World without magic items

[Greenfield]

Thanks so much for all the feedback! That's exactly what I was looking for, just different perspectives on how the world might function. I'm not considering shortening the time from the "event" to present day to make things a little more chaotic to start with. I had definitely planned in power grabs by various rulers and other powerful individuals as people try to restore order as quickly as possible.

I really like the idea of them acquiring some abandoned town or city as using it as a base of operations, perhaps even drawing in refuges from surrounding areas.

I also LOVE the idea of keeping gnomish artificers as slaves in some areas! I hadn't considered that, though I did think that perhaps alchemists might be in higher demand as a substitute for potions and other minor items.

I'm not sure what the party is made up of yet, so I haven't quite decided how to balance magic users against non-magic users. So far they have one cleric and one rogue (who wants to work towards shadow dancer).

Thanks for the great ideas! Any other opinions are most welcome!

Curiosity: Why would potions be in short supply? While stockpiles would have been disenchanted, these and other consumable items would, by their nature, be consumed over time even when the world overflowed with magic. It's the nature of the item. And if they're being consumed, then there would have needed to be people making them, before, during and after the "Great Power Down".

The same might be said for scrolls, wands and staves, as well as the consumables on the Wondrous Item list. (Keotome's Ointment, Stone Salve, Candles of Invocation, Quall's Feather Tokers, etc. )

Question: Were consumable items disenchanted along with the permanent ones?

Oh, for fun, let the group discover that the disenchantment was because of a being or force known simply as "Deus Machinas". Some might think that this refers to some divine patron of the mechanical arts, while others might misread it as "The machinations of the gods" (which would be Deus ex Machinas). The bitter truth is, of course, in abbreviations: Deus Machinas = DM.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I would recommend taking a look at the Arms and Equipment Guide (pg 27-28, 35). The paragraph where it talks about entire kingdoms going to war over a magical sword immediately leapt to mind when I was reading this. The same for the section in Complete Warrior on running martial campaigns.

In this world, has Alchemy taken over where magic has given way? Sure your sword may not be magical, but pour this oil on it and suddenly its engulfed in flames for a few minutes.

You said that there was no vow of poverty. What about things like Kensai or Anointed Knight? Would their ties to their weapon still work?

Be sure to keep in mind that D&D assumes you have access to various items. So something with a DR 5/Magic would be trivial when you meet it in a standard game, but if there's no magical weapons it can be a long slough to get through it. CRs, XP, loot and everything else should be considered carefully when planning adventures. Otherwise, I can say that these campaigns can be fun. I was in one and its a different feeling when that mob of orcs is still as deadly at level 6 as it was at level 1.

 

[kitcik]

If you want to fix it before the players come in, I'd include some sort of inherent bonus system (ironically, sort of like Vow of Poverty) to keep martial characters up to speed. Then either don't include items with the basic pluses or don't have them stack with the inherent bonuses.

This is interesting.

WARNING: TANGENT ALERT.

Setting aside this campaign setting, as a general 3.5 homebrew rule, what about "Vow of Non-Casting".

Any character that has no levels in a full casting class gets the benefits of the Vow of Poverty without the drawbacks.

Hmmm...

 

[Kinak]

WARNING: TANGENT ALERT.

Setting aside this campaign setting, as a general 3.5 homebrew rule, what about "Vow of Non-Casting".

Any character that has no levels in a full casting class gets the benefits of the Vow of Poverty without the drawbacks.

I think this is probably still relevant.

Off the top of my head, I'd have based on your levels in non-full-caster classes (rather than just going away if you're a little impure). Then, if there are basic +x items in the game at all, choose the vow bonuses so they don't stack.

Stealing directly from the vow of poverty, that'd give you:
1st - no bonuses
2nd - no bonuses
3rd - +1 enhancement bonus to armor
4th - +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls
6th - +2 enhancement bonus to armor, +1 deflection bonus to AC
7th - +1 resistance bonus to saves, +2 enhancement bonus to attribute of your choice
8th - +1 bonus to natural armor
9th - +3 enhancement bonus to armor
10th - +2 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls
11th - +4 enhancement bonus to first attribute chosen and +2 to a second
12th - +4 enhancement bonus to armor, +2 deflection bonus to AC
13th - +2 resistance bonus to saves
14th - +3 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls
15th - +5 enhancement bonus to armor, +6 to first attribute +4 to second attribute and +2 to third attribute
16th - +2 bonus to natural armor
17th - +4 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, +3 resistance bonus to saves
18th - +6 enhancement bonus to armor, +3 deflection bonus to AC
19th - +8 enhancement bonus to one attribute +6 to second +4 to third and +2 to fourth
20th - +5 enhancement bonus to attacks and damage

This strips out the basic +4 AC and all the specialized stuff. The only weird thing is the enhancement bonus to armor because it's assumed in the original vow to replace +x armor and +x shield, so consider the total enhancement bonus for stacking there.

That said, there are probably better innate bonus systems out there. It should be a good starting point for settings with casters but rare/no +x magical items, though.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Shaghayegh]

Hmmm... You know, charlatans could make good money passing off fake magic items. What do you think the odds are of the average person being able to tell a real magic item from something cooked up by a canny rogue?

 

[Zireael]

The OP's post sounds like a low-magic world. Magic item creation not existing would simply be explained by magic either not existing, being very low-levels or very limited.

 

[LiL KiNG]

As has been said, limited magic items increases the power of the caster classes. For that I would suggest maybe limiting magic available, that is, the PC may not be able to "learn" every spell he wants. At least not for free... he may have to quest to find old tomes or scrolls. Scrolls become much more valuable too in this case.
The mage who can cast a fireball then becomes very powerful and other casters seek his knowledge and mastery of the spell.
This gets difficult to manage though, a lot of spells would be considered common, but others like enervation would be more specialized I'd think.
For Wizards, in addition to the 'schools' of magic I typically allow them to follow an elemental theme if so desired (ie: they can choose force and cast any spell with the force descriptor at a +1 caster level, regardless of the school the spell comes from such as transmutation, evocation, etc.). Much akin to the Elemental Spellcasting feat from the Planar Handbook.

 

[Shaghayegh]

For Wizards, in addition to the 'schools' of magic I typically allow them to follow an elemental theme if so desired (ie: they can choose force and cast any spell with the force descriptor at a +1 caster level, regardless of the school the spell comes from such as transmutation, evocation, etc.). Much akin to the Elemental Spellcasting feat from the Planar Handbook.

Descriptor specialisation is an interesting idea. An Enchanter sub-specialising in say language-dependent spells would have an even higher level of effectiveness with something like Charm Person or Suggestion...

 

[Samloyal23]

Hmm. There should be a Life descriptor to contrast against the Death descriptor...

 

[Shaghayegh]

Hmm. There should be a Life descriptor to contrast against the Death descriptor...

That is an interesting idea. Life spells would be anathema to undead and be the perfect descriptor for many clerical spells.