Low Magic in D&D - How'd it work out for you?

[Rechan]

So, to move an argument from one thread into its own thread...

I've seen people complain for several years about how much a headache it is to try and turn D&D as written into a Low Magic world. However, others here are saying it's easy to do and shouldn't cause any problems.

So, to see who's right, I want to ask those who have done it. What'd you do?

Have you tried to do a low-magic setting in 3e, and how did it work for you?

How much work did you have to do, as a DM, to make sure the system worked (Meaning retooling monsters, fidgeting with wealth by level rules, adjusting magical items, etc)?

Difficulty: No talking about Iron Heroes, C&C or any other system that's built with d20. For the purpose of this discussion, it's simply "How did you as the DM Houserule it with the current D&D rules?"

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I think it's do-able if you house-rule/spindle/fold/mutilate, but perhaps a different/variant system would work better and save time and effort. (Depends on exactly what you mean by low magic, and what level range you plan to cover, et cetera.)

 

[drothgery]

I played in a '3.25e' Dark Sun game (low magic 3.0 + XPH Psionics), where the lack of magic items tended to make my psion an uber-character. Not all that much fun for the other guys.

 

[PeterWeller]

I'm running a fairly low magic campaign right now, but it's pretty rules lite from my end, so that makes it easy to adjust the balance on the fly.

 

[Raven Crowking]

It is easy to run low magic in 3.X with a one simple houserule: Spellcasters gain normal level benefits at every second level. Thus, a houseruled 4th level wizard is equivalent to a 2nd level wizard. Don't like it? Don't play a spellcaster. After all, reducing the number of spellcasters is one of the necessary things to create a lower-magic game.

Because the higher level PCs are more vulnerable, lower-CR mooks are still a credible threat, and can be used as antagonists. Because the PCs are fighting lower-CR mooks, if you use the normal XP table, as they gain levels their rate of level gain with decline. This doesn't require a rules change from the DM; just some common sense.

RC

 

[Odhanan]

Quoting myself:

High level, low magic is very easily done with 3.x. You need just one page of houserules, addressing stuff like healing (reserve points à la Iron Heroes, or Health and Hit points like Monte Cook's doing right now), outstanding actions (action points are in) and then build adventures and encounters that are suited for such a party, and you're good to go really.

There could have been sourcebooks/DMGs addressing that sort of thing... but instead we have a reboot of the system. (shakes head)

 

[Rechan]

It is easy to run low magic in 3.X with a one simple houserule: Spellcasters gain normal level benefits at every second level. Thus, a houseruled 4th level wizard is equivalent to a 2nd level wizard. Don't like it? Don't play a spellcaster. After all, reducing the number of spellcasters is one of the necessary things to create a lower-magic game.

But if you have spellcasters in the party, they're still going to be casting magic in every fight. That's not very Low Magic. That's pretty high magic for the rate of magic being used.

 

[Voadam]

I have not had the desire for a low magic or no PC magic game.

If I did I'd:

1 use reserve hit points from Unearthed Arcana to deal with the normal dependence of magical healing.

2 select monsters that fit the paradigm, less supernatural save or die effects that can only be countered magically, more people and beasts as adversaries.

3 for low magic consider the limited spellcaster option RC mentioned above, or use another d20 system's magic system (Iron Heroes, d20 Modern, Conan) or allow NPCs only to become spellcasters.

4 Consider a class based defense bonus or defense bonus option (Iron Heroes, UA, Arms & Armor, Nyambe, d20 Modern, WoT).

5 use a bunch of d20 Modern horror modules and convert to fit the Fantasy setting.

 

[Raven Crowking]

But if you have spellcasters in the party, they're still going to be casting magic in every fight. That's not very Low Magic. That's pretty high magic for the rate of magic being used.

That depends upon your definition of "low magic". Also, when you have fewer spells you tend to conserve them more, and use more of them for things your fighter and rogue friends cannot do.

For the thread that spawned this one, I simply said "No PC Spellcasters". If that's what you need to call it "low magic", then that's a pretty easy rule to add.

RC

 

[blargney the second]

Yeah, not so well past 5th level.
1) CRs get way out of whack, and it's a PITA to balance things.
2) They adventure for 1 minute, then rest to recover hit points. "*yawn* It must be past my bedtime. Oh, look at that! It's 8:01am! Time to sleep!"

Not so good.
-blarg