How would you do a Low magic Campaign (Raugnar-Thaun)

[Albert_Fish]

Ok...i am just finishing with an Epic Level Campaign and to be honest.... the High magic thing at Epic levels is nearly Impossible to DM for anyone but the most dedicated of DMs. This experience has made me long for a far more simple game where magic doenst defeat every puzzle and the players have to depend on more mundane forms of problem solving.
To this end i am going to runa Campain loosely based upon the Mad Max Trilogy, The Omega man ( I am Legend) ( Charlton Heston/ Richard Matheson) and William R. Forstchen's "lost Regiment Series.

General ideas i have for now:

All Spell Casting classes can cast only 1/2 half thier normal compliment of spells in a day.

Spell casting Requires a Focus, Wand/holy Symbol, Rod, Staff, other Weapon

Each focus costs ability points Wand/holy Symbol, No points Rod 1 point, Staff 2 Points, other Weapon 3 points (the payment is progressive so if you can use a Staff as your spell focus then it costs only one point to use a weapon)

Each Focus can only utilize a certain level of Spells.
Wands/Holy Symbols 0-3, Rods 4-8 Staff/Other weapon 9

Clericas gain additional feats as they progress in levels...Wizards BAB advances as Rogues/Clerics, Bards gain 1d10 HD rather than 1d6 per level
I will be using Monte Cook rangers plus all PHB rules.
Paladins..i have no idea
All other Clases races will be the same. maybe no elves...i hate elves....they are silly....much like the French

 

[LostSoul]

I "ran" a low magic game. I use the quotes because I'm still running the same game, it's just that it really isn't low magic any longer.

Low magic games are balanced at the lower levels - the Wizard or Cleric might be very rare (no healing for cash back at town, not many spells to trade or buy), but as you increase levels, magic trumps everything else. There isn't much your mundane 1,000 man army can do against an Improved Invisible, Flying Wizard with a Wand of Fireballs.

At that point (usually around level 7), either you have to make rule changes, or you watch the magic-using PCs become awesome. Or you can make the PCs new players in the oldest game, politics. Suddenly they are exposed to a whole new world, the world of the kings and leaders, where magic is used often. Suddenly the PCs go from fighting regular Joes and Janes, to facing up against the magic-using power base that has ruled the land for the past thousand years, and doesn't exactly approve of some new upstarts.

Which is to say, at higher levels, D&D becomes a "War of Assassins". High level characters trying to take out other high level characters, knowing that whole armies can't stand up against these players.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

I've come up with this system and although I havn't had a chance to run it, it seems like it would work quite well. All spellcasters can have no more than 1/2 their levels (rounded up in any one class. (including levels gained from PRCS)

Ex. Wizards. A wizard could be a battlemage (even split between wizard and fighter), a arcanist (even split between wizard and sorc), a trickster (even split between wizard and rogue), or a dinve magicial (wizard/cleric), but no straight wizards. THis prevents charachters from getting really unbalancing spells 6th level and up ever, and they won't get 4th level spells untill level 14 at the earliest. Hence the charachters don'tget unbalancing magic, and you don't have to change classes wholy, which will make spellcasters useless and unatractive to play if they have effective restrictions.

 

[cptg1481]

Wow!

PC: Hey can I play the guy who loses 50% of his combat power.

Other PC: No way man I called it first, I want to have my spells limited more than you do. I mean I want to wait till 14th level to have my first, 6th level spell. Please, can I be the magic user?

PC: No way dude, I love this low magic stuff....I want to play in a world without magic altogether. I mean it makes the game way too easy. I want to play in a world of the mundane, this fantasy stuff is too unrealistic...powerful spells, bah...who needs em.

Other PC: Hey, I got an idea, let's scrap the fantasy part altogether and just go out in the back yard and beat each other with sticks.

PC: Way cool man, then we don't even need a dungeon master, lets go.

Low Magic - Who needs it? Bah.....

 

[Cheiromancer]

I've come up with this system and although I havn't had a chance to run it, it seems like it would work quite well. All spellcasters can have no more than 1/2 their levels (rounded up in any one class. (including levels gained from PRCS)

Ex. Wizards. A wizard could be a battlemage (even split between wizard and fighter), a arcanist (even split between wizard and sorc), a trickster (even split between wizard and rogue), or a dinve magicial (wizard/cleric), but no straight wizards. THis prevents charachters from getting really unbalancing spells 6th level and up ever, and they won't get 4th level spells untill level 14 at the earliest. Hence the charachters don'tget unbalancing magic, and you don't have to change classes wholy, which will make spellcasters useless and unatractive to play if they have effective restrictions.

Even restricting a character to no more than a 2:1 ratio might work. Frex, a 12th level character might be a battlemage (wizard 8/fighter 4), an arcanist (wizard 8/sorcerer 4, or vice versa), or whatever.

Nice names for the mixed classes, btw.

Generally I've found that if you weaken spellcasters just a little, players tend to avoid them, and you can get a low-magic campaign before you know it.

 

[Pinnocchio]

The problem that I've encountered in looking for a lower magic setting for D20 is that the game is balanced toward high magic. If you just adjust magic, the spellcasting classes are outclassed by the non-spellcasting classes.

Also, with D&D, you have to be able to enhance your defenses with magic...especially if you have a character who doesn't run around in heavy armour. A fighter class at level 10 is going to have +10 to hit before figuring in stat adjustments, feats, or other bonuses.

I hate "Save or Die" spell effects. I hate planning an encounter, only to have the party wizard reduce the main villain of an adventure into a helpless gimp with just one or two spells. I want a setting that doesn't require the party to wander around festooned with magic items to survive.

How many magic rings, magic swords, magic armours, and other assorted magical doo-dads are found in Lord of the Rings, as an example? How about any of the other fantasy settings in a lot of fictional settings? And, how does that compare to what is commonly found in D&D? Or what is expected to be found in D&D?

In order to do low-magic D&D/D20, you really have to redesign the classes, magic system, CR system, etc from the ground up.

Anyway...those are my thoughts.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Here's a suggestion: Either use d20 modern, or restrict the spellcasting classes to be only 10 levels long (just remove the top 10 levels).

Voila - maximum of 5th level spells, without having anyone pay 2 levels for a 1 casting level increase...

 

[warhookdm]

I have been considering "low" magic for some time. I used to GM "low" magic campaigns (back in 1st/2nd Ed D&D) most of the time. Unfortunately, in 3rd Ed, it's extremely difficult to set up, what with Item Creation feats.

For instance, in previous editions, to make a magical weapon or armor, you had to have the spell Permanency, which cost XP, lots of money in components, AND aged the PC. This justified, for instance, 1 party in which the average level was 5th before every member had ONE magic item.

Just off the top of my head, putting in "Limited Wish" or "Permanency" as a pre-req for enchanting ANY items might be a good way to generate a low magic campaign. It would however, make combat far more bloody; any decent level fighter could seriously hurt you in a short period of time. The other downside to this is that any magic items found should be fairly powerful. When it takes a 15th level caster to enchant a sword, he's not going to screw around making +1 or +2 items much; it isn't cost-effective for him/her.

Another way to make a low magic campaign (this just popped into my head; bear with me; I'm typing on the fly here) might be to double or up the caster level pre-req's listed, and then double or triple the market price of all items. This should at least greatly reduce the items available above +3, and prevent excessive enhancements on weapons and armor. Ultimately, however, you will still see magical items in 3rd ed that would be considered Artifacts in 1st & 2nd Ed. It will just be delayed until epic level.

 

[Greybar]

I think in a similar thread there was a suggestion to transform the pure spell-casting classes into PrCs. For instance, after you've gained a minimum of 5 ranks in Knowledge (religion) then you can start on the path of Cleric. This may push more players into the Paladin/Ranger/Psiwarrior classes, which (IMHO) will also give you the low-magic feel you want.

I'm in a low-magic game myself (now on hiatus), and my Paladin's lay-on-hands was pretty much half the healing ability for the entire 6-person party until the plot developed such that one of the characters took a level of cleric...

In a game I'm running the original intent was a low(er) magic game, but once the players hit fifth level I started backing off so that the game could stay more coherent and interesting. The wizard has two levels of expert before he started spell-casting, which makes him less powerful than norm. However, the cleric is single-classed and is probably the most powerful character in the game...

John

 

[Red Spire Press]

Red Spire Press will be releasing a dark fantasy campaign setting in 2003 with everything you need to run in a low-magic setting. Variant core classes are just the tip of the iceberg...