Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
I feel like my world is drifting towards low magic, any tips?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6996227" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>So, classes, then. ;P</p><p></p><p>Depends on how low you want magic to go and in what sense. If you want to go on using existing monsters at their CR and existing encounter guidelines and the 6-8 encounter day and not also re-jigger the classes that cast less, though, what you might go with is curtailing spells known, instead. </p><p>Slots represent a reasonable contribution for casters, so do cantrips, and, presumably out of combat, rituals. If you leave a caster all his slots, he's still got some serious capability. But, if you want to dial down the spotlight grabbing impact and versatility of magic, you could reduce the number and level of spells known, perhaps radically. It'd be good for the feel of a low-magic game where knowledge of magic is extremely rare, perhaps 'lost' from some high-magic earlier civilization, perhaps yet to be discovered. </p><p></p><p>Alternately, do away with slots across the board. Cantrips would be the contribution in combat, rituals out of combat (they'd still know spells, just not be able to use slots to cast them). Maybe the occasional item (perhaps consumable) would act as a slot, letting a caster toss out a 'real' combat spell. It could work for a setting where magic has fallen off a high in terms of power. The knowledge is still there, the power is hard to come by.</p><p></p><p>I've heard of Warlock-as-only-caster working well in Primeval Thule campaigns. Good if you want magic to be distrusted/dangerous. </p><p></p><p>I've also heard of putting other full casters on the Warlock progression. </p><p></p><p>By default I run 5e low-level and low-magic-items, but have never bothered restricting casters. I did come up with a variant for 3e in which all caster classes became PrCs with a 13 in the appropriate knowledge as the preq, so in essence, casting was relegated to 10th+ level characters. If you're using the MCing rules, you could add some restrictions on when you can take caster classes, add some prerequisites, the level at which you gain magic and the maximum you can attain is cut down. </p><p></p><p>Wouldn't worry about it. As magic becomes rarer in the world, enemies are less likely to have it, less likely to be able to cope with it, and even the 'minor' magic you leave PC casters can be very high-impact. If you do away with cantrips, you might give adventuring casters some better weapon options. If you do away with rituals and reduce known spells, you might give them more opportunities to use esoteric knowledge to advance the non-combat side of the game. But, for the most part, low magic makes the magic that remains that much more interesting, so it's a tad self-balancing. Also, if you don't try to re-balance, you'll presumably get fewer dedicated casters in the party - tuh-dah, low magic. One time imbalance can be a positive: when it channels players away from campaign-inappropriate choices.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6996227, member: 996"] So, classes, then. ;P Depends on how low you want magic to go and in what sense. If you want to go on using existing monsters at their CR and existing encounter guidelines and the 6-8 encounter day and not also re-jigger the classes that cast less, though, what you might go with is curtailing spells known, instead. Slots represent a reasonable contribution for casters, so do cantrips, and, presumably out of combat, rituals. If you leave a caster all his slots, he's still got some serious capability. But, if you want to dial down the spotlight grabbing impact and versatility of magic, you could reduce the number and level of spells known, perhaps radically. It'd be good for the feel of a low-magic game where knowledge of magic is extremely rare, perhaps 'lost' from some high-magic earlier civilization, perhaps yet to be discovered. Alternately, do away with slots across the board. Cantrips would be the contribution in combat, rituals out of combat (they'd still know spells, just not be able to use slots to cast them). Maybe the occasional item (perhaps consumable) would act as a slot, letting a caster toss out a 'real' combat spell. It could work for a setting where magic has fallen off a high in terms of power. The knowledge is still there, the power is hard to come by. I've heard of Warlock-as-only-caster working well in Primeval Thule campaigns. Good if you want magic to be distrusted/dangerous. I've also heard of putting other full casters on the Warlock progression. By default I run 5e low-level and low-magic-items, but have never bothered restricting casters. I did come up with a variant for 3e in which all caster classes became PrCs with a 13 in the appropriate knowledge as the preq, so in essence, casting was relegated to 10th+ level characters. If you're using the MCing rules, you could add some restrictions on when you can take caster classes, add some prerequisites, the level at which you gain magic and the maximum you can attain is cut down. Wouldn't worry about it. As magic becomes rarer in the world, enemies are less likely to have it, less likely to be able to cope with it, and even the 'minor' magic you leave PC casters can be very high-impact. If you do away with cantrips, you might give adventuring casters some better weapon options. If you do away with rituals and reduce known spells, you might give them more opportunities to use esoteric knowledge to advance the non-combat side of the game. But, for the most part, low magic makes the magic that remains that much more interesting, so it's a tad self-balancing. Also, if you don't try to re-balance, you'll presumably get fewer dedicated casters in the party - tuh-dah, low magic. One time imbalance can be a positive: when it channels players away from campaign-inappropriate choices. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
I feel like my world is drifting towards low magic, any tips?
Top