Balancing for low-magic

[ZenBear]

It's been hotly debated that high level spells are game breaking, so in a low-magic setting what would be a fair and balanced increase in low level spell slots if I were to remove all spells of 6th and above except in ritual form?

[LibraryOgre]

Depends highly on your system, but I've seen good arguments for putting full casters on the Bard table for spellcasting in 3.x

[VoxRationis]

You could just cap everyone at level 10 or something, or maybe even cap spellcaster levels at 10.

[ZenBear]

This is for 5E, and I want full class level progression. I just want to limit access to spells that "break" the game. No Wish, True Polymorph, etc.

[Steampunkette]

Leave the spell slots. Take out the high end spells that are the problem. Upcasting exists for a lot of spells that can use the high end slots.

[ThermalSlapShot]

I was in a 5e "e6" type game that went to level 10.

The rules for magic used the following.

The highest level spell known is 3rd and some 4th level Spells (DM call). Allow for slots to be used to increase these Spell's levels.

Spell known increased as normal.

Higher level Spells that are needed for the story? Rituals that take hours to complete.

[CantigThimble]

There are a lot of things that are 'broken' on the internet that aren't really that bad with most groups. You don't need to rewrite the magic system to keep people from breaking the game. Just ask your players not to break the game. If that wouldn't work for your group just knock out true polymorph and wish, along with any other problem spells. Or make it clear that using these spells is a privilege, and lots of deities keep an eye on anyone capable of using them. (As they definitely would)

[DiBastet]

For a low magic, as said there are no level 6+ spells. You have the slots so you can use improved versions of lower level spells, but there are no new spells. I've tried that and it works pretty ok if these spells simply don't exist in the setting.

But if you intention is also to cut on spellcaster's power, then do that and as also said give caster a 3.5 bard's progression, or make them miss a spellcasting level every 3rd level, ending as a level 14 caster.

I've actually tried both for a "low and dangerous magic" kinda setting and it worked like a charm.

[DiBastet]

In case you wondered, the table I used was like this:



Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th


1st
2
—
—
—
—
—
—


2nd
3
—
—
—
—
—
—


3rd
3
—
—
—
—
—
—


4th
4
2
—
—
—
—
—


5th
4
3
—
—
—
—
—


6th
4
3
—
—
—
—
—


7th
4
3
2
—
—
—
—


8th
4
3
3
—
—
—
—


9th
4
3
3
—
—
—
—


10th
4
3
3
1
—
—
—


11th
4
3
3
2
—
—
—


12th
4
3
3
2
—
—
—


13th
4
3
3
3
1
—
—


14th
4
3
3
3
2
—
—


15th
4
3
3
3
2
—
—


16th
4
3
3
3
2
1
—


17th
4
3
3
3
2
1
—


18th
4
3
3
3
2
1
—


19th
4
3
3
3
2
1
1


20th
4
3
3
3
2
1
1