How would you do a Low magic Campaign (Raugnar-Thaun)
- Thread starter Albert_Fish
- Start date
Red Spire Press
First Post
Greybar said:Ah, you big tease.
I jumped over to your website only to find the "Coming Soon" note as its sole contents.
Good luck, and we'll look for it in the ENWorld news...
John
Yes we apologize for that! There hasn't been an official announcement yet and the website is under construction, despite the fact that the project has been underway for over a year already. Its our policy to deliver info when we're ready to share some previews or tantalizing bits, rather than forcing people to subsist on rumors of "secret projects." And on that note, I'd better shut it.
Look for press releases soon!I'm currently working on a low-magic campaign. It's taken over a month for me to work out all the problems that arose from tweaking the magic system in D&D.
After a failed attempt to achieve similar results with Spell Rolls, I basically did a port of the Unisystem Buffy the Vampire Slayer magic system over to D&D3e. This allows for spell failure, spells per day limited by fatigue and repeated casting, as well as wild magic.
Due to changes like the average mid-level spell caster only being able to get out 8 or maybe 9 spells per day without a serious mishap occuring, I had to tweak the spellcasting classes a bit.
Here are some of the changes that I had to make. Sorcerers have a d6 hit die. Wizards have an 8+ base for skills instead of a 2+. They also use the Bard's class skill list in addition to their own. Clerics have a base skill points of 4+ instead of 2+.
The various spellcasting classes also receive a random low-level power. The sorcerer's power list is a bit higher in power level, but they also are the only class with a restriction upon their powers.
With the system in place as is, I can use spells from the Player's Handbook, EverQuest, Diablo II sourcebooks and Call of Chthulhu d20 interchangeably. The powers also help to displace a bit of the spellcaster's loss of firepower. For what they didn't address, I boosted the base DC of a Save vs. Spells from 10 to 15.
In order to offer a wider spectrum of fighting styles and address the influx of fighters and rogues into the gaming group, I have also adopted many of the rules outlined in the Swashbuckling issue of Dragon. There is also the option for characters to go unarmored and use a Defense Bonus by Class similar to that found in Star Warsd20.
In order to make up for the new randomness in healing magic (it's possible that a Cure Light Wounds gone wrong could turn a character into a dying chicken), I have implemented the Reserve Hit Points rules found in the Omega World Polyhedron by Johnathan Tweet.
The total document is about 40 pages typed, but many of the rules are pulled from a variety of sources and the Unisystem magic looks like it will be a lot of fun. We'll see what the players think of it though...
After a failed attempt to achieve similar results with Spell Rolls, I basically did a port of the Unisystem Buffy the Vampire Slayer magic system over to D&D3e. This allows for spell failure, spells per day limited by fatigue and repeated casting, as well as wild magic.
Due to changes like the average mid-level spell caster only being able to get out 8 or maybe 9 spells per day without a serious mishap occuring, I had to tweak the spellcasting classes a bit.
Here are some of the changes that I had to make. Sorcerers have a d6 hit die. Wizards have an 8+ base for skills instead of a 2+. They also use the Bard's class skill list in addition to their own. Clerics have a base skill points of 4+ instead of 2+.
The various spellcasting classes also receive a random low-level power. The sorcerer's power list is a bit higher in power level, but they also are the only class with a restriction upon their powers.
With the system in place as is, I can use spells from the Player's Handbook, EverQuest, Diablo II sourcebooks and Call of Chthulhu d20 interchangeably. The powers also help to displace a bit of the spellcaster's loss of firepower. For what they didn't address, I boosted the base DC of a Save vs. Spells from 10 to 15.
In order to offer a wider spectrum of fighting styles and address the influx of fighters and rogues into the gaming group, I have also adopted many of the rules outlined in the Swashbuckling issue of Dragon. There is also the option for characters to go unarmored and use a Defense Bonus by Class similar to that found in Star Warsd20.
In order to make up for the new randomness in healing magic (it's possible that a Cure Light Wounds gone wrong could turn a character into a dying chicken), I have implemented the Reserve Hit Points rules found in the Omega World Polyhedron by Johnathan Tweet.
The total document is about 40 pages typed, but many of the rules are pulled from a variety of sources and the Unisystem magic looks like it will be a lot of fun. We'll see what the players think of it though...
Last edited:
GuardianLurker
Adventurer
Another option, and one that can add a high bit of flavor to the game, is to just restrict the PCs to Adepts and Bards as the "pure" spellcasters. Paladins and Rangers you might want to keep, or might not, depending on your world.
Greybar said:
I gave that some thought, but I believe it may even out. I'm hoping that it makes Wizards more of a scholarly class or, if a player wants, a McGyver type character. They are the only spellcasting class that maintains d4 hit points and the bonus to their spell rolls and powers are fairly weak, although their abilities are a bit more dependable. I decided to give them skills out the wazoo, on par with rogues which are the only other class that gets 8+. Unlike Rogues and Bards, Wizards can't fight. And with that d4 hit die, they'll go down pretty quick. I just felt that the d4 hit die in a low magic world was a serious drawback.
This and the idea of only allowing advancement to 10th level in a pure spell-casting class seem like two good solutions that don't cause a lot of problems.
Feel that its now too easy to hit because there are not as many magic arms/armor, rings, etc. to boost AC? A easy suggestion would be to give a bonus to AC thats half the BAB of the character/creature or/either raise the base AC to 15 rather than 10.
Think creating items, even with limited levels is too easy? Simply double or triple, etc. the XP/GP price to do so.
It seems to me, based on past experiences, that there are easy, straightforward ways to reduce the amount of magic in the game.
That to me just seems like way too much. D&D is already a heavily rules intensive game, and adding more too it just makes it harder to play. However, I realize that probably a good portion of the 40 pages is the new magic system... but myself, personally, if I was going to change the magic system, I'd have other fundamental things that I want changed to and thats just more of a nightmare than I want to go with.
Last edited:
Eosin the Red
First Post
The Wheel of Time game brings most of these issues under control. Other than a small amount of tweaking for the spells it is geared for low magic.
Hollywood said:
Actually, the bulk of the document isn't rules for the magic system at all. The rules for the new magic system take up roughly 3 pages and that includes explanations of modifiers for things like sacrifice, rituals, assistants, focii and what happens when non-spellcasting classes attempt to cast spells.
The bulk of the document outlines things like how to use drama points, reserve hit points (from Johnathan Tweet's Omega World), new powers for spellcasting classes, new feats for all classes, two new races, two new classes, and a table for Magical Mishaps.
Similar Threads
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 16 2026 -
June 16 2026 -
September 16 2026 
Arcana Unleashed(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
Replies (250) -
September 16 2026 -
October 1 2026 -
October 6 2026 -
January 1 2027 -
January 1 2027
