No/Low Magic Campaign? (Again; sorry)

[TheCreatorT]

Yup; another one of these threads.

What have you found works for a No/Low Magic Campaign? I'm aware of the alternate class features for Ranger and Paladin, that the CR has to be properly balanced, and of course things like Dragonlance or Iron Heroes (My group still wants to use 3.5).

I guess when I did the research the main issue was determining what exactly counted as magic, such as spell like abilities. My thought is that if the ability cannot be attributed to evolution or adaptation or something along those lines, then it would be considered magical (which brings into the question of Chi as well).

What have you found that works, and what for you qualifies as magic? If something does qualify as magic, do you remove it or replace it? Tell me your thoughts. And sorry for another one of these threads; I have done research on it just I want a more current take on this idea.

(As a side note would dragons shape shifting be magic?)

[Geddy2112]

I am currently in a low magic setting. Basically we are martial classes with a sorcerer bloodline and a reduced spells known/spells per day. No arcane spell failure and eschew materials standard.

For races that would have SLA's, there is almost always at least one or two alternate traits that replace the SLA with something else. It is better to replace or add in functional stand in's for cure potions and such.

And yes, dragon shapeshifting would count as magic because dragons are inheriently magical. Any power of a magical creature is magic, unless it is an extraordinary ability. Anything an antimagic field can shut down is magic.

[Kelb_Panthera]

No magic is boring. Don't do it. It excises such a large portion of the game you may as well go with d20 modern with the d20 past supplement and call it a day. Even then you're probably better off with an -entirely- different system.

Here's what I do for the -occasional- minimal-magic, one-off adventure.

All vancian casters are removed, save adept and magewright (ECS 256).

Ranger and paladin are allowed as their non-caster variants.

All characters get the +X bonuses of the Vow of Poverty feat without having to meet any of the requirements (just the +X bonuses, no true seeing or no need to breath or anything.)

Magic items are distributed at DM discretion and can't be easily purchased.

Alternate system classes (Incarnum, binder, martial adept, etc) are out.



Ticking up to low-magic, rather than minimal:

Still no vancians other than adept and magewright

Ranger, paladin, and bard become available as prestige variants (barkskin added to the adept list).

Magic items are available if they're based on requirements from the lists of the classes above. More esoteric items are available at DM discretion or if the player is willing to perform a side-quest for a midgard dwarf, high-level warlock, or some other unique character.



That's how I do it anyway. Either of those allows the numbers to scale like they're supposed to and there are enough magic items of various types to be had from the latter limitations for things to still be interesting at a notably lower power scale than the standard. You've still got to be careful of what you throw at the party but it's definitely doable and a bit of a different game.

[Geddy2112]

No magic is boring. Don't do it. It excises such a large portion of the game you may as well go with d20 modern with the d20 past supplement and call it a day. Even then you're probably better off with an -entirely- different system.


Also totally second this. There are plenty of systems that use no magic. You can scale magic back, but virtually every 3.X variant just assumes magic after a few levels. Doing a no magic 3.5 is nearly impossible without majorly reworking the system that you should just use another.

[Crake]

I've found either using E6 for low magic, or a completely different system for no magic. Keep in mind that I distinguish between no magic, low magic and rare magic, in that no magic means it is an entirely mundane world, low magic means that there is a very low ceiling for the capabilities of magic and rare magic means magic as normal for 3.5, but its just incredibly rare to find.

As for what is considered magic, spellcasting, and abilities marked by (Sp) or (Su) are all magical in nature. By the rules, those things are magical and don't function in antimagic or deadmagic areas. If you want to houserule various things as being (Ex), that is, extraordinary, but still mundane, nobody's going to stop you, but in most cases that will simply make the ability more powerful, not less.

If you want to run rare magic though, that's easily done in 3.5, just have the characters be the exceptions to the rule, as they grow they will eventually discover and likely become a part of the small group of people capable of wielding world changing magic from behind the scenes.