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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 1359076" data-attributes="member: 8713">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.</blockquote>

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