Mages, man. They’re all the same. Take them to the hinterlands and they start glamping. While Wizard has gone on record saying that she enjoys a bit of adventure, she’s clearly decided that’s no reason to start roughing it. Judging by her wife’s expression though, I’d say she’s about to find a few reasons pretty darn quick.

Today’s comic isn’t really about The Heroes’ marching order though. It’s about “quality of life magic.” And when it comes to quality of life magic, there are two broad classes.

  1. Low level spells, abilities, and items that ought to exist for the use of commonfolk.
  2. Applications of existing spells for non-adventuring purposes.

As today’s hover text suggests, the former generally falls into the the category of homebrew. Think of all those minor magic items that GMs sprinkle throughout their worlds. Self-churning butter churners, wondrous non-stick pans, and +1 apple corers all see play here. These are the generically magical background noise of a fantasy setting, and they can go a long way in contributing to a high magic tone. Modern convenience spells work similarly. Imagine a mage using ctrl + f in her physical spellbook, a cleric (or more likely a bard) casting magical contraception, or a druid dropping some environmentally-friendly mosquito repellant around the party’s campsite.

As for repurposing spells, look no further than Sorcerer’s thousand-and-one uses for fireball. We’re talking about weather wizards who hire on with merchant fleets, technomancers who create kitschy sculpture gardens via junk armoror sorcerers who run unseen servant massage parlors. All are fine NPC ideas, and there’s no reason PCs can’t adopt these strategies as well.

So in keeping with this grand tradition, I ask you to contribute to the ever-expanding list of “quality of life magic” in today’s discussion! Come up with at least one example of a homebrew spell that ought to exist, and one new use for an old favorite. By the end of the discussion we should have a wide array of flavorful magics to call our own. All clear? Alrighty then! I’ll see you kids down in the comments.

 

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