Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas
Its because armour and metallurgy are technologies, so what you can do depends on the surrounding society. "Bronze" "brass" "iron" and "steel" are shorthand for a world of complexity which actual artisans and factories have to deal with. You could not make a 15th century CE suit of plate armour with 5th century BCE iron and craft skills, you can make much more impressive bronze swords with Early Iron Age Age technology than with Early Bronze Age technology.
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True to a degree, however, if magic is an integrated and natural part of a setting, and you have the appropriate purification and shaping spells then that changes your possibilities.
you effectively have to see magic as a form of tech or a way to achieve tech
How then do you determine a magical tech level?
I don't like to see magic in the classic D&D style as a tool exclusively for adventuring or plot, but as a part of the world. it's why I love the fact that there is food magic, and there are noncombat practical spells.
but that means cultures and technological developments take a vastly new or different path,
even if magery is the gate keeper to spells if magic items can be made that can be used by anyone then it will bleed down to every part of every life to some degree. farmers may use animate plows to till fields. heat stones or magically cold boxes may become common place in the kitchen.
essential elements may become trade standard for blacksmiths and other craftsman or artisans.
the carpentry or lumber industries would benefit by having access to plant magics.
that is effectivly TL but not on the usual scale and does not exclude the usual tech development.
for example, how many ways can you magically make a bic lighter?
then you have magical materials like magical hides, or Aetherium these don't always have a TL parallel and to raise the entire world up to its TL equivalent for access to these things would make every fantasy campaign into magical space marines.