How to reduce magic?

[YossarianLives]

I'm currently writing a low-magic, E6 campaign setting for my next game. What are some ways I can reduce the amount of magic in the setting?

[Rennora]

When you say low magic do you mean that casters are rare or nonexistent, or do you mean that in addition to magic items being rare/nonexistent? It depends on how low magic you intend to go. You'd need to improve mundane healing methods if nixing the heal spells, for instance. You'd also need to find a suitable replacement for the caster in the party. Would Rangers/Bards still have access to spells? Would a bard's music still work in your game? Please provide more details about the extent of your lessening of magic.

[YossarianLives]

I intend to ban all full casters but beyond that I'm not sure what I can do.

[Rennora]

Okay. I'd recommend letting bards/rangers/etc keep their casting, but limit the value of magic items to a small threshold. For example, you could say that magic items valued at more than *random number:* 5000g cannot be made, or are exceptionally rare (and thus much more valuable than the ordinary items). You could alternatively just have all magic items cost twice the ordinary amount. I would also consider limiting races, as several are magical in nature.

[Scorponok]

I was toying with the idea of bumping spell levels up by one. Example, magic missile is now a level 2 spell, Resistance is now a level 1 spell, and there are no such thing as cantrips. Low level casters would start extremely weak but around level 10 would start to be the same power as melee.

[Arbane]

Don't forget that some enemies are going to be REALLY hard to defeat (or even run away from) without magic. Shadows are the classic example, but hardly the only one.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I intend to ban all full casters but beyond that I'm not sure what I can do.

My advice is to look into different game systems, because D&D in general and especially 3.5 don't really function without magic. Nonmagic classes are heavily dependent on magic items, which don't exist if nobody can make them, and a party of adventurers is heavily dependent on having spellcasters present to deal with an overwhelming majority of the more interesting monsters and situations.

[Calimehter]

At the E6 levels, you can get away with low magic. Some things to consider:

- Healing is a chore. I've run the Wound/Vitality system from Unearthed Arcana when I've done low-magic E6. You can still be laid low for a few days after taking a critical hit, but for any fight where you *don't* take one, you are back up to speed in a matter of hours. This is opposed to the normal system, where you are laid up for days after almost every fight without magical healing.

- Consider getting rid of the "must be an arcane caster" requirement for the Craft(Alchemy) skill. Many of the items covered by the skill aren't overtly supernatural, and even some of the ones that are will help fill some character ability gaps. Having a "mundane" substance that allows your weapons to affect incorporeal creatures, for instance, makes it easier to include incorporeal foes in your low-magic adventures (though they are still pretty nasty).

- Many CR6 and lower monsters work just fine with low magic, but you *will* need to take the time to eliminate or modify some. I personally feel that the number is quite manageable and will be quite small relative to all the work that already goes into making a campaign world and DMing in general.

[Mr.Kraken]

Iron Heroes is a variant d20 game that's described as "low-magic tactical combat". I plan on playing it sometime, you could take a look at it.

[Ruethgar]

As above, remove the caster requirement of craft alchemy, healing salves can then fill in for a good portion of the healing niche. I would also ban sword of the arcane order and mystic ranger, it makes them into a high HD full BaB wizard. The Wildshape variants may or may not be up there as well, though letting the monk have theirs out of pity shouldn't be too far out of line.