Tips on high magic campaigns

[mattsdelf]

I'm currently putting together a campaign with several large groups and guilds that each have access to a lot of magic. One fascist group of mages all donate spell levels to their leader who can use all of that magic to cast epic spells and create artifacts. Another guild has the ability to augment their intelligence via a metamaterial secret they discovered, gaining lots of bonus spells, and having an 40th level leader. Finally, there is a Mind flayer base that invades the first group, and threatens the other nations of the realm. The players must team up with the intelligence guild, and take out the new mind flayer-mage-boss-elder brain-kracken and other shenanigans. The players start out at level 7, and the world is only about as big as Australia. It's a small world, high magic campaign, Highly optimized player base, and I can't help but to feel like by putting so much 'stuff' into it the game, I am overlooking something. I also don't want to make the players feel small in comparison to these groups of arcane casters, or like the story is more about them than the players. What are some things I should consider before implementing this plot?

[Answerer]

To be honest, default 3.5 is incredibly high magic. You don't really need to change the rules, you just need to have the setting reflect the reality that those rules create.

To that end, try looking up the Tippyverse.

[Downysole]

Read through Heroes of Battle where it describes how to keep the action centered on the PCs when there's a war going on around you (and little the PCs feel they can do to affect it).

Summary: Keep the action that the PCs engaged in focused. If they're getting quests from the smarty-pants guild, make it so the consequences of the missions are fairly direct and visible.

For example, if the bad guys hang out in their big old tower or something, have the PCs cut off the water supply (and worse, plug up the sewers) to the tower and face the were-rat nest that lives there. The bad guys won't necessarily be thwarted by this, but it will direct their resources away from world domination to dealing with the bodily necessities.

There are several quests spanning the gamut that a learned general will send his expendable adventurers on until they are ready to face the long-shot boss fight for the one item that can win the day.

[Tyndmyr]

I'm currently putting together a campaign with several large groups and guilds that each have access to a lot of magic. One fascist group of mages all donate spell levels to their leader who can use all of that magic to cast epic spells and create artifacts. Another guild has the ability to augment their intelligence via a metamaterial secret they discovered, gaining lots of bonus spells, and having an 40th level leader. Finally, there is a Mind flayer base that invades the first group, and threatens the other nations of the realm. The players must team up with the intelligence guild, and take out the new mind flayer-mage-boss-elder brain-kracken and other shenanigans. The players start out at level 7, and the world is only about as big as Australia. It's a small world, high magic campaign, Highly optimized player base, and I can't help but to feel like by putting so much 'stuff' into it the game, I am overlooking something. I also don't want to make the players feel small in comparison to these groups of arcane casters, or like the story is more about them than the players. What are some things I should consider before implementing this plot?

Well, the important things are as follows.

1. Know the magical rules well. And I mean WELL.
2. Give the players access to magical toys.
3. Lay out stuff well beforehand. The ass-pull "magic says you can't" is usually fairly unsatisfying, and it's harder to improv the results of a detect magic than it is to read off your well-prepared list.

[Ravens_cry]

What's the cultural permeation level?
D&D (aside from specific settings) does indeed tend toward pretty high magic. However, it is also tends to have pretty low trickle down, most people are dirt farmers, and magic is, if not unknown, not exactly utilized for much beyond combat.

[mattsdelf]

I know the magical rules plenty well, I play a game with a 15th level sorc that I leveled from level one, have been playing it or 5 years. I really should buy heroes of battle though. Magic in this campaign is trickling down to aspects of life other than combat, the fascists have been using their powers to make a fairly complicated system. I'll be sure to elaborate on it in all sorts of cool ways.

[Grail]

You want it to be truly high magic, at all levels of society.
Have everyone capable of using Magic as a sorcerer of their level/2 round up and all spells from this ability have only V components (no material or somatic). Therefore, they can be used in armour with no penalty, and can be used by Dirt Farmer Bob even though he probably couldn't normally afford the components/focus.

Instantly, it takes on that style of play. If everyone can use magic, then it's not going to be a mystery and will have that high magic feel right from the get go.

You could even have a Mystic Police who ensure that the Magic of the People is not used for criminal activity or used inappropriately.

Want to make it even more funky, have spells from these Sorcerer 'levels' be allowed to be either Arcane or Divine. Or come up with your own spell list that they can choose from.

In this world, a character can still be a sorcerer or wizard, they just get access to even more (low level) spells.

[mattsdelf]

You want it to be truly high magic, at all levels of society.
Have everyone capable of using Magic as a sorcerer of their level/2 round up and all spells from this ability have only V components (no material or somatic). Therefore, they can be used in armour with no penalty, and can be used by Dirt Farmer Bob even though he probably couldn't normally afford the components/focus.

Instantly, it takes on that style of play. If everyone can use magic, then it's not going to be a mystery and will have that high magic feel right from the get go.

You could even have a Mystic Police who ensure that the Magic of the People is not used for criminal activity or used inappropriately.

Want to make it even more funky, have spells from these Sorcerer 'levels' be allowed to be either Arcane or Divine. Or come up with your own spell list that they can choose from.

In this world, a character can still be a sorcerer or wizard, they just get access to even more (low level) spells.

I appreciate the thought, but that would be too major a deviant from the rules. It would cease to be a high magic campaign, and become a world where everyone is a sorc gestalt. That does give me an idea though, I could give dirt-poor-Bob a couple of low level spells 3/day prestidigitation and mage hand as well as 1/day shield and unseen servant or something, it would be a perfect reward for the fascist spellpool thing.

[Downysole]

There are already rules for the populace level spell-pool under mythals. I think they're spelled out on page 45 Lost Empires of Faerun.

If you're familiar with Silverymoon (Drizzt & Pals went through there on the way to Mithril Hall), anyone who has a token (The Watch) can cast spells from the mythal and dish out some nice firepower without using any of their own magic. In addition, it can keep out specific bad guys (like demons or green dragons).

If you're talking lv 40 BBEG, you can certainly pull this off in a limited geographical region, and even create a different one per city to make it feel more unique. BTW, an anchored mythal is a great way to get the players involved.

[Gavinfoxx]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9NJIs751Af3i0IEIJwCkIp9H9YFiZYZ7u-wmYVaheI/edit

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222007

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=177

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zilT4WGOyHM0AfpG4-GmD2FkgDg1HZ9HC1cTleQHds/edit?pli=1

[Tyndmyr]

You want it to be truly high magic, at all levels of society.
Have everyone capable of using Magic as a sorcerer of their level/2 round up and all spells from this ability have only V components (no material or somatic). Therefore, they can be used in armour with no penalty, and can be used by Dirt Farmer Bob even though he probably couldn't normally afford the components/focus.

Instantly, it takes on that style of play. If everyone can use magic, then it's not going to be a mystery and will have that high magic feel right from the get go.

You could even have a Mystic Police who ensure that the Magic of the People is not used for criminal activity or used inappropriately.

Want to make it even more funky, have spells from these Sorcerer 'levels' be allowed to be either Arcane or Divine. Or come up with your own spell list that they can choose from.

In this world, a character can still be a sorcerer or wizard, they just get access to even more (low level) spells.

Meh...magical training feat is a much easier way to do this. Everyone gets a few cantrips.

Boom, much more magical world, but much less problematic(ie, no "all commoners who can cast magic missile, come with me")

[Ravens_cry]

I like the magewright idea from Eberron, a utility caster who forms the backbone of a magical technological infrastructure.
You don't need literally everyone to do magic, just like modern society doesn't require everyone to be professional engineers, but you do need the devices that can preform the necessary magic to be commonplace as well as the people that build them.
Common but not universal.

[Gavinfoxx]

I would add more variability to NPC classes. FAR more variability!

http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?p=5194640#post5194640

Like consider most tier 6 or tier 5 classes NPC classes.

Expert, Healer, Magewright, Mlar, Master can be craftsmen, for example. Read that post of mine...