Hussar
Legend
This surprises me. In my experience, the spellcasters speed up the combat. We, perhaps, have less time lost to indecision than at your table, but when a fireball deals a total of 200 damage as opposed to the 45 a fighter is dealing in one round, it tends to push the combats closer to the end faster.
Sure, but, the time lost as the wizard places that fireball in juuuust the right square and then making sure that the spell template is the right size and orientation eats up so much time. IOW, sure, you might end the combat a round earlier, but, the casters' individual turns are so much longer that it winds up being much longer at the table.
Again, the last statement, about how much damage they deal per round, seems to contradict the 'speeding up combat' element. Do you also avoid using monsters with spells or things that simulate spells like breath weapons?
Again, because the combat is fairly predictable (within a certain level of predictable), I can simply design encounters with an eye towards difficulty by keeping an eye on the HP totals of opponents. Also, even monsters with area of effect effects, you're only talking about a few critters with one or two effect choices, all being run by a single brain - the DM - who is (hopefully) paying attention to the game and not dithering.
As I started to read this thread I wondered if adding the Warlock would help. It has so few spells that there is little paralysis there... They have less spell options than the ranger. However, it sounds like that did not work for you.
It's not so much about the options than the opportunities. Warlocks cast spells every single round. This isn't what I want in a low magic game. It's too Harry Potter for what I want.
[quote
Can you give some examples where this was better without magic and worse with magic? I'm curious what you're seeing as problems with magical solutions.[/QUOTE]
When the characters lack magic, they are forced to rely on skills, proficiencies and actually trying to use the elements in the game in order to overcome obstacles. There's a number of areas. In exploration, it's far easier to just send your bat familiar, or use Arcane Eye, to scout out than to send the rogue in. You can't simply ignore climbing or swimming with a fly spell or whatever. You actually have to use things like Insight when talking to an NPC rather than Zone of Truth or Charm spells. Virtually every single element outside of combat has a spell fix for it. When you don't have any core casters, it forces the players to interact in ways that aren't instant wins and adds a greater level of tension. Additionally, simple challenges like climbing a wall become real challenges when you don't have the cleric spamming Guidance spells.