not Instantaneous, not infinite range, not auto-understood, and not extraplanar called Whispering Wind that was a 2nd-level spell which did the same thing over shorter distances but more time.
@@ShinAk1raSama it just said it out loud at a spot asfter travleing there even if there was no one to hear it and you could not respond to it
@@teeteenine2222 It also isn't automatically understood, which Sending does; does not have infinite range, which Sending does; does not arrive at the destination instantaneously, which Sending does; and does not travel to other planes, which Sending does. Those are things that were understood to have been mentioned in my reply.
@@ShinAk1raSama i was just poniting out more problems it had vs sending that where not menoned
playing a lvl 13 wizard in a 5e political (intrigue light) game right now and oh my god sending is so useful. getting information to and from other places, coordinating everything you do and being able to verify information is extremely valuable.
depending on how the dm rules it, you can also either use it to find out whether someone is dead (no valid target) or get messages to AND FROM dead people (you can target creatures on a different plane of existence from you).
combine that with the fact that we have a crystal ball of mind reading and we can stir some real trouble.
some time ago we met a wizard who sadly was cursed by an evil stone we destroyed, thus having him dissapear from in front of us, we weren't sure if he was missing or dead so the cleric sent him a sending and all he got back was screaming and a description of burning alive iincapable of dying
it's been real akward talking to that wizard's father ever since
@@agustinvenegas5238 thats hilarious, even if not for the wizard himself lol
My idea for sending to the dead would require their actual true name, or something close to it. It’s described that mortals kind of only have their name as a true name, save for any pseudonyms they might have. You could take the Earthsea approach where every being has an actual, deep truename separate from what they are normally named as mortals. Like their soul has its own intrinsic name, though perhaps one that can be overwritten by their common name, or at least the common name would have vestigial power over a person and a sending spell of sufficient level would reach the dead with their common name.
Or your world can simply have everyone receive two names, a true and a common one. Perhaps the true name must be found by scrying or deep mind probing.
Just ideas, went on a bit of a tangent. It’s especially important in a world with true name magic to know how common people avoid being controlled, though that’s assuming mortals are that tied to their names in life to where they can be controlled or have it used against them at a moment’s notice. Perhaps the true name magic doesn’t work until the afterlife. It’s up for more work to implement.
@@jemm113 yeah, i love the concept of true names, but making it work for player characters in dnd is so much work that it isn't worth it in my opinion.
There's ways you can use Magic Mouth to essentially make a magic computer, it'd be cool if you made a video about it. It has all the necessary components to make logic gates, for basically any computation you could think of. Besides this, you can use less complex configurations to make things like basic telegram cables, sensors, or a wireless earpiece. It has a moderate upfront cost, but can make permanent reusable devices.
My favorite D&D podcast; Flintlocks and Fireballs has a lot of special interactions with sending.
Because it's set during the new world exploration era, battles of information are of top priority. In their homebrew the private sanctum spell prevents the use of sending. Meaning they have dedicated sending rooms where mages go to pass on messages.
There are also spells to capture sendings if they are sent specifically to sending rooms.
I love this idea. However a mage order might evolve around controlling communication, like Comstar in the Battletech universe. A world were sending is so important counter spells and spy spells would come about.
To keep it balanced, it’s likely that the counter to sending would require to be at or near the location of either the sender or receiver to spell. Though perhaps higher level scrying spells would allow you to intercept the spell near anywhere.
My sorcerer found a pair of linked sending stones on a pair of matching necklaces when the party had to continue on chasing the cult we were following, leaving the band (and her crush now girlfriend, the singer) we were escorting as cover, allowing me and her to keep in touch and therefore me to find her when we're done with the adventure.
It's interesting too since my character is a wild magic sorcerer scared of her power, so guaranteed having to cast a 3rd level spell every day is a fun way to move along her character growth on that front.
Yup. My PCs were just ambushed by a highly organized and tactically savvy group of bandits. They found from the captain‘a journal that sending stone were being used by an organized crime syndicate in all sorts of activities.
An untappable, and unhackable reliable tweet lenght message is OP, when speaking of communications and war I tend to think of Parmenions message to Alexander magnus, that stopped him going for Darius at Granica, I think this would make wizards into the foremost generals of any nations a la Sima Yi in the three kingdoms period in China.
Well done new headcannon installed.
Wizards would definitely be the best of the best military commanders one could ever have, perhaps next to eldritch knights given sufficient level as even low-level spells tend to be perfect for the role. You’d also see a lot of multiclassers in this regard, fighters that take up the books as they then weave the two arts into one. Bladesingers would make the ULTIMATE frontline commanders! Even artificers would likely be top officers rising up the ranks of the military engineering branches.
Sorcerers would outright become noble or royal bloodlines, either by the sorcerer forcing their way up that totem pole, forging one for themselves that people decided (or are forced) to follow, or by being married into an existing clan or house as the magic meets the highborn into its own new political power! And if that sorcerer bloodline produces a Paladin, whoo boy! Or they succumb to temptation and make a pact with a power beyond their control or comprehension!
Also I’d imagine more nobles would end up with or have ancient pacts with powerful entities to secure their bloodlines. A multigenerational pact would be a powerful thing, though a costly one which is likely why they could be so uncommon.
It's not untappable or unhackable. If someone impersonated you and that's the only way the target knows that impersonator, they would think it's the actual you just as they thought the impersonator was you.
The problem with the idea that magic would revolutionize warfare is that it works both ways. And illusion magic just happens to be that much more dangerous than utilities that have real life analogues.
I wonder if there could be some sort of elegant way to these sorts of utility spells into their own category, perhaps called 'utility' or 'trade' spells, so that it could be communicated to DMs and players that NPC spellcasters are likely to have these spells prepared as part of their roles in society, (it also explains why the wise town wizard can't go wipe out the goblins himself; his spell slots have to be used to communicate with regional leadership)
A high enough wizard could probably wipe out the goblins with cantrips, and save their spell slots.
The more realistic reason imo isn't saving spells, but rather that they need to stay in town in case an important message comes in or needs to be sent on a moments notice.
The DM part of me trembles a little every time I think of Sending. I'm not saying it's broken, it's just as you say world breaking. Okay, maybe it's a little broken. Or maybe it's just CR. No. It's broken. Absolutely. And you've nailed exactly all the things that worry me about it. (The player part of me, of course, is suspiciously silent on the subject.) Might as well just give them magic phones and unlimited free wifi. Information is King. Knowledge is Power. You want Skynet? This is how you get Skynet!
I once played a tortle bard who was a magazine journalist. When the party found him he was traveling from orc and goblin tribes sampling the tribes foods and exchanging recipes. When he had a article for the periodical he would used Sending, as many casting over days to send it to his publisher.
this is amazing and im totally using this as a base for my next character.
I can't even begin to imagine the sort of Military Jargon that would crop up because of this
In terms of military use, a commander would probably have a team of casters dedicated to casting sending to each of their generals, so commands could be issued across the battlefield in a structured manner, similar to a radio communications room from wwii era.
Its magic mouth that can build computers. Its much more powerful than wish.
I'd like to add to the discussion the Diplomat's Pouch (Magic item in MCDM's "Strongholds and followers"). Serve many of the same functions, but by physically sending an item it can be used to sign agreements in secret, literally conduct trade across the world, and Nobility can show off the size and craftsmanship of the pouch.
This is genius mate! Please keep this kind of in world building content coming!
Devil: The power I can give you is so desirable and unique, there are thousands who sold their souls for it.
Courtmage: Eldritch blast is a nice cantrip, but it's not that much better than firebolt
Devil: oh that's just a bonus. I was talking about this tome that let's you cast sending without spell slots
Courtmage:
I love the cantrip called Message in Pathfinder 2e. It acts like Sending but with limited range (max range is 120 ft at lv 1 and upgrades to about 400 ft at spell lv 3?, iirc. It is not meant for long-range comms, but you get unlimited uses so there is no downside to playing around with it. It’s like all my PCs with it have a codec on them 🤩
In my sky continent setting, the Messagers Guild and the Water Crafting Cult are so powerful they have their own seats at the royal court.
One of the Dragonmarked Houses in the Eberron setting has the ability to cast Sending as a spell-like ability, they've basically built up a neutral telegraph service that operates in all the main continent's kingdoms.
You could have an order of wizards or clerics dedicated to a messenger god who perform a similar function in your setting.
This is great and all, but falls a bit flat when your DM is like "uhhhh, you need to have seen the person first before you can cast sending at them. No it's gotta be in person, sketches don't count".
Not related to the video at all, but you listing Sun Wu King, Enkidu, & Merlin in the same sentence made me so happy. Not everyone knows all those characters and many less consider them peers of talent. I got chills & subscribed
Sending stones that work like cellphones would be fun in a high magic seting.
I'm now imagining an Arcane Trickster using Sending every day to send someone a message in Thieves' Cant just to fuck with them.
For when frequent communication is particularly important, a Warlock with Far Scribe is the best at this. At the same level that anyone else gets to cast Sending at all they can contact 3 individuals an unlimited number of times per day. All information could flow through an interconnected network of them (where each one contacts the next in line) or all of sendings between a small number of metropolises could go through a smaller number of them.
I researched how magic would affect worldbuilding some time ago and yeah, if magic was prevalent, the worlds would _not_ look quasi-medieval. Flight, communication, teleportation, etc. would have _huge_ impacts.
I especially researched what spells a castle would have and it'd be a _lot._ I'll just copy over the list I made:
- Arcane Locks
- Continual Flames
- Magic Mouths
- Nystul's Magic Aura
- Glyphs of Warding for:
> Traps, including summon spells, Dispel Magic to counter buffed enemies.
> Alarm, Sending and Skywrite, for a permanent alarm.
> Create or Destroy Water, for a sprinkler system.
> Darkness or Fog Cloud, for emergency visibility prevention.
> Daylight, for emergency night-time light, perhaps outside the walls.
> Control Water, Control Winds, Wall of Stone and Mirage Arcane, to manipulate the surroundings at a moment's notice.
> Guards and Wards, to for extra protection in extreme emergencies. Making it permanent is not a good idea, because either your guests will be affected by it, or the password you specify to become immune would be too easy to get.
- Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, probably only with the effects preventing divination, teleportation and planar travel.
- Hallow, probably with the Courage effect.
- Teleportation Circle either just outside the gate or in a special building, for easy travel but without bypassing the defences.
Another hugely important and underrated spell is Glyph of Warding. It lets you store any spell in an object for a 3rd +1 lvl slot. Thats the basis for a whole economy of one time use spell devices. People could have checkbooks of sending spells.
Agree and love this. Entire messenger guilds come to mind, trained in shorthand and send out to either the recipient or to a local messenger trained to decode shorthanded messages and deliver them.
I think the use of coded paper messages would actually have significant use for spymasters. Mages would all have the information used for sendings, a vulnerability. But use of an loyal messenger could subvert a treacherous mage, and makes a great potential adventure.
Two people scrying on each other could theoretically have a 10 minute conversation.
1 Charge - Sending Stones (uncommon), base maket price: 400g, to craft: 200g + 2 weeks + special material.
4 Charges - Mercenary: Mage (CR6) Cost: 36g per day.
Great video!
Was hoping you'd touch more on the geopolitical impact of such a spell also.
You talked about the consolidation of power around courts who could afford (or coerce) spellcasters.
I'd go farther and say there wouldn't be courts, atleast not ones that look like the ones we had in medieval times.
One of the big factors in the rise of feudalism was the slowness of travel, in particular of information. That's why the king needed barons and dukes and princes etc, to represent his authority in the other size of the kingdom, squash rebellions before they get a chance to grow and so on. With sending and sending stones, that's no longer a concern.
Add to that how create food and water would massively add mobility to armies and lay on hands, druidcraft and cure diseases and you remove the other material condition for feudalism: low population growth and very poor agricultural yields.
Just found out your channel, so maybe you touched on that on other videos, if not, would love to see your take on those spells!
This is perfectly thought out
As soon as I saw "Range: Unlimited" in the spell description... hooo, boy. As ever, great examination of the effects of that and similar means of communication. That 10th level spellblaster will be worse than useless... unless a message spell makes sure they're in the right place at the right time. THEN they can heroically turn the tide of battle, while the 5th lvl Bard who passed on the commander's message is likely ignored or forgotten!
man, imagine while battling in a war as your court wizard runs out of spell slots or scrolls... that would be chaos.
Elsewhere, there is a manga called Nano Machine, that within that wuxia world there is a similair menthods using ki pulses etc, whilest known to all, practiced by many and only effective on a 1:1
The kick is, the main protagonist recieves a infusement of nanomachines from a 'futuristically lookin person', allowing to eventually becoming OP, with the exclusive capabilities of tapping into any/all ki sendings within Range, allowing to exploiting enemies in-situ planning, surprising them spectaculairly
The thing about half the PHB spells is that they are holdovers from the oldest editions of the game that worked wildly differently from the current game. When Gygax and Co. first played their game they mostly played it in two phases.
1. Getting to the Dungeon.
2. Exploring the Dungeon.
The Getting to the Dungeon phase was actually the harder part of the game. Why? Because whenever they had to run outdoor exploration they would pull out another board game called "Outdoor Survival" published by Avalon Hill. A game where the board is a hex grid of a stretch of undeveloped forests and mountains. A game with an incredible difficulty curve that killed many of the earliest D&D characters who neglected to prepare for the journey by purchasing weeks worth of food and equipment.
Outdoor Survival by Avalon Hill is why spells like create food and water, continual flame, fire shield, tiny hut, and half the druid/ranger spells have been in every edition of the game. The board game set in a modern national park had such a fatality rate for medieval knights in armor that the wizards at Gary's table all researched wilderness survival spells. Hell, just look at the magic items in every DMG. They made sending stones, decanters of endless water, folding boats, and instant fortresses because the camping board game they used was too hard without walkie talkies, water canteens, inflatable rafts, and tents.
I like message for the war bit. Espcally if you plan your camps ..
There is a warlock invocation for pact of the tome, in tashas, that basically gives you unlimited sendings to a select group of 5 people that would be perfect for networking stuff, a warlock serving a noble that has 5 must contact people you can send to them at any time very useful
My world was magic heavy, and the jail had spells built into the walls that would alert the guards if someone used sending to speak with someone inside.
I love the idea of an empire built using sending and fabricate. Essentially, they mass produce decent arms and armour using fabricate and use sending to spy and find where/when to send their mass-produced products to market.
The campaign is set as a quest from another kingdom, one who relies on metal exports, to see how the lands of magic suddenly started producing so much metalwork and getting it to market so quickly.
Also if you want to get wacky like One Piece, have an artificer make a device that can cast the spell Sending via an awakened snail to another awakened snail.
Now you have Pagers.
I feel like it speaks volumes that I keep giving my players sending stones to contact different people because none of them has the sending spell. We do have a cleric now but they've yet to prepare it. I've shown two organizations using sending stones to communicate.
I used to talk up Sending and Prestidigitation as the two most important spells.
It's important to realize too that you don't need to be a spellcaster to cast sending. You can instead use Sending Stones. My world has a whole industry of manufacturing Sending stones and each officer is rewarded one when they reach the rank of lieutenant.
The worldbuilding video focused on the effects of a single spell or mechanic does sound pretty interesting.
I've seen a discussion of the ramification of sending for gameplay and setting aesthetic but this went further and I appreciate it a lot.
13:38 rather than being compared to firearms, I'd posit that sending (particularly in high-magic settings) would be perfect analogs to military radio operators; enhancing coordination, providing command with information, and receiving orders made with that information.
It's interesting to think about the military implications; for example, would such a setting's siege weapons designed with range as a priority, to take maximum advantage of spotters using sending? would some mages be organized into scouting parties, to track the enemy's movements in real time?
Sending and Mending literally break the world unless you account for them. Excellent video. Lot of espionage thriller D&D potential
You forgot to mention: Sending to other planes includes the afterlife. (Dont ask me why, thats just how d&d works.)
So if you ever wanted to ask say, someone who just died who killed them, or if this is the correct version of their will, just send them a post in the afterlife.
only problem there is would the dead care to respond to such a message or maybe since they are spending their afterlife would they wait to respond after all what is a month, 100 years when spending it in a afterlife.
If an afterlife exists, it necessarily is a place that can be gotten to somehow. That's how existing works. As to why such a low level spell can send messages to other planes... that's a much better question.
Most petitioners have imperfect if any recollection of their mortal lives, and only regain their memories if called back to the mortal world via a speak with dead spell or being raised or resurrected.
@@LinaFootpad That's so wrong I'm surprised you even posted it. Speaking strictly of 5th edition, there's nothing to suggest that those in the afterlife have little or no recollection of their time alive. And the spell speak with dead directly contradicts what you just said. It has nothing to do with the spirit and only calls up memories that the body holds.
@@fortello7219 Maybe do some research before you hop up on your soapbox. It varies based on the plane, of course, but many petitioners lose their sense of self. Soul larvae for example are described as having "faint memories of its previous life", as well as having their intelligence lowered to 6 regardless of what it was in their past life. That quote comes directly from the 5th edition Dungeon Master's guide by the way.
Suggested complementary spells:
-Listen to sendings (wizard spell)
-Randomly modify sendings in a credible way (evil trickster god gives it a a ritual to makes sure it's used AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE)
-Anonymous sending. For the whistleblowers, and generally useful for being a twit.
It is likely that "Sending speak" would develop into its own language that is informationally dense and incredibly inscrutable to anyone else not in the know. There would likely be a multitude of these languages so written records of these sendings would still be in a way encrypted. There would also be something like phrases that have predetermined possibilities or meanings. so a sending that says " Black Flowers grow toward the sun." could mean " an undead army is approaching from the east toward the capital."
"Man, i hate all this new age sending shii. All day, nobody ever wants to check upon thee, but as soon as im about to exorcise my demon all i get is 'ayo can a wizard borrow an eye of newt?' Wizards be so busy sending that they forget aint nobody tryna recieve their broke, hermit ass. I keep the crystal ball out the bedroom for a reason, damn"
Sending is one of the spells I consider to be the bane of my existence for my campaign setting, I ended up making any and all instantaneous large scale effects slower and more limited in range due to the sheer scale of change it would have across the world
In second edition, there was a book published that I love called Aurora's Whole Realm Catalog. It was inspired by a very early Sears Roebox catalog and it basically was a detailed list of specialized equipment people could purchase that had impact on people's stats. In the flavor text it discussed their business and how they operated with Enlarge/Reduce spells and teleportation spells. Sending would have fit right in, and in my world, it does.
I'm working on a setting where industrialism is on the rise, and I've been looking for ways to work the resulting economic and social displacement into the story. This is perfect viewpoint into that, and a great hook for explaining the rise of adventuring. The world would be full of mid-level casters who used to enjoy a comfortable middle-class living, but have been put out of work by radio operators and telegraph companies.
sending language would probably extensively use compound words and with an endless variety and combination of pre/suffixes. you'd have sending messages that takes up half a page written out.
also verification of sendings could be done with detect thoughts which is only 2nd level. which is even more crucial to have for any political figure.
This helped me out a lot. I am running a world that started as non magic but due to events magic was introduced so the entire land is figuring out magic in different ways. Now i have ideas on how to handle sending and ways to introduce it into the world without it just being there and such. Thank you
"When performing the Sending spell as part of your official duties, remember your format: 25 words, organized in very standardized fashion
1. Priority level(Routine/Urgent/Emergency)
2. Shorthand term for office sending the message
3. Authentication codeword associated with that office
4. Response required (yes/no)
5. Is message sent under duress? (Yes/no)
6-24. A series of specific words relaying the information
25. End of Message? (Yes/No)
Always ensure to have your templates, and your authentication word, memorized."
Every time I get sending as a caster I immediately become the control center for the party
There's also sending stones, which free up spell slots to a degree for other things and can be used by literally anyone, compared to the spell requiring a spellcaster to cast it.
Love this, had a sudden image of a 'choir' of bards mass casting an emperors desires to all corners of his empire (inspired by the 40k astropathic choirs). It could everything from actual important news (such as new trade deals/current events/war updates) to him just flexing on the other kingdoms by saying 'good morning, work hard, and the emperor is watching' to his subjects! It might be hilarious if this style of casting lets each member of the 'choir' extend the spell length to get around the character limit!
What!? You are epic. Couldn't believe how well a "Sending spell" video could be. Subscribed!
I'd love more videos like this, going into worldbuilding specifics of particular spells!
I've got a long-distance communication spell in my own fantasy world, but I've placed severe restrictions on it to keep it from becoming too OP, especially because this is a low-magic setting. It involves using magical energy to influence the mental state of another person, thereby allowing you to give that person a dream. But:
1. There are no audible words. Only images and feelings.
2. The person has to be asleep to receive the message, since it's a dream.
3. It's a high-level technique. Out of a million people, only a handful would be able to reliably perform it over a distance of more than a mile or two.
Now that i think about it, I suppose it'd be possible to give someone a waking hallucination as well. It'd be harder though, since people are more resistant to that kind of thing when they're awake and conscious of their surroundings. It'd also be more dangerous, since breaking through a conscious person's mental defences could have long-term consequences for their mental health.
In my world which changes from high to mid magic depending on the time setting. Theres a contry ran by a college of magic and they own all magical guilds and have a strict hold on the sale of magical talents and scrolls. Though there are self made mages kingdoms rely on paying the "real" magic users allowing the kingdom to not have to worry about attack from anyonr due to their supply they have made a demand for
I like how well you have thought this out. World building is fun especially with friends.
I think the coolest thing about having a world like this, where you've intricately planned how Sending is used and it being a fundamental communication tool in the world, is how much more useful and worth using the spell becomes for players, as there's a high chance that the person they're familiar with does in fact use the spell themselves and can thus communicate back. The party wizard could keep a list of important friendlies they can communicate with whenever necessary.
I'm running a Fantasy Scifi game right now. Think Spelljammer, but more Star Wars than Star Trek.
I introduced an item that had the 'clean' function of Prestidigitation, applicable to people as well as objects, and easy enough to produce that they were readily available.
The moment I said it the next five solid minutes were me reckoning with the ramifications.
Ditto a Final Fantasy-inspired game. Linkpearls (magic walkie-talkies) are an ubiquitous technology, except for a couple factions. But there are places of high magic concentration they don't work.
But Sending, a spell only the people who don't have the linkpearl tech remember, does.
The PCs averted around 3 political assassinations at once the instant they clocked this.
I have never played and only watched a few games, but another point in that desciption said creatures with intelligence of at least 1. I don't know what all is included, but if some monsters are included I imagine it can even be usefull in battlesince they still get the meaning even if they don't speak the language.
Like giving the order to retreat or of a danger from some other direction without the monster knowing where it got that message from.
Because it said you have to be familiar with it and maybe just seeing it counts. AND it only recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, but maybe it hasn't seen you yet or you could say seeing you doesn't count as knowing.
But all of this relies on the interpretaion of being "familiar" with some creature
I love using sending... scouting mission, sorted... pre-warn guest giver that you will be arriving shortly
I like Magic Mouth for similar reasons, it's so vaguely written that it makes it powerful.
"So long as the condition is met"
Talking dolls can be used to similar exploits.
In PF2 magic mailbox is another that can be utilized to great creative affect
In my dnd scenario most big figures communicate by sending and travel by teleportation circle to a point that for kings and big merchants the world feels much smaller. I tend to limit sending range by spell level, tho
Yeah... I accidently caused a world ending apocalypse when my character got so pissed off with deities screwing with her she started direct communication between them using Sending.
Sending is much more of a DM spell than it really is a players spell. I’ve always thought of this spell that way.
Here's something to consider. Construct creatures like the iron defender and the expeditious messenger have an ability called telepathic bond. This works anywhere on the same plane, if I remember correctly. Construct creature who instead of being a war device that is capable of getting up and doing the fighting for you, you have a typewriter? Or even a creature that can speak out loud and relay messages to you directly?
This ... this makes so much sense. It sparks a lot of ideas just starting thinking about it. I'll have to think about it deeper, thank you !
You would make an excellent evil court wizard. That sinister sneer is amazing.
Great video. I love how you approach famtasy world building with logical structures. I'm comment on your other videos for the algorithm bc this is the way I keep trying to get people to approach world and character building. Thanks for making these!
I just love your videos, they start chains of thought that is even making me consider bringing more fantasy into my games because of the way we think the world.
If we think about spell history, we could have very easily accessible spells while some might require much hardship to find. All that regardless of level. We would need to think the implication of every spells in everyday life.
Rings of sending. Normally come in pars but can come in bigger sets. Need attunement.
Alow the wears to cast sending to the other ring(s) 2 x a day. (Each ring can do it 2x a day)
Would very likely be invited and used quit a bit.
By sending the 25 words slowly, and consistently through multiple days, every few minutes, a party with sending might be able to prevent an enemy from sleeping. Giving the enemy exhaustion before then engaging with them. There is no save the spell, and sufficient communication can prevent rest.
I think sending etiquette is less likely than sending compression algorithms. You know, like, when you want to shorten a Twitter url and it comes out looking like a jumble of different characters? I bet you could develop a spell that would do the compression and extraction automatically…or train telecommunications mages in understanding it intuitively. This would increase the bandwidth and effectively allow for longer messages but would also necessitate telecommunications mages to receive messages as well as send them.
At the same aspect but completely different genre, in Minecraft modpack Crash Landing using already overpowered Steve Factory Manager along with PneumaticCraft Aerial interface by using last slots on the player inventory as ways of communication, allowing player to instantly replenish different types of food/water/ammo, all using preprogrammed inventory conditionals
thank you for covering the topic of magical means of comunication. it is a worldbuilding challenge to think how a magica mean of comunication shapes de world depending of its characteristics. in some of the books of Trudi Canavan the mages could use telepathy, but it wasn't a private mean of comunication since any mage could hear it, unless some forbidden magic was used. so maybe those conditions prevent it from shaping the world of those books. In the manga one piece they have snails that work like cellphones and a very efficient newspaper service, and I think it is well shown how this means of comunication shape the world of the series. again it is an interesting topic, and again thanks for the video.
Continuous flame would also have a massive impact on the world as well.
Personally I think Sending is not the most powerful worldbuilding spell. ZONE OF TRUTH is.
First, it's second level, not third, meaning even more casters get to get it.
Second, it makes clerics and bards even more important than wizards, for wizards get only sending while those two get both spells.
Third, Zone of Truth allows you to be sure that the scheming magical advisor is telling the truth and NOT trying to betray you.
Really tho, just consider for a moment a state where the priests can cast this thing. They would be handsomely rewarded for attending court hearings, meetings with foreign dignitaries, interrogations, and can you imagine how their power grows by having an iron grip on TRUTH?! This single spell basically invalidates schemes, given that someone has enough clerics available and enough gold to pay them for emptying their spells on your paranoia. Imagine a magical inquisition looking for practitioners of dark magic, and those that would dare summon fiends, or make pacts with eldritch beings. Imagine important merchants not signing a contract until they ask the other party i they intend to adhere to it, or a mob boss asking if someone has a gig on the side, or a noble wife asking if her husband sleeps with anyone else.
This spell simply nukes lying, and fundamentally changes how the world works and looks like.
A fair point! The title may be a little hyperbolic, but perhaps an in depth look into the worldbuilding consequences of Zone of Truth may be fun to make! Watch this space... (although not this week or next lol)
I have just subscribed and rung the bell, so... I think I'll be in touch :)
As for Zone of Truth, I think exploring that can be mroe terrifying than fun once you realise that you need not be a good-aligned cleric or bard to use it.
What if some lawful evil theocratical state has laws that not answering a question while under the zone's effects is itself a crime? What If the priests ask very invasive and personal questions, to have dirt on EVERYBODY? What if they basically form a police state where anyone they don't like gets questioned, and only the purest of the pure will not give them any dirt to work with? Zone of Truth can be TERRIFYING when used like this. The mere THREAT of someone getting captured and questioned changes how schemes may be conducted. Not to mention that you can pair it with COMMAND spell to force them to "Answer" or "Confess".
This, my man, is why I think Zone of Truth is the most altering worldbuilding spell... But there are some notes I'd like to add on Sending some more:
- I agree that SENDING is a very important spell, but it is not a be all end all of communication. Assuming that casters 5-8-th level are present, but not necessarily cheap as dirt to use (say, 20-50 such casters per a big city with an academy, some clerical temples, etc), it's still gonna be like, 35 casters per 50k people. And NOT EVERY CASTER will choose to be a glorified telegraph machine. So, say... 15 casters, each with 3-5 spell slots to spend on it per day. Is that many castings gonna revolutionize Everyone's way of life, with just 25 words per casting? I don't think so.
- there is also one GIANT LIMITATION OF THIS - the caster HAS TO KNOW the person they are sending to! In other words, if some desperate mother is worried for her son, and wants a mage to send a message to her? "I do not know him, sorry, can't help". A guild wants to know what happened to their captain with impotant cargo? "Have I met the guy"? Basically, the caster has to be accuainted with EVERYONE the guild or ruler or general or noble wants to have contact with, else Sending is useless.
- Because of the above, I believe that there could be a web of communication for mages that are in the "Sending Guild" that might form. Every few months or every year all the people from ALL THE CITIES across the region meet up in one place, so that the new recruits can meet everyone from other cities, and vice versa, so the old ones can meet the new. Then they can do simple messages like "Neverwinter(a)dress: London Tipton. "Get your ass over back home or I'm killing your pet pony. Signed: dad" by simply picking one of the Sending Guild mages from another city. But that service costs like few dozen GP per casting, because they have to maintain all those logistics.
- Personally if I want soemthing that allows DIPLOMACY, I'd prefer something like a magically enchanted mirror (Very Rare rarity) that can offer a conversation with the paired one for up to 10 minutes or (luxury!) an hour. This could be what rulers of powerful countries use. Basically unique magical items. All the rest have to deal with Sending's limitations.
I also have some notes on other spells:
- Familiars should have an OUTRAGEOUSLY good effect on caster's mental health! Seriously - it's basically an AI assistant you can cuddle! You can talk to it telepathically and (depending on how liberally you interpret it's intelligence as a summoned otherworldly spirit) it could talk back! It could tell when you had enough to drink and will bap you for staying up too late, it'll notify you when you're too much of an ass and have to apologize, and it's gonna be great assistant at brainstorming ideas! Seriously, I haven't seen most of the players roleplay even 10% of familair's potential at the table!
- Mending is ABSOLUTELY BONKERS when you consider the economic impact of it. All the hours of labor that were suddenly freed up because your neighbour 1-st level sorcerer or wizard has that spell! I even had to limit it somethat in my setting, saying that there are "Mending Marks" left on the item after being repaired this way. Think of welding marks or how items influenced by alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist had a "texture" to them. Nevertheless, if you have enough levels or if you make a good enough casting ability check, you can make it appear as it was before. It certainly adds a little more flavor to the world when you see a second-hand vase have mending marks :P
- Mold Earth is absolutely INSANE as something to speed up earthworks! How long would it take a guy with a shovel to excavate 5ft/5ft/5ft of dirt? An hour? Well, this 12 year old sorcerer kid can do that in 6 seconds, which is 600 TIMES FASTER! But even besides farm work, imagine great canal building or well digging projects! Imagine easily making anti-flood earth mounds, or helping in making proper roads! Of course, you still need casters willing to be glorified magical shovels, but the fact that those could be 1-st level, not 5-th as with the Sending, means you get a lot more poor volunteers.
- The presence of Raise Dead changes how assassinations are performed. It's no longer just the ruler tripping and falling off the stairs, hetting shot with a stray arrow during the hunt, or getting poisoned. 500 gp diamond and a priest that wants political favors is all that's required for the king or noble or whomever to stand back up. No... With Raise Dead around you need to cut off the head and run with it. Hide the body for longer than 7 days. Actually use acid to burn away irreplaceable organs or the whole body. Or burn it to the bone. Of course, once 7-th level RESURRECTION enters the chat, it's way fucking easier, you just need like a finger left of the ruler to bring them back. But my assumption is that the number of casters capable of casting a given spell level descends LOGARITHMICALLY the higher you go, and thus most assassins only concern themselves with Raise Dead. Still, imagine the assassin immediately casting Animate Dead and making the ruler's corpse into a zombie so they cannot be resurrected or even spoken with using Speak with Dead! (Speak With Dead says the corpse can't be undead). Of course, for the wider population it changes nothing, but for high-profile fugures that spell is quite the life-extender, heh!
- On the first look, it may seem like Fabricate is gonna break the economy... But we live in a society. If some wizardly academy has multiple mages of 7-th level or higher that are trying to flood the market with cheap-ass Plate Armors, well... What about the smithing guild? "Excuse me, did you just produce armors without OUR PERMISSION AND MEETING OUR QUALITY STANDARDS? That shall be a fine and an edict to stop or else you will be banished, as per the rights given to our guild by the king!" Such things should and likely ARE regulated, especially that a caster that wants to use Fabricate to produce items of high complecity needs to have the tool proficiency in the first place... And where else would they get that proficiency if not from the guild? They would need to be a member and thus be subject to their limitations, price ranges, and all the bureaucracy! But more importantly... WHAT IF THEY COULD MAKE THINGS MORE SOPHISTICATED THAN REGULAR CRAFTING?! What if someone with glassblower's proficiency and alchemist supplies proficiency could mix specific elemnts together with high quality sands to make... ARROWPROOF GLASS? Or sheets of glass that are METERS across, WAY bigger than anything a regular glassblower could make? That way wizards with Fabricate kind of go around regulations, because they don't to "regular" products, they make "a wizard did it" products that can be sold with higher profits just for the uniqueness of properties and scarcity of supply! What about machining parts that have no flaws and are unable to be cast by munane means? What of making waterproof shoes that don't have any seams, composed basically of continuous leather sleeves? The sky is the limit!
@@Hilianus Nice ideas.
Exactly.
Imagine truth patrols, randomly questioning people to find if they are doing any crime!
I’m envisioning that Star Trek episode that spoke in stories. “Shaka, when the walls fell.” Use well known myths that have dense meaning. Or cypher codes. “Page 25, paragraph three of cypher text”. Or “implement order 66”