Gaaa!!!! I need a Low Magic System!!!!

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

From what you were talking about, trying to avoid magical items, not a lot of money to spend, and change the feel, I would recommend Four Color to Fantasy.

It costs less than 10 dollars and has a system whereby you replace the magical items per level with power points.

You as DM decide where to put the power points.

As a result your characters don't so much accumulate power as evolve into it.

They could still find magic swords, but instead of being static and disposable items those swords would become unique to their characters and would grow in power proportional to their level.

Or they might not have swords at all, they might simply have new techniques that enable them to do things that a magical sword might do.

Four Color to Fantasy makes the origins of everything much more interpretable and open for you as the DM without having to readjust the balance of anything in the MM or any pre-published adventure.

 

[SSquirrel]

I do NOT advice to take AU for LOW magic games. High magic: Sure.

Now this is reallyfunny to me. Several people have told me they feel AU is a powergamers paradise and the magic system is crazy powerful and I wonder if we're reading the same book. Magic in AU is very flexible and many different classes can use the same spells, except for complex spells which are the sole posession of Magisters. Paging thru the spell listings I don't see a million spells for dishing out red hot death like in D&D, I DO see plenty of useful spells, many of which are not what I would say are useful in combat.

So many of his qualifiers for a magic system are found in AU after all.

Hagen

 

[SSquirrel]

[hijack]Dark Legacies is a low-magic system in every sense of the word. Magic is rare. Magic is hard to use. Using magic has consequences. Most people won't want to use magic (for roleplaying reasons, not because the system is complex). Desinging such a system requires that all aspects of the game rules and setting contribute to promoting low magic - it's as much about the why's as it is about the how's.[/hijack]

http://www.redspirepress.com

Too bad said system just recently enteretd playtesting Yuval. I should know, I didn't make it into the playtest heh.

Hagen

 

[Red Spire Press]

Too bad said system just recently enteretd playtesting Yuval. I should know, I didn't make it into the playtest heh.

Hagen

*grin* External playtesting, to be exact. But I digress, the book is a few months away from store shelves.

 

[Anime Kidd]

I think someone mentioned this, but how 'bout the Call of Cthulhu magic system? From my understanding, there is no spellcasting class. No spell levels or spells per day. Each time you cast a spell, you take temporary ability damage (sometimes its permanent) and sanity damage. There's no spell progression, so you must be taught or find all your spells (unless I'm missed it in the book). I think this would allow complete control over what spells are used in-game on the GM's part and still allows magic to be powerful.

Now that I think about it... I might try to make a more fantasy-like version of it for my homebrew. I've been seeking a low-magic system as well and this might be it.

 

[Black_Kaioshin]

I've downloaded the Ars Magica book; its neat, and as the feel I'm looking for, but its a problem, because it gives the magi way too much power, which I'm avoiding, and it seems a bit complex. I wouldn't know how to convert it to d20. Any tips?

 

[ajanders]

I've downloaded the Ars Magica book; its neat, and as the feel I'm looking for, but its a problem, because it gives the magi way too much power, which I'm avoiding, and it seems a bit complex. I wouldn't know how to convert it to d20. Any tips?

Ars Magica is deliberately magi centered: the characters are all supposed to be mages -- the grogs exist as a kind of stable the magi draw from when they need extra muscle or skills. In many ways, it's kind of like the Liberators of Tenh.
If you want the customized spells and the sort of skill based magic from Ars Magica, my suggestion would be to look at the Sovereign Stone setting. It's the kind of thing that makes me scream out "Why didn't I think of that?" late at night.

 

[Grazzt]

I've downloaded the Ars Magica book; its neat, and as the feel I'm looking for, but its a problem, because it gives the magi way too much power, which I'm avoiding, and it seems a bit complex. I wouldn't know how to convert it to d20. Any tips?

Someone already converted Ars Magica to d20. Here ya go:

http://www.users.qwest.net/~jordanerik/Gaming/ArM/

 

[Black_Kaioshin]

Wow! Thanks, Grazzt!!

 

[Grazzt]

Wow! Thanks, Grazzt!!

Most welcome. I don't know how well done the conversion of it is or anything....I just remembered seeing it quite a while ago, and dug it up when you guys started talking about Ars Magica above.