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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 4770452" data-attributes="member: 3424">As a few posters have mentioned, the basic question in the high magic/low magic debate is how common magic is. However, because magic is so broad and actually covers a multitude of concepts, there are several variables that can be tweaked, for example:1. Types of magic. Certain types of magic may be more common than others. Consider the world of Krynn post-Cataclysm, pre-War of the Lance, for example. Clerical healing magic was rare, but wizardly arcane magic was more common. Along similar lines, consider worlds where only one type of magic exists: a world which only has divination magic would look very different from one that only has evocation magic, for example.2. Personal magic vs. magic items. As with types of magic, personal magic may be more common than magic items, and vice-versa. For most of the history of the game, I suspect that the former was more common than the latter, since magic-using classes were in the Player's Handbook and considered to fall within the realm of player choice, while magic items were in the Dungeon Master's guide and considered the province of the DM. Nonetheless, the latter approach might make for an interesting campaign, with the PCs being essentially non-magical, but having access to magic through their equipment.3. PCs vs. the rest of the world. The key question here is: how special are the PCs? One common trope in fantasy fiction is that the protagonists encounter spellcasters, magic items and fantastic creatures no matter how rare they are in the world. The same could happen to PCs in a campaign. Even if there is only one ring of invisibility in the world, they are the ones to find it. Even if there is only one dragon in the world, they just happen to fight it. The reverse, low-magic PCs in a high-magic world, may be harder to pull off, especially as a long-term campaign, but it is not inconceivable.As for whether increasing the PCs' power makes for a more fun game, I'm of the view that the actual power level of the PCs doesn't matter. At least when it comes to combat, the key questions (for me) are:1. Do I have meaningful tactical decisions to make in each round of combat?2. Can my PC take enough punishment that one or two lucky hits by his opponents will not take him out of the fight?I would consider any system that can answer "Yes" to both questions to be a reasonably good one.</blockquote>

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