D&D 5E No magic (+thread)

[jdrakeh]

You may want to take a look at Helm, a minimalist RPG based on non-magical men at arms, heavily influenced by Glen Cook's The Black Company. It's also available in print+PDF at Exalted Funeral.

 

[James Gasik]

we did one of those too already...a world were everyone had spell like abilities and mystic in bsked things. I might think about that for a different game but I don't know if that would fit knights

Ever read The Elenium?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think a spell-less bard, ranger and paladin would be quite easy to design.

with them you could have Fighter, Rogues, Barbarian, Bard, Ranger, Paladin as non-casting classes.

You could even keep the more mystical ones that dont use spell slots (Phantom rogue, Storm Barbarian, Psychic Warrior etc) if you want esoteric martial characters without the spell-slinging of a real caster.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The biggest challenge is the fact that most 5E classes have spellcasting, limiting you to Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue. Assuming you start at level 3, so all characters have their sub-class, there's sufficient options to allow a full party without a ton of overlap.

this is why I am useing the 5e middle earth book... it is basicly fighter rogue and barbarian with a spell less bard and ranger thrown in with a brand new smarty pants class.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Ever read The Elenium?

no, but I will look it up

 

[James Gasik]

no, but I will look it up

The brief version: two cultures clash. One culture is monotheistic and their religion doesn't believe in magic. The other is polytheistic, and can ask their Gods for magic.

This caused a serious problem when war broke out, so the Church of the first culture was forced to bend the rules; they arranged to have special orders of Church Knights created who were allowed to learn magic.

 

[TerraDave]

You could have a game with just totem barbarians, battle masters, thieves and maybe way of the fist monks.

You actually don't need much additional healing, there is already so much in 5e. You would need some extra skills or other ways of supporting certain archetypes--who is the smart guy, who is the face? And to get more out of those skills without utility magic.

You would have to be much more careful with minions, and those monsters that resist non-magical damage would now be scary!

But its doable.

 

[Dausuul]

The biggest challenge is the fact that most 5E classes have spellcasting, limiting you to Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue. Assuming you start at level 3, so all characters have their sub-class, there's sufficient options to allow a full party without a ton of overlap. You'll need to make sure you have plenty of room in your combats, because you'll almost certainly have more front line characters, plus likely a mounted one as well. My other big suggestion would be to create a mundane item to replace Potions of Healing, such as healing herbs that take a minute to apply (thus only useful outside of combat). I'd put an emphasis on use of various mundane gear, such as oil, acid, and holy water, since those can do different damage types, and be generous on creative ideas by the players.

You could quite easily add paladins to the lineup and say their spell slots can only be used for Smite. That's where most of their slots would go anyway. It's a modest nerf, but a modest nerf is just what the paladin class needs IMO.

Rangers are trickier, but, again, they just need a non-spell use for their spell slots. Giving them paladin Smite is the simplest, albeit most boring, solution.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, for the Ranger, Barbarian & Paladin, replacing spells/supernatural abilities with battlemaster maneuvers is probably the easiest to do. Possibly even make the paladin's smite non-magical and give them X uses/long or short rest, with d8's equal to 1/4th the paladin's level + 1d8.

Monk could have some of their abilities replaced with battlemaster maneuvers, and retain others - more difficult would be their subclasses; Way of the 4 Elements is probably right out.

You could possibly still include clerics and give them non-combat cantrips, 1st & 2nd level spells as "blessings", making them rely on weapon use for fighting. Might be able to do something similar with bards, doing a mix of granting battlemaster maneuvers and transforming non-combat cantrips, 1st & 2nd level spells into "Inspiration" abilities, reflecting the bard knowing knacks, goading or encouraging individuals to action.

Artificers could be redone as a form of smith who fashions their own superior weapons and gear, and much like the bard has knacks that grant them low-level non-combat spells as mundane abilities.

Warlocks could be mutants of some sort - drop their spell slots, increase their invocations and add to the invocation list. These could be trollbloods, dragonbloods or whatnot with strange superhuman abilities.

Of course, the cleric, bard, artificer and warlock allowance would be if you want just a "lower magic" instead of "magic absent" sort of game.

 

[Irlo]

In a magic-free D&D game, I'd want a significant expansion of combat options, specifically those that impose conditions on targets. All damage all the time would bore me to tears. Some as regular alternatives to an attack action, others triggered by something like the battlemaster's maneuver dice -- but for all classes.