Most effective way to lower XP and magic items in a system designed for them?

[Ozreth]

In a system that is designed for faster power creep and a lot of magic items early on, what is the best way to lower the amount of both of these without running into major problems later on? I don't care TOO much for balance issues, I just don't want to totally ruin the game.

I imagine that if I simply lower the amount of XP given for each monster by say %20 and only handed out magic items very rarely, the players would be completely underpowered all the time and I would also have to completely change all of the monsters that I throw at them.

Thoughts?

[Tvtyrant]

Why would they be underpowered all of the time? As long as you slow down the CR increase of the monsters by the same amount the difficulty should remain the same. As for wealth the only items that are a problem are charged items, in which case just give out small amounts of wealth over time on top of the normal WBL in order to allow them to replenish their charges.

[MeeposFire]

Another option would be an optional idea I had for NPCs. One big problem with NPCs is that when you fight one and defeat them they give the players a TON of loot (and it also takes a long time to figure out the loot in the first place) and this makes NPCs not a good choice since they take a lot of work and lead to monty haul. So in order to reduce that I adapted vow of poverty to all NPCs. Now it is important to note that it is not actually VoP. I just give all NPCs the benefits of VoP with a few exceptions (they don't get the exalted feats for example). This way they always have level aproperiate benefits while not needing all the items to get there. Then I equip the NPC with items that make sense and I want the players to have. If the item has a better bonus than what the VoP gives then it overlaps the VoP benefit. I give this for free. It is very similar to the inherent bonus system in 4e (which is a way to eliminate required loot from 4e).

For your players you could do the same thing and then you can give them flavorful items that they would like rather than cluttering up the items with the mundane swords +1 and the like that are normally needed for your players to keep up.

[McSmack]

I ususally just load my NPC's up with consumable items, scrolls, wands with only a few charges left, potions etc. This allows me to buff my NPC's without handing out a dragon's horde for each encounter.

And I stopped using XP a long time ago. Players level up either at specific plot points or whenever I'm feeling light and fluffy.

[MeeposFire]

I used to do that in 2e. Too bad that it is a mistake in 2e since each class has different XP needs to level. I was unintentionally harming the thieves. That works much better in 3e with its unified XP table.

[Urpriest]

As long as you give each player the treasure they expect per-level, slowing down treasure and XP is fine. You're giving them CR-appropriate foes anyway, right?

Now, slowing down magic items further is trickier. If you want characters to gain magic items slower (per-level-wise) than they would, might I suggest refluffing certain magic items as mundane? So a +1 sword is just a better sword with an allergy to dispel magic, etc.