D&D 5E How to De-Magic 5e

[Horwath]

1. Remove all caster classes from the game.
2. Remove EK and AT subclasses from fighter and rogue.
3. Remove spellcasting from ranger and paladin
There is already UA variant for spell-less rangers, add the same for paladins. Add Cha bonus to Lay on hands to per level healing.

 

[FXR]

So, if I understand correctly, your objective is to make magic "special" again.

Here what I did in my homebrew setting:

1. Paladins only get their oath spells. They still have their spell slots, which they can use for smithing purpose. You could go further and ban the oath spells. It wouldn't change much.

2. Bards and Rangers are spell-less but gain other features. My ranger homebrew was OP, but many ranger spells can be turned into non-magical abilities (such as darkvision and hunter's mark). Lore bards could get a few cantrips and an ability equivalent to Legend Lore.

3. Taking some inspiration from AIME, I ruled that long rest can only be taken in civilization (to balance this and the fact that magical healing is much rarer, I allow creatures to regain the maximum number on the die when they spend an hit die.

4. I banned clerics (but that didn't really have to do with being low-magic).

5. I banned several archetypes which rely on spellcasting.

You could go further and, just like the Player's Guide to Xoth did, ban all "artillery" and some "utility" spells, such as fireball and fly. Please note that balance will be affected so you should think about giving some extra features to casters.

The warlock is probably the most problematic class when going low-magic as it relies a lot on blasting cantrips such as eldtrich blast and they regain their spells on a short rest. I still haven't figured out how to fix that.

Alternatively, you could rule that casting magic has a cost. Perhaps the caster must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC12+spell level) or gain a level of exhaustion. Such a cost would not eliminate magic but some players might thing twice before casting a spell.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Change wizards so they get a 4th\5th\6\7\8\9 slot at levels 1\3\5\7\9\11 etc. And let them only recover one spell slot per extended rest. There! Powerful but limited magic. Adjust slot acquisition rate to taste.

 

[Salthorae]

Here's a thought about Sorcerers and Warlocks. Eliminate them as classes and replace them with feats.

I think it fits the fluff better.

I like the idea here but I don’t think it works well with the 5e framework.

Feats are 1) optional and 2) so very rare core that it makes these concepts unattainable until 4th level unless you allow variant humans. 3) You’d have to work out a whole tree of feats to model it all as well.

I would say that if you take cantrips out that you might want to give the sorcerer another spell known to start the game, since part of their benefit v. A wizard is starting with 4 cantrips.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Feats are 1) optional and 2) so very rare core that it makes these concepts unattainable until 4th level unless you allow variant humans. 3) You’d have to work out a whole tree of feats to model it all as well.

1) Backgrounds might be a better choice for that reason. 2) Several classes don't get their sub-class until 3rd, so waiting until 4th to realize a concept isn't some unprecedented burden. 3) 5e feats're big, so maybe not, depending how much you leveraged the existing class to do stuff and the feat just added options/flavor.

 

[Salthorae]

1) Backgrounds might be a better choice for that reason. 2) Several classes don't get their sub-class until 3rd, so waiting until 4th to realize a concept isn't some unprecedented burden. 3) 5e feats're big, so maybe not, depending how much you leveraged the existing class to do stuff and the feat just added options/flavor.

1. Backgrounds aren't really for things that mechanical though.

I guess you could shoehorn something like this in there, but it would feel very different from other backgrounds in how much impact your main class rather than the fluff of your history and a couple of little ribbon effects.

2. I have issues with subclasses not hitting until 3rd personally. It's been one of my 5e peeves since I got settled in the edition. That said... it's not just that you're realizing a concept as a Sorcerer, it's literally how you access your magic. If you did that, you can't have a Sorcerer or Warlock at 1st level for games without feats and/or non-variant humans. That's a big difference from just not realizing a concept.

3. The post I responded to was proposing the elimination of Sorcerer and Warlock as a class. If you do that, then a feat at 4th level doesn't just add flavor to your wizard, it is a fundamental shift in the concept of the class.

You could do those things, but it would feel kludgey to me at least.

 

[Tony Vargas]

3. The post I responded to was proposing the elimination of Sorcerer and Warlock as a class. If you do that, then a feat at 4th level doesn't just add flavor to your wizard, it is a fundamental shift in the concept of the class.

Yeah, I caught that. I meant how much you leveraged the actual class - Wizard or something else - to cash the check the feat was writing. A Warlock Feat might just give you the Eldritch Blast cantrip &c. The Sorcerer feat might mainly /take away/ your prepped casting (!!) and in give you metamagic, if that really says 'sorcerer' to the DM running it (?) heck, maybe you could just play a Wizard, declare "Sorcerer" at 1st level, take the hit, and get a Feat /as compensation/?

 

[snickersnax]

I like the idea here but I don’t think it works well with the 5e framework.

Feats are 1) optional and 2) so very rare core that it makes these concepts unattainable until 4th level unless you allow variant humans. 3) You’d have to work out a whole tree of feats to model it all as well.

I would say that if you take cantrips out that you might want to give the sorcerer another spell known to start the game, since part of their benefit v. A wizard is starting with 4 cantrips.

There are already sorcerer-like racial feats: drow high magic, wood elf magic, svirfneblin magic. You could easily have stacking sorcerer feats for each sorcerer type. (Dragon sorcerer I, dragon sorcerer II, dragon sorcerer III, etc). Since this modification is for a low magic game there is no reason to get concerned that magic is unavailable at low levels, that's one of the things we were hoping to achieve anyway.

There are already lists of cult spells and special abilities for the various devils and demons in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. These can easily be organized into feats for warlocks. It's also not hard to imagine the various warlock Pacts and invocations in the Player's Handbook as feats, and the Patron can put a price on each or them ala cart

Remember my low-magic idea is to eliminate Sorcerer and Warlock, so the characters taking these sorcerer and warlock feats still have their other class features (fighter, monk, etc)

 

[Salthorae]

There are already sorcerer-like racial feats: drow high magic, wood elf magic, svirfneblin magic. You could easily have stacking sorcerer feats for each sorcerer type. (Dragon sorcerer I, dragon sorcerer II, dragon sorcerer III, etc). Since this modification is for a low magic game there is no reason to get concerned that magic is unavailable at low levels, that's one of the things we were hoping to achieve anyway.

There are already lists of cult spells and special abilities for the various devils and demons in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. These can easily be organized into feats for warlocks. It's also not hard to imagine the various warlock Pacts and invocations in the Player's Handbook as feats, and the Patron can put a price on each or them ala cart

Remember my low-magic idea is to eliminate Sorcerer and Warlock, so the characters taking these sorcerer and warlock feats still have their other class features (fighter, monk, etc)

Fair point that I wasn't considering. For a setting which is truly low magic, that would work, though it'd be a ton of DM work to get those feats up and running for a player who wanted to go down that route

My understanding is that @lowkey13 doesn't want to eliminate any classes, just make magic feel more rare/special, though. So not a "low-magic" setting so much as a "magic-is-not-quite-ubiquitous-and-therefore-still-special-and-awe-inspiring" setting.

 

[Von Ether]

The Rogue subclass, Scout, in Xanthar's is pretty much a no-magic ranger. With that in mind, one quick and dirty way to go reducing player magic is to have someone spend 1st level as a smart fighter or rogue (to compensate for having no cantrips) and then let them multiclass into being a wizard at every other level. No Paladins allowed.

Then start the game at Level 2 as a courtesy/compromise for the half wizard.