High magic, low powered -- is it feasable?

[Humanophile]

I'm trying to think out a new campaign I want to run, and while I've been soured on the high-power, high magic build by my share of players who run away with the style, I've found that low-magic easily gets tiresome and overdone. So at the moment, I'm trying to put together a game that has large amounts of low-level magic built into the system, while trying to avoid high-power and high-fantasy tropes. Where you have a lot of minor, common magic (you can buy a cantrip-casting wand or a potion of CLW at the corner store, and I have a feat that lets just about anyone cast a cantrip as a magical talent), as well as the occasional super-rare and -powerful thing to instill a sense of wonder.

I know that this is possible in theory (see the early Xanth books), but I'm wondering if it's practical in-game, what with player propensities, as well as hints and tips, either places the idea could slip up, or else just friendly advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Nightfall]

Sure that's how I run most of my Scarred Lands games. The magic is still there, just the cost of buying lots of magic items is VERY high. Thus finding and acquiring them is a little more important to the party.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I was working on one of those a little while back. As long as you keep it low level, it works pretty well. Magic becomes another commodity. What's fun to think about though, is how it affects society. Entertainers are far more likely to be illusionists. I mean, you could tell a story, sure, or you could show it right there. Anyone of respect had at least a couple of +1 items. Magical healing was available to those with enough cash for it.

Then, just for kicks, I dropped it on a highly decadant and 'classed based' society. A member of a highborn family is probably better trained, more educated, and probablly never has to worry about things like getting hurt because a potion or a healer is always on hand. Then, you have the arcanists forming the upper middle class. Skilled craftsmen (needed to make magical items, but not as necessary as the spell guys) fell into the lower middle class, they can get healing and such if they need it, but it's not the sort of easy to come by occurrance the nobles have. The bottom class was all the normal working folks who still have to do things like manual labor.

 

[Nightfall]

Yeah the gap between rich and poor should certainly be exacerbated. Adepts become more important along with druids as clerics eat up the cash.

 

[Emirikol]

Here's how I'd do it:

Everybody can cast 0 level spells (Divine or Arcane). You can cast one spell per day per level this way.

Magical items:
+1 bonus = costs normal
+2 bonus or more = costs double

Any 'major magical items = cost double

Spells:
All spellcasters can trade out a higher level spell as follows:
One level less = 2 spells
Two levels less = 3 spells
Three levels less = 4 spells
and so on.

jh
..

 

[Xeriar]

I would rework the spell lists.

Beyond that, I might include something like the Grim and Gritty hit point system or nuxor the levels somehow