D&D 5E How to De-Magic 5e

[Krachek]

Shocking grasp
1st level evocation
Casting time 1 action
Range touch
Component vs
Duration 1 minute
You make a melee spell attack against a target. On a hit the spell deal 1d8 lightning damage and the target can take reaction... while the spell last you can use your action to repeat the attack. You can also make this attack an an opportunity attack.

At higher level. If you cast this spell using a 3th level slot this spell deal 2d8 and last 1 hour. A 6th level slot deal 3d8 and last 8 hour.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Umbran]

Bit of an out-there suggestion...

Take the magic off the top, not the bottom - keep cantrips, but play E6 style.

 

[Salthorae]

Ugh. If I had one wish, it would be that Paladins never existed.

BUT IF I HAD TWO WISHES, it would be that people stop trotting this thing out.

It's not just that Rangers and Paladins didn't get spells until name level (8th level was name for Ranger, 9th was name for Paladin), it's how ridiculously underpowered the spells were.

If you reached 10th level as a named Paladin in 1e ... how much utility were you getting out of your two cure light wounds per day?

I mean, I only had the stats to play a Ranger or a Paladin a couple of times back then... and while spellcasting wasn't the guiding light of why I chose the class, it was certainly part of why I did.

Sure, you could only cast a couple of Cure Light Wounds spells at 10th level as a Paladin, but that was WAY more spells than a 10th level Fighter could cast. So to me it made the classes feel even more special than all their other special abilities made them feel.

Rangers had the benefit of pulling from both Druid AND Wizard spells by 9th level and that was just "kewl" back then, at least to little young me it was awesome.

Who else could do that?!? No one, that's who.

 

[Yaarel]

I don't want to ban spellcasters.*

I just want to make magic more rare, and more interesting. IMO.



*Again, though, what are we left with RAW?
Fighters (some subclasses)
Rogues (some subclasses)
Monks (some subclasses)
Barbarians (some subclasses)

....and?

If players are allowed to play spellcasters, and there are players who love high magic, then there will be lots of magic in every session.

If cantrips specifically are an issue, each cantrip is a proficiency. It is fairly straightforward to swap a cantrip for a martial weapon proficiency, a light armor then medium then heavy proficiency, or a skill, tool, or vehicle proficiency. If certain cantrips dont bother you, perhaps Dancing Lights, then allow these and allow a Fighter to swap a proficiency for it too. Proficiency with all martial weapons is worth maybe three separate martial proficiencies. So a Fighter could reduce to a longsword and a longbow, plus a setting-appropriate cantrip.

Make Ranger Hunters Mark a class feature. Remove a number of slots from the spell slots, and rededicate them for the class feature only, meaning that Hunters Mark can only be used so many times per rest.

Possibly REQUIRE a spellcaster character to multiclass. Alternating one level of a spellcaster class, then one level of a nonmagic class. This will stretch out the spellcasting so that lower level spells only become accessible at higher levels.

− Or similarly. Ban all fullcasters. Instead, make Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, Ranger, and Paladin healer, the ‘wizards’ of the setting. If someone wants to play ‘Gandolf’, be an unarmored Dexterity Paladin.

 

[Von Ether]

Whichever solutions you settle on, it will greatly help if you retire PCs at 10th level. Or develop a 5e version of PF 6e where characters still get feats, but not increasing HP or spell levels.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[dave2008]

I don't want to ban spellcasters.*

I just want to make magic more rare, and more interesting. IMO.

OK, then AIME is probably not your solution since their approach is to have essentially no spell casters.

So I guess my question would be: how much magic to you want?

First thought: Replace rangers, paladins, and barbarians with AIME equivalents. Heck, add all of the classes from AIME. It just gives you more non-spell casting options.

The next questions is what to do with spell casting classes and for that I think we need a better sense of what your looking for. I guess it your up for simple replacement of half spell casting / magic classes as noted above and happy to keep wizards and clerics than maybe your problem is sovlved?

 

[not-so-newguy]

For a cantrip solution: you get the same amount of cantrips as first level spells. The difference is that cantrips renew on a short or long rest.

 

[Charlaquin]

I was just checking out AIME, and is really low magic, like essentially no magic. There is also a bit of middle earth specific features that would need to be modified. It is definitely interesting and not your typical D&D

I would argue that AIME isn’t low magic at all, in fact, it’s high magic. It’s just that magic in Middle Earth looks very, very different than magic in the worlds of D&D. Many of the AIME classes have abilities that are magical in nature. They just don’t have spells. Cause that’s not how magic works in Tolkien’s stories.