Anti-Magic everyday folk

[KyleG]

So I had this idea for my campaign where there are individuals who are nulls. Basically the normal population. Magic itself doesn't affect them. It stemmed from a scenario idea where an npc is hurt but its explained they can't be healed with a potion/healing magic. A couple of ways I see this...

Completely magically null.

Immune to certain spells, or types, or even affects.

Maybe cant even use magical things

My world has magical items in ruins, it has magicaltech powered by specific crystals, and there are magical individuals but its not an economy dependant on magic I don't think. Im not sure if that's because magic is in decline or if the magical individuals are on the rise but for the most part people live lives more akin to real world humans. Magical street lamps are not even thought about any more than we look at our own lighting. But maybe they flicker when certain people walk past I don't know. Is it a mutation to be able to be healed by magical means or is not being healed the variant?

And what impact on the world does that have? Im imaging the faiths of the world are more akin to our own (perhaps better thou), tending to the sick and lost (hospitals), gathering knowledge (monastery).

What are your thoughts on this null idea? Perhaps it only applies to healing magics, reducing the impact of such things on most people but leaving a few lucky like the pcs in a position to change the world.

[Huzuhbazah]

So I had this idea for my campaign where there are individuals who are nulls. Basically the normal population. Magic itself doesn't affect them. It stemmed from a scenario idea where an npc is hurt but its explained they can't be healed with a potion/healing magic. A couple of ways I see this...

Completely magically null.

Immune to certain spells, or types, or even affects.

Maybe cant even use magical things

My world has magical items in ruins, it has magicaltech powered by specific crystals, and there are magical individuals but its not an economy dependant on magic I don't think. Im not sure if that's because magic is in decline or if the magical individuals are on the rise but for the most part people live lives more akin to real world humans. Magical street lamps are not even thought about any more than we look at our own lighting. But maybe they flicker when certain people walk past I don't know. Is it a mutation to be able to be healed by magical means or is not being healed the variant?

And what impact on the world does that have? Im imaging the faiths of the world are more akin to our own (perhaps better thou), tending to the sick and lost (hospitals), gathering knowledge (monastery).

What are your thoughts on this null idea? Perhaps it only applies to healing magics, reducing the impact of such things on most people but leaving a few lucky like the pcs in a position to change the world.

Depending on the nature and qualities of their antimagicness, these nulls could be treated in a wide variety of ways, from being sought after as potential military assets that can assist in assassination attempts against targets that are guarded by a bevy of magical and/or magicaltech arms and defenses, to being hunted down by paranoid (non)mages seeking to preemptively reduce the number of potential threats against them and/or their forces.

[Tvtyrant]

So I had this idea for my campaign where there are individuals who are nulls. Basically the normal population. Magic itself doesn't affect them. It stemmed from a scenario idea where an npc is hurt but its explained they can't be healed with a potion/healing magic. A couple of ways I see this...

Completely magically null.

Immune to certain spells, or types, or even affects.

Maybe cant even use magical things

My world has magical items in ruins, it has magicaltech powered by specific crystals, and there are magical individuals but its not an economy dependant on magic I don't think. Im not sure if that's because magic is in decline or if the magical individuals are on the rise but for the most part people live lives more akin to real world humans. Magical street lamps are not even thought about any more than we look at our own lighting. But maybe they flicker when certain people walk past I don't know. Is it a mutation to be able to be healed by magical means or is not being healed the variant?

And what impact on the world does that have? Im imaging the faiths of the world are more akin to our own (perhaps better thou), tending to the sick and lost (hospitals), gathering knowledge (monastery).

What are your thoughts on this null idea? Perhaps it only applies to healing magics, reducing the impact of such things on most people but leaving a few lucky like the pcs in a position to change the world.

If it applies to all magic then effectively they are magic and the rest of the world is normal. Imagine someone walking through walls and dismantling cars by being near them.

If it just turns off healing magic it's a massive curse. Does it undo former healing and surgeries for others or just them?

[brian 333]

The K'tan, (a derivative of the draconic word for human,) lived for many generations in servitude of the ancient Prismatic dragon. Most dwelt in the Prime Material Plane, but all of the juveniles in a generation would spend a decade within the Demiplane of Shattered Light, a realm of chaos ruled by the dragon.

This resulted in the majority of births being in a realm of wild magic. The children which were most resistant to magic were most successful, and survived to pass their resistance on to their children.

When the Chromium Gate shut two generations ago the K'tan spread out. It is said that halfblood K'tan are resistant to magic and can never learn to cast spells, but can still use magic items which do not require guidance or command. (Spell completion items, aimed, and ranged touch items come to mind.)

Pure bloods are said to even nullify the magic of magic items which touch their bodies, including the magical effects of clothing, armor or weapons. Even weapons used against them lose their magical benefits when they strike.

Rare rumors of a strange half-dragon which can create an anti-magic field around it have spread out from the K'tan lands.

[KyleG]

If it applies to all magic then effectively they are magic and the rest of the world is normal. Imagine someone walking through walls and dismantling cars by being near them.

If it just turns off healing magic it's a massive curse. Does it undo former healing and surgeries for others or just them?

Antimagic field isn't quite right. It's individual. But im not sure if its just they all can't be healed, all cant be affected by any magic, or a type of magic. Suppose it depends how far I want to push it. Originally I was just thinking some people can't be healed.

[Anymage]

Being immune to heals specifically would require some explanation as to why. It brings zero advantages, so by itself you'd need to create a justification for what's basically a nasty curse.

If you want to make it a trait that would have a reason to persist, pick one of: immune to magic overall, immune to spells of whatever school cure spells get dumped into (conjuration for 3.5, evocation for 5e), or immune to divine magic. We could then discuss how to implement it in whatever game you're using (like 3.5 could just be handwaved as unbeatable, undroppable spell resistance, while 5e would ask just how far from the person's body the field would emanate as well as require some ad hoc rulings), as well as how each of the following could be implemented. Full antimagic would imply that these people could become useful anticaster forces (which may be why this one ended up injured), school-specific antimagic might just be an odd personal quirk where each sort of school-null would live with both the up and downsides of their immunity, while divine-nulls could very easily draw from planescape's Athar. Religions can be generally nice, but there are still plenty of ways to make a group of people who are super skeptical about the lot of them.

[Slipjig]

If you are willing to really upend the game balance, you could just rule that your world has no healing magic.

People who are immune to magic (or psychic abilities) for whatever reason are a fairly common trope outside of D&D. They make excellent witch/demon hunters, as well as having a major leg up in hunting any creature that uses magic.

There was a game a while back where everybody had what a stat for how in-tune they are with magic. Higher-score characters can use magic (and higher-score = more powerful magic), but also made you more vulnerable to hostile magic. At the other end of the spectrum you had people who were so magically insensitive that they couldn't even PERCIEVE magical effects, but they also couldn't be effected by them.

If the plot device you are going for is that a specific person can't be healed by magic, maybe that person is a magical null, or comes from a family of them.