L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
D&D 5E How to De-Magic 5e
Hussar
Legend
When I ran my Primeval Thule campaign, I strongly wanted to ramp down the magic level of the game. I went pretty medieval on the rules after a bit of back and forth. Basically, no classes with cantrips. They might be NPC's, but, the players cannot play any classes with cantrips, full stop.
It did lower the magic level considerably, although, the players still wanted their magic toys, so, I wound up with a monk, a paladin, a ranger and another ranger out of 5 PC's. :'(
Still had TONS of magic in the game.
It did lower the magic level considerably, although, the players still wanted their magic toys, so, I wound up with a monk, a paladin, a ranger and another ranger out of 5 PC's. :'(
Still had TONS of magic in the game.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
mortwatcher
Explorer
As far as point A: that horse has been beaten to death and then some. You also posted the viable solution for you, use that and back to the mediocre crossbow users they will go.
Point B: Rangers had spells historically as a class, they get them a bit sooner now, you can impose level restrictions. A lot of classes have spell-like abilities, not exactly spells. You could remove some of the casters from the game, keep wizards and clerics, as those are the iconic ones. But magic is integrated very deeply to 5E, so it is going to be hard to get rid of that feeling.
Point B: Rangers had spells historically as a class, they get them a bit sooner now, you can impose level restrictions. A lot of classes have spell-like abilities, not exactly spells. You could remove some of the casters from the game, keep wizards and clerics, as those are the iconic ones. But magic is integrated very deeply to 5E, so it is going to be hard to get rid of that feeling.
DWChancellor
Kobold Enthusiast
Adventures in Middle Earth (AIME) is a perfect guide to reducing 5E's magic. They made all new classes and the baddy's powers are much less spell/spell-effect based. Despite being 100% 5E engine, the game is aggressively low magic and the merest speck of power is something wondrous and rare (our "wizard" can... light up his staff.)
The AIME trick to making up for the relative weakness of "casters" in a low magic game is to amp up their skills and ability to do non-magical effects (knowledge, medicine). Overall healing is much rarer so anything that helps becomes a big deal. They also have much better weapon and armor proficiencies.
Ultimately the style of DM'ing has to adapt to with knowledge, negotiation, and general out-of-combat actions taking more prominence unless you want an all fighter/rogue party.
The AIME trick to making up for the relative weakness of "casters" in a low magic game is to amp up their skills and ability to do non-magical effects (knowledge, medicine). Overall healing is much rarer so anything that helps becomes a big deal. They also have much better weapon and armor proficiencies.
Ultimately the style of DM'ing has to adapt to with knowledge, negotiation, and general out-of-combat actions taking more prominence unless you want an all fighter/rogue party.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
Would the casters who lose cantrips gain more spells per day or extra features or some other thing? Or do you mean completely removing magic altogether so that wizards/rogues/sorcerers/bards/clerics in their current form don't even exist?
Rangers and paladins shifting from spells to abilities sounds good to me. Hunter's mark being at-will makes sense to me. Something like Pass Without Trace after some levels. Favored Terrain/Enemy need to be fixed still but that's perhaps a separate discussion. Smite limited to CHA+1/2 level times a day or changed in a more significant way. Find Steed just be a thing they can do after a long rest.
Rangers and paladins shifting from spells to abilities sounds good to me. Hunter's mark being at-will makes sense to me. Something like Pass Without Trace after some levels. Favored Terrain/Enemy need to be fixed still but that's perhaps a separate discussion. Smite limited to CHA+1/2 level times a day or changed in a more significant way. Find Steed just be a thing they can do after a long rest.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
I've been fiddling with the idea of an invocation based ranger for a long time, where depending on what you want to build you can take invocations that are pure "martial", ones that tie you into "nature magic" sort of stuff (without becoming a spellcaster), beast enhancements (with getting a simple scouting beast as part of the base class), etc.
This doesn't deny rangers tapping into the nature-based supernatural, but makes it voluntary.
This doesn't deny rangers tapping into the nature-based supernatural, but makes it voluntary.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
