Well....yeah. If I tie a guy up, and stick a gun in his belt, I'm pretty sure someone could kill them with a pencil too. If you stack the deck, you can make anyone win.

There's obviously times like this that the normally inferior weapon can work. Like, if two guys are standing right next to each other (one having a pistol, and one having a sword) and they suddenly get all pissy at each other, the sword guy probably has a better chance of winning.

Specialized cases, I guess. Which is why a mix is always best. But, magic is going to win out in a larger variety of situations.

EDIT: Oh really? See, I haven't played that one. Need to get on that, then.

Your still forgetting basic protection spells. If guns evolved in a world still dominated be magic there would be spells to deflect or counter act bullets. At the very least as I said before mages could move through various other planes far enough to be out of harms way but close enough to still see. To say nothing of just turning invisible or spells that make you appear to be 6 feet from where you actually are standing. Of course then there are contingency spells like in DnD that go off when a certain event happens, like getting shot/dieing. These can be enchanted into magical items.

Of course we can't forget that the general purpose of magic and general fighting in any fanatsy world is to far surpass normal human limits. For one monks, rouges and a few other classes get skills that allow them to completely evade explosion like effects. Even without that most spells, even the near instant ones like rays, have a reflex saves. Along with this whole surpassing human limits goes crazy high amounts of strength and general shall we say will to live. Combined with abilities that can make an already hard to kill combat character even harder knock, kill, or otherwise incapacitate.

Of course in all this I haven't discussed healing and buffs. Buffs making an already far above average human even farther above average. This ranges from an increase to any stat, including speed and reflexs, armor, or just plain pumping up "HP". That combined with everything else above would probably give a magic user time to heal himself, or a friend, or otherwise mount a defense/run the hell away.

Even augmented with Magic guns up to say bolt action rifles wouldn't be that much of a game breaker, in most magical settings. Now magic agumented machine guns might pose a problem. However, chances are sooner or later mages/enchanters would come up with some sort of solution. Then of course the people making/enchanting guns would find a way through and the cycle would continue. Really it wouldn't be all that different from today's world. Just replace kevlar with magic/magic armor.

As for super advanced technology thats not really any different. It has been said the sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic. Now if you just randomly threw really high technology at magic users who've never seen it, or vice versa, there might be a slight advantage one way or the other. (That's assuming the side that was attacking had knowledge of the other side. Ie, magic users know about technology or tech users know about magic.) On an even playing field, either neither side knows about the powers of the other or they both know everything, its pretty much a toss up to strategy and venue.

Sure it only takes a month to train a guy to shoot but it takes years for him to become a veteran soldier and even longer to become one of the guys pulling up the plans of attack. Magic users would get this too but it'd be tempered by the shear volumn of crap they have to learn just to cast magic. So to make a long rambling post short magic is generally equal to any sort of technology. All that matters is the people behind it, and not always the training of said people. There is something to be said for talent and shall we say common sense and guile.

Damn, you people write a lot...

Either way, i reed most of it... just hope i dont sound repetitive now... but did everybody forget about Summons?

Get a Elite with summons, 10000 men with offensive magic, 2000 Men with defensive magic, and 500 men with healing magic and we are all set...

Remembering all the All (Materia counts?), Doubles, Triples, Walls, Regens, Cures and Lifes... and of course... Poison/Bio, Break, Blind, Confuse and Mute...

Yeah... Tech army is screwed...

This is a pointless discussion, but I'm hoping most people know that and they're just humouring each other for fun. That being said, there are always the game-breaker arguements of the mage ordering mountains to uproot and slam into their desired target area. There are also multitudes of very deadly guns, and if we include things like RPGs, well, there are always nuclear weapons that can be miniaturized to handheld size for the same effect (See: Davey Crocket Rocket).

Sure is pointless... but kinda fun to geek it out... its the same as any Vs Thread would be...

Also, Firaga Powered Chainsaws amuses me

Why stop there?

Why not an RPG that fires Flare or Meteo Spells.

I surely felt more like a geek after I responded to it...in a good way...if one can feel like a geek in a good way...^_^

Personally, I think if tech and magic existed alongside each other, it would break about even. In most cases, it's about escalation. One side creates a gun, so the other side creates a spell that can counter the gun, so the first side creates a different gun to counter the spell, etc, etc, etc. Its a pattern as old as time itself.

Give me 2 Gunblades locked together by a chain on each handle and you have a winner!

Also, combining modern weaponry with magic always sounds Sexy to me...

50 Cal vs Samurai Katana

I think that solves the sword vs gun thing. (I would love for someone to translate this video for me)

If any of you are MythBusters fans, you'll recall the myth about catchng a bullet with your teeth. The fastest human reactions range from .2 - .3 seconds. A human couldn't react fast enough to a slow-moving paintball let alone a bullet.

Guns= Winner.

Hmmm...we might have something with the whole MagiTek Gun thing going.
Do some bombing raids using bombs augmented with Ultima spells...

Knight Captain: "Don't worry, Your Highness Leona. I'll defeat this nefarious enemy and we shall be wed the very next-HOLY GOD, THE WHITE LIGHT IS EATING MY FLESH!!!"

Personally, I'd love to see a minigun take on an army with ammunition enchanted with Marlboro Breath. If the sheer rate of fire doesn't obliterate you, the endless assault of debilitating status effects won't let them get very far.

Heavily armored targets? Get me the Meltdown rounds! Vitality drops to zero, no enemies have resistance, and there's no accessories that can save you, huah ha ha!

Combine the best of all worlds, people! No one can stop a Gunblade Mage.