So, I'm working on a high fantasy/harry potter-esque campaign for my group and while doing a bit of world building it occurred to me, why the hell do wizards even do anything? Assuming high fantasy where magic is a do-all-fix-all kind of thing, why don't all (or at least the majority) of wizards just "retire"? Once they learn the skills to be self sustaining why bother with any kind of work at all? Sure, some may need to participate in society/politics/ect. in order to pursue personal interests, but for the majority, why not just settle down and live in comfort without any kind of work?
Wizard motivation general?
They do retire anon. They just sit in their tower working on hobbies and/or experiments as it pleases them.
>>47921065
Besides the option of making wizards generally socially/politically/ideologically-minded, even where self-sufficiency is easy there's always the constant chase for luxuries and status symbols. These will, of course, inevitably be things that cannot simply be conjured (or are easily identifiable as conjured).
Wizards living alone in towers is exactly that happening. Wizards as a part of society in a high magic setting simply can't work
>>47921065
>Wizard NEETs sitting in their towers getting high and fucking succubi
Yep, that's basically it. The "famous" or "popular" Wizards are the weird ones; the exception.
>>47921065
Well, in most "high fantasy", the threats the players face put an entire country, world, plane, or universe in peril.
I can't let the world be destroyed, I keep all my stuff there.
>>47921587
>powerful Wizard
>not keeping all their stuff on a demiplane
>>47921756
Maybe they like some of the people who live on the world.
>>47921773
>powerful Wizard
>liking normies
I don't understand.
>>47921065
>why the hell do wizards even do anything?
Because with great power comes great boredom.
>>47921065
in my settings i usually have a wizard thats retired and makes random toys trinkets for kids or makes domesticated cute creatures like a pink bubble blowing dragon the size of a corgi
>>47921065
This is why Tolkien wrote magic in his setting to be dangerous to fuck with for fun.
Because otherwise the setting sucks
>>47921065
Because there's more to life than being self-sufficient.
And if becoming a self-sufficient wizard was that easy, everyone would have done it by now, and the world would have transitioned into a magical utopia where people want for nothing.
>>47922203
I feel this is the plot of an anime I've seen before...
>>47921065
>Once they learn the skills to be self sustaining why bother with any kind of work at all?
They still study magic because their ultimate purpose is to become gods and they want to reach the point where they can just cast the spell of ascension and become gods. However to do that a lot of experimenting is needed lots of rare materials that need to be used, lots of subjects needed to experiment on.
Even if magic is a do-all-fix-all thing usually it is not a just a generic superpower that the wizard can use 24/7 for everything with no consequences. Be it summoning 100 shotguns to using magic to wipe his ass after he took a dump or summoning a succubus to have sexytime. Usually at that point the wizard would be more concerned about higher and more transcendent ideals and goals instead of just sit in his chair and do mundane shit all day.
Also wizards are pretty protective of their knowledge because in the wrong hands magic can do pretty fucked up shit. So they gotta have a lots of security to protect their stuff from thieves also to keep their unsuccessful experiments in check that they do not want to discard but will revisit later sometime. Or you know they could be rival wizards that want to get ahead in the food chain by sabotaging the other wizard's stuff so they gotta be wary of each other. I mean if they used magic-science to achieve their power then it is only logical to assume that others can achieve the same goal, even if it needs special circumstances.
Also there are usually even greater forces at work that their magic cannot overcome like generic ancient evils awaken and the wizard has to do stuff to prevent that from happening or else said ancient evil might fuck them up either directly or indirectly. If it already happened they gotta see to put the ancient evil back to sleep or destroy it somehow or escape somewhere where said ancient evil cannot reach them.
>>47922237
You mean Harry Potter?
>>47921756
>implying a demiplane is a safe place
The thirst for knowledge could be the reason they started with magic in the first place; and what wizard knows all there is to know about magic? Few if any I would guess.
Some would be ok with just scratching the surface, and being self sufficient, others would want to go deeper until they've mastered everything.
>>47922443
>and what wizard knows all there is to know about magic? Few if any I would guess.
Or maybe a whole bunch do, but none of them realize it. They keep researching and experimenting, thinking there's more out there to learn and discover, but in truth there isn't.
Alternatively, perhaps all there is to know about magic is known but not by any single individual, and all the wizards who do know everything about any particular part are all holed up in their towers trying to figure out the rest and hoarding their knowledge so nobody is actually aware that all the secrets have been found.
