Ulrick
First Post
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=235935
oops. I didn't realize that my question caused another thread to be forked.
Anyway, here are a few more thoughts about a low magic campaign:
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One problem that I've seen throughout my 20 years as a gamer is that many players identify more with the magic items their characters use rather than the characters themselves. For example, one player, years ago, went on and on about how his wizard had this magic staff that could do all kinds of things. So I asked him "what else makes your character cool?" Oddly enough, he didn't have answer besides "cast spells." Basically, without their magic items, some characters would just be just one-dimensional. Characters should be defined by their actions in an RPG, not their magic items.
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Another thing that I liked about 4e are the rituals. There's something almost Cthulu-esque about having certain magic be performed with rituals. Finding scrolls and books and deciphering them is now fun again. Who knows what you'll find? Perhaps some of the rituals haven't been written down properly and can have unforseen side effects.
Rituals are perfect for a low magic campaign: martial characters can gain access to them and thus gain spell casting abilities. But from what I've read thus far is that most of the low level rituals (like knock) seem subtle, the magic works but it isn't flashy and can be explained away as coincidence.
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I like low magic because it almost forces players to not rely on magic items and it maintains a sense of realism and suspension of belief. One of the worse culprits that violates the suspension and realism is the Bag of Holding. Every mid-level group in 3.5 seems to have one. Even though it is beneficial, it always reminds me of Final Fantasy games where you can have lists of items and gold in your inventory.
Also, in a low magic game, magic becomes more mysterious. Wizards and spellcasters become threatening. I wanna go back to the days of 2nd edition, before magic had been balanced, when people feared spellcasters simply because they did not know what spells they would cast.
I guess that's more of my 2 cents.
But thanks again for everybody's advice.
oops. I didn't realize that my question caused another thread to be forked.
Anyway, here are a few more thoughts about a low magic campaign:
----
One problem that I've seen throughout my 20 years as a gamer is that many players identify more with the magic items their characters use rather than the characters themselves. For example, one player, years ago, went on and on about how his wizard had this magic staff that could do all kinds of things. So I asked him "what else makes your character cool?" Oddly enough, he didn't have answer besides "cast spells." Basically, without their magic items, some characters would just be just one-dimensional. Characters should be defined by their actions in an RPG, not their magic items.
---
Another thing that I liked about 4e are the rituals. There's something almost Cthulu-esque about having certain magic be performed with rituals. Finding scrolls and books and deciphering them is now fun again. Who knows what you'll find? Perhaps some of the rituals haven't been written down properly and can have unforseen side effects.
Rituals are perfect for a low magic campaign: martial characters can gain access to them and thus gain spell casting abilities. But from what I've read thus far is that most of the low level rituals (like knock) seem subtle, the magic works but it isn't flashy and can be explained away as coincidence.
---
I like low magic because it almost forces players to not rely on magic items and it maintains a sense of realism and suspension of belief. One of the worse culprits that violates the suspension and realism is the Bag of Holding. Every mid-level group in 3.5 seems to have one. Even though it is beneficial, it always reminds me of Final Fantasy games where you can have lists of items and gold in your inventory.
Also, in a low magic game, magic becomes more mysterious. Wizards and spellcasters become threatening. I wanna go back to the days of 2nd edition, before magic had been balanced, when people feared spellcasters simply because they did not know what spells they would cast.
I guess that's more of my 2 cents.
But thanks again for everybody's advice.
Your main difficulty will be the absolute lack of normal creatures in the monster manual (leaving you glazed-over with epic level stuff you'll never use 
