D&D General A campaign without classes that use magic?

[BookBarbarian]

I love gritty, low-magic settings. I love the sword & sorcery genre. I've played and run low-magic games and done some work on low-magic rules. I also love 5E.

That said, I'm definitely agree that 5E can't do it without serious rework. You really need to scrap the classes almost entirely. While not perfect, I would start by looking at what AiME did.

The core mechanic and numeric scale of 5E is absolutely conducive to a low-magic style, it's just that everything tacked on top isn't applicable. The default "setting" of 5E, while maybe not "high magic", is most certainly common/plentiful magic. Magic touches almost everything, included the rule systems. It's implied everywhere.

I know the OP is going a different direction, but I really think AiME did a great job of removing the spellcasting system from 5e. I also really like how Audiences and Journeys expand the Social and Exploration pillars to fill the gap left by the absence of spells.

I think it'd be pretty easy to file the tolkienness off of it and have a great Dark Ages campaign.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I'm going with Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger and Rogue. No official sub-classes. Instead I used class abilities from the various sub-classes, of the same class, to create a single Path. My campaign will be level 1-6.

Fighter
Level 1 : Fighting Style, Second Wind
Level 2 : Action Surge
Level 3 : Unwavering Mark
Level 4 : Fighting Spirit
Level 5 : Extra Attack

Ranger
Level 1 : Favoured Enemy, Natural Explorer
Level 2 : Fighting Style Archery
Level 3 : Hunter’s Prey
Level 4 : Skirmisher
Level 5 : Extra Attack

Rogue
Level 1 : Expertise, Sneak Attack
Level 2 : Cunning Action
Level 3 : Assassinate
Level 4 : Uncanny Dodge
Level 5 : Extra Attack

Barbarian
Level 1 : Rage, Unarmored Defence
Level 2 : Reckless Attack
Level 3 : Danger Sense
Level 4 : Fast movement
Level 5 : Extra Attack

To me extra attack on the Rogue sticks out like a sore thumb. Sneak Attack is already accounting for the damage they should put out per round. Maybe Evasion would be a better fit here?

 

[GlassJaw]

I know the OP is going a different direction, but I really think AiME did a great job of removing the spellcasting system from 5e. I also really like how Audiences and Journeys expand the Social and Exploration pillars to fill the gap left by the absence of spells.

I think it'd be pretty easy to file the tolkienness off of it and have a great Dark Ages campaign.

Agreed. I have some issues with the AiME classes but it's certainly where I would start.

The problem I see with restricting classes to Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue is it's fairly boring. The classes have somewhat different abilities but they behave very similarly. The AiME classes were created to fulfill different roles and solve different problems.

 

[Guest 6801328]

By having the DM win it from the get-go.


Here is my final piece of advice to anyone going down this road: if you are going to limit magic for your players, limit it for yourself. No archmages, only rare cultists or hedge-mages. Magical monsters are very rare and always have vunerlabilities to exploit. Your NPCs should reflect your PCs more often then not.

I say this because it is really easy to limit your PCs ability to affect things without magic and then use magic to shield your plots, NPCs and so on. I've seen it done too many times but more than one DM. So make sure you are playing but the same rules as your PCs, so to speak.

The best way to avoid an arms race is to agree on mutual disarmorment.

No way.

Defeating the evil necromancer/sorcerer/whatever with nothing but steel and muscle is too much fun.

 

[atanakar]

So, I've been looking at my options carefully: D&D 5e, AIME or Fantasy AGE.

All things considered I'll go with Fantasy AGE. It uses a toolbox system for character creation. Less work to do for me. My players are familiar with it because we did a few Modern AGE games. FAGE combines a class system with the use of Talents and Specializations. Which makes it easier to create the unique characters I'll need for this campaign. I'll just give the players the list of options that are allowed and let them pick and choose what they want at session zero.

Another thing I like about FAGE is damage reduction by armour. It fits really well with Sword& Sorcery. But it won't get out of hand since the tech level of the campaign will not have chains and plate armours. Only leather, heavy leather and shields.

(edit) Also, non-magical healing is part of the system. You can do a Healing Action during combat, take 1 breather at the end of an encounter, heal after sleep. If you have the Chirurgy Talent your Heal actions heal more points. Should be enough for Sword & Sorcery.