Low-magic settings

[Indigo7]

How many out there running or participating in "low-magic" campaign worlds? What changes were made to cause it to be low-magic? Rules changes, house rules, RP restrictions? Is low-magic defined as fewer spells, fewer spell casters, no spellcasters? What about magic items? Does the setting have a Renaissance / swashbuckling flavor? Or is the campaign feel more similiar to FR or Greyhawk?

I have not provided a definition for "low-magic" - I'm interested in hearing what your definition of low-magic is as well. Thanks all!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Two words:

d20 Modern

Boo-yah!

(Just change the setting to be medieval instead, and you've got it)

 

[dave_o]

!

I haven't been running my homebrew recently, but it handles magic very similarly to Glen Cook's The Black Company.

Most people don't have access to magic, and in fact, fear it. But those who do aren't afraid to use it. So, while in most towns, magic is unheard of, if you're in a big metropolis you'll see magically aided construction, etc.

In fact, there's a place called the Convervatory of Mystic Anomalies (an awesome player designed the whole place) in the desert that's sort of the big storehouse and research-center for magic. They're eons ahead of anyone else.

So, there's a rift - those in power have magic, aren't afraid to use it.

And those who don't, really, really, don't.

 

[fusangite]

I'd sure appreciate a link to any 3E rule modifications to create a low-magic environment without abolishing core classes or moving to D20 modern.

 

[Olive]

ColHardisson has suggested making it so that for every level you take in a spell casting class, you take a level of expert next. so at 20th you'll be a wiz10/exp10. As a result, the most powerful wizards will only have access to 5th lvl spells. it reduces the magic levels, while still having useful characters who are more sage like etc.

 

[Sanackranib]

Low magic

My SL game is low magic. the biggest change was to reduce the xp to a set ammount. that and reduce the gold. when you are fighting weaker creatures and are lower level for a longer time the magic is less of an issue.

 

[Tyberious Funk]

I'd sure appreciate a link to any 3E rule modifications to create a low-magic environment without abolishing core classes or moving to D20 modern.

Our group picked up one of the recommended rule guidelines from a Middle Earth d20 conversion. Basically, spellcasters can't take two consecutive levels in the same spellcasting class. So, for example, I can take a level of wizard followed by a level of sorcerer and then another level of wizard, but I can't take two levels of wizard consecutively. Since the d20 rules basically allow and encourage multiclassing, this is not a mechanical change, rather a flavour issue.

End result is that some of the most powerful spellcasters might be 20th level characters, but will usually be something like wiz/sorc 10/10 (and hence able to cast 5th level spells at best). A determined enough spellcaster can still acquire higher level spells by simply pushing through to epic levels.

You can probably adjust the mixture a bit if you want a little bit more magic by allowing different ratios of spellcasting levels. eg, 2-to-1 instead of 1-to-1 or so forth.

This really suddenly puts some things in perspective. Fireballs, for example, become truly spectacular. Although, by the time a wizard gets access to Fireball, the party tanks are often dealing out some wicked damage themselves... so the average spellcaster will probably tend to favour the more utility spells. Fly, Haste, etc.

Keep in mind that this restriction should apply to both sides. Only a fairly powerful opposition wizard is going to have spells like stoneskin. Abundance of magic items is also decreased (afterall, who is powerful enough to make them).

We haven't been playing with this rule for very long, will be interesting to see how it all balances out. Has definitely reduced the frequency of magic and increased its 'wow' factor.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Odly enough, that's nearly the same as the 'd20 modern solution' which just turns all spellcasting into 10-level PrC's.

The mutliclassing is a real simple and elegant way to do it...go Expert if you REALLY want low magic, go Wiz/Sorc if you don't mind having a few people who are fairly powerful spellcasters.

 

[drothgery]

The basic problem with any attempt to do low-magic D&D (as opposed to low-magic d20) is that it's very hard to do without creating a very unbalanced game at high levels.

Reducing the power of wizards also reduces the power of fighters and rogues, because they rely heavily on magic items at high levels. Reducing the power of clerics makes injury and death much more serious -- and quite possibly reduces the influence of religion in the world.

If left unchanged in a low-magic world, bards become formidable spellcasters -- their magic is usually as strong as a depowered wizard or cleric, and paladins the unchallenged masters of the battlefield -- no fighter in a low-magic world can match an equal-level paladin's inherent abilities and spells. Rangers go from being a class that 'got the shaft' to being formidable. Monks and barbarians, with a lot of class abilities and little reliance on magic items, are suddenly figher's superiors both in and out of combat.

So I think that I wouldn't use D&D, where seven of eleven core classes are spellcasters, two more rely heavily on quasi-magical class abilities, and the other two are supposed to use magic items to keep up, as a model for a low-magic game.

I'd look to other games instead, like Wheel of Time d20 (inherrently low in magic items, and if you play in Jordan's world or a similar homebrew, strong cultural restrictions on magic) or turning back the clock in d20 Modern.

 

[Broken Fang]

I'm not sure I would classify WoT as low magic, at least not the d20 conversion. With the ability to overchannel you can make very powerful spellcasters in the game. We played for a few weeks - GM and a few of the players were big fans, while a few of us...myself included didn't know jack about the world. He started us around 6th level for a mini-campaign. After about two weeks I was doing just about everything with my Wilder (WoT has some brutal low-level no save spells)!