Changes to Build a Colonial Fantasy

[MoonPearl]

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~ Forget it. My enthusiasm for this project is gone. ~

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[redwizard007]

The first thing to be aware of is that there may be some discomfort amongst players if you are just substituting monstrous humanoids for indigenous peoples, particularly if your locals use real world cultures. If you stick with more traditional d&d lore and simply do "Forgotten Realms lands on continent X" then you should be fine.

For balance, keep firearms low damage and they shouldn't be too bad.

Edit: before someone else says it, by 1600 firearms were fairly advanced. We still had muskets, but riffles and pistols had hit the scene as well.

[Luccan]

Are you looking for magic to be low-powered or just rare? If the latter, there's not really much change needed just an adjustment of how you run things. Probably not a lot of "court wizards" running around, for instance, and finding a scroll of even a first level spell might be an amazing treasure. Certain monsters are either fairy tales seen only by seasoned adventurers or absolute nightmares that are nigh impossible to deal with by all but the best and brightest. If the former, it depends how much you wish to reduce magic's power. My ideas are thus:

1. You can play a Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, or Rogue. Their magical subclasses are fine, but that's it as far as magic goes (maybe allow Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster feats, at your discretion). Potential issues: Healing and Buffing are almost gone, outside a feat or two and a handful of specific subclass abilities. If magic items remain rare, there might not be enough magic to go around against certain foes (those immune to standard attacks or are best fought with something out of the ordinary like thunder damage). But if you adjust your encounters for that, it might not be an issue.

2. As above, plus Ranger and Paladin. Magic opens up slightly here and Paladin really comes in for the healing rather than standard Paladin smiting. Similar issues as above run through, but not as harshly. Ranger might get more love than usual.
2a. As above + Warlock. Warlocks are technically full casters, but their casting is very different and limited compared to most other full
casters. OTOH, a Celestial Tomelock might work against the point of a low magic setting, providing healing and all the Ritual Spells a party could want. Up to you

3. Restrict to the following full casters: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock. Obviously, the world still needs to treat spellcasting as rare, but this allows for a more restricted spellcaster roster, without completely cutting out full casters. Not as limited, potentially not creating as many challenges, but the players also can't just pull spells out of their pocket with a long rest.

You could also restrict the highest level of spell casting allowed rather than classes, either allowing higher level spell slots but no spells over a particular level or cutting off caster levels once that level of spell casting is reached. Regardless, I wouldn't allow Artificer since their whole thing is industrializing magic which feels incongruent with a low-magic setting.

[HappyDaze]

The first thing to be aware of is that there may be some discomfort amongst players if you are just substituting monstrous humanoids for indigenous peoples, particularly if your locals use real world cultures. If you stick with more traditional d&d lore and simply do "Forgotten Realms lands on continent X" then you should be fine.


Maztica was FR on continent X and it could be seen as fairly offensive. It's probably why Maztica is almost never mentioned anymore (except in the tabaxi stuff, IIRC).

[J-H]

I'm working on a new setting that I want to set in a colonial inspired time period (16th century) that will introduce early firearms. I also want to make it a low magic setting.
D&D and "low magic" don't usually play well together. Even the Barbarians are running around with a magic-based subclass. Rarer magic items, maybe, but mundane? Not so much...use another system.



As it is I'm trying to put together a few homebrew races for the setting and I'm struggling to make them balanced and fun without just being reskins of existing races.
There's a race with a +2 stat for every base stat. What's wrong with a re-skin? What concept or capability isn't covered in the base or expanded races?


Maztica was FR on continent X and it could be seen as fairly offensive. It's probably why Maztica is almost never mentioned anymore (except in the tabaxi stuff, IIRC).
I haven't read anything about Maztica or Chult, but based on the names, I am guessing MesoAmerican-ish?

I've always felt that an Aztec-based civilization would work great for an "evil aligned empire." Over-sized nobility oppressing the commoners, steady diet of sentient sacrifice to feed their evil sun god, oppressed neighboring peoples, effective yet different weapons (Atlatl and obsidian), etc. They're a genuine threat - heck, have them get blessed with better ships and some beefy sun priests, and maybe they are invading your PC's homelands! Huitzopochitl, if I recall correctly, did stuff with the sun and hummingbirds, so there's an argument there for divinely-fueled sailing or flying ships if the priests keep up a steady flow of hearts. You can end up with a society as dangerous, evil, and bloody as the drow, but much more unified and directed.

There's enough source material to work with, and it's also unknown enough for most people that you have a way to set up something that's a genuinely different society from the pseudo-European or Japanese/Chinese settings that are most familiar, complete with some culture shock/disconnects that force them to adapt and think differently if they want to use diplomacy on the neighbors, noble factions, etc.

[micahaphone]

Tread carefully when porting real life movements and history in to fantasy lands, especially major things like colonialism where the effects are still being felt today. You might come off rudely to others, even if you're trying your damnedest to do it properly.

I remember reading an article about WotC's attempts to update old settings into more progressive versions, and while they did a decent job, there were several bits that were fumbles*. And if the literal professional adventure writers can stumble, chances are you might too, without realizing it.



I unfortunately can't find the article right now, but the 2 biggest parts I remember are the Vistani of Curse of Strahd and Port Nyanzaru in Tomb of Annihilation. I'm going to do a crappy paraphrasing of the arguments.
Vistani are obviously romani stereotypes, and the 5e CoS tries to paint the vistani in a more nuanced light, but then 99% of all vistani you meet are either spies for strahd, scammers, or drunken morons. So unless the DM bothers to tell the players "hey not all vistani are bad" and changes some parts, by the book they're pretty ****ty and don't show you that good side ever.
Port Nyanzaru was written with a message of successful rebellion from colonial overlords, turning themselves into a trading port. While the story is one of indigenous success and pride, it's still a history based around rich traders from the other continents being ****ty colonialists, and that was a reminder to some players about the real world, and wished that maybe the pan-african stand in area could perhaps have a storyline that's not focused on colonial persecution. Being reminded of your own country's history during your rpg time can completely break verisimilitude, but I could also see some players enjoying the optimistic alternate history provided. It'd definitely require buy-in, not as a default. That one in particular I could see perkins or other writers thinking they've done a great job of tuning up the story, only to find out they still missed the mark.

[kazaryu]

D&D and "low magic" don't usually play well together. Even the Barbarians are running around with a magic-based subclass. Rarer magic items, maybe, but mundane? Not so much...use another system.



that..depends entirely on what you mean by low magic. most people when they say 'low magic' are referring to magic being rare. and in, fact is the default assumption of 5e. (i don't mean the default setting. i mean the default assumption behind the design).

what this means is that generally in a 'low magic' setting, the PC's are some of the few people in teh world that know magic and magic items (of any type) are incredibly rare.

[J-H]

that..depends entirely on what you mean by low magic. most people when they say 'low magic' are referring to magic being rare. and in, fact is the default assumption of 5e. (i don't mean the default setting. i mean the default assumption behind the design).

what this means is that generally in a 'low magic' setting, the PC's are some of the few people in teh world that know magic and magic items (of any type) are incredibly rare.
My experience with the low magic side is more around 3.5, as I've been doing 5e for only about a year.... but if you have a low magic world outside of the PCs, it cuts off a big chunk of your ability to challenge them. As a DM, most of the toughest fights my party has had have included a spellcasting enemy or two, or magical foe (medusa, vampire). Enemies with Counterspell also help shake things up for spellcasters who might otherwise usually manage to go untouched.

In general, 5e seems to handle "fewer magic items" better than 3.5, but magic items still help expand player options for classes that can't just "learn spider climb" or "learn disguise self" natively. My players have items that do both, and have used them quite creatively.

[Renvir]

You'll have to give us more guidelines on what you mean by low-magic because that can mean a whole lot of different things to different people. My suggestion for low magic when thinking about a colony setting is to cap PC (and most NPCs) spells at 5th level and add a 200 mile maximum range for teleportation circle. This removes all the instant world traveling spells like teleport and transport via plants and means any travel back to the "old world" is an arduous journey. It also explains how people are just finding a new continent now. If you don't see the PC's getting to level 11+ then there's no real downside to this. If they do hit those levels you can grant them an extra spell slot and spell known/memorized in place of the higher level spell.

Other low magic options:

Lack of access to spell scrolls and magical services. Capping merchant availability to level 3 spells makes being able to cast your own 4th level or higher spells that much more fantastic.
Add spell slots for cantrips. No more infinite casting Firebolt or Guidance. I suggest level + spellcasting attribute modifier to determine cantrip slots. You'll still get a lot of them but it will make magic feel way more impressive and rare this way. Or just set it to 5 slots but they come back on a short rest. Whatever you think is best.
Treat Common and Uncommon magical items as Uncommon and Rare respectively for price and availability.
Rituals are 1 hour + casting time instead of 10 minutes + casting time.


Firearms are always tricky with dnd. You don't want them to outshine the old weapons but they also can't be so bad as to make them useless. I tried the following list in a campaign with a medium amount of success.

Musket - Simple, 2d8 piercing, 60/120 range, Loading (2), 2-handed, Loud
Blunderbuss - Simple, 3d6 piercing, 30/60 range, Loading (2), 2-handed, Loud
Pistol - Martial, 2d6 piercing, 50/100 range, Loading (2), 1-handed, Loud
Rifle - Marital, 2d12 piercing, 100/300 range, Loading (2), 2-handed, Loud

To make them stand out I upped their damage beyond the damage done by the base weapons. But the trade-offs are no attribute bonus to damage, no multiattack, they're loud so sneaking is out, and two actions to reload. I also included a feat that reduced load times by 1 and allowed players to use double their proficiency bonus instead of proficiency bonus + dex mod for attack rolls. The players largely ignored firearms in my campaign. One person got some mileage out of a magical one but that's about it. However, NPC's with firearms suddenly became a problem for them. 6 hobgoblins with rifles in a small fort was a real puzzle for the party.

Creating new races can be challenging. But there are like 40 published races now in 5e, not to mention all the subraces. Reskinning or creating mashups of the listed races should give you enough to work with. If that doesn't work for you then here are a couple ideas I think could work:

Caravan Nomads - Clans of people with a natural wanderlust. Tamed great beasts that have become walking homes. Size Small to emphasize living in homes built upon or attached to beasts, Dexterity +2, Animal Handling proficiency, climb at normal speeds (for getting up and down the beasts), only need half rations/water because they're used to long stretches in harsh terrain. Subraces are Scout (+1 Wisdom, +10 speed or 35ft speed total), Builder (+1 Intelligence, Crafting Tool proficiency, mending cantrip), and Trader (+1 Charisma, add 1d4 to Persuasion and Deception checks)
Remnants - Creations of a long dead empire. Part construct and part humanoid. Usually found dormant deep within ruins, very few exist now. Some have been woken up and have shed their ruins for something new. Size Normal, Constitution +2, resist poison and electricity damage, heal half as much from all sources except hit dice, hit dice are always maxed. Subraces are Extenders (+1 Dexterity, legs and arms are mechanical and built to extend, +5 feet to reach (like bugbear), and +5 feet to jump distances), Sentinels (+1 Strength, Natural Armor (AC=Con? or flat bonus, not sure), get all hit dice back on long rest instead of half), and Imbued (+1 Intelligence, choose one level 1 wizard spell that has the ritual tag, can cast spell as a ritual, at 5th level choose one 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level wizard spell that has the ritual tag, can cast as a ritual)
Competing Colonizers - There's another continent you didn't know about and the people from there are colonizing this land too! They have a caste system and it's all about showing up your rivals. Also, they don't have any taboos regarding the undead or necromancy. Size Normal, +2 Intelligence, Prof with Firearms, know chill touch cantrip (use Int as casting stat), can cast animate dead 1/day starting at level 5. Subraces are Aristocrat (+1 Charisma, proficiency with any two Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skills, advantage on death saving throws), Warrior (+1 Strength, +1 HP per level), and Grunt (+1 Constitution, proficiency with one tool, treated as one size larger for determining carry weight)

I like these because they also help explain why foreigners could come to a new land and start colonizing without major pushback from existing societies. The Caravaners aren't interested in building cities, don't live with any defined borders, and travel in groups of 50-100. The Remnants are small in number and most have only been woken up from slumber/stasis recently. The Colonizers are new to the land as well.

I hope this helps.

[MoonPearl]

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[kazaryu]

In regards to it being low magic. I mostly want to avoid the kind of magic that trivializes hard work and exploration. Sea voyages mean nothing when people can fly and teleport. Surviving in the wilderness is easy when you can resist the elements and conjure fire with a word. And getting seriously injured or losing a limb is meaningless if you can just be healing by a few magic words and a prayer.

I don't want to eliminate magic entirely, but I don't want any Elminsters to be walking around and a magic academy churning out mages by the dozen. I much prefer more subtle magic like that seen in LotR. It exists, it's acknowledged and accepted, but it isn't flashy and it can't solve every problem.

Magic items will be stuff of legends, but I don't mind having alchemical potions/oils/elixers.

Hope that paints a clearer picture of what I'm going for.

The real question is, are you worried about this for the pcs or just the world in general? Are you ok with the pcs playing full casters? The wizard, instead of being a graduate, is just starting out, the pioneer. Down the road maybe he'll open a university type deal. But for now hes justnone a few people researching magic.

From a mechanical standpoint the wizard is able to do wizard things, theyre just not super common?

[Dr. Cliché]

In regards to it being low magic. I mostly want to avoid the kind of magic that trivializes hard work and exploration. Sea voyages mean nothing when people can fly and teleport. Surviving in the wilderness is easy when you can resist the elements and conjure fire with a word. And getting seriously injured or losing a limb is meaningless if you can just be healing by a few magic words and a prayer.

I don't want to eliminate magic entirely, but I don't want any Elminsters to be walking around and a magic academy churning out mages by the dozen. I much prefer more subtle magic like that seen in LotR. It exists, it's acknowledged and accepted, but it isn't flashy and it can't solve every problem.

Have you considered using a different system? There are quite a few out there.

Otherwise, you'll need to try and scrap or rewrite near enough the entire D&D magic system. :smalltongue:

[MoonPearl]

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[MoonPearl]

:smallmad: :smallmad: :smallmad:

[Dr. Cliché]

Sure, let me just buy all the books and learn all the ins and outs of a completely new system with all of my time and money.

oh wait... :smallannoyed:

So you don't have the time to learn a new system but you do have the time to fundamentally rewrite the magic system in a game practically built around said system? :smallconfused:

That's a very specific amount of time you have there.

[MoonPearl]

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[Dr. Cliché]

I'm not looking to rewrite the magic system.

Except that you demonstrably are. Because the subtle/LotR magic system you want is worlds away from D&D's high magic system.



I don't understand people like you. You're obviously not keen to offer suggestions or help. You just want to tell me how I shouldn't do what I'm trying to do and mock me. So why are you even posting in this thread?

All I did was ask a very reasonable question - why not use a system that's already low-magic and which already has solid rules for firearms? As opposed to using a system that is built around high-magic and medieval weapons and so needs to be heavily modified in order to fit your theme.

Your only response was to turn around and be a sarcastic dicknozzle.

And now you're apparently having trouble working out why I'm not being helpful. :smallconfused:

Well, keep working on it. Maybe you'll get the answer eventually.

In the meantime, good luck and goodbye.

[kazaryu]

Both.

I don't want the setting to have the type of magic that makes life trivial or easy, and I don't want players standing on the bow of a ship throwing fireballs at other ships with a few words and gestures.

I prefer magic that is subtle. A bit of mind influencing, summoning a bit of wind, creating a light or circles of protection. Anything flashier, like throwing fire and lightning or summoning creatures and seeing the future, I like to be major feats of magic that take time and extensive preparation to accomplish by the highest level magic-users.

Magic should never be trivial or easy.

Ok, now this does fundementally alter what dnd magic is meant to be. Not to say you cant do it, but this is definitely something that people need to know when you pitch the campaign. Reason being you are going to have to have major player buy in to pull this off. Its very important that when you talk to your player about this campaign that you are very specific about how far youd like to limit magic. Full casters are going to be all but out for most people (except possibly the martial-esque subclasses) because their primary contribution to combat is flashy magic.

As far as how to limit it, rather than trying to go through the rulebook and pick and choose what to ban, if you instead tell the players ahead of time your vision for the campaign so that they can take it into account at spell selection. This is where player buy-in comes into play and why you need to let then know ahead of time what youre planning for the magic. I have a few ideas for the actual likiting of magic itself, but regardless if you use my suggestions, this part here is still paramount.

First idea:. Mechanically speaking what youre doing is replacing the existing spell casting system with one that is much much less mechanically...present. at least for what you describe as 'flashy' spells. So you do that. The problem with doing this is that magic becomes..difficult. not for the character, but for the player. Most people that are used to dnd would find narrative casting to be rather jarring

An alternative would be to just...ban casting classes altogether. Instead if a player wants to play a 'caster' you give them the magic initiate feat, with a couple of fairly insignificant out of combat cantrips like light. Mending, uhhhhh...you get the idea. And one fairly insignificant spell..like detect magic, detect poison..you get the idea. Work with the player to find a compromise. Also give them the ritual casting feat. So now they get some limited ability to cast, and it keeps the flavor you want. As an extension of this, you can instead come up with several feats that youll let your players pick 1 or 2 of at the start and have for free. Magic initiate, ritual casting, Healer, etc. Maybe look into some of the skill feats. This way if someone wants to be a hedge wizard, theyre not getting free feats. Everyone gets some free feats, just none of the combat ones.

[False God]

I'm working on a new setting that I want to set in a colonial inspired time period (16th century) that will introduce early firearms. I also want to make it a low magic setting.

I'm looking for suggestions on what sort of changes and/or limitations would be appropriate to obtain the sort of setting I'm going for. I'm hesitant to change much for fear of unbalancing the system and breaking things.
I used the KISS method. Firearms use the same stats as crossbows. I'm not interested in a realistic risk of your gun exploding or how fast you can actually reload a real classical firearm (about 15 seconds) or figuring out how much more damage a bullet would do.

Certainly the information on those things is out there, but I felt it was too much to add to an otherwise light system like 5E.


As it is I'm trying to put together a few homebrew races for the setting and I'm struggling to make them balanced and fun without just being reskins of existing races.

Any advice or suggestions on how to go about doing this would be most appreciated
In what way do the races already for 5E not satisfy? We have cat-people, snake-people, elephant-people, dragon-people, people-people, demon-people, angel-people and more! Sorry if you already answered, I realize I'm late to the party.

As for magic, the only real solution while maintaining the D&D system is to keep things low level. Like, 5 or less. If you start the party out as a bunch of first-level folks sailing on a voyage to a new land, this is pretty easy. Magic will solve a few problems. But if you include a crew of appropriate size to man a ship, or multiple ships, even an entire party of magic-users won't be breaking out their spells to make water for everyone.

You know what's worse than magic? A perfectly mundane Ranger using his perfectly mundane favored terrain (forest/jungle) to completely ignore difficult terrain, always be able to find food, and get sizable bonuses to survival checks! Magic? Psshaw!

[MoonPearl]

:smallmad: :smallmad: :smallmad:

~ Forget it. My enthusiasm for this project is gone. ~

:smallmad: :smallmad: :smallmad:

[Cybren]

D&D is already incredibly colonialist, so

[Sparky McDibben]

Don't let 'em get you down, MoonPearl. Can I ask what media your inspiration is being drawn from? My wife just got Greedfall, and she's loving it, so I thought maybe you were drawing from that.

[Renvir]

I woke up to find that OP has unfortunately lost interest in the idea since my last post. But I've got a couple other ideas I wanted to share in case someone else sees this and wants some inspiration for a low magic, colonial setting.

Wands that fire cantrips can be used in place of gunpowder firearms. Give them X charges and require spell slots be used to recharge them. Treat the cantrips as 5th level (so 2d10 firebolt) to give them some oomph. Make them simple proficiency so just about everyone can use them.

To counter the power of some spells and abilities that can trivialize exploration you need to add supernatural and magical environments. Don't make everything like that but a section of jungle with magical fog and moving root systems means rangers will have to actually try to navigate instead of auto succeeding with their Natural Explorer feature.

How populated do you want this place to be? Are there many thriving societies already present or is the land mostly uninhabited? As others have pointed out you may want to avoid creating a setting where you are colonizing someone else's home. Perhaps you've landed in a large uninhabited region with established kingdoms, societies, countires, etc bordering the region on opposite sides. It gives you the chance to meet new people without invading them.

Have previous civilizations come and gone? The players are going to explore but what are they going to explore? Ruins and dungeons are pretty standard but if no one has lived here before then you'll need to design caves, mountains, groves, grottos, etc to be areas of exploration. Finding coins and magical items may also feel weird. Perhaps rare plants, metals, furs, and gemstones are the treasures you find instead.

[JoeJ]

I came up with this version of low magic for an Arthurian-themed campaign. I have not play tested these changes yet (so if anybody does decides to try them, I'd really appreciate a report on how well they work for you).


Magic is a lot more subtle in the Land of Cumbria than it is in most D&D worlds. Flashy spells like Fireball don’t exist, and most of those spells that do exist take longer to cast – too long to be cast during combat, in most cases.

Casting times of most spells are inceased by 1 increment. That is, casting times of 1 Action or 1 Bonus Action become 1 minute, casting times of 1 minute become 10 minutes, casting times of 10 minutes become 1 hour, and casting times of 1 hour become 8 hours. Spells with casting times of 8 hours or more, or those that are cast as reactions remain unaffected. Casting time increases apply only to the actual casting of spells, not the use of spell slots for other purposes (a paladin’s Divine Smite, for example). Spell duration is also increased in the same way, although Instantaneous duration spells are not affected, nor (obviously) are spells that last until dispelled.

The following spells from the Player’s Handbook do not exist in Cumbria:

Acid Splash, Antilife Shell, Arcane Gate, Armor of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Awaken, Banishing Smite, Banishment, Barkskin, Bigby’s Hand, Blade Barrier, Blight, Blinding Smite, Blindness/Deafness, Blink, Blur, Branding Smite, Burning Hands, Call Lightning, Chill Touch, Chromatic Orb, Circle of Death, Clone, Cloud of Daggers, Cloudkill, Color Spray, Cone of Cold, Conjure Barage, Conjure Volley, Control Water, Cordon of Arrows, Create Food and Water, Create or Destroy Water, Crown of Madness, Darkness, Daylight, Delayed Blast Fireball, Demiplane, Destruction Wave, Dimension Door, Disintegrate, Divine Word, Drawmij’s Instant Summons, Earthquake, Eldritch Blast, Ensnaring Strike, Entangle, Etherealness, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Expeditious Retreat, Fabricate, Faerie Fire, Find Steed, Finger of Death, Fireball, Fire Bolt, Fire Shield, Fire Storm, Flame Blade, Flame Strike, Flaming Sphere, Flesh to Stone, Fly, Forcecage, Gaseous Form, Giant Insect, Globe of Invulnerability, Glyph of Warding, Grasping Vine, Grease, Guardian of Faith, Guards and Wards, Guiding Bolt, Gust of Wind, Hail of Thorns, Harm, Haste, Heat Metal, Hellish Rebuke, Holy Aura, Hunger of Hadar, Hypnotic Pattern, Ice Storm, Incendiary Cloud, Inflict Wounds, Insect Plague, Jump, Leomund’s Secret Chest, Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Levitate, Light, Lightning Arrow, Lightning Bolt, Mage Hand, Magic Missile, Magic Mouth, Maze, Meld Into Stone, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Mending, Meteor Swarmm Mirror Image, Misty Step, Moonbeam, Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound, Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, Mordenkainen’s Sword, Move Earth, Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Passwall, Plane Shift, Plant Growth, Poison Spray, Power Word Kill, Power Word Stun, Prismatic Spray, Prismatic Wall, Produce Flame, Raise Dead, Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Frost, Ray of Sickness, Reincarnate, Resurrection, Reverse Gravity, Rope Trick, Sacred Flame, Scorching Ray, Searing Smite, Shatter, Shocking Grasp, Silence, Sleet Storm, Slow, Spider Climb, Spiritual Weapon, Stinking Cloud, Storm of Vengeance, Sunbeam, Sunburst, Swift Quiver, Telekinesis, Teleport, Teleportation Circle, Tenser’s Floating Disk, Thorn Whip, Thunderous Smite, Thunderwave, Time Stop, Transport via Plants, Tree Stride, True Resurrection, Tsunami, Vampiric Touch, Wall of Fire, Wall of Force, Wall of Ice, Wall of Stone, Water Walk, Web, Wind Walk, Wind Wall, Wish, Witch Bolt, Word of Recall.

(The effects of the prohibited spells listed above may, in some cases, occur as miracles, or be created by magic items.)

Those spells that do exist generally don’t have special effects that are immediately recognizable as unnatural, unless those effects are essential to the working of the spell. So, for example, Feather Fall will still make someone fall slowly, but Alarm produces a snapping twig or an animal call instead of the sound of a bell, and Shield simply causes the target to dodge or parry a bit better that round.

Casting a spell as a ritual generally involves remaining in the same place so that components can be positioned, symbols drawn on the ground, etc. It can’t be done while walking or riding a horse (although it could be done while riding in a wagon or on a ship).

Spells from sources other than the Player’s Handbook can not be learned or cast unless they are encountered in play. No character can start off being able to cast them.


With these changes, players know that if they choose to play a character who is primarily a spell caster, they will be basically a sidekick to the other PCs, so I don't recommend doing that (although I won't forbid it if somebody really wants to).

[Lavaeolus]

The subject is of interest of me, at least. I was planning, shortly enough if all goes well, on running a campaign that was set in a sort of equivalent to 1780s-1820s London -- so my focus was a bit more urban, but it touches on similar issues. I wanted firearms to be a thing, without just reskinning other weapons. I also wanted regular D&D shenanigans to be a thing. I wanted magic not to be commonplace. I didn't want to nerf every spellcaster, let alone ban every class but Fighter, Rogue and Barbarian.

So, here are my plans, said here both for any feedback and to see if anyone else is interested something similar.


My plans for firearms:
I was willing to be quite loose with history, so on a technological level I probably just made the setting a bit more Ankh-Morpork than real-world London, at least as far as weapons go. Yes, guns exist. If you see a highwayman, they'll probably be using one. But no, not everyone is packing, and crossbows and bows are still around. You won't get laughed out of the place for bringing a sword around. Thugs still occasionally sneak up behind people, hit them over the head with a club, and then make off with what they can find. Firearms are growing in use, but not everyone has them and they're still willing to use alternate means of defending themselves.

I don't think this'll be too disbelievable, though I'd probably have a bigger problem if I'd gone for the colonial setting (and all the imagery that evokes). It's still a little funny to see an elf with a bow running around, but I think that absurdity also makes the mash-up a little funner. I'm planning on using the optional DMG Renaissance firearm rules, and fortunately I think they back up this kind of setting. Logically, it'd make sense for more recent firearms to be available, but running around with pistols and muskets fits well enough. Essentially, the DMG rules make the two example Renaissance guns slightly stronger crossbows: they both have the loading property, Pistols do 1d10 damage, and Muskets do 1d12 but are two-handed.

I think this will work well enough. Crossbows aren't so powerful that having a slightly stronger option breaks the game. The catch is that it costs 3gp for 10 bullets, and firearm ammunition isn't recoverable. If I want crossbows to still be an enticing option, it means relying on two things: giving players things to spend money on, making sure money is available enough to support firearms but not trivialise using them, and explicitly making ammunition tracking a thing. I want martial characters to be able to use firearms as their weapon-of-choice, so I'm planning on allowing a feat that means players can ignore a firearm's loading property (this makes the guns seem a bit more high-technology anyway) and giving Artificers, and all characters with proficiency in martial weapons, proficiency in firearms. Rogues and Bards, who have a more limited selection of martial weapons, get Pistols but not Muskets.

I am, in all truth, a little concerned about some of these choices. The feat's deliberately meant to parallel Crossbow Expert, but even aside from balance, it means this feat is a feat-tax if a player wants to play with firearms. Fortunately enough, they don't have to use them, so maybe all this thinking will be for nothing!

For all other intents and purposes, class features and feats, firearms are just normal martial ranged weapons. It's possible to start with one at character creation, with 20 bullets.


My plans for magic:
I ultimately resolved that magic, as seen in most D&D settings, could translate to the setting as-is. Wizard and Cleric spell lists remain the same, as do their spell effects. It struck me when thinking about this that, essentially, this wasn't too different from most D&D settings I've played: the general assumption, from people writing what they know, is usually that whatever random village or city you're in operates just like it would in the real-world. That is, without magic. Eberron is one big pointed exception I can think of, as far as the official D&D settings go.

So Wizards and Clerics are just rare. I decided that gods don't do things, and that Cleric power operates much like Paladin power: that is, it stems from firm devotion and belief. Since I was planning on characterising this city as kind of a cynical, opportunistic place, that element sort of fit in. Grungy fantasy Londontown (London-ish–town?) just isn't sincere enough. And magic, more generally, is very hard! So the city, formed mainly of humans and half-orcs, was mainly made from non-wizards at the start, most learned men are focused on other pursuits, and the lower-class simply doesn't have the time to learn it on a wide scale. There are other nations that are a bit more magic friendly, but this is something this city is just backwards in by comparison.

Depending on the specifics of the colonial setting, I could suggest something similar. Wizards have a history of being presented as pretty academic; maybe most new settlers arriving simply come from a low-magic background. You could argue that magic, which is so useful and so gamechanging at times, should have a harsher impact on society -- but so long as you can get players to buy into the setting, that's all you need.

So if players wanted to be big-magicians in this setting they could; they'd just have to withstand a bit of gossip, and a lot of backlash if they were caught outright magically charming people. I didn't want to limit player choice too much, and in D&D 5e the non-magical classes can be counted on one hand, and the hand's missing two fingers. (This does depend on if you count Monks as 'magic'; they're not spellcasters, but as-written I'd argue they're not a good jumping point for a low-magic campaign without DM reskinning.) Not only that, the non-magical classes all have subclasses that let them dip into magic, and Fighters and Barbarians can fill similar roles.

I resolved to just roll with this, that the party would probably end up being the odd ones out, but in an effort to increase interest and options for the non-magic characters, I highlighted that I'd allow the Unarmed Fighting Style from the Class Feature Variants UA. I also -- and this was something I was interested in playtesting out anyway -- am planning to allow the homebrew Pugilist class by Sterling Vermin. In this case, I felt the theming was very on-point for the grungy urban city I wanted, and I thought it'd help in concepting some new non-magic enemies. I don't think this is an option I can realistically recommend as much to others, though -- 'Sure, just add homebrew classes!' is a dangerous game -- and it doesn't fit a colonial setting as well. Walking around relying on your boxing skills is a bit harder when running around exploring new lands.

I briefly considered adding the spell-less Ranger from the old Modifying Classes (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/modifying-classes) article in, but I wasn't confident in it enough to commit to it. I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on that? My ruling would be that the four superiority dice at level 2 don't stack with Battle Master (it's one or the other), but that the other ones you gain do. If people judge it well enough, it does, I think, have the potential fit a colonial setting pretty well -- but as is I can't, in earnest, speak confidently enough to recommend it. I simply don't have enough experience with it, nor enough people talking about their own experiences to draw on.


Anyway, if I ever get around to running this, I'll tell people how it went. Mechanically it's not too different, which is good because that's how I intended to handle it, but we'll see if it goes down well or in flames.

[No brains]

:smallmad: :smallmad: :smallmad:

~ Forget it. My enthusiasm for this project is gone. ~

:smallmad: :smallmad: :smallmad:

I hope this isn't taken the wrong way, but this is the most aesthetically pleasing ragequit I have ever seen. The fury of the smallmads and message pleasantly contrasts with the measured centering of and decorative tildes around the text. It is a peculiarly beautiful epitaph for your project. I'm sorry this didn't work out for you, but you have some compositional talent.