What makes a high or low magic campaign?

[Jraynack]

We created a simple rule that captures the feel of a low magic campaign without other restrictions: the time delay rule - to buy or sell an item (magic or not), it takes 1 day per 1,000 gp value.

This translates into the characters finding someone to buy from or sell to, going into negotiations to meet a particular price, convincing a NPC adventurer to part with his beloved +3 flaming longsword of flying duck doom ( ), and so forth.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have a different take entirely on low magic. I don't like tons of monsters with spell-casting or spell-like abilities. Some, like dragons, fey, and outsiders should have them, of course. And several iconic monsters such as the beholder and illithid should have them. But is there really a need for more and more and more monsters with magical abilities? I much prefer the PC's to face off against humanoid (in particular, humans). I've been accused of being too anthropocentric, but that's just where my preferences lie.

So when it comes to populating my world with wildlife, I tend to pull creatures (mammals, by and large) from the fossil record. You don't have to have magical animals to create a truly unique landscape. Why should the PC's worry about magical animals or monsters when the BBEG is far worse?

Anyway... just my take on low/high magic. Carry on.

 

[sinmissing]

This DM, or others that I have played with, has no desire to reduce spell casting availability or power. What they wanted was the feel that a magic item was something special. More like Lord of the Rings, at the end of the movie you had two magic swords and one mithril chain shirt (probably not even magic).

Here's how I did it. (For much the same reason as you.)

Halve or quarter all towns and city's GP value for the determination of purchasing magical items.
Halve or quarter the values suggested on the Wealth Table.
- Treat a party's Effective level as one or two lower than actual.
Implement a Defense Bonus to classes.
If you want to use creatures only hit by magic, downplay it as follows:
For each full +5 of a character's Base Attack Bonus, treat them as if wielding a +1 Magic Weapon. This will give them enough bonus to hit some of the weaker creatures with Magic DR, but still require them to actually have something magical against the real nasties.

 

[sinmissing]

I asked a similar question on this forum a few days ago:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=145682

My goal was to figure out what would happen if I ran a campaign where magic items were as rare or nonexistent but still be able to use the planned encounter tables in the DMG.

 

[TheGogmagog]

I saw your post and found it interesting that a group with no equpiment is only considered 2 levels lower. Considering my experience in low equipment campaigns I would agree with that.

The DMG (P42) suggests the character wealth required to "be an effective character". It also suggests that no one item should be more than 50% of thier suggested wealth for a new character. It also suggests 20% variance would require adjustment, again for determining wealth of incoming characters. It makes no mention of what equipment new characters have to chosse from. Are scrolls of vile darkness availble, are boots of elven kind available?

Though these percentages are for bringing in new characters, I think that it's fair to use them as a measure of magic availability. Since there is little in the game that's non magical and more than 2,000gp, a character wealth in excess of 6,000 becomes pointless in a campaing where magic items don't exist or are equal to artefact value (ie. no price/cant be bought). Ok, you can buy/build a castle and such but that isn't likely to affect how effective your character is.

I think item availability significantly changes how effective your character is. The sorcerer with a +5 flaming ghost touch dagger he found, is going to be less effective than if he can trade it in for a ring of wizardry II. The question now is, what is the character wealth expect to be distributed with, selected items or randomly generated items?

 

[sinmissing]

The DMG (P42) suggests the character wealth required to "be an effective character". It also suggests that no one item should be more than 50% of thier suggested wealth for a new character. It also suggests 20% variance would require adjustment, again for determining wealth of incoming characters. It makes no mention of what equipment new characters have to chosse from. Are scrolls of vile darkness availble, are boots of elven kind available?

Amd a 6th level character with 6,000 GP worth of equipment is effectively 5th for the purpose of gauging that character's strengths against a typical module.

Though these percentages are for bringing in new characters, I think that it's fair to use them as a measure of magic availability. Since there is little in the game that's non magical and more than 2,000gp, a character wealth in excess of 6,000 becomes pointless in a campaing where magic items don't exist or are equal to artefact value (ie. no price/cant be bought). Ok, you can buy/build a castle and such but that isn't likely to affect how effective your character is.

I think you can keep all the magic items from the DMG, and limit wealth.
You can reduce the value of many potent magic items, by limiting their uses per day, or grant them charges. Suddenly a flaming sword that you can only recharge if you soak it in the blood of a fire giant is much more flavorful, and the fighter will be that much more careful in activating it. I call these petty magic items, they can go a long way to keeping too much power out of the character's hand. A flaming sword that is "always on" almost seems like a relic in these cases.

I think item availability significantly changes how effective your character is. The sorcerer with a +5 flaming ghost touch dagger he found, is going to be less effective than if he can trade it in for a ring of wizardry II. The question now is, what is the character wealth expect to be distributed with, selected items or randomly generated items?

In cases like these, you are better off letting the players give you a wish list, then carefully place those items throughout your campaign. Make sure your NPCs are stocked with one-shot or limited use items. That way, when the players find that permanent magic item, it becomes really special.

As far as buying magic items (I don't have my DMG), considering that Boots of Elvenkind cost, what? 2500gp? Based on the 50% guideline that no character should have a single item worth more than 1/2 your EQ bonus, suddenly no one below 5th level would have a pair.

Since you are drawing a little from Tolkien, take into account who makes what items. Elven items are going to be twice or three times as expensive in a human city, but in an elven vale, they might go for normal list price. Adamantite or Mithril might only be forged by dwarves, which might limit there availability and require the party to go to extreme lengths to get a fair deal on a Mithril Shirt.