Low-magic world... sorcerers, but not wizards?

[Paradoxish]

First, a little background:

My current campaign is going to be a fairly low magic world, although not a "no magic" world. Essentially, magic exists, but is feared or looked down upon by most of the major civilizations. This is a combination of a number of factors, one of which is the belief that an ancient war that ravaged most of the planet was triggered by the unwise use of magic by powerful spellcasters. Shortly after the war many wizards were hunted down and executed, their spellbooks burnt, and their homes destroyed. Even though this particular war is almost ten thousand years in the world's past, the "witch burnings" of the time were so thorough that almost no spellbooks exist today.

Because of this, I figured it'd be particularly hard for wizards to exist in everyday society, especially since there's still a natural hatred towards magic. The animosity towards magic users in general, combined with a near total lack of arcane texts, would logically make a profession based on "book magic" fairly impossible. As such, I've removed wizards as an available class. I'll also be removing most book magic related PrCs. On the other hand, I want to allow Sorcerers. My idea was for sorcerers to be something of a natural evolution from the Wizards of old. Those who survived the burnings went underground and hid, honing their talents and learning to wield magic without being tied to objects (ie, spellbooks and scrolls) that would give away their arcane talents.

Okay, now here's my question: Is there any reason that removing wizards, but keeping sorcerers, would unbalance the game? Sorcerers already seem like a fairly balanced, if not weak, class to me, but I could be wrong since I rarely have players that make sorcerer characters. Also, if there is a potential unbalance here is there any modifications you guys would suggest to the sorcerer class?

(also note that I've slightly altered the divine spellcasting classes to reflect the low magic nature of the world, although not too much - they're already handicapped by the fact that their magic can rarely be used in large cities or towns)

 

[Greybar]

I don't think the idea should be a balance problem at all. It's a good one, I'd say. It also pushes the higher level magics a tiny bit farther up to keep them rarer.

Consider also the impact on item creation. With the more restricted spell-casting breadth of a sorcerer, one individual can't churn out every Wonderous Item in the book. But I'd guess that items will be rarer in your world anyway.

Sounds like fun, drop us a line with how it goes!

John

 

[Dr. NRG]

I'd be more concerned about class balance issues between divine casters and non-magic classes than with any issues in removing wizards. A cleric (or, especially a druid) without the capacity to cast spells effectively is just a cut-rate fighter. Sorcerors, though not always optimal (see the sorcerors suck thread), can stand on their own two feet if played wisely, and have been playtested for balance with all other classes.

Impaired divine casters haven't (to the best of my knowledge) been playtested with other classes, and may fall on their faces if not carefully managed.

My 2 cents,

NRG

 

[drothgery]

If you eliminate wizards, you've seriously reduced the power of fighters and rogues, which is non-obvious. Most magic items are made by wizards, and without magic items, high-level fighters and rogues are much weaker than spellcasters. Barbarians and monks fare better, because they have tons of special abilities.

 

[Voadam]

I don't think there will be any balance problems running a game without wizard PCs if you allow sorcerer PCs. They fill the same mechanical roles (dedicated spellblasters). There will just be less of a variety of spells in the game.

 

[Paradoxish]

First of all, thanks for the replies/advice. I'll answer a few questions and respond to your comments...

Impaired divine casters haven't (to the best of my knowledge) been playtested with other classes, and may fall on their faces if not carefully managed.

Sorry, I was probably a bit unclear here since my post wasn't focused on divine spellcasters. They haven't really been impaired in any serious ways and remain basically the same as before. I've mainly altered "broken" spells such as harm. Other than that, their only real handicap is that NPCs don't like them all that much. I plan to allow my players the opportunity to change this attitude on a limited basis (perhaps the folks of a small village come to trust them after healing spells are used to save a dying townsman, for example).

If you eliminate wizards, you've seriously reduced the power of fighters and rogues, which is non-obvious. Most magic items are made by wizards, and without magic items, high-level fighters and rogues are much weaker than spellcasters. Barbarians and monks fare better, because they have tons of special abilities.

Good point. I had considered this somewhat since the lack of wizards figured into the low-magic (and low-magic item) nature of the world. I think I can get around this since magic items will exist, they're just significantly more rare and hard to come by. This doesn't mean the players won't be able to find them, however. After all, PCs commonly venture to long-forgotten areas and places that average people are far to afraid to travel to. This, of course, means that the PCs are likely to come upon at least a few ancient magical items in their careers. It will also allow me to use quests revolving around a specific magical item as a more powerful motivation for the players. When everyone in the party isn't carrying a +3 weapon of some kind an ancient magical item hidden in some dangerous area is a lot more tempting.

There will also be a small black market for the few magical items that have found their way into society.

I think, in the end, the use of magical items and the power of spellcasters should balance out if I'm careful. If anyone has any other advice on making sure the few spellcasters don't become unbalanced vs. the melee fighters, though, I'm all ears.

EDIT: I should also probably note that one of the reasons I took out wizards was specifically to limit magical items in the campaign.

 

[Tonguez]

Do it - I only use Scorcerers imc - the culture setting doesn't have a written language or books and thus no spellbooks = noi wizards.
It does however have scorcerers and this has worked fine

As to magic items - I created a Artisan class (amped up Expert) and amongst their class abilities is the Craft 'Masterpiece' ability which allows a Master Artisan to create items with +1 - +3 bonuses (depending on level). I basically took the idea of Murasame the Japanese Master Swordsmith and extrapolated - if a Artisan can create Masterwork items then wouldn't a Master Artisan be able to create items which actually enhanced the skill of the user...

The Artisan also gets a few spells too - things like Mend and Fabricate etc...