Thanks for all your replies, my thoughts get more refined as the post goes on, and if you have any further suggestions, please do tell, this is really helping. I'm usually the DM who runs high-magic "whacky" parties where pretty much anything goes.
In terms of game balance, 4e has all the tools you need. It has healing surges and martial healing, probably the first thing that comes to mind. It has inherent bonuses which actually work.
I do love inherent bonuses, but I haven't thought of what to make of martial healing. I want there to be a strong sense of desperation in the world, so I do want healing to be a
very limited resource.
Alas, there are no (good) non-magical controllers. You're also severely limiting the type of opponents PCs can face. Even if you use no magical monsters, you're also using no casting NPCs.
Well, I write most of my NPCs from scratch, but there will be magical encounters at times, but with how rare magic will be I want players to consider that killing may not be the best option.
IMO 4e makes your concept more viable than 3e on the face of it, because limiting power sources accomplishes some of your goals immediately. Specifically, it sounds like you want to remove the Arcane power source, and the classes it uses. This removes wizards, sorcerors, warlocks etc the flashy offensive spellcasters. You may or may not want to remove the Primal power source as well.
Depending on your vision, you may want to limit some or all of the divine classes and their powers e.g. the Invoker is the most wizard-like of the divine classes.
At this point I'm thinking that in-story "learned" arcane magic draws from the local magical ether for it's effects, books just teach you how to do so. Sorcery does as well but from a natural skill way. Granted magic, such as divine magic or pacts with otherworldly beings works differently, either they are giving you some of their power, or allowing you to funnel power through them. I think it plays up the "people are desperate" angle that even average Joes are attempting to make demonic or fey pacts (though few are successful and most just get the short stick of the deal).
4e has healing surges, and martial healing which both make non-magical worlds more viable. It would be possible to have only the martial power source and still have a functional game, with a much reduced selection of classes. Some of the less flashy caster classes might still be viable e.g. skald bard, but the more limitations you pile on them the less viable they will be.
I don't understand exactly what you mean by non-magic "spell-like" powers, but look-and-feel is inherently subjective, you will need to make specific rulings on powers that violate the feel you are aiming for, possibly including reflavouring and reskinning powers.
When removing stuff from PCs, it's easy to accidentally make them non-viable, so I would definitely allow flexibility in people rebuilding their PCs or changing them entirely.
-I think my initial aim is going to be figuring out which classes don't exist at all, and then which classes are simply limited.
-As it stands, Wizard, Druid, Shaman, Sorcerer, Warden, Seeker, and all their variants are out. Not sure how I feel about the Barbarian, it's a primal power source, but in an apocalyptic setting I'd wager Barbarians would become a big thing.
-I would like to remove Arcana as a skill, at least as a base-class skill, since as taught-magic is all but lost, there's noone to teach you about magic stuff. It may be something I'll allow people to pick up through their adventures, basically "learning on the fly" or rediscovering these lost secrets, but otherwise I don't see why people should be trained to identify magic when there isn't any.
-I'm not sure what to think about psions. 4e describes it as "psionic magic" and they are ritual casters, I think I'll probably limit the available psionic classes.
I'm also planning on limiting party composition. Those who still have magic, either through otherworldly pacts or divine grace don't travel much, and when they do it's with their fellows, not random outsiders. Since I make my groups discuss their party comp anyway, I don't think this'll be an issue. 1/3 or maybe 1/4 can be a magical class (from what is available). Otherwise the
entire party must be magical (and there'll be issues with thism friend/foe faction things) and must all be from the same type of magic. So they're either all barbarians, all warlocks/assassins, paladins/clerics/other divine. I think along those lines I'll limit clerics and paladins to divine-only parties.
Here is my first thought:
Is the WORLD low-magic, or is the PCs low-magic?
The difference is basically: "Do the PCs have access to magic/spellcasting classes, or are magical classes only rare NPCs?" The second question is "How supernatural are the abilities of PCs?" Both of these are important questions since they determine how "mundane" PCs can be.
The world is low magic, and so are the PCs as members of the world.
Let me take them in descending order
PCs have limited caster-choices:
* Eliminate Druid, Cleric, Wizard. Replace them with Sorcerer and some divine spontaneous caster (Mystic, Favored Soul, Oracle). The reason is simple: spontaneous casters have limited pools of magic so they tend to not be able to find a magic spell at every answer (we got diseased? I'll memorize remove disease tomorrow). They also get spells slower.
* Alter spellcasting from the ranger and paladin; examples of replacements include limiting their spells known (the hexblade has a chart of spells known in Complete Warrior, use that) or use the spell replacement powers from CW. Alternately; remove paladin (or make it a prestige class) and replace ranger with scout (Complete Adventurer).
* Bard can become a prestige class or be removed.
* Remove access to Item Creation Feats. None whatsoever. You can go further and limit spell focus, metamagic, or eschew materials, but that's your call.
I would likely use some of the available Pathfinder archetypes if I go 3.X to replace the spellcasting component to several of these classes. Bards, Rangers and Paladins have some good options that have no magic, or highly limited magic. I'd definitely remove metamagic feats, or perhaps increase their spell-level adjustments.
PCs have no casters:
* Obviously, no bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, wizard. Your call on paladin/ranger, but I'd probably ban paladin and replace ranger with scout.
* Consider using Reserve Healing or Vitality/Wound from Unearthed Arcana
* Additionally, some martial-heavy classes (knight, swashbuckler, samurai, ninja, scout) might be a good way to round out the martial choices, depending on your setting.
I'll have to look into VP/Wound systems from UA, I'm not familiar with them, but if there's a useful D20 VP/wound system that's portable and largely standalone, I might nail it on regardless of what system I use. I will also definitely provide martial-variant classes as available so that people can flesh out their styles a little better.
Sounds perfect for a martial-only 4e game. No problem.
IMHO this kind of thing works far better with 4e than with any other version of the game.
Well so far that's what I seem to be hearing, which is great to me since it's my favored edition.
So right now I'm thinking here's what people will have available to them:
Fully available: Knight/Slayer, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlord* .
Limited**: Paladin, Cleric, Warlock, Assassin, Psion(standard Psion only), Barbarian
Removed: Ardent, Artificer, Avenger, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Monk, Runepriest, Seeker, Shaman, Sorcerer, Swordmage, Warden, all variants of them.
I'll probably start at level 3 and go through all the paragon paths later, but I think that leaves a good feeling that the learned-magic classes are basically lost to time, while granted-magic users keep to themselves, and everyone else fights the old fashioned way.
*barbarian party may have 1 Warlord.
**To 1/4 (only one person out of every 4 players may be one of these classes) or full-party same-source only.
Now, because the
world is low magic, and this is affecting all life, I'm faced with limiting races now too. At least that should be easier.
I'm thinking:
Fully available: Human, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, elf*
Limited or full-party only (4e specific list): Changeling, deva, dragonborn, dwarf**, rarer elf varaiants (Sun, Moon, Drow, etc.), eladrin, gnome, Goliath, Kalastar, orc, shifter, tiefling.
Removed: everything else.
*4e technically says elves are a "fey" creature, but they're standard enough in fantasy I think I can let it slide and push Eladrin into the more "magical elf" box.
**due to massive seismic activity, the great dwarven kingdoms were destroyed, leaving dwarves on the edge of extinction, thus, they are rare....not that most of the world isn't on the edge of extinction, but even saving the world may not save the dwarves.
I'd like to trim this list down further.
