D&D 5E I feel like my world is drifting towards low magic, any tips?

[Lanliss]

Well the titel is : I feel like my world is drifting towards low magic, any tips?

So what makes you feal the worls is drifting that way ( is it a already running campign?)?
Becouse what makes you feal that may might matter for how to play it.

Not in play with my players. Mental play, as I am working on building the world that the players have not reached yet. Nowhere my mind wanders leads to big magic. As I started actually focusing on this, I started thinking about what feel fit my mental image for my world.

That being said, I am not experienced enough on low magic to know how that generally translates to mechanics. I feel like I am working in that direction with my above changes, but need to actually test them to see if they get the feel I want.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Not in play with my players. Mental play, as I am working on building the world that the players have not reached yet. Nowhere my mind wanders leads to big magic. As I started actually focusing on this, I started thinking about what feel fit my mental image for my world.

That being said, I am not experienced enough on low magic to know how that generally translates to mechanics. I feel like I am working in that direction with my above changes, but need to actually test them to see if they get the feel I want.

To me it is more important to first translate it to the world then you can look at the mechanics.
In most setting even small towns tend to have at least one caster living in it, in lower magic campaign settings this would be less common.
Also Magic starts to feal more powerfull when you rech level 3 spells towns that do have spellcaster would probebly have non that can cast 3rl level spells.

looking at the mecanics:
DnD 5th has a mecanic that you can cast spells in higer level slots.
But a first level spell even cast with a 9th level slot feals a lot less powerfull then 9th level spells.
So one might think of a system where you limit the higer spells known and that you can prepare.

 

[Lanliss]

To me it is more important to first translate it to the world then you can look at the mechanics.
In most setting even small towns tend to have at least one caster living in it, in lower magic campaign settings this would be less common.
Also Magic starts to feal more powerfull when you rech level 3 spells towns that do have spellcaster would probebly have non that can cast 3rl level spells.

looking at the mecanics:
DnD 5th has a mecanic that you can cast spells in higer level slots.
But a first level spell even cast with a 9th level slot feals a lot less powerfull then 9th level spells.
So one might think of a system where you limit the higer spells known and that you can prepare.

It is tricky to translate it into the world, beyond a sense in the back of my mind that the magic is not there as much. I only have a couple of Caster NPCs running around, and my players are not into playing often enough to add any to the mix. I have thought of adding more, to see how they play with things, but have not found the right story to pull such a character out of the aether. Sorry if it seems like I am being vague on the matter, but this is pretty much all I have on the subject of magic.

On your mechanics comment, I feel like those things are accomplished by either of my plans. If I limit all casters to a Warlock style progression, they only get one reach of the big 6-9 spells. If I go with my plan of limiting them to 12th level, they hit one 6th level spell, making it much more impressive when they decide to use it.

 

[MechaPilot]

There are a few kinds of low magic games you can aim for.

Weak Magic
In this type of game, restrict spell lists to only those spells from levels one through three. The caster's still get their full compliment of slots and can still cast in higher level slots, but there just are no spells of 4th level or higher.

Rare Magic
Rarity is harder to accomplish while still allowing PC casters. The best thing I can say to do is this: reduce frequency of use but make spells more spectacular.

Another option would be to slide all the spells up one level. Cantrips require 1st level slots, 1st level spells require second level slots, etc.

 

[Lanliss]

There are a few kinds of low magic games you can aim for.

Weak Magic
In this type of game, restrict spell lists to only those spells from levels one through three. The caster's still get their full compliment of slots and can still cast in higher level slots, but there just are no spells of 4th level or higher.

Rare Magic
Rarity is harder to accomplish while still allowing PC casters. The best thing I can say to do is this: reduce frequency of use but make spells more spectacular.

Another option would be to slide all the spells up one level. Cantrips require 1st level slots, 1st level spells require second level slots, etc.

I would say rare magic is the one I am aiming for. The magic is not weak by any means, it just doesn't happen as often as the default for 5E. I hadn't thought of just bumping up the spell levels, I might try that one.

 

[Grandvizier]

I've run a low magic in 2e before and found their is little that had to be done. Finding spells to learn was hard, some of the low level adventures was following a rumour of a spell book. The negative social aspect of a magic user, sent party packing from several villages hunting down the witch, the use of spell components and the need for a protection circle to protect the caster, as well as chance of spell failure. I used intelligence check modified up for preparation. If player did the prep his chance failure was basically zero, like using an item, however spell casting on the fly, that was a different matter. The party spent 2 adventures hunting down a magic item so they could attack a vampire. Good luck with the game.

Sent from my HNT10-1615 using Tapatalk

 

[Shiroiken]

Some simple suggestions to run low magic:

* Limit Cantrips (I suggest Level + Casting Mod per day)
* Limit 1 Full Caster in the group, and 2 Half-Casters
* Casters suffer social stigma (mostly fear) from normal people
* Magic Items are RARE; possibly mostly cursed or with minor drawbacks

Some more extreme options:

* All Material Components are consumed (no Focuses or Component Pouches available, so players need to acquire and track), and add Material component to most spells that don't have them (suggest AD&D for examples)
* All caster have a Focus of their Energy they must of their body to cast spells (spellbook, holy symbol, totem, etc.)
* Ritual Spells MUST be cast as Rituals
* All spells have Concentration (unless Instantaneous)
* Spells take a full round to cast (Reactions take an Action and last for 1 Round), so they don't take effect until the start of the caster's next round (additionally, hitting a caster while casting spells forces a Concentration check to lose the spell and the slot; using a reaction ruins the spell like failing a Concentration check)

 

[77IM]

I just started running a low-magic campaign with zero rules changes. Here's what I did.

1) Explained to the players that in this world, magic, spellcasting, demi-humans, and monsters were going to be encountered much less frequently. Magical things are more hidden, mysterious, and subtle. Magic isn't actually rarer than in default D&D; it's just encountered less frequently by ordinary people, who react to it more extremely. Everybody knows there are monsters in the woods, but if you actually see one, you run for your life, even if it's just a single goblin.

So anyone playing a spellcaster, or even a demi-human, is going to be treated with a certain amount of curiosity and/or suspicion by most human NPCs. This alone was enough to discourage most of the group from playing full spellcasters. (Paladins and clerics get a pass, since they are "good" magic-users.)

2) There's no magic shops, no mage's guild, no place to buy spell-scrolls or component pouches. In the valley where the campaign takes place, there's one wizard in a tower, who does not like to be disturbed. Plus, there are probably some witches and elves and stuff out in the wilderness who might have the reagents you need. Common people are lucky to have access to healing potions. The local temple is run by a 1st-level cleric who can cure wounds in an emergency, and the townsfolk are grateful to have such a pious person in their midst.

Basically I removed most magical elements from the everyday lives of the NPCs and made it harder for spellcasting PCs to have a "place" in this world. If you're a wizard or sorcerer or whatever, you're an outsider; no shop sells you the stuff you need, nobody around here can help you with magical research, etc. If you want the magic, you need to go to dungeons to get it.

The net result is that the setting has a very different vibe and players approach the topics of spells, monsters, and demi-humans very differently. There isn't any expectation that "big magic" will solve their problems, or be the cause of any problems. It's not the Realms where powerful wizards are everywhere and magical accidents are common enough to frequently shape world history. Instead, magic is on the fringes of society, somewhere in a gray area between history and legend.

I don't think you need to nerf spellcasters to achieve any of this. It's not necessary and it unbalances the game. Just because the setting is low-magic that doesn't mean that spellcasting PCs should be made weaker than other PCs. Just let the specialness of being a magic-user get cancelled out by the inconvenience of being a magic-user.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

It is tricky to translate it into the world, beyond a sense in the back of my mind that the magic is not there as much. I only have a couple of Caster NPCs running around, and my players are not into playing often enough to add any to the mix. I have thought of adding more, to see how they play with things, but have not found the right story to pull such a character out of the aether. Sorry if it seems like I am being vague on the matter, but this is pretty much all I have on the subject of magic.

Sounds like you need to work on the other aspects of your world first. I find that be really getting into the who what why and whens of it all, you can find ways of running all manner of campaigns with whatever style, themes and flavour you wish.

[sblock]Have you mapped out the cosmology? Are there gods? Where do people go, if anywhere, when they die? History? If you have dungeons or ruins, who built them? In the case of ruins, what ruined them? Magical items? Do you have any? Who makes/made them? Where are they, the items and the makers, now? Are there other planes of existence? How do, if at all, people interact with them? What lives there and can they/do they visit?

With our current world, the third in our campaign, I started with a theme: 1001 Nights meets Ravenloft. Then I added an interesting seat of power for the local big cheese, added another smaller trading community, and then scattered some adventuring sites and terrain. Questions to how the ruler kept power were answered next, followed by threats and ambitions. Then it's other forces that threaten and so on.

While working on that, questions of magic would pop up so I'd make notes on a few ideas. As more pieces came together, magic and its role naturally found its place within the continuity of the world. In this case, drawing inspiration from Ravenlot's mists, magic is kept 'quiet' by The Sands, a mystical aspect that threatens spell casters who use magic while in the desert (which is 80% of the campaign map at this time.) How it threatens is left to the DM, but its typically a Sam Raimi style vibe, where magic can produce unwanted (and often horrible) side effects, typically in the form of the attention of monsters and dark forces.

With the previous world we have a totalitarian academic institution that controls magical innovation and research, which is referred to as SCIENCE. Long story short, excessive peer rivalry and an ingrained fear that magic (i.e that which is not SCIENCE and cannot be trusted) causes mental instability (which buys a ticket to a nightmarish Victorian-style mental hospital) means that 1st through to 3rd level SCIENCE is more widely accessible, at the cost of continued scrutiny, paperwork and faculty obligations. Beyond 3rd is 'experimental' and thus dangerous, obviously the work of con-men, charlatans and the mentally deviant. The in-game result is that magical ability comes with a lot of role play baggage that is intrinsic to the campaign setting, has worked very well, with all our players of magic user embracing the fun/spirit crushing bureaucracy. It also neatly avoids the problem of low level magic-marts and magical services because it is not acceptable for practitioners of SCIENCE to stoop so low as to meddle with the affair of the common people. Those that do are obviously deviants and showing signs of mental instability - cue the horrible Victorian mental health treatments.

So aye, who what why and when. Much easier to fill in the gaps when you have enough things to actually make gaps. [/sblock]

 

[Ath-kethin]

I just started running a low-magic campaign with zero rules changes. Here's what I did.

1) Explained to the players that in this world, magic, spellcasting, demi-humans, and monsters were going to be encountered much less frequently. Magical things are more hidden, mysterious, and subtle. Magic isn't actually rarer than in default D&D; it's just encountered less frequently by ordinary people, who react to it more extremely. Everybody knows there are monsters in the woods, but if you actually see one, you run for your life, even if it's just a single goblin.

So anyone playing a spellcaster, or even a demi-human, is going to be treated with a certain amount of curiosity and/or suspicion by most human NPCs. This alone was enough to discourage most of the group from playing full spellcasters. (Paladins and clerics get a pass, since they are "good" magic-users.)

2) There's no magic shops, no mage's guild, no place to buy spell-scrolls or component pouches. In the valley where the campaign takes place, there's one wizard in a tower, who does not like to be disturbed. Plus, there are probably some witches and elves and stuff out in the wilderness who might have the reagents you need. Common people are lucky to have access to healing potions. The local temple is run by a 1st-level cleric who can cure wounds in an emergency, and the townsfolk are grateful to have such a pious person in their midst.

Basically I removed most magical elements from the everyday lives of the NPCs and made it harder for spellcasting PCs to have a "place" in this world. If you're a wizard or sorcerer or whatever, you're an outsider; no shop sells you the stuff you need, nobody around here can help you with magical research, etc. If you want the magic, you need to go to dungeons to get it.

The net result is that the setting has a very different vibe and players approach the topics of spells, monsters, and demi-humans very differently. There isn't any expectation that "big magic" will solve their problems, or be the cause of any problems. It's not the Realms where powerful wizards are everywhere and magical accidents are common enough to frequently shape world history. Instead, magic is on the fringes of society, somewhere in a gray area between history and legend.

I don't think you need to nerf spellcasters to achieve any of this. It's not necessary and it unbalances the game. Just because the setting is low-magic that doesn't mean that spellcasting PCs should be made weaker than other PCs. Just let the specialness of being a magic-user get cancelled out by the inconvenience of being a magic-user.

Your approach is basically the same as I took, and your development logic is sound. I took the he extra step of having o ly a single caster class available - the warlock - but in terms of demihumans, magic items, etc, your approach matches mine.

Seriously, if you plan to nerf the hell out of spellcasters, just ban them. You wouldn't limit fighters to shortsword only and one attack per round max; why cripple casters?