HomeBrew Low Magic rules, wanna share ideas?

[HarryFlashman]

I ama sucker for low magic campaigns. I like keeping magic mysterious and hard to cast
Withthis in mind I am trying to develop weakned versions of each spell casting class but I have no idea how to balance them (to be honest I do not not much care for balancing low-magic Wizards and such because I want them to be rare.)

Ideas to weaken spell-casting:

Pare down spell advancement tables for example:

Ranger/Paladin Spell Progression
1/2/3/4
-
-
-
0
0
0
1
1
1/0
1/0
1/0/0
1/1/0
1/1/1
1/1/1/0
2/1/1/0
2/1/1/1
2/1/1/1
2/2/1/1
3/2/1/1
3/2/2/2

Cut down on or eliminate meta-magic and other spell-casting related feats.


Eliminating Bonus spells

Using the "all-odds-equal-ones" rule where all direct damage spells count all odd numbers rolled as ones ( a 6d6 fire ball might roll; 1,4,6,5,5,2 which would equal; 1,4,6,1,1,2 for 15 points of damage.) I will probably retain this idea unless I follow the idea of...

...All direct damage spells are one level higher than presented in the PHB

Wizards must be Specialists. If I used this rule I would allow multiple Specializations, each time detracting from the pool of schools available to the caster.

Clerics have only the spells available to their Domains plus all four granted powers. So a Cleric may have the domains of War, Good, Fire and Healing. The granted powers would be given at 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th levels. Spell progression would reamain as presented in the PHB.

Require a concentration check for every spell.

Require spell Foci like Wands, Magic Hats, etc

Casting spells does subdual damage equal to the spell's level. Meta-magic feats do direct HP damage as per level modifier to spells. So a Silent Fire Ball would cause 3 Subdual, 1 HP of damage to the caster.
This could be further modified so that Caster level determines damage. A 6d6 Fireball would do 6 points of subdual damage. This would have the added effect of allowing Spell casters to choose how powerful they wanted to scale their spells.

What do you you thing of any of these options or are there better ideas floating around that I could snatch?

Edited for three more ideas.

 

[kirinke]

going with low magic, why don't you emphasize psionics or at least make them more readily accessible than magic.

 

[Nifft]

Take a look at Midnight. It's got some interesting rules that might suit your style.

-- N

 

[Crothian]

For low magic, I'd have rangers/paladins not be able to cast spells at all. I'd completely redifne Bards more like Monte Cook's version as well. Taking down the number of spells per day isn't really the way I'd do low magic. The first thing I'd do is go through the spells list and greatly slash what's availible for each of the four remaining spellcaster (Druid, Cleric, Wizard, Sorcerer). Each would have a unique spell list and there would be very few spells that were on both.

 

[A'koss]

Fun!

Our group is taking a huge leap in the lower magic direction and we've hammered out a number of rules for our game that not only try to address a lower magic style of play but also many of the little foibles in the d20 ruleset itself.

On Andy Collins' site there I've broken the rule changes down into sections, each addressing a different area of the game - AC, BAB, Combat, and so on... You can find them here:

AC Revised
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=742.topic

BAB: Part I
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=741.topic

BAB: Part II
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=759.topic

Resolve - a new rule
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=771.topic

Hit Points Revised
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=753.topic

Healing Revised
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=760.topic

Skill Revisions
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=748.topic

Magic: Part I
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=745.topic

Falling Revised
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=786.topic

Two Weapon Fighting Revised
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=743.topic

Coordinated Missile Combat
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=754.topic

Coordinated Melee Combat
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=755.topic

Commoners and other NPC Classes
http://pub36.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=756.topic



Feel free to snatch what you like!

Cheers,

A'koss.

 

[WastedTime]

A'koss, great work! I am very interested in your ruleset. Any chance of getting a compilation of what you have designed so far? Perhaps, something downloadable or via email. I also would be interested in any background of your campaign that you are willing to share. I am interested in starting a low-magic campaign as well. Thanks. And again, bloody great work, man.

WastedTime

 

[A'koss]

Originally posted by Wasted Time:
A'koss, great work! I am very interested in your ruleset. Any chance of getting a compilation of what you have designed so far? Perhaps, something downloadable or via email.

Thanks! We're in the middle of playtesting the new classes right now but I intend to put all the rules up on a webpage when we're through. I think I'm going to tap another poster (who also liked the rules) to help me out with the web design as his own website is very nice indeed.

I don't want to throw the whole kit and caboodle at you until I feel pretty solid about the total package. Give us a chance to finesse this stuff first and it'll be that much easier on you. Plus you'll have new and converted monsters, NPCs and items to play with as well.

Right now everyone in our group is trying to get their two bits in on how how the revised classes should look - some want classes have specific core abilities as they do now while others want very open-ended classes with lists of class-specific feats/abilities in lieu of static abilities (more like Modern d20). We also want to have a look at the Conan RPG as well as Unearthed Arcana before we make any final design decisions. I showed the group Andy Collins' low magic fighter (which I'll repost here for those interested) and some like it's groove as well...

Andy Collins' Low Magic Fighter...

"I'll share the full results next month in my campaign handout, but here it is in a nutshell: Fighters don't get (many) bonus feats; instead, they get a combat-related class feature at every even-numbered levels.

1st, 8th, 16th: Weapon Focus with a group of related weapons.
2nd: +2 initiative, +2 Will saves vs. fear ("Battle Hardened").
3rd: Heavy Armor Proficiency (nobody gets it for free).
4th, 12th, 20th: Weapon Specialization with a group of related weapons with which the fighter is focused.
6th: Improved Critical with all weapons.
10th, 14th, 18th: Bonus fighter feat as normal.

The WF, WS, and IC abilities may not seem very exciting as class features until you realize that these feats *aren't available* in my game--thus, only fighters can become true "weapon masters."

Eliminating WF from the game in particular makes low-level feat choices much more interesting."

I also would be interested in any background of your campaign that you are willing to share. I am interested in starting a low-magic campaign as well. Thanks. And again, bloody great work, man.

Thanks again! Our campaign will also go up on the website along with it's bestiary (which I'm working on now as a matter o' fact) but I've got reams of information to edit before it's ready for prime-time. Right now it's all about getting it into the computer and putting language to it that doesn't look like it was written by a 6 year old...

Cheers!

A'koss.

 

[jasin]

I recently posted some ideas of my own low(er)-magic ideas on here.

 

[handforged]

one way to limit magic without doing too much number crunching wsa suggested to me by P-Kitty when I brought up a similar question a while back. Require that every level in a full-caster class be matched with a level in a non-caster class. For haf casters I would just completely drop spellcasting altogether. Limiting spell lists would also be a good thing to do.

Not that the other ideas posted are not good, this is just a very simple fix.

~hf

 

[Afrodyte]

One of the first things I'd do if I ran a low-magic campaign, instead of requiring multiclassing, would be to drastically alter the level of spells available. It's slightly more complicated, but I think in the end it doesn't penalize the player so much, especially with regards to XP penalties. True, if they keep spellcasting and non-spellcasting classes roughly equal, there wouldn't be a problem, but what if it was the spellcasting class you wanted to dip a little bit in, while still focusing on non-casting abilities?

So, I think that, while more complicated, I'd likely revise the magic system. First of all, the most potent spells would only be about 6th level. I'd also consider adding 0 spell slots similar to paladins and rangers because I think it's a great way to emphasize the idea of more powerful magic being available earlier to more talented individuals. I think I'd model (not duplicate) the spells known/spells per day after the 3.5 bard and make the bard a partial spell-caster like the paladin and ranger. The sorcerer could work as-is, although the rate at which they gain more spells per day would have to be altered so that they don't hit max too early.

On a different tangent, integrating magical power with learning and practice is a neat way of doing this as well, especially for wizards. The current system gives abilities to casters without them really having to do anything related to their increase in power. It's just assumed that they do so in off-camera moments. I think that taking away this assumption can do a lot to emphasize the difficulty of magic and why everybody doesn't do it. Using Spellcraft as a prerequisite for learning new arcane spells and for capping the power of those spells casters can be a good start. I won't say that every new spell a caster learns needs to be rolled for (although that is an option if you really want to make sure that magic is earned rather than just granted). Winging it, I think that something like the following could work. To cast 0th-level arcane spells requires only 1 rank in Spellcraft. To cast 1st-level arcane spells requires 2 ranks. Casting 2nd- and 3rd-level spells needs 4 and 8 ranks, respectively. Arcane casters who want 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-level spells need to have 12, 16, and 20 ranks in Spellcraft, respectively. For clerics, those ranks can instead be in, say, Knowledge (religion) to represent the depth and breadth of a character's understanding of the higher powers he/she is devoted to. Alternatively, Spellcraft could work to represent knowing the particular rituals and prayers needed to invoke divine power.

Spontaneous casters wouldn't have this prerequisite, although they have far fewer options for the development of their powers. For sorcerers, though, I think that having their spells be centered around a theme (like fire or mind or death) is a great way to emphasize the innate talent aspect of sorcerers and to prevent sorcerers from casting completely unrelated spells. While in a general sense, sorcerers are natural casters, in individual cases, they show a talent for a particular type of magic like light or minds or bodies. Altering spells to more closely fit the theme is certainly possible. A sorcerer who picked cold as a theme wouldn't cast fireball, but iceball could work quite nicely. Druids are like sorcerers who have nature as their theme. Since in standard d20/D&D, sorcerers are already considerably weaker than wizards, I don't think they need to be nerfed (save for limiting the maximum spell level). Druids may require some retooling, but that only relates to their druid-type abilities rather than spellcasting. I for one am tempted to say that they can only wildshape into natural animals (and plants, when they reach 12th level).

Also, I'd make the prerequisites for creating magic items a bit steeper or at least tie it more heavily into what the character actually does to make an item. In all likelihood, creating anything but the most basic of things should be a quest in itself. You can't just take a non-magical item cast a spell on it, and voila! Special items should require special materials. For weapons and armor (since they are most common), maybe mithral or adamantine need to be the base materials used, and (hopefully) you don't just see these lying around. While I'm not going to advocate roleplaying haggling with shopkeepers, I believe that there should be an honest in-game effort being put toward the creation of magical items. If you want to settle it with die rolls so as to maintain the focus and direction of the campaign, I can easily see a lot of Appraise, Gather Information, and Knowledge (arcana) checks being made.

Alternatively, instead of going all over the place looking for just the right materials, you could make these things yourself. Instead of requiring caster levels to do things like forge rings or make scrolls, I'd require the successful crafting of a masterwork item for it to be able to be enchanted (even scrolls, wands, staves, rods, etc). I'd keep the Craft Wondrous Item feat to represent being able to channel magical energy into objects, but I'd probably make it so that for each type of item, you need to take the feat again. So, you could have Craft Wondrous Item (wand/rod/staff), but if you want to make magic weapons, you can have Craft Wondrous Item (weapons). Of course, the main prerequisites would be the ability to cast spells and the appropriate Craft skill. If you really wanted to emphasize the ritualistic elements of crafting magic items, perhaps having Knowledge (arcana) at a certain number of ranks can be required in addition to that. It'd represent that certain knowledge that lets you fit together the two seemingly unrelated parts.

For half-casters, I agree with the poster who mentioned taking away the casting abilities of them altogether. Of course, that leaves us with what to do about the bard, although I am tempted to use the bardic abilities as feats with ranks Perform as prerequisites.