High Level, Low magic game

[firruna]

Hello playgrounders,

I'm looking at starting a high level game with some friends, 15+.

My problem is, I don't want the wizard to be able to effectively do whatever he wants to space, time, the planes, or what have you, and don't want to just say 'no magic'.

So my question is: Is there a refined this of spells somewhere that I can limit them to, that wont brake the game, but still let the casters feel like their doing stuff? or am I just stuck with the OP casters in high level games?

Thanks
-Firruna

[Sagetim]

You could always set it in Dragonlance. The gods there don't put up with wizards making swiss cheese of time space and using teams of inevitables to enforce a limit on the abuse of wish/simulacrums/what have you would probably drive home the point to stop breaking the game. I think the fiend folio, or fiendish codex, had some extra inevitables that were cr 17 to 19 each, so if you think someone is getting ridiculous with wish abuse or what have you, then it's time to bust out teams of these things (the higher cr ones get wish 1/day themselves).

Also, wizards in dragonlance need to take at least one or more levels of wizard of high sorcery prestige class, which should curb some of the ridiculousness that players might be tempted to get up to. Also, since it's dragonlance, you can simply say no to non-dragonlance prestige classes like halruuan elder, dweomerkeeper, red wizard of thay, etc.

[Hurnn]

Cap spell levels at 6 would be one thought. Another option is just say nope to the stuff that breaks the game, the whole polymorph line, wish/miracle, gate( and maybe the planar ally spells).

[ShaneMRoth]

One approach is to establish that the setting is a plane with the Limited Magic trait

SRD(Planes; Limited Magic)

Planes with this trait permit only the use of spells and spell-like abilities that meet particular qualifications.

Magic can be limited to effects from certain schools or subschools, to effects with certain descriptors, or to effects of a certain level (or any combination of these qualities). Spells and spell-like abilities that don’t meet the qualifications simply don’t work.

Pick the limits... which schools (or sub-schools) don't play... which levels play or don't play...

Let the players know this in advance because they will be under the impression that they have access to the full range of spells.

It will probably be a tough sell to get a player to play a wizard or sorcerer, regardless.

[NichG]

I hear good things about Tier 3-only campaigns. You avoid the batman wizard type of problem while still retaining magic, since pretty much every caster will be a fixed-list highly thematicized caster rather than a class with open-ended spell access.

[Mendicant]

I'd be really careful about the more drastic interventions like capping all spells at 6. You can get away with it, but you need to keep a close eye on the monsters you're throwing out--they can be a lot harder to deal with without full casting available.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Check out my Fixed List Casters (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?317861-Fixed-List-Caster-Project-%283-5%29&p=16545265#post16545265). More than a dozen T3 casters with nice, balanced lists for every archetype.

[firruna]

Hello,
Thanks to everyone who posted, sorry for the last response, it appears I messed up when subscribing to this thread, so I didn't get the email alerts I meant to, and with a busy schedule, forgot to check back.
I am here now, and will be reading/responding your posts.

[firruna]

Cap spell levels at 6 would be one thought. Another option is just say nope to the stuff that breaks the game, the whole polymorph line, wish/miracle, gate( and maybe the planar ally spells).

I thought about doing something like this first, but knowing my players, they will be completely against that idea.


You could always set it in Dragonlance. The gods there don't put up with wizards making swiss cheese of time space and using teams of inevitables to enforce a limit on the abuse of wish/simulacrums/what have you would probably drive home the point to stop breaking the game. I think the fiend folio, or fiendish codex, had some extra inevitables that were cr 17 to 19 each, so if you think someone is getting ridiculous with wish abuse or what have you, then it's time to bust out teams of these things (the higher cr ones get wish 1/day themselves).

Also, wizards in dragonlance need to take at least one or more levels of wizard of high sorcery prestige class, which should curb some of the ridiculousness that players might be tempted to get up to. Also, since it's dragonlance, you can simply say no to non-dragonlance prestige classes like halruuan elder, dweomerkeeper, red wizard of thay, etc.

I'm not familiar with Dragonlance, I'll look into it as an idea.


Check out my Fixed List Casters (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?317861-Fixed-List-Caster-Project-%283-5%29&p=16545265#post16545265). More than a dozen T3 casters with nice, balanced lists for every archetype.

I will take a look at you list, thanks.

[Brova]

Why a 15+ campaign with low magic? What story are you trying to tell? What makes a 15+ campaign more good/interesting/fun than a E6 campaign for your purposes? Why limited magic - do you want less casters in general, or less broken tricks? If the latter, what do you consider to be "broken tricks"?

[Hrugner]

Maybe try disallowing full spell list casters and create a feat that lets the player ad a spell to their spell list from the cleric/druid/wizard spell lists that they would be able to cast if they were a full caster adding it to the highest level spell slots available when they take the feat. So a 17th level bard would be able to put a single ninth level wizard spell on his spell list as a sixth level spell. This would allow some very potent magic, but decrease a good amount of world crushing shenanigans.