Economy wrecking spells?

[Captain-Captain]

Wherein we list spells that would or at least should alter a medievalish fantasy world into something decidedly different. And potential ways to keep them in check.

The cubic yards of metal Earth to stone was given in Grimoire is a pretty well cited one. My own solution is to classify the metal transmutation as a tech based spell and put it with the tecnology to undercut the magical metal's price. You can do it, but you aren't going to be unspeakably rich from doing it.

How about Seek Earth, with the ability to locate ores?

The fix is pretty simple; "Ore" is too vague to work with the spell, you have to have specific means to identify a type of Earth with the senses you have in order to identify the earth you seek. It's easy for an artist to find earths to mke paints with. They are discernable by color fo rthe most part. Harder to find copper ore.

Indeed hyou could walk over gold of of the non-quartz variety following the spell's directions to 'quartz with metalic gold veins'.

Ideas?

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

You want an economy-wrecking spell? What about Create Food? What are you going to do with all those unemployed farmers (who at TL 4 and under make up ninety percent or more of the population)?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

You want an economy-wrecking spell? What about Create Food? What are you going to do with all those unemployed farmers (who at TL 4 and under make up ninety percent or more of the population)?

Hire them to provide FP.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Hire them to provide FP.

But each person can only donate a single FP.

I'ld imagine that just about any newly invented create or transmute type spell would cause havoc upon a society.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

But each person can only donate a single FP.

I'ld imagine that just about any newly invented create or transmute type spell would cause havoc upon a society.

So? Do it many times. It's still some bucks per day for basically doing nothin (but feeling tired). Hey, I would sell a FP per day for $1, as long as the wizard near my home (same street, more or less). It would be equivalent to having free rides all month (probably more if the wizard works every day, no holidays, no rest on weekends).

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Molokh

So? Do it many times. It's still some bucks per day for basically doing nothin (but feeling tired). Hey, I would sell a FP per day for $1, as long as the wizard near my home (same street, more or less). It would be equivalent to having free rides all month (probably more if the wizard works every day, no holidays, no rest on weekends).

Of course it would be cheaper still for the wizard to keep a few hundred non-wizards in a stock-pen and herd them in when he needed some FP (or HP or virgin's blood ...). Serfdom would be the most likely outcome of an FP market.

[Rasputin]

Any spell letting you create something from nothing is going to cause an issue. If the economic effects bug you that bad, do what I do in serious fantasy campaigns (well, more serious than Dungeon Fantasy) -- ban anything that creates ex nihilo.

[Xplo]

I'll go one further than that: any spell that does something that can't be done just as quickly and cheaply by existing tech is going to cause a problem.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I'll go one further than that: any spell that does something that can't be done just as quickly and cheaply by existing tech is going to cause a problem.

If it requires lots of FP, it will still provide jobs to peasants, though. Not so with the elite crafters . . .

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I'll go one further than that: any spell that does something that can't be done just as quickly and cheaply by existing tech is going to cause a problem.

Then there are the spells that do anything that can't be done at all at that TL. That magic mirror that sends messages over several hundred miles instantaneously is one.

You know how badly screwed people without instantaneous communications are when competing aginst people who do have them? War, politics, business, pretty much anything.

Virtually any spell that has any tangible and useful result could wreck the medieval economy. Even ones that cause one peasant to fall in love with another. Or how about those spells that make cow's milk go bad? If that's reliable and repeatable that could wreck the whole,dairy business. We'd be busy discussing bovine defense measures.

Magic that does anything except con money from rubes will change things. If it was ususually successful; at _that_ it might change things too.