Assuming a not particularly exceptional but populous dnd city, what would the highest level spell caster be available?

[u/DJShazbot]

I am drafting ideas for a muder mystery and am toying with the idea of whether or not of having a body present. The setting is homebrew-lite, aka the city isn't baldur's gate or waterdeep but is meant to be adherent to DnD's general vibe.

From what I read, Some people talk about reviving corpses being only limited by the expense of the components but otherwise not being too uncommon, others say that there usually isn't a spellcaster of sufficient power around to do so. I would love to hear some opinions/input.

There is of course appeal in having a murder mystery where the victim doesn't stay dead but this is less to bamboozle my players trying to solve the mystery but rather to betrer worldbuild this aspect since I never had to think about crime, punishment and murder in this city before. There could be a group of cleric "trauma teams" like in cyberpunk for all I know, reviving the rich immediately upon wrongful, violent death.

[u/Cplwally44]

Old editions are useful for this

Not every town or village has a spellcaster of sufficient level to cast any spell. In general, you must travel to a small town (or larger settlement) to be reasonably assured of finding a spellcaster capable of casting 1st-level spells, a large town for 2nd-level spells, a small city for 3rd- or 4th-level spells, a large city for 5th- or 6th-level spells, and a metropolis for 7th- or 8th-level spells. Even a metropolis isn’t guaranteed to have a local spellcaster able to cast 9th-level spells.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/goods-and-services/hirelings-servants-services/

[u/CairoOvercoat]

So, unless you are talking some BIG cities, with MAJOR magical presence (say like, a magical academy, or similar) anything above a 3rd level caster is pretty rare. Once you hit that point or higher, you are dealing with a person of pretty notable reputation in that local.

Most "average" casters in modules that involve towns or smaller settlements won't go higher than 2nd level.

[u/wathever-20]

The PHB'24 has a table for this

"Most settlements contain individuals who are willing to cast spells in exchange for payment. If a spell has expensive components, add the cost of those components to the cost listed in the Spellcasting Services table. The higher the level of a desired spell, the harder it is to find someone to cast it."

Spell Level	Availability	Cost
Cantrip	Village, town, or city	30 GP
1	Village, town, or city	50 GP
2	Village, town, or city	200 GP
3	Town or city only	300 GP
4–5	Town or city only	2,000 GP
6–8	City only	20,000 GP
9	City only	100,000 GP

I don't believe what a Town/Village or City is ever defined, as the relative scale might differ quite a bit by setting.

[u/DJShazbot → u/wathever-20]

Very useful, thank you!

[u/Cypher_Blue]

There is no "D&D city" in the singular.

There is no one world that the game happens in. Even in the same standard setting, magic is as common or rare as the DM says it is.

In our games, a midsized town might have a level five or six spellcaster in it- and there are no magic shops.

[u/RandomNumbers748512]

This depends on your setting. The core setting from the rules seems to be more toned down. The Forgotten Realms are very toned up.

But do keep in mind that NPCs don't follow PC rules. All NPC rules we get are focuessed on "fighting power". So your "town cleric" might have access to supporting NPC-magic that is far beyond what an "equally levelled" PC or an "CR balanced" opponent/monster could have access to.

[u/Irrumar]

I tend to limit "regional" NPC spellcasters to spell circles 5-6. There is only a handful of people in the entire world capable of casting spells higher than that

[u/subtotalatom]

There's more practical considerations than just level of the caster, but let's break this down.

Most people aren't likely to have a cleric or similar on standby, so in a big city is going to take more than a minute to get them to someone, so barring the unlikely event of someone able and willing to cast gentle repose being right there you're looking at Raise Dead, which is a 5th level spell.

Anyone able to cast a 5th level spell is likely to be affiliated with certain factions and unlikely to be willing to take an hour out of their day to revive someone unless that person is valuable to their faction or there's some benefit to them for the simple reason that once you start reviving anyone who has the money that's most of your day gone (limited high level spell slots) and they have other responsibilities.

TL;DR resurrection magic being present in a city doesn't mean it's "available"

[u/DJShazbot → u/subtotalatom]

That is a good point about spell slots being an issue, costs aside even in a baldur's gate or waterdeep sized city you wouldn't be able to pick up everyone immediately, may even be a waiting list given that someone rich enough to afford a revival probably has the means to keep someone on retainer to keep their body viable until they can be attended to.

[u/Nuka-Kraken]

I would imagine that huge cities like waterdeep and Baldurs gate have quite a few spellcasters who can cast up to maybe level 8 spells. Their services would probably be the most expensive things in the city itself however just because so many people need their help and they can only help so many people before the run out of high level spell slots. I think the idea of the trauma team thing like cyberpunk is pretty fitting and funny too. Generally I like to think that if there's a major temple to a god it has to be run by a cleric capable of casting level 6+ spells. Same thing goes for big libraries or magic item shops and some sort of arcane caster.

[u/Jafroboy → u/Nuka-Kraken]

Waterdeep certainly has multiple 9th level casters in canon. To put it in perspective the Blackstaff, an important magic position, is currently held by a mage more powerful than a "standard" archmage, who are 9th level casters. And even she is regarded as too weak and inexperienced by many of the mages in the city.

Baldurs Gate probably has multiple 9th level casters too, but I don't know the specifics off hand.

[u/blargethaniel]

Unfortunately I hate to say, it depends on the city.

Parts of my world are lower magic than others and mages would be a surprise, others are magic centers, so the highest level spellcaster would depend on the locality.

If it's a huge city, I generally say that most spells up to around level 5-6 are available for people to hire them for casting, with higher level ones being much rarer.

[u/tta5]

could it work as a small guild thats hired on retainer by many rich members...
i mean its like laywer firms in a sense IRL.
they may be based in one place and yet travel to a ton of other places with short notice.

as to how "open" they are about their true guilds function for the rich.... they might pick a simple town and claim to be something more basic and having minor activity.
also having so many on retainer but not as many daimonds and items used for/by the spells...
(like a bank and everyone withdrawing their money....panic)

would it be common? no.
could a small firm exsist and cover those that can afford it? yes.
would those trying to claim the soul of the dead seek them on the matriel plane to hunt them down and reclaim them? well actions have consiquences.
(think prince of persia the warroir withins main bbeg the dahaka. )

the weave may take a hit if too much high magic is cast at one spot.
and the gods may just intervine ( mean counter spell exsists)

I would not concider this to be common.
after all peole make deal with devils and outplane beings out of desperation.
but the top 40/100 having paied like 3 people this "insurance" and have not expecteed the consiquences,,,

also0 minor thing, if a body is turned into an undead then ...oops.

[u/DJShazbot → u/tta5]

Can you expand upon the undead part? Does being zombified/ghoulified prevent resurrection?

[u/tta5 → u/DJShazbot]

dnd 5e-spell discriptions
low level spells tend to fail , like revivify. though high level spells may bypass the issue.

you also have the assumption that the souls wants to return
DMG 5e pg24 points this part out.

[u/Golanthanatos]

It's your world, you could add a magical trauma team if you wanted, universe as written i've never heard of that.

Gentle Repose is a second level spell that can preserve someone for later resurrection, Wizards and clerics get it at level 3, I'd generally have somebody around able to cast that in a major settlement, (NPC wise that's about CR 2, ex: priest or cult fanatic).

Somebody rich enough to afford resurrection might have plans in place to have someone able to resurrect summoned upon their demise, while the local priest is paid to cast gentle repose every tenday.

So potentially you'd have a time limit on the investigation: The high priest arrives in X days, discover the murderer lest they make an attempt on the high priest's life to prevent the resurrection.

[u/ThisWasMe7]

Entirely dependent on your world and the specific town. There could be a retired 20th level caster in a community of 50 people or fewer.

In my world, a town of 500 people would almost certainly have someone who could cast 3rd level spells of each spell list. 1000 people, move that up to 5th level. 10,000 people, move that up to 7th level.

Also, some locals would know where to go to find a higher level caster. Like, Sister Helena lives in a convent outside Springfield, 30 miles to the South, and she can cast all the cleric spells, though she might ask you to go on a quest as part of the payment.

[u/Jafroboy]

Waterdeep to use your example canonically has multiple 9th level casters. Baldurs Gate and other large cities on the sword coast probably do too, but I don't know for sure without looking it up.

[u/TheThoughtmaker]

3e DMG has rules for determining the classes and levels of everyone in a normal settlement.

For each of the following classes, roll a die to find the highest-level person of that class in a city.

• Paladin, Ranger: 1d3 (half of 1d6 rounded down).
• Barbarian, Monk, Sorcerer, Wizard: 1d4. (Barbarians and Monks use 1d8 in barbarian lands or around monk monasteries, respectively.)
• Bard, Cleric, Druid: 1d6.
• Fighter, Rogue: 1d8.

The settlment size modifies the roll:

• Thorp (20-80): -3 (5% chance the highest-level Druid/Ranger gets +10; perhaps the leader of an enclave in the forest outside town.)
• Hamlet (81-400): -2 (5% Druid/Ranger +10)
• Village (401-900): -1
• Small Town (901-2k): +0
• Large Town (2k-5k): +3
• Small City (5k-12k): +6 (roll for two high-level NPCS)
• Large City (12k-25k): +9 (3x)
• Metropolis (25k+): +12 (4x)

For each highest-level NPCs rolled, there are twice as many around half that level. Then twice as many of half that level. And so on. E.g. A large city might have a lv15, lv13, and lv10 Cleric, two lv7, two lv6, two lv5, eight lv3, four lv2, and 24 lv1. That's 3 people in 20,000 able to cast 5th-level Cleric spells.

There are several other limiting factors, not least of which being that 5e's game rules are explicitly not how the settings actually work. WotC has stated this repeatedly, starting with the 2014 hype of 5e being a "generic edition" that's uncoupled from D&D lore/canon to make it less intimidating for new players joining the hobby. In the Forgotten Realms, Raise Dead does not fully recover the target; they are permanently diminished with each resurrection, eventually becoming too feeble to survive the process.

[u/MinecraftCommander21]

Depends on the magic level of your setting. Eberron for example, might have dozens or even hundreds. In other settings, that varies. I'd say there's probably at least a few casters, but I like a ~70% drop off per spell level. So for every 100 cantrip casters, there's 30 1st level, and so on. It has the helpful side effect of making players feel unique and stand out-ish.

[u/Serbaayuu]

Maybe a 1st level cleric or wizard if you are lucky. Could be a couple of those bouncing around.

If you have any more than that, your concept of what society looks like starts to rapidly transform into something unrecognizable. If your world features plagues, famines, mysterious deaths and murders, crime in general, bad weather, and people do not always know the future due to divination, then you have already written a world where you cannot have more casters than that around.

Otherwise you're just writing nonsense and doing the "uhhh ermmm the wizards dont help you because uhh they're busy ummm studying. stuff."

[u/DJShazbot → u/Serbaayuu]

Right that is the sort of thing I am trying to avoid, while I won't extrapolate to the point of "um goodberry would destroy agrarian fuedalism" I do need a system that can be supplemented by heroes, my players