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What is "grim and gritty" and "low magic" anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 1421885" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>The superhero analogy is a good one. High-level D&D is high-powered D&D.</p><p></p><p>The gap in abilities between 1st and 20th level characters, <em>regardless of their magic</em> is huge. If you play low-magic, you must necessarily remove many challenges from the game, because they cannot be overcome by mundane means alone!</p><p></p><p>If you take the view that the one thing that should distinguish a high-level character from a low-level character is their <em>survivability</em>, and that measured in high hit points and good saving throws, then the nature of the game changes profoundly. Consider a low-magic fighter who has a Base Attack progression of 1 per 3 levels (with +1 at 1st level)- so at 20th level he has a +7 base attack. His hit points have increased to normal levels (so 20d10+40, say - or 150 hp), but his Armour Class, devoid of magic, remains at lower levels: 20 AC or so.</p><p></p><p>It's all about the scaling of offense versus defense. It's my one complaint about 3E - the scaling is even more extreme than in AD&D, so that a 1st level character can't even <em>hit</em> the foes faced by a 10th level character.</p><p></p><p>Reduce all bonuses to do something by a half or a third or more, whilst leaving hit points and saving throws alone, and you have a feel to the game that is much more low-powered - and thus supports low magic far better.</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 1421885, member: 3586"] The superhero analogy is a good one. High-level D&D is high-powered D&D. The gap in abilities between 1st and 20th level characters, [i]regardless of their magic[/i] is huge. If you play low-magic, you must necessarily remove many challenges from the game, because they cannot be overcome by mundane means alone! If you take the view that the one thing that should distinguish a high-level character from a low-level character is their [i]survivability[/i], and that measured in high hit points and good saving throws, then the nature of the game changes profoundly. Consider a low-magic fighter who has a Base Attack progression of 1 per 3 levels (with +1 at 1st level)- so at 20th level he has a +7 base attack. His hit points have increased to normal levels (so 20d10+40, say - or 150 hp), but his Armour Class, devoid of magic, remains at lower levels: 20 AC or so. It's all about the scaling of offense versus defense. It's my one complaint about 3E - the scaling is even more extreme than in AD&D, so that a 1st level character can't even [i]hit[/i] the foes faced by a 10th level character. Reduce all bonuses to do something by a half or a third or more, whilst leaving hit points and saving throws alone, and you have a feel to the game that is much more low-powered - and thus supports low magic far better. Cheers! [/QUOTE]
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