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| #1icefractalOct 03, 2004 18:00:13 | There's a lot of talk about low-magic campaigns, and a lot of interest in them. However, all too often, a low magic campaign means "low magic ... for you!" where the players lack magic weapons or spells but the monsters and foes still have those, and abilities that magic is required to deal with. So I've decided to start from basics and attempt to show what changes are necessary to lower the magic level by a single step. There are two parts to this; the easier part is lowering the amount of magic by a single step and the much harder part is rebalancing things with this lower level of magic in mind. For purposes of this demonstration I'm leaving out psionics. First, the easy part: Lowering The Magic Level By lowering the magic level one step, I basically mean one spell level, the changes being made is simple: Each spell is now one level higher than it was. This means that Ray of Frost is now a first level spell, Fireball is a fourth level spell, and so on. The old 9th level spells no longer exist. This has the following ramifications: 1) Spells are gained two levels later, in most cases. For instance, a Wizard cannot use Fireball until 7th level. 2) Many magic Items are more expensive. A potion of Cure Light Wounds now costs 300 gp instead of 50 gp. 3) Magic items not based on spells should also have their price bumped up a notch, for instance, a +1 weapon should cost what a +2 weapon used to cost. +9 weapons with up to a +4 bonus are now the maximum possible pre-epic. This applies to other items also, a Belt of Strength +2 should cost as much as a Belt of Strength +4 used to, and the most powerful version of scaling items may not be available. 4) There are no cantrips. I would advise using individual functions of the prestidigitation spells as the new cantrips. For instance, "Clean", "Warm", "Chill", and "Colorize" are now cantrips. Rebalancing Now the hard part. The following things need to be done to fix the problems created by the magic reduction: 1) Most spellcasters are now extremely weak for the first few levels, this needs fixing. Note that for Paladins and Rangers there's a simple solution, simply keep their spellcasting the same way it was, the result is that by not changing they will remain in balance and simply be relatively more magic oriented than they were before. For other spellcasters, I recommend the following boosts to help them at low levels before they get useful spells, these are simply suggestions and other ideas could be used instead: Bards get Sneak Attack +1d4, to represent some rogue-like training, and a +2 to Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Bluff with a specified culture (a particular country or group of countries that share the same language and customs) which represents inside knowledge. Clerics get the ability to use Prayers, these are basically ritual versions of spells that they get later. Prayers take a fairly long time and require sacrifices, but allow the necessary healing and curing of conditions to replace the spells, which are now received later. Druids get the ability to brew special herbal mixtures, which act as a weaker form of potions. Sorcerer get the innate ability to sense and control magic, which lets them use effects like Detect Magic and Read Magic, leave Arcane Marks, and weakly influence the flow of magic (slightly boost or diminish some magic effects). Wizards get expanded knowledge abilities, such as being able to make untrained knowledge checks at any DC in a variety of subjects and bonuses to they're specialty knowledge skills. They also can use scrolls with some difficult and create minor magical effects through alchemy. These suggestion have not been tested, and are just ideas on how to fill in those early levels before effective spellcasting kicks in. 2) The LAs and CRs of creatures with spell-like abilities or special attacks that need magic to solve (like the Medusa, for instance) should be increased by a couple levels in most cases. Don't be fooled by the short description, this is a length process at best. 3) Class features that involve magic may need to be rebalanced. So, as you see, even a jump of one spell level takes a whole lot of effort to do right, and it just gets harder the more you lower the magic level. The solution I'm using for Rangers and Paladins will work if the magic level is lowered a little, but too much and they'll become primary casters, so they'll need to be rebalanced too. This shouldn't dissuade you from trying to create a low magic setting, just from doing it without thinking out the effects it'll have. |
| #2EndarireOct 06, 2004 20:02:00 | What's your advice for creating a large area, like a continent, permanently encased in an antimagic field? -EE |
| #3zombiegleemaxOct 06, 2004 22:54:34 | There's a lot of talk about low-magic campaigns, and a lot of interest in them. However, all too often, a low magic campaign means "low magic ... for you!" where the players lack magic weapons or spells but the monsters and foes still have those, and abilities that magic is required to deal with. So I've decided to start from basics and attempt to show what changes are necessary to lower the magic level by a single step. Monsters and CRs would have to be adjusted SERIOUSLY.... since most characters won't have +1 weapons... let alone adamanite weapons until MUCH later... DR now becomes ULTRA powerful! Woot! Go barbarian! |
| #477imOct 07, 2004 10:10:09 | You're off to a good start on the issue of low-magic worlds, but there are many, many more ways to make a world low magic than the one listed above, and many more ramifications to this than just class ability balance. Here are some ideas (developed on this very excellent thread) of ways to restrict spell casters and how these methods will affect a campaign world. It's not really important why the campaign worlds are this way, but rather what effect it has on the game world and on game play (for example, maybe spell casting is risky because the god of chaos died and his blood spilled upon the astral plane, or maybe it's risky because the fabric of reality is tearing apart, or whatever; what matters is that making spell casting risky limits spellcasters in a certain way). 1: There are very few spellcasters This is easy enough: There just aren't many wizards, sorcerers, druids, or true clerics. The party with a wizard and cleric would be major movers and shakers, probably heavily involved in world politics. Every spellcaster would be famous or a closely-guarded secret. Magical resources might be hard to come by -- only the largest city would have a cleric who can cast raise dead, and your wizard certainly isn't buying scrolls to scribe into his spellbook. 2: There are very few high-level characters Low-level spellcasters aren't that big of a deal. A cure light wounds here, a charm person there; the world would adjust. Similarly, any class starts to get strong above 5th level or so, and characters above 10th level are downright superhuman (the fighter that can jump off a building and live, the rogue that can practically turn invisible). So a world in which most characters are 1st level and characters of 5th level and higher are exceedingly rare would limit spellcasters effectively. This campaign might have a heroic feel to it, as the PCs are going to be major movers and shakers; the average wilderness random encounter is going to be a lot weaker too (something as tough as a troll, for example, would be so rare as to be noteworthy). 3: Social pressure discourages spellcasters Basically, spellcasters are feared, reviled, or scorned. This works well in conjunction with idea #1, to explain why there are so few spellcasters, but it could just mean that the world has the "normal" number of spellcasters but they operate in secret. Could make for some good roleplaying opportunities, but could make things unfairly hard on the players, too. 4: Spell casting is highly regulated Spellcasters must all follow a code -- enforced by other spellcasters or a larger organization -- that prevents them from casting in ways that cause social change (this is a variant on #3). For example, maybe charms and compulsions are strictly forbidden, as is the selling of spellcasting services. (Obviously, things like animating the dead or summoning demons are right out.) The PCs could have some sort of special dispensation or open-ended mission that allows them to travel about and use magic on their adventures. This sort of world has a normal level of magical resources, but the common man can't access them, so the overall effect on the world is limited. 5: Weaken spellcasters A variant on #2, the DM creates new spellcasting classes that don't progress up to 20th level. For example, maybe the wizard and cleric have the bard's spell progression which only goes to 6th level. This is the strategy employed by d20 Modern Urban Arcana, in which Mage and Acolyte (basically wizard and cleric) are advanced classes available at 4th level at the earliest and only going up to 5th level spells, and even then they don't get some of the best spells (like polymorph). Unfortunately, this system could make playing a spellcaster much less attractive than playing a rogue-type or combat guy, and monster opponents will have to be modified well to accommodate a magic-poor party. 6: Spell casting is costly If every spell had a costly material component, or if spell preparation costs 10 gold, or if magic is powered by a scarce resource (spice?), this could greatly limit opportunities for people to become magic users, and those that do become magic users desire to conserve their resources even more so than in a traditional D&D world. However, supply and demand -- people want the spell casting and are willing to pay for it, so the cost of spellcasting must be high in order for this to work -- possibly so high that the PCs feel it is a drag. 7: Spell casting is risky Each spell cast has a risk of physical or mental harm, increasing with spell level. Maybe the world is a wild magic zone, or casting spells decreases your sanity (as in Call of Cthulu). Clearly, spellcasters won't cast frivolously and probably not for profit, only for clear personal gain. Depending on how this system is set up, it could be a lot of fun for the players or a major drag. It's no fun getting chain lightning if you can't cast it for fear of the 10% chance of accidentally summing a vrock to attack your party. 8: Spell casting draws attention A variant on #7, employed by games like Immortal: The Invisible War and In Nomine, any time someone casts a spell, it sends out a signal to nearby spellcasters -- the higher level the spell, the louder the signal. This works best in a world where spellcasters are highly factionalized -- casting could draw the attention of your enemies, so people avoid it. Middle Earth follows this principle (for those of you wondering why Gandalf rarely opened up on people with his cool chain fire). On the down side, this can make the game very complicated, as both the players and the DM will be constantly trying to keep track of what enemies might be nearby that could sense the casting. 9: Most spellcasters are of non-human races The idea being that a non-human has different psychology -- different motivations, goals, and needs -- and so they will not use magic in the same way. Thus, most human schemes to use magic to become wealthy, rule the world, or charm beautiful women will fall on deaf ears -- the elven archmagi just want to make pretty gardens; the dwarven rune-priests just want to forge swords and slay orcs, etc. This allows the human world to operate as in scenario #1, yet allows the non-human world to contain a wealth of magical resources that adventuring PCs sometimes need access to. 10: Spellcasting is a recent invention Spellcasting used to be very rare, weak, or unpractical, because of one of the above scenarios, hence society remained largely medieval in nature (or at least, resembled our romanticized fantasy views of what a medieval world is like). But now, after some new discovery, spellcasters are "bustin' out" in a magical Renaissance. People are discovering new spells and learning the most effective ways to use them. Although this will ultimately result in a world that is certainly not low-magic, it frees the DM from having to explain the effects of centuries of magic use upon a culture, and instead allows the DM and the players to explore the possibilities of magic together. 11: Spell casting requires a purpose Most often associated with divine casters, the magic-user must cast spells only which further the interests of some deity, spirit, concept, or ideology. This can be restrictive to adventuring casters -- the cleric of fire needs to make sure that every single adventure advances the goals of fire (either burning things or facilitating civilization). This method also involves a lot of subjectivity on the part of the DM. 12: Spell casting can only be done in a certain time or place This is really just a variant of #5, but is an odd one worth mentioning. Imagine a wizard who is full strength within his tower but half-strength when out of it, or a water druid who can only cast when on or in the water, or a shadow cleric who can only cast at night. These concepts could work in an unusual high-magic world -- in a low-magic world, these are simply weaknesses that serve as ways of explaining other scenarios (for example, if witches can only cast at night AND everyone's afraid of them, then as soon as one is discovered people wait until sunrise and destroy it, meaning that there aren't many witches around). 13: Spells are difficult to learn Maybe magic-using classes are at full power but have trouble learning the wackier spells. Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed has the concept of "exotic spells," which are rare and require a feat to learn. The Wheel of Time Role-Playing Game has "lost weaves" known only to a few, and in the world of Harry Potter the strongest curses (basically, dominate person and finger of death) are kept secret. Under this system, magic-users can still be combat beasts (nothing too special about chain lightning except its damage), but society-changing spells might be rare and difficult to come by. 14: Spells are easily negated This works against problems like dominate person and detect lies and various divinations: The wards against these spells are much cheaper than the spells themselves, so most civilized people can't really be affected, but dungeon monsters are still fair targets. This method requires a slight suspension of disbelief, and doesn't answer questions about certain other high-magic trends (like instant long-distance travel and communication). 15: Magic requires a certain mindset This approach is similar to the Cthulhu type “Magic causes insanity” rules, however in this case the causation is reversed, only those with a certain type of mindset can cast magic. The restriction is therefore not physical or divine, but psychological. No matter how hard some people try, they simply cannot “awaken their potential/contact the realms of magic/etc" if they do not possess a personality or way of thinking. The exact mindset could vary depending on the campaign, maybe a spell caster must be insane, or extremely dedicated to a certain cause (beyond even how Paladin’s and clerics are normally portrayed), or pure in thought and action (never harming anyone), or behave totally without mercy etc… The type of power and spells they can learn and cast should depend on the character’s individual mindset. This type is for roleplay focuses games, which place a lot of empathies on acting in character. This will generally make it harder to role-play as it assumes some kind of extreme mindset. And If the player starts to behave somewhat out of character (perhaps seeming to be too “normal” and actually choosing actions according to personality) then the DM should start restricting and weakening their powers. 16: Magical potential is limited and inherent Not every man has magical potential. Those who do usually have a small potential. Only few people in the world can ever reach 9th level spells. This is essentially a specific implementation of idea #1 (above), but you can attach rules to it (such as a character score representing a person's maximum spell level or spellcaster level or a 7th ability score for "magic power") to make it seem more like part of the world and less like DM fudging. Anyone interested in low magic settings should check out the original thread as it was a very good discussion. -- 77IM |
| #5zombiegleemaxOct 07, 2004 12:02:07 | The method you suggest is extremely difficult to balance, compared to the other methods available. Rewriting the spellcasting classes is a possible way to create a low-magic world, but there are many others. They are detailed extensively in the [thread=173487]Restricted Spellcasting in Campaign Settings[/thread] thread. Additionally, I would like to say that simply raising the level at which a new spell level is gained in order to weaken the magical abilities of the spellcasters will probably cause more balance problems than those that you have dealt with. Spells are supposed to be equal in usefulness to the class abilities of any other class, and I'm not sure that gaining 2nd level spells at 5th level is equal to the things that a barbarian, for example, gains at 5th level. My point is that completely redoing the spellcasting classes might eventually be simpler. |