TEXT: Laws
  Magical
  Magic is dangerous.  Even a low-level caster is capable of destruction and 
  mayhem on par with small explosives.  Some possess abilities to kill that leave 
  no trace, no weapon, and no wound. Naturally, like how many countries control 
  the obtainment and use of weapons in both the ancient and modern world, those 
  who live in fantasy worlds would look at the regulation of use of magic as it 
  pertains to the danger it poses to citizens and property.
  Laws
  Jonathan Palmer
  Magical
  EN World EN5ider | Magical Laws
  
  The Challenge
  The biggest hurdle any enterprising city 
  would have in the regulation of destructive 
  magic is the simple fact that there is no real 
  difference between a mage and any other 
  person. If Gandalf, for example, simply 
  removed his hat and set aside his staff he 
  would look no different from any wizened old 
  man walking down the street.
  Many of these people are born with these 
  powers because of their heritage, such as 
  tieflings and sorcerers. Others gain their powers 
  because of their race, such as gnomes. Some 
  even gain their powers through mysterious 
  circumstance such as oracles. As a result, this 
  makes it exceedingly difficult to outright ban or 
  regulate magic as plenty of normal people can 
  gain such powers without any formal training 
  or resources.
  This requires governments to be creative in 
  order to properly ensure that laws are in place 
  to protect common citizenry without unduly 
  restricting those who are magical by nature 
  rather than training. There are three ways in 
  which a fantasy city could attempt to regulate 
  magic in a manner that can serve and aid the 
  city while protecting its people.
  Registration
  The first and perhaps least invasive method 
  for magic to be controlled is the use of registries 
  to catalog and track a city’s magic using 
  population. Many of these registries would have 
  little more than a name, a place of residence, 
  and a short list of their magical capabilities that 
  would be updated periodically if the person 
  in question moved or if their abilities changed 
  in some manner. Such registries would be 
  available as a public record and would be 
  maintained either by the local mages guild or a 
  government office tasked for it.
  The effect of such registries would allow 
  people to make informed decisions about those 
  they hire, those they allow as tenants, or those 
  they have as neighbors. Such registries would 
  be filled at the gates where a simple low-level 
  spellcaster would use detect magic to determine 
  the strength and location of spellcasters 
  entering the city. Those spellcasters would 
  be stopped, asked a few brief questions, and 
  asked to report to a guard post or guildhall for 
  a proper interview. Those who refuse to show 
  or are uncooperative would be considered 
  outlaws and expelled from the city at the first 
  opportunity. Those who lie and are caught 
  would face any relevant charges for lying to a 
  peace officer.
  This has a couple of interesting outcomes. It 
  not only opens up the discrimination of mages 
  (as one can easily expect), but also protects the 
  citizenry from charlatans who claim magical 
  power while possessing none. It can also 
  serve as foundation for other laws that can 
  help control magic. Those with a penchant for 
  necromancy or enchantment can simply be 
  barred from the city. Some with particularly 
  destructive magic may be barred from certain 
  industrial quarters where a stray spell can cost 
  hundreds of lives and thousands of gold pieces 
  in damage.
  Service
  A potential expansion to the idea of the 
  registry is a requirement of service in order to 
  reside in the city. Aasimars may be required to 
  come down into the cities underground to cast 
  a daylight spell for workers doing maintenance 
  on the city’s sewer. Druids may be required 
  once a season to go to a city’s natural park or 
  gardens and cast plant growth to save the city 
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  on maintenance. The actual work involved 
  would depend upon the power and ability of 
  the spellcaster.
  However, regardless of the work, the 
  result would be clear: the city would benefit 
  from the mage’s ability for little more than a 
  day’s worth of time, time that the city would 
  likely compensate them for handsomely. 
  This precedent is no different from military 
  conscription or jury duty, where common 
  citizens are required to give some community 
  service in order to help the running of the 
  government and defense of the country.  
  The purpose of such laws would not only be 
  in gaining service of magic users, but in also 
  ensuring that those magic users are in the public 
  eye. Powerful and potentially destructive magic 
  users may be called upon often by city officials. 
  Such magic users would have less time to get 
  up to mischief and cause great harm, while 
  at the same providing a great benefit to the 
  community. Those who are less powerful or 
  useful would be called upon much more rarely. 
  This in turn becomes an incentive to people 
  who use magic to specialize in whatever way 
  they find most convenient in order to ensure 
  they are only called upon rarely.
  Guild Enforcement
  Often a city may simply empower a local mage 
  organization to draw up regulations and laws 
  governing the use of magic and employ their 
  own enforcers. The reason for this is simple: 
  magic knows magic best. A city clerk or sheriff 
  may be quite good at ensuring someone pays 
  their taxes or shows up for their community 
  service, but quite bad at determining how 
  powerful a mage is, what they are capable of, 
  and even worse at protecting themselves when 
  that magic is turned on them.
  Rather than going through the expense of 
  training and hiring groups of mages to act as 
  advisers, some cities may find it more pragmatic 
  to allow the formation of mage guilds while 
  entrusting and empowering them to regulate 
  and enforce magic throughout the city. Such 
  guilds can become then quite powerful and 
  influential as a result. Self-sustaining with the 
  services they provide—and requiring the trust 
  of the people in order to exist—such a guild can 
  become a very attractive option for any magic 
  user. 
  With the knowledge and services they 
  provide, the mage’s guild not only enforces 
  proper use of magic but also can work to 
  educate and train mages, providing a safe 
  haven for magic users to hone their skills. This 
  can in turn allow them to pressure mages both 
  economically and by force—if necessary—to 
  fall in line with the city’s laws.
  An expansion upon the guild idea is the role 
  that religions might play in such an ordering. 
  Gods of magic would take a great interest in not 
  only ensuring that magic is used but also that 
  magic is not stamped out of a city because of 
  rogue mages turning the idea sour to mundane 
  people.
  Bringing these laws 
  into your game
  The ultimate reason for establishing and using 
  this or any fantasy law system for your game 
  is to establish verisimilitude. It is important 
  for players to understand that their characters 
  are special, and that other people know this, 
  as well as appreciating that such powers are 
  not necessarily unique to them and do have 
  a real impact on the world around them. A 
  character might balk at the idea that a dirty 
  guard is asking invasive questions about his 
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  power, but when the guard casually mentions 
  that a mage could slay him—and dozens of 
  others on the spot—with a word and a gesture, 
  it hammers home the idea that the people of a 
  city understand the inherent dangers of magic 
  and its capabilities.
  The other reason to use such laws is as 
  important plot points. A mage accused of a 
  murder may use their entry in the registry as 
  a large piece of evidence in the case against 
  them. The PC’s may have to discover if the 
  records were altered, if the mage lied, or if the 
  mage was framed and the registry used against 
  them. A sorcerer may be barred from entering 
  a dilapidated quarter for fear that his penchant 
  for fire spells might set an uncontrollable blaze 
  through the city, and this may in turn bring 
  the PC’s in to help him do business there.  In 
  another potential scenario, the PC’s may find 
  themselves constantly harassed by the guild 
  of mages after turning a tidy profit doing 
  business in the city, requiring them to either 
  join or face reprisal in the form of the guild’s 
  enforcers. Other businesses may refuse to deal 
  with them as well out of fear of reprisal. Lastly, 
  using the loopholes and imperfections in the 
  laws can allow you to create unique magical 
  methods that can make a city more memorable 
  and interesting.
  The important thing to remember with 
  such laws, as they should never serve as an 
  unnecessary restriction on players’ creativity 
  and agency. Player characters that run up 
  against the law should not be punished often 
  as long as they are careful and do not flagrantly 
  violate it. Instead, utilize them to color your 
  world and immerse the players in your game.
  Author | Jonathan Palmer
  Editor | F. A. Real H.
  Artist | Indi Martin
  Layout | Xanditz
  EN World EN5ider | Mgical Laws
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 075 - Magicallaws.pdf