Any advice on running a low-magic-item campaign?

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

I really appreciate all of the advice. I especially like the fact that for every person who tells me that such a campaign world in impossible in 3.5 someone follows up with the opinion that it will be no big deal.

However, one misconception has crept into the thread: that I intend to run a low magic campaign. I do not. The level of magic is going to be pretty moderate: not Forgotten Realms or Eberron levels perhaps, but a pervasive magic nonetheless.

My intention is to reduce the influence of magic items and the power creep that is inevitable when access to a plethora of such items is availabe (cloaks to increase saves followed by stat-boosting items to offset the better saves, magic weapons needed to offset the artificially inflated ACs of magic protections, etc). More specifically, I want magic items to be special again: no +1 longswords but instead the Sword of AwesomO the Untouchable; granting AC and Save bonuses and perhaps Evasion. I will probably use a Weapons of Legacy-type system where the party finds magic items later in their careers than is standard but have those items increase in power and effectiveness as they gain level. Rather than dozens of +1 or +2 items adorning the party like enchanted Xmas tree lights, a couple of items each with a legend behind each one.

The total sum of magic items will be lower than standard, but each one will be special, possibly unique. And, with the exception of fewer magic items and the emphasis on non-spell magical abilities, the level of magic in the world will be quite respectable.

OK, so what EXACTLY are you after?

If you're after a way to help the party buff like is normally assumed, you can always use the tattoo/paint magic system. If the party wants items, they have to make them. OR, if the fighter uses the same sword the whole time, it could start gaining enchantments. You say you want items to return to special status, cool. Let the weapons the party stick with slowly gain enchantments applicable to how they fight.

Let them get tattoos or scarification rituals that grant magical bonuses.

What EXACTLY with the lessening of magic items are you looking for?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

You won't have any problems, then, since people will have a couple of really good magic items rather than lots of smaller ones. Really, it's perfectly possible to run a D&D game with virtually no magic items or buffing or stat-boosting spells. You just have to watch out for a few specific monsters: anything with a turn to stone ability, specifcally.

A bunch of weak items is usually better than one powerful item - it's more cost-effective. If you're using a different system to balance magic items, it could work.

Midnight uses a system where you usually only get one good magic item, worth about a quarter of what you would get in a 3e campaign. It works well, since Midnight was designed with that in mind.

 

[Garnfellow]

I just finished up a long-running low-magic campaign that spanned both 2nd and 3rd edition. As a lot of people have written, it's a lot of fricken work, but not impossible to pull off. And there are more tools to do it now than ever before.

At the start, we limited PC races to human only, and classes to bard, cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. I was extremely stingy about magic items, and they only fought fantastical monsters occasionally. The biggest house rule was that I made it very hard to find or research new arcane spells.

More or less, things ran pretty well with just these house rules until the PCs hit about 12th level or so. There is a crazy inflection point somewhere around there and the wheels starting coming off game balance. The wizards and clerics really began outshining their companions.

By the very end, I finally had amassed the house rules I needed to run the game at higher levels. As many people have noted, AC and saving throws are a huge problem in low magic, high level D&D games. Spell DCs, sans stat-boosters are also weaker. This roughly balances out if the PCs are just fighting NPCs with similar limitations, but most high level monsters are built around much higher magic assumptions.

You can go a long way to running a successful low-magic game using just Unearthed Arcana. Many of the best parts of that book were drawn from d20 Modern, which presumes a lower magic baseline.

At a minimum, I would use AU's class-based AC bonuses, and let it stack with armor (like it does in d20 Modern). Use Action Points to give the players a few more options and pop. Use the reserve points system, which lets PCs fight longer without clerics, potions, and wands of cure light wounds.

Consider implementing something like the "higher minimum hp" from Iron Heroes. Substitute the following for hp:

1d4 - 1d2+2
1d6 - 1d4+2
1d8 - 1d4+4
1d10 - 1d4+6
1d12 - 1d4+8

Consider adopting d20 Modern's abstract wealth system to get away from all the treasure balance problems in a low-magic D&D. The Grim Tales book has a good chapter on integrating this wealth system with more conventional coin-based systems.

Further afield, you could use the masterwork properties from the Black Company Campaign setting and the combat stunts and maneuver systems from The Book of Iron Might to give fighters and rogues some more interesting options at high levels.

 

[Hussar]

Or, as another simple option - don't play very high level.

How long do you expect this campaign to last? IMO, a camp that lasts a year isn't a bad run. If you're figuring on a year, to a year and a half, assuming levelling every 4-6 weeks (1 session/week, bumping every 4-6 sessions) then, well, you don't particularly have to worry about the very high levels. At that speed, you're 12th level after that amount of time. Shouldn't really hit into the wahoo levels at all.

Yes, smaller items are more cost effective, but, then again, there are commensurately smaller bonuses as well. A fighter with a +1 shield and +1 armor really is only +2 on his AC. Not a massive bonus. The only difference between a masterwork sword and a +1 sword (assuming no DR) is +1 to damage. Again, not a massive difference.

I've been running the World's Largest Dungeon for a year now. No magic shops, no item creation. PC wealth is fairly close to DMG standard, but, a fair bit of that is actually coin, not items. I've had no major problems whatsoever and the party is hitting 11th level. A higher point buy (34 points) and the party is handling the challenges fairly well.

I truly do not believe this idea that game balance is so precarious that the slightest deviation will cause it to topple. It's just completely foreign to my experience. Since the OP is actually going to use Legendary items, then even the whole DR thing shouldn't be an issue.

Good tactics trumps items most of the time.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Yes, smaller items are more cost effective, but, then again, there are commensurately smaller bonuses as well. A fighter with a +1 shield and +1 armor really is only +2 on his AC. Not a massive bonus. The only difference between a masterwork sword and a +1 sword (assuming no DR) is +1 to damage. Again, not a massive difference.

No, I disagree with you on this one. Let's say you have 8,000 gp to spend on defensive items. You can buy a RoP +1 and an Amulet of Natural Armor +1 for +2 AC and still have 4,000 gp left over to spend on things like magic shields. Or you could spend 8,000 gp on an Amulet of Natural Armor +2.

As for good tactics, that applies equally regardless of how powerful the PCs are. PCs with the expected amount of magic are still going to do better, and PCs with 34 point buy are also going to do better.

 

[Hussar]

As for good tactics, that applies equally regardless of how powerful the PCs are. PCs with the expected amount of magic are still going to do better, and PCs with 34 point buy are also going to do better.

Oh, I don't deny that a character with magic goodies is better than one without. I don't deny that at all.

However, I do not think that the difference is as great as people like to make out. Sure, the player could spend 4000 gp to bump his AC by 2 with a ring of protection and a amulet of natural armor. But, at the end of the day, it's still only a two point bump. This isn't going to make or break the character.

That was my point. You don't need a boat full of magic to be effective. The differences at lower levels aren't enough. At higher levels (12 plus) then the rules change. I admit that as well. Thus my earlier point that low magic campaigns should likely top out at around that level to stop the core casters from totally dominating the game.

Like I said, the biggest difference between the power level of one group to another is not in the magic items, but in the tactics used. A low magic group with good tactics will usually do better than an average magic group with poor tactics. At least before double digit levels.

 

[Herobizkit]

I would also suggest replacing the Heal skill with d20 Modern's Treat Injury skill if you're planning on having a lack of healing p0w3rz.

 

[brehobit]

So it sounds like "low magic item, fairly high magic" as an idea.

I've run something like this. I've got some suggestions:
* As noted, having better-than-masterwork items might be very useful.

* Non-casters are actually much more dependent on items than casters at higher levels (say over 7th or so). This may seem crazy (the wizard needs AC for example) but non-casters tend to take advantage of AC/damage bonouses on a regular basis (many times a round) where the mage hopefully doesn't miss a +4 AC bonus as often AND can manage the same thing via a spell anyways. Solutions? Either find some way to buff the non-casters (The ancestral weapon feat is an easy way and avoids _some_ of what you are looking for) or keep the PCs low level (below 7 ideally). Otherwise the casters will quickly overshadow the non-casters. You can also go "Gaurdians of the Flame" on the PCs and have every single inteligent opponent target the casters to the exclusion of everything else. (Always take out the flamethrower first). In a high-level low-item game, this is actually a reasonable tactic. The PCs will be doing it too. But boy, can it suck to be the caster...

* Characters, IME, are often dependent on items for healing. Figure how how you will deal with that. (A Star Wars-like system might help here, I think UA has rules for that).

 

[Numion]

It wasn't until the (unfortunate) popularity of video games that such Monte Hall-ism became entrenched in the genre.

Not really. Look up Quasquetons analysis of amounts of magical loot in 1E adventures vs. 3E adventures on these boards. 3E adventures have much less magic items.

So, nope, Monty Haul didn't start because of video games. It existed in D&D before video games became popular.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Oh, I don't deny that a character with magic goodies is better than one without. I don't deny that at all.

However, I do not think that the difference is as great as people like to make out. Sure, the player could spend 4000 gp to bump his AC by 2 with a ring of protection and a amulet of natural armor. But, at the end of the day, it's still only a two point bump. This isn't going to make or break the character.

+2 AC can be a big deal. That's less healing for the cleric, for starters. Furthermore, once you start gaming at higher levels, you'll be out a lot more than 8,000 gp.