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Message: <blockquote data-quote="3catcircus" data-source="post: 3503625" data-attributes="member: 16077">Only if the dire rat was weak compared to the baddies thrown at the PCs...Ways to make the game low-magic while not really changing many things at all.1.  Revamp random treasure. At low levels, a masterwork item should be a *big* deal. A templated weapon (Feycraft, etc. from DMG II) should be a *very* big deal. Use alchemical items more than low-powered items (potions and scrolls) but do not give out a lot of permanent buff items. 2. Use the MMS:WE rules to calculate town-dwellers. This ensures that the chances of a high-powered spellcaster or item crafter existing in town is completely random and less likely.3. Do not allow you players to guilt you into allowing "every town has a magic shop and every magic shop has every magic item in all of the books in it." Likewise, do not allow them to find an NPC who will *create* the item for them unless it is a fair trade - like the PCs getting the raw materials. They want an adamantine weapon, let *them* go find the metal fot it, which should be arduous at best. This *also* has the added benefit of many many different plot hooks hanging out there for them to explore. 4. Go to a silver standard for everything except magic items (i.e. that 7 gp sword is really 7 sp, while the mw sword is 307 sp).  Better yet, go the historical £sd route, where 12 pence = 1 shilling and 20 shillings = 1 pound. Simply assume that  copper pieces = a farthing (1/4 penny), silver pieces are pence, gold pieces are shillings (made of silver), and the platinum piece is actual a gold sovereign worth 1 £. What this does is *also* change how much the coins weigh, since 1 £ is actually 1 troy pound (~ 12 ounces) worth of silver, so that 1 penny weighs about .05 ozt (about 292 pence per 16 oz. pound, about 24 shillings per pound, and the gold sovereigns weigh about .5 ozt each, so about 30 sovereign coins per 16 oz. pound).5.  ENFORCE ENCUMBRANCE. ENFORCE ENCUMBRANCE. ENFORCE ENCUMBRANCE. Spend some time figuring out how much (weight and volume) that backpack holds and enforce it. Too many times, the players are running around with 12 magic swords just because their buffed STR score allows them to carry them. HOW are they carrying them when they only have two hands and the backpack is too short to carry them?  In the bag of holding? Make sure that it takes the appropriate amount of time to get *that* out of the backpack *and* get the desired sword out of it - easier said than done during a hectic combat. 6.  Get Magic Item Compendium. It does a great job of enforcing the concept of magic items that have a limited duration and a limited number of uses per day... Great for ensuring that the PCs use them only during major battles and not as a way to cheese out of moderately challenging encounters.</blockquote>

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