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Message: <blockquote data-quote="_Michael_" data-source="post: 9518197" data-attributes="member: 7045276">So, at the suggestion of [USER=34007]@rabindranath72[/USER], I figured I'd make a sort of repository thread specifically for posting ideas and resources to use from the 3.5e/PF/OGL material to run low-magic campaigns. Basically, trying to catch lightning in a bottle where magic is special and rare to give campaigns that Lord of the Rings vibe. You know the one, where magical items were treasures unto themselves, even the simple ones like magical swords, and all of them had a history and reason for being, even if it was simple, such as a gift for a lordling or a devout follower or assistant of a powerful wizard. Any ideas you have or suggestions to tweak the rules that you've found in your experience are welcome. There seems to be a surprising dearth ofRabindranath gave some great ideas in another thread, so I'll repost them here:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The 3.0 DMG (not the 3.5 revision, though, for some reason!) suggests to reduce the frequency of magic items, and that there are no shops where to buy them. PF1e adopts the solution of reducing the amount of treasures by half (which, in terms of impact on the average, is the same as reducing the frequency by half.) PF1e reduces by half the sale prices in communities (instead of removing sale outright).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PF1e doesn't have the "Power Components" variant (at least in the core book; might be in some splat?) In my experience, this has a quite big impact on the low-magic feel, because PCs can in theory still craft magic items even at reduced frequency of treasures (although at a reduced rate, because they get less money overall.) Not sure how I'd port this to PF1e since it lacks XP expenditure for magic items. I routinely use this variant in my 3.0 games (at the maximum suggested cost of 20gp per XP.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's another tweak, which is to change the accrual rate of XPs. 3.x suggests some percentage by which to reduce XP, which also translates into a corresponding reduction in treasure (and thus magic items.) PF1e adopts two explicit scales, which are (as far as I can tell) at a 1.5 factor (the baseline XP progression is "fast"; the medium one is scaled by 1.5, the slow one scales the medium one by 1.5 again, i.e. 1.5*1.5=2.25 the fast one.) For simplicity, I adopt a scale of 2 in my 3.0 games. Note that you can combine this with a reduced frequency, to get an even bigger reduction.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you are interested in Dark Sun, Paizo/WotC published some conversion notes in Dragon and Dungeon Magazine back then. Can't recall the issues, though.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">To further hit the PCs in the pockets (so that they can't blow it all in crafting magic items), you can use the training variant (again, PF1e removed this.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">That said, magic will still be D&D-style magic, only at a massively reduced rate (and curb-stomping on the PCs ability to craft magic items witht the Power Components variant is fundamental). If you want dangerous magic, a good option is to use Call of Cthulhu d20 (written by Monte Cook and John Tyne.) I have used it to excellent effect to play Hyborian Age and pulp Sword & Sorcery campaigns using the 3.0 rules. Just remove Clerics, Paladins, and Rangers, and keep only Sorcerers or Wizards as spellcasters, BUT use the spell lists and magic and tome rules in d20 CoC.</li> </ul>Plus, if needed, I have pretty much every single OGL, 3.5e and PF ebook/pdf in existence, as well as all the Dungeon and Dragon magazines issues (plus Polyhedron and a few others), so I can post information and excerpts from them if needed to make this thread as useful as possible for those who wish to run a low-magic campaign where magic is rare and something special to behold. As someone attempting to build a low-magic world where wizards are trying to reclaim the past, this type of information is desperately needed.</blockquote>

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