Help with low magic S&S homebrew

[SpiderMonkey]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, infrequent poster here.

While my default homebrew is pretty epic high fantasy where you can fit just about any core add on, I've been itching for a low magic, sword & sorcery style game (Howard, Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith). I'm thinking about setting it in a pastiche of the ancient Roman world (with standard swords and platemail, of course). I'd probably also throw in some other historical references (Spartan types, Viking types, etc.). I'm thinking of giving it a multicultural, mediterranean feel.

To enforce the low magic theme, here are the permitted classes I'm considering:

Barbarian
Bard
Fighter
Paladin (non-magic variant)
Ranger (non-magic variant)
Rogue

Splat base classes:

Swashbuckler
Scout
Samurai (“Champion”)
Warlock
Binder

Magic would be rare and come in two types: "right hand" (Bard) and "left hand" (Warlock). Generally, Warlocks and Binders would be the province of NPC villain types. Item creation feats (perhaps with the exception of Brew Potion) would be off limits as well. Bards would be more like skilled mages who can defend themselves if it comes to it. Maybe emphasizing the chanting or oratory aspect of perform in their abilities.

To keep the game more human-centered but not limited as to abilities, I'm considering doing away with demi-humans, but repackaging their abilities as "pureblood" human races. For example, switching out some of the Dwarven stone-oriented ablities for seamanship and smithing-related skills, and switching darkvision out for lowlight vision to emulate a Spartan-like race. Any suggestions here?

To use the CRs from monsters predictability I am considering the most dramatic change in place of magic weapons. I'm thinking about making passive bonus "paths" that would emulate the purchase of magic items as inherent abilities.

For example, a fifth level fighter type might have chosen the "Offense" ability path. In the normal wealth scheme he should have around 9,000 gp worth of gear. In this setup, however, he might instead have a +2 to hit and damage with swords (or whatever weapon-type they favor), emulating having a +2 weapon (8,000 gp value). If he chose the "Defense" ability path, he might have a +1 natural armor bonus, + 2 to AC while wearing armor, a +1 to all saves, and a +1 to AC while using a shield.

So far the paths I've come up with are:

Offense
Defense
Distance/Archer
Skill User
Caster
and maybe balanced paths between two or more of the prior.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nightfall]

Honestly, I think if you want a low magic S&S world, the two best for it are Iron Heroes and Midnight.

Barring that, you could try Black Company and/or Thieves World as both can be used that way too.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

How about the Conan RPG? Can't get more Swords & Sorcery than that!

 

[Nightfall]

Griffen,

Too unwieldy for my tastes. But that's just me. I like the idea of using the base classes from those sources instead of trying to put in D&D classes in a low magic game.

 

[ruleslawyer]

I, too, think you may want to look into Iron Heroes. At $15 for the pdf, it's not a huge investment, and may make for considerably less work than adapting the D&D rules to fit. While I like your suggestions, it probably would be easier to use the IH ruleset, since it has a class archetype to fit both the base classes you're thinking of using, and the "paths" you're contemplating. It even uses a number of the core concepts you're imagining (mostly NPC magic, replacing demihumans with human traits, keeping MM CRs usable, etc.) Even if you don't use the IH classes, the skills, feats, challenges, and stunts are very much worth folding into a low-magic D&D game, since they do a lot to fill in the void left by the loss of magic items.

 

[Nightfall]

Rulesy,

Thanks for the support. Yeah Iron Heroes is the best way to deal with the lack of magic items in my book. There are other things...but then again stuff can be hard to come by.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

FWIW:

Iron Heroes may be more your cup o' tea for a low-magic S&S game. OTOH, d20 Modern (using d20 Past) also could be another option for a low-magic setting, since spellcasters are treated as Advanced Classes (and spellcasting tops off at 5th level in d20 Modern).

However, that means investing in books you may or may not have, which is a problem (& a potentially expensive one, at that).

Then again, consider these options:

Use NPC classes only. Covers the basic framework of the various types of adventurers. Maybe give them a shot in the arm with access to extra feats or the like. Maybe have the Adept's spell list a tad more customizable, as well.

Use the Generic Classes from Unearthed Arcana. May take a bit of work to fit class abilties into a Feat-like structure, but it covers the Combat-Oriented, Skill-Oriented, and Spell-Oriented characters. You could easily place a limited multiclassing restriction on Spellcasters (or even an enforced multiclassing restriction), but you'll have to retrofit monsters a bit (they were basically designed with the typical D&D stereotypes in mind). The default Spellcaster class works like a Sorcerer (though they're not stuck to using only Cha), and as such they have a limited # of spells known.

Use legendary qualities & materials for item bonuses. For example, the +2 longsword isn't a +2 weapon because of magic, but because it uses Enlibar steel and has Legendary craftsmanship (rather than just Masterwork craftsmanship). Same can work for armor. Or footwear using rare willowsilk gives a +5 bonus to Move Silently (like boots of elvenkind). No magic bonus, but still the boosting bonuses that the system uses/expects. Stat-boosting magics (like from Manuals and Tomes) could be the result of a special quest mixed in with consuming a strange elixir and completion of a ritual, for example.

However, don't be too surprised if things don't work out as you may have hoped. Don't hope that putting random Metric parts in a Standard machine will get it to operate how you want, much less operate smoothly at all. Sometimes it's worth avoiding all of the effort and frustration just to break down and buy a Metric machine from the start.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Iron Heroes may be more your cup o' tea for a low-magic S&S game. OTOH, d20 Modern (using d20 Past) also could be another option for a low-magic setting, since spellcasters are treated as Advanced Classes (and spellcasting tops off at 5th level in d20 Modern).

However, that means investing in books you may or may not have, which is a problem (& a potentially expensive one, at that).

Yeah. I've got absolutely zero money for rpgs right now. So it's got to be homebrew w/ modified core rules.

Use legendary qualities & materials for item bonuses. For example, the +2 longsword isn't a +2 weapon because of magic, but because it uses Enlibar steel and has Legendary craftsmanship (rather than just Masterwork craftsmanship). Same can work for armor. Or footwear using rare willowsilk gives a +5 bonus to Move Silently (like boots of elvenkind). No magic bonus, but still the boosting bonuses that the system uses/expects. Stat-boosting magics (like from Manuals and Tomes) could be the result of a special quest mixed in with consuming a strange elixir and completion of a ritual, for example.

Thanks! I like the general idea for this, but I'm trying to get away from the "character as defined by their wardrobe" paradigm. I think minimal boosts will be available from masterwork or exotic materials, but that's about it. I still have to consider what kind of boosts.

In general, other than suggesting pre-made rule sets, does anyone have any other suggestsions? Thanks.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

d20 Modern will cost you $0 and 0 cents if you use the SRD available on Wizard's site or at various other, more user-friendly locales, and add the character creation rules found in your copy of the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game.

Modern is a lovely system that emulates virtually any existing fantasy subgenre better than D&D does, while remaining familiar enough that almost everything can be ported from one to the other without modification and players of one can quickly pick up the other.

It's a much, much better idea than using D&D for low-magic S&S.

 

[Gundark]

Yeah another vote for Iron Heroes. It's a great rule set.