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Old 03-20-2012, 11:06 AM   #47
Whyte
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: Ceremonial Magic used to support an army.

Excuse me? I am the army-shattering mage responsible for keeping your kingdom intact, and you expect me to stay your slave? I do have a spell here somewhere that says otherwise, 'Your Majesty'. :)

Seriously, absent from some mind control (which might mess up with magic), this is a very bad idea. Just take a look at Janissaries and Mamluks to see what happens to Caliphs and Sultans who rely extensively on elite slave armies. Also, can you imagine a slave revolt, but this time with your elite mages leading it, instead of some illiterate peasants?

Granted, if you have something like a theocracy, it might work, assuming that the God-King is really in favor with his 'Dad in the Sky'. But that is a pretty special case, and then we are talking more about priests (or at least mage-priests) than pure mages.

As for my campaign, I have not yet had any problem with this, since I am not really encouraging it. In fact, at the minimum I'd require some prior training in Thaumatology/Occult/Theology before letting people to help (like has been suggested on this thread), and I might also require them to have Magery (maybe contributing Magery+1 mana to the spell?). I find individual mages already powerful enough for military needs: magical scouting, communications & command, sneaky stuff...

I'd also be enforcing pretty spectacular crit fails, too. The kinds that wipe out your own army/castle if you happen to be unlucky. Heck, isn't a powerful Elven ritual going haywire the canonical reason for the Banestorm, or do I misremember?
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