Lower Magic Oriental Game

[Blackhawk748]

Ive been making a lower magic setting and id like some opinions. Firstly there are still magic items, im gonna go with how Rokugan does it and just have the spirit of the item awaken, hell most people may not even realize that the thing is magical. Secondly the casting classes available are: Warmage, Beguiler, Dread Necro, OA Shaman, Spirit Shaman, Shadowcaster, Warlock, Wu Jen, Shugenja and maybe the Druid (probably gonna mess with it a bit).

Now ive had decent success with the magic item thing, im just not sure about the caster list. The only one im not overly familiar with is the Wu Jen. I know they are Elemental casters and that they can be potent when made right but thats about it.

So any massive problems that i am somehow missing?

[Grod_The_Giant]

You still have plenty of high-power spellcasters? If you're looking from a power perspective, Druid and Spirit Shaman have unrestricted access to the third best spell list in the game. And if the Wu Jen doesn't have the breadth of a wizard, it's more than enough to crack the game wide open-- he's got pretty much all the nastiest PHB spells, and some delightful monsters all their own. Beguiler, Warmage, and Dread Necro are mostly balanced, but still plenty strong enough and magic enough to look odd in a low-magic game.

I'd stick to the subsystem mages, to be honest: Warlock, Binder, Shadowcaster (hopefully with the creator's suggested changes), a homebrew fix for Truenamer, and the Magic of Incarnum classes, if you've got the book.

[Blackhawk748]

You still have plenty of high-power spellcasters? If you're looking from a power perspective, Druid and Spirit Shaman have unrestricted access to the third best spell list in the game. And if the Wu Jen doesn't have the breadth of a wizard, it's more than enough to crack the game wide open-- he's got pretty much all the nastiest PHB spells, and some delightful monsters all their own. Beguiler, Warmage, and Dread Necro are mostly balanced, but still plenty strong enough and magic enough to look odd in a low-magic game.

I'd stick to the subsystem mages, to be honest: Warlock, Binder, Shadowcaster (hopefully with the creator's suggested changes), a homebrew fix for Truenamer, and the Magic of Incarnum classes, if you've got the book.

Well im not going for super low magic, more like Magic is on its way out and is currently waving goodbye. The only area with any amount of magic is the Oriental Empire, across the sea is a massive Steampunk Empire that has almost entirely replaced magic with technology.

I want the Oriental Empire to still feel like Medieval Fantasy as the most advanced weapon they have is a Bombard (a very simple cannon if you dont know what it is) so thus why they still have magic users. I ditched the higher end ones because magic is still on the way out, so the mages are more focused on their given expertise.

I may just turn all the casters into Spontaneous Casters (which will weaken them a bit), otherwise ill just focus on the Subsystem Magic users.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Well im not going for super low magic, more like Magic is on its way out and is currently waving goodbye. The only area with any amount of magic is the Oriental Empire, across the sea is a massive Steampunk Empire that has almost entirely replaced magic with technology.

I want the Oriental Empire to still feel like Medieval Fantasy as the most advanced weapon they have is a Bombard (a very simple cannon if you dont know what it is) so thus why they still have magic users. I ditched the higher end ones because magic is still on the way out, so the mages are more focused on their given expertise.

I may just turn all the casters into Spontaneous Casters (which will weaken them a bit), otherwise ill just focus on the Subsystem Magic users.
Fair enough. If you do go the final route, might I suggest looking at my Fixed List Caster Project (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?317861-Fixed-List-Caster-Project-%283-5%29&p=16545265#post16545265)? (Where I wrote or rewrote spontaneous casters for all the major school/themes)

[awa]

if you want to keep the strong casters but still keep it a low magic setting just make them rare.
If most wizards are lower level then comparably ranked mundanes the setting will feel lower magic particularly if people make a big deal about the spells the pcs caste.

[Karl Aegis]

Well im not going for super low magic, more like Magic is on its way out and is currently waving goodbye. The only area with any amount of magic is the Oriental Empire, across the sea is a massive Steampunk Empire that has almost entirely replaced magic with technology.

I want the Oriental Empire to still feel like Medieval Fantasy as the most advanced weapon they have is a Bombard (a very simple cannon if you dont know what it is) so thus why they still have magic users. I ditched the higher end ones because magic is still on the way out, so the mages are more focused on their given expertise.

I may just turn all the casters into Spontaneous Casters (which will weaken them a bit), otherwise ill just focus on the Subsystem Magic users.

I think I've heard of this setting before. Except it has the distinct lack of giant robots.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Tenra_war.jpg

[Blackhawk748]

I think I've heard of this setting before. Except it has the distinct lack of giant robots.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Tenra_war.jpg

Didnt even know that existed, im gonna go loot it for ideas marvel at that fine product.

[atemu1234]

Didnt even know that existed, im gonna go loot it for ideas marvel at that fine product.

And how. I must find it.

[Karl Aegis]

You could do magic items like they do in Tenra Bansho Zero: Magic Weapons can be powered up by inserting soulgems into them for bonus damage. Each weapon has a different capacity for soulgems, usually between 3-5 soulgems at once. Each soulgem inserted provides 1 bonus damage for one minute (for reference, PCs have 8 health at least, and can't usually get above 20 health without shenanigans, mooks usually have 5 health or less). Money was generally useless for purchasing weapons, instead costing karma for both new weapons and soulgems. You probably want money to be used for more than role playing elements, so you should instead make soulgems only purchasable for the first 3 days of the month as the Ministry only sends shipments of soulgems out once a month (and guards the shipments with heavy assault killing machines). This makes managing soulgems throughout the month semi-important, like managing your supply of talismans or scrolls and not going nova on every single encounter.