Eelie,
If I were going for a low magic world where a half dozen crossbows pointed at you was something to really worry about, I'd do two things.
- Colonel Hardison's elegant low magic rule. No one may take more than half their levels in a spellcasting class. That is, at tenth level you can be a wiz5/rog5, wiz5/cleric5, or other combination, but not a wiz10. Also reduces logical amount of magic items, as the feats are pushed back since they go off caster level.
- Ken Hood's Grim n' Gritty hit points. I like these better than VP/WP systems. Basically, HP don't escalate near as much, armor acts like hardness, and other niceness.
Between the two of them you'd be pretty close to turning D&D into a low fantasy game. Adding the extra feats isn't a bad idea either. I think I'd come up with a specific list of 'neat stuff for people to do', keeping the combat stuff to the fighters. Also have to do something about the minor spellcasters - I'd come up with alternate versions of rangers and paladins that don't cast spells, and maybe just drop spellcasting from the bard, give him 8 skill points and d8 hit points (making him a ftr/rog with music, instead of a ftr/rog/sorc with music)
And if your players don't like it, just call them a bunch of fluffy bunnies who'd better get used to it
If I were going for a low magic world where a half dozen crossbows pointed at you was something to really worry about, I'd do two things.
- Colonel Hardison's elegant low magic rule. No one may take more than half their levels in a spellcasting class. That is, at tenth level you can be a wiz5/rog5, wiz5/cleric5, or other combination, but not a wiz10. Also reduces logical amount of magic items, as the feats are pushed back since they go off caster level.
- Ken Hood's Grim n' Gritty hit points. I like these better than VP/WP systems. Basically, HP don't escalate near as much, armor acts like hardness, and other niceness.
Between the two of them you'd be pretty close to turning D&D into a low fantasy game. Adding the extra feats isn't a bad idea either. I think I'd come up with a specific list of 'neat stuff for people to do', keeping the combat stuff to the fighters. Also have to do something about the minor spellcasters - I'd come up with alternate versions of rangers and paladins that don't cast spells, and maybe just drop spellcasting from the bard, give him 8 skill points and d8 hit points (making him a ftr/rog with music, instead of a ftr/rog/sorc with music)
And if your players don't like it, just call them a bunch of fluffy bunnies who'd better get used to it
