D&D 5E Sword & Sorcery / Low Magic

[cbwjm]

More like Howard means getting rid of anything that isn't human as a playable race (though this is due to Hyboria being an earlier time of our own earth). Otherwise, I'd remove any races with overt magic and reduce the playable races to human, dwarf, halfling, elf and leave the monstrous races as either the inheritors of fallen empires or as beastmen representing the savage wilderness threatening the borders of civilisation. Entering a ruined city and fighting off hordes of yuanti and their abomination of a god would fit a S&S game perfectly.

 

[tetrasodium]

Howard’s Conan stuff...without having to use the rules heavy Conan 2d20 game.

I played it for a while when someone I knew was running it but shift changes ended that. It's a pretty daunting looking system at first but it all kinda clicks after a bit & really isn't as crunchy a it looks once you grasp it a bit

 

[Horwath]

Do you want no spell casting or you want to delay high level spells?

If you want to delay higher level spells just make that all full casters must multiclass and can only have half their character level in full caster class level(round down), and that full caster cannot multiclass with other full casters or half casters. Warlock is here considered as full caster to prevent warlock+sorcerer/bard/paladin combos.

This way, you will need to be 10th level to have 3rd level spells from full casters.

 

[cbwjm]

To me it would have to be human-centric. With variant human and the wide range of available feats, you could easily account for various human cultures. I'm not sure the non-human races could be reskined in a good enough way to make them feel right for sword and sorcery but also satisfy a player wanting to play a non-human.

That was the cool thing about the old Conan d20 game as each human ethnicity was unique. It's also what I like about the Xoth guide, it has races and within those races you might have different cultures like enlightened or decadent which determines some of your base stats.

 

[Laurefindel]

To me it would have to be human-centric. With variant human and the wide range of available feats, you could easily account for various human cultures. I'm not sure the non-human races could be reskined in a good enough way to make them feel right for sword and sorcery but also satisfy a player wanting to play a non-human.

I think they can be satisfactorily reskined. The hardy stone-cutter clans with their iron stomach and they slow and deliberate walk? Dwarf. The lithe and exotic traveller who doesn’t sleep? Elf. The old and wise people who claim they can speak to beasts? Gnome.

the biggest offender is Darkvision; if I had to reskin the PHB races as regional variants, I’d consider removing Darkvision from all PC « races »

 

[Delazar]

take away Darkvision, give them a bonus skill related to their culture

 

[Horwath]

take away Darkvision, give them a bonus skill related to their culture

I would rate darkvision as at least 2 skills or one skill+expertise on it.

 

[Aldarc]

This requires significant work and while it can be done, I'm not sure I would recommend it. I would absolutely start with Darker Dungeons and AiME as my source material, as well as some other 3ed d20 sources: Conan, Grim Tales, etc.

I'm a huge fan of gritty and sword & sorcery, low magic settings settings but I would probably go with Savage Worlds instead (Beasts & Barbarians, Lankhmar, Solomon Kane).

Side Note: Grim Tales updated for the 5e engine would be lovely.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Again, I'd use the cultures from AiME and refluff them as S&S cultures, since they come with their own sets of special feats:

• Men of Dale: Merchant folk
• Men of the Lake: River-traders
• Woodsmen: keep as-is
• Beorning: Wildlings
• Men of Bree: Burgher
• Rohirim: Plains folk
• Dunedain: Athlantean
• Dwarves: Ruined-folk
• Elves: Fae-touched
• Gondorian: City-Dweller
• Hobbit (increase to Medium size): Villager/Humble folk
• etc

 

[TwoSix]

Side Note: Grim Tales updated for the 5e engine would be lovely.

Didn't that have the d20 Modern classes (Strong hero, Fast hero, etc.)? That was pretty good, yea.