FCWesel said:
I was looking for opinions on how to tone magic down to a more "Middle Earth/LOTR" style of play.
Any ideas?
I play in a campaign where there is decidedly less magic available. Here is a brief synopsis of how this works. I can't give away all the campaign secrets since my DM also is a writer, and thus many of his campaign ideas are either copywrited, or he uses/is using for his work.
1. Magic items are severely limited in their general availability. For example, finding a potion shop is pretty much out of the question. For that matter even alchemical items are pretty rare. As far as spellcasters being able to purchase scrolls and the like, that is pretty much off limits. And as far as being able to purchase magic weapons, armor, or other types of itms, etc. there just is nothing available. If you are lucky, you can possibly make a donation to a religious institution in order to procure potions and scrolls, but that is pretty much the limit. In addition, as far as our party being able to sell magic items, it just doesn't happen.
2. Spells are separated into 3 categories. Common which allows you access as normal in the sense that you can choose them when you gain levels, etc., and there are no negatives associated with trying to cast them. The second category is also available but is considered "tainted" in the sense that you incur penalties to cast and can have negative results. Again, you can choose these as normal, but you have to accept the penalties that go along with them. These two classifications apply to both arcane and divine magic. The third category of spells are those spells that have effectively been placed in a "rare" category which means that they are not readily available, and can only be obtained by "finding" either another caster who has them (good luck!!), or finding a scroll/spellbook in treasure trove (it does happen, periodically). You cannot choose these spells as an arcane caster when you gain levels, and this classification doesn't apply to divine casters.
Oh, did I mention that the "rare" spells also have penalties to cast, as well as potentially negative consequences?
Also, we generally only use spells from the PH or Tome and Blood, so other spells are off limits, which again limits the availability.
It is possible to research spells, so it is possible that we could obtain spells from another source by using spell research with all that entails.
As you can see, the above tweaking can severely impact on a caster, particularly arcane casters. Does it make me happy? Of course not, however, it does cause you to be creative, and certainly, you can always choose not to play a spellcaster, particularly arcane casters who are decidedly more limited than divine ones in their spell selection.
For, example, imagine playing an arcane caster who cannot choose mage armor at 1st level because that spell is on the "rare" list? We did however, over the course of adventuring, discover it on a scroll, but not until about 5th character level.
Cheers
