The Nerdery, #24

[Spriggan]

My ideal low magic D&D setting would be like Dragonlance, ie only limiting the players on what type of magic they could get their hands on.  Not as a way to take magic out of the setting but as to make what they have more valuable, if they have to really work for items and spells then they'll appreciate it more and not take it for granted.

[Entsuropi]

Eberron is meant to be like that - lots of low magic, little high magic.

[42]

Eberron is meant to be like that - lots of low magic, little high magic.

I heard that Eberron is meant to be low magic several times, yet everyone I know plays it as high magic.

But to answer some of Nic's questions:

1) Yes you usually do need to limit the number of magical creatures appearing. My experience says that you can still have them show up, just not in droves or having them rule countries or anything like that. The low-magic campaigns I've played in mainly focus on taking down other non-magical beings.

2) Limited magic to one sourc or another may or may not have an impact. If all you allow is divine magic or psionic for example, there is usually enough to make up for a lack of the other magic sources.

3) I found that greater technology kind of helps, but not greatly.

[Nicadymus]

One thought that was tossed around was having the characters play races that did not have innate spell-like abilities (no gnomes or drow or anything like that), give them technology equivalent to either a musketeer or old west level, and have them square off against aberrations, undead, etc.; creatures that are the most easy to kill with magic items.  Their tech would allow them some ability to defend themselves against the minions of the main evil beings, but they would greatly value on even a +1 item when they finally received it as it would finally allow them to take down their major opponents.

Thoughts on this type of "low magic" setting?

[Mr_Pleasington]

Eberron is high magic, just in a different way than, say, Forgotten Realms.

Magic is ubiquitous in Eberron and the players can get their hands on magic weapons and items at any large town.  Magic users are a working class.  Transport methods are all magical.  Magic is very logically ingrained into the setting, but that doesn't make it low magic.  

I would argue that no straight D&D 3.5 game can remain low magic in order to stay balanced.  The rules assume players will be getting X amount of magic items at each level. If they don't, encounters would be too hard.

If you want low magic, and I mean very low magic, check out Iron Heroes.  The idea is that it's the arm that swings the sword, not the sword itself, that should be emphasized.  It changes combat dramatically and gives players TONS more options (w/o boggins things down, I think) as there are no magic items...at least none you would want as most are Call of Cthuluesque in danger levels.  For once in D&D , it's the hero's skill that saves the day, not him Holy Avenger.

It's really dang cool.

[Nicadymus]

As far as the Call of Cthuluesque, do you mean that they cause the characters that use them some "serious issues" or do they have other aspects?

[Mr_Pleasington]

As in magic items are things man was not meant to posess and will drive you insane.

Something to that effect.  We won't know for sure until the GM's book is released here soon.  

[Nicadymus]

That is what I figured, but just wanted to be sure...

So if you did something like this, would you use the insanity rules from Unearthed Aracana, or some other set-up for determining when a character went insane?

[Eagle Prince]

I would use the cursed item rules if you want to stay core as much as possible.  You would only want to use insanity rules if you are already using them for the whole campaign, ie also making sanity checks vs monsters, spell component costs, etc.

The cursed item rules are really barebone as-is.  Weapons of legacy expand on them a bit, but not much.  I went over them pretty good while making an item for one of the adventuers, I think its posted around here if you want to check it out.  If people are actually that interested in magic items like that, we could probably include some more in our adventures or maybe even do an article on how to design them (assuming its allowed by the SRD licence).

[Nicadymus]

More so than cursed items, I am trying to put together a set of rules for a campaign where the characters are the normal player races and their opponets are magical races; i.e. undead, aberrations, etc.  What I am trying to come up with is an effective way for the characters to combat them.  Firearms, Old West era, were suggested as a possible equalizer, but I worry that they may need more.  However, this does not, necessarily give them the ability to destroy certain enemies who are only harmed by magic and/or specific things.  It would force the players to be more resourceful, and I am always trying to get them not to do any meta-game thinking, but I worry that they will not be able to stand a chance against more powerful opponents.

Furthermore, I am also in debate as to how the general character creation should be set-up.  There has been talk about using the standard classes listed in the core-books and supplements, but that has been countered by using the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana and expanding the list of Class Bonus Feats to include any of the class features available, although some may require prerequisite Class Bonus Feats and the like.

Thoughts?