How on Earth do you have a tightly controlled D&D world with normal magic (Long)

[Victim]

Re: Limiting the social effects of magic

Returning to the point of the original post, what are some of the rationales people have used to make magic more restricted than "anyone with an above average intelligence"?

So far, I've seen bloodlines as one rationale. The necessity for higher education (very rare in poorer societies) would be another. Are there other ways to make spellcasters a rare breed?

Attrition?

If spellcasters are busy killing other, then they'll be pretty rare.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Good discussion I see here!

I, too, go low-magic, because I also dislike Magic Items being more important that character abilities. That said...

Returning to the point of the original post, what are some of the rationales people have used to make magic more restricted than "anyone with an above average intelligence"?

So far, I've seen bloodlines as one rationale. The necessity for higher education (very rare in poorer societies) would be another. Are there other ways to make spellcasters a rare breed?

For Arcane, I went with a Birth Feat. It's not necessary if you start as an Arcane Caster (Bonus 0-Level treat), but is needed to multiclass into one later. I have Psychic Warriors, but not Psions. PsiWar are considered "Arcane" in my world, thus also require the Feat. There's a multitude of other tweaks I use (Fatigue, for instance, no "innate" casters, Library/Laboratory exenses and Sympathetic Item Creation to keep Magic Item Creation in check, etc.), quite lengthy to post at the moment (Egawds! It's 3:30 am here!).

For Divine, I eliminated Clerics and Paladins, making Prestige Classes to represent the powers gained from a long-life of devotion and service. The Cleric-based give spells from 0 to 9th over their 10 Levels, while the Paladin-based ones (which cover every alignment and religion in the world) favor special abilities over spell use. Druids are still around, and I have a (primitive) Shaman class. Both are heavily RP-burdoned, one with a tight political structure (Druids) and the other with the wants and demands of the Spirit World.

 

[Broken Fang]

Joshua - I'm going to check out your site today. I do have and like CoC magic. Might have to break out the books again!

 

[Gez]

GEZ let me rephrase. Take the gold piece with Continual Flame on it. Melt it down. Bye bye spell.

Oh! Sorry I misunderstood you.

 

[Hammerhead]

Why aren't more people spellcasters? Well, sorcery is probably rather rare. And wizardry and clerical spellcasting is very demanding, requiring both large amounts of education and work. Further, in order to study with a wizard, you might need to know someone, or call in a few favors. Like unions for real life, or at least in some areas.

 

[Ace]

Why aren't more people spellcasters? Well, sorcery is probably rather rare. And wizardry and clerical spellcasting is very demanding, requiring both large amounts of education and work. Further, in order to study with a wizard, you might need to know someone, or call in a few favors. Like unions for real life, or at least in some areas.

Those are all good reasons! The problem I see is that the power of a wizard is pretty amazing compared to the power of a warrior

a 12th level fighter is pretty tough and can take on almost anyone in combat. This is a good thing

But according to the core rules it takes the same (xp) investment to become a wizard

it is more expensive but the power of a wizard to alter the world is astounding

 

[Kevin O'Reilly]

If you like a 'Tolkien feel' towards magic, and you're interested in some ideas about large scale (armies) in RPGs, check out Decipher's LOTR RPG's magic system and mass combat system. They aren't D&D, but may give you some ideas.

I agree, both are good.

If you want the same feel in D+D simply give every spell a DC. If you fail the DC the spell still casts, but you take damage. To capture the picks approach to casting a spell, just make a lower level spell of the same school and descriptor a pre-requisite. EQ does a similar approach with chaining.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

...To capture the picks approach to casting a spell, just make a lower level spell of the same school and descriptor a pre-requisite....

Y'know, I've considered this...

 

[Hammerhead]

I think the whole DC idea for spellcasting won't work. Who would want to be a spellcaster?

Do you really think wizards are that much more powerful than fighters? The classes are dependent. Fighters need wizards, wizards need fighers. Right?

 

[jgbrowning]

I think the whole DC idea for spellcasting won't work. Who would want to be a spellcaster?

Do you really think wizards are that much more powerful than fighters? The classes are dependent. Fighters need wizards, wizards need fighers. Right?

In the traditional idea of adventuring that's true. But once you step outside, fighters are heavily dependent upon spellcasters. everything a fighter has that makes him equal to a spellcaster is created by a spellcaster.

without magic items (create by spellcasters) fighters cant defend against spellcasters. spellcasters on the other hand, have no difficulties defending against fighters (especially a fighter who has no magic), even if that defending simply means getting the heck outta dodge.

joe b.