Low magic (sort of) game. (3.5ish)

[Evil the Cat]

My friend is going to be starting a game soon. Based on his explanation and house rules, there will be a lot of magic, but very little of it will be available to characters.

Most notably, enchanting things (magic items) will be very difficult and rare by normal D&D standards. rare and expensive materials will be necessary to even hold enchantments. Steel weapons/armor are capped at +2 and can have no special effects, most wood/leather can't be enchanted at all, etc. As such, I am trying to come up with a character concept that won't be too hurt by this. As an added complication, all characters are starting at level 1, all from the same simple little town in an old English style area. It's using some of the pathfinder stuff (skills, feat progression, races, melee classes/druid). Other races will be available (with LA reduced by 1, because of pathfinder's boost to the base races) However, all races must feasibly be able to live in what is almost entirely a human town without being too out of place.

What I'm asking for is help with character concepts (with build ideas if you'd like) that would be fun and interesting, while living in what is a small, ordinary, human town, starting at level 1, where I won't be particularly equipment dependent. (Almost everything from 3.5 is still available, its sort of a 3.5/pathfinder hybrid)

Over the years, I've seen some really good ideas come out of this board, so I'm hoping you can help me.

[RagnaroksChosen]

My friend is going to be starting a game soon. Based on his explanation and house rules, there will be a lot of magic, but very little of it will be available to characters.

Most notably, enchanting things (magic items) will be very difficult and rare by normal D&D standards. rare and expensive materials will be necessary to even hold enchantments. Steel weapons/armor are capped at +2 and can have no special effects, most wood/leather can't be enchanted at all, etc. As such, I am trying to come up with a character concept that won't be too hurt by this. As an added complication, all characters are starting at level 1, all from the same simple little town in an old English style area. It's using some of the pathfinder stuff (skills, feat progression, races, melee classes/druid). Other races will be available (with LA reduced by 1, because of pathfinder's boost to the base races) However, all races must feasibly be able to live in what is almost entirely a human town without being too out of place.

What I'm asking for is help with character concepts (with build ideas if you'd like) that would be fun and interesting, while living in what is a small, ordinary, human town, starting at level 1, where I won't be particularly equipment dependent. (Almost everything from 3.5 is still available, its sort of a 3.5/pathfinder hybrid)

Over the years, I've seen some really good ideas come out of this board, so I'm hoping you can help me.

It realy depends.
As long as the GM isn't reducing WBL you gonna have alot of money to spending on healing gear, Pots, scrolls, and or wands... Which are all decent..
If he is reducing the WBl.
I would go for prolly eaither a full caster(Spiritshaman or druid) or a dragon shaman.

[JonestheSpy]

In my experience, rogues tend to shine in low-magic settings. When you can't count on magic to solve every problem, skills really shine. Myself, I like to mix in a couple of levels of ranger and/or fighter, for those extra hit points in a world without a zillion healing potions, and combat strength to make up for lack of magic weapons. And of course a low level rogue fits in just fine in an ordinary small town.

Oh, and rogues are good for going and obtaining those rare items needed to actually make some magic items.

As for background.concept, there's all sorts of fun archetypes to jump off from - the street orphan 'Artful Dodger' style, the gypsy-tinker, the upper class rakehell, the remittance man, the wandering juggler-pickpocket, etc.

As long as the GM isn't reducing WBL you gonna have alot of money to spending on healing gear, Pots, scrolls, and or wands... Which are all decent..

I'd assume that low-magic also means one doesn't have a bunch of healing magic for sale available. Doesn't mean everyone needs to run out and roll up a clearic - hopefully the DM takes the lack of easy healing into account and adjusts things accordingly.

Dragon shaman

I'm trying to figure out how a dragon shaman would fit into a small medieval English town. Or any kind of shaman, really...

[Evil the Cat]

It realy depends.
As long as the GM isn't reducing WBL you gonna have alot of money to spending on healing gear, Pots, scrolls, and or wands... Which are all decent..
If he is reducing the WBl.
I would go for prolly eaither a full caster(Spiritshaman or druid) or a dragon shaman.

I'm pretty sure WBL is going to wind up significantly reduced. Even if it isn't, effective WBL will be due to the increased cost, and difficulty to find anything magic.

I was considering some kind of full caster, as I usually prefer casters, but I just haven't had an interesting enough concept come to mind yet.

In my experience, rogues tend to shine in low-magic settings. When you can't count on magic to solve every problem, skills really shine. Myself, I like to mix in a couple of levels of ranger and/or fighter, for those extra hit points in a world without a zillion healing potions, and combat strength to make up for lack of magic weapons. And of course a low level rogue fits in just fine in an ordinary small town.

Oh, and rogues are good for going and obtaining those rare items needed to actually make some magic items.

As for background.concept, there's all sorts of fun archetypes to jump off from - the street orphan 'Artful Dodger' style, the gypsy-tinker, the upper class rakehell, the remittance man, the wandering juggler-pickpocket, etc.



I'd assume that low-magic also means one doesn't have a bunch of healing magic for sale available. Doesn't mean everyone needs to run out and roll up a clearic - hopefully the DM takes the lack of easy healing into account and adjusts things accordingly.



I'm trying to figure out how a dragon shaman would fit into a small medieval English town. Or any kind of shaman, really...

We'll have a paladin in the group, so we'll have some healing, and my fortuitously acquiring rare materials for magic items might be somewhat suspicious.

I could probably pull off a spirit shaman, hes using real-world religions for his game, and the british isles did have a lot of nature-worship religions. Dragon shaman would be a lot more difficult. Though, for some reason, I've always thought of Dragon Shamans as being pretty gear dependent.

[Myou]

Vow of Poverty Druid.

[PinkysBrain]

What I'm asking for is help with character concepts

Above all else have as much magic in your class as possible, full caster if possible, the less magic items there are the stronger the magic classes get and the weaker and more boring the non magic classes get.

PS. VoP Druid or VoP Totemist would do nicely indeed.

[BooNL]

Considering the background of this quant human village any a usual lack of common magic items, how about going a slightly more infernal route? A warlock or binder might fit into the setting quite snugly.
They're fairly gear independant (especially the warlock) and could add a darker tone to this village.

[RagnaroksChosen]

I'm trying to figure out how a dragon shaman would fit into a small medieval English town. Or any kind of shaman, really...

I was just thinking of gear dependencies. rather then what would fit in the english town.. Spirit shaman would work though because they could be one of the less civilised tribes from the northland(celts)

[Yuki Akuma]

I was just thinking of gear dependencies. rather then what would fit in the english town.. Spirit shaman would work though because they could be one of the less civilised tribes from the northland(celts)

Spirit Samans have a very animist religious flavour - Druids fit in 'historical' Britain much better. Britain didn't ever have any animistic religions - the closest we came was folklore about fairies.

[Otho Trois]

Ever consider something like a bard? A wandering minstrel/skald with the ability to do quite a bit of minor magic here and there I think would fit well into an older English type setting. Not quite an Elan scale bard, but rather a smart one who knows what all he is capable of. One who calls on Bardic Knowledge to learn about the King vs. the Kingdom or uses his skill bonus song when trying to do things OTHER than Concentrate or Sneak...

And Bards really fit into low-magic campaigns quite well as they are naturally quite low-magic by definition. Thinking back to LOTRO, Minstrels were one of their highest magic classes, and it sounds like it'd fit in your setting. You can be a rogue, a cleric, a sorcerer, all in about 5 minutes!

[ericgrau]

A druid is probably the least magic item dependent class out of what's allowed, because of casting and wildshape.

If playing a martial character first your AC will suffer, then your attributes, then finally your damage output. A rogue is similar but loses high level skill boosts and still has some sneak attack damage left. Many skills like disable device can't be boosted anyway, so those keep up.

[Kesnit]

Steel weapons/armor are capped at +2 and can have no special effects, most wood/leather can't be enchanted at all, etc.

If I'm reading this right, any class that cannot wear medium or heavy armor or cast Mage Armor is going to get in trouble.

[Person_Man]

If you don't want to go with a full caster, then I'm going to say Crusader and/or Hellreaver and/or Necropolitan Shadow Sun Ninja are your best bets. Healing is going to be your biggest obstacle, and these should solve it.