Low magic worlds and spell lists

[Kyace]

An idea I had for a campaign was a low magic setting where players fought against the evils of the unknown while avoiding a being found out as magic users in a literal witch-hunt. In order to give each player some magic while keeping the game mostly in the mundane I came upon the idea of making it a gestalt with one side was a variant of the Adapt class. Rather than having all players have the same spell lists, I was considering giving each player two out of nine groups of spells as their spells known. My big problem is the spell groups are quite different and I'm having trouble deciding if they are roughly balanced.

My rough-draft of the spell groups.

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Healing (7/6/8/7/5/7)
0 Level: cure minor wounds, detect magic, guidance, light, mending, purify food and drink, touch of fatigue.
1st Level: bless, command, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, endure elements, sleep.
2nd Level: aid, bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, cure moderate wounds, delay poison, lesser restoration, resist energy.
3rd Level: contagion, cure serious wounds, daylight, lightning bolt, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, remove disease.
4th Level: cure critical wounds, greater magic weapon, minor creation, neutralize poison, restoration.
5th Level: atonement, break enchantment, commune, heal, major creation, raise dead, true seeing.

Abjuration (5/7/6/6/6/5
0 Level: resistance, detect poison, detect magic, arcane mark, prestidigitation
1st: alarm, endure elements, expeditious retreat, feather fall, mage armor, sanctuary, shield
2nd: arcane lock, bear's endurance, invisibility, protection from arrows, resist energy, see invisibility.
3rd: dispel magic, explosive runes, glyph of warding, magic vestment, meld into stone, tiny hut,
4th: dimensional anchor, dismissal, freedom of movement, lesser globe of invulnerability, remove curse, stoneskin
5th: antimagic field, break enchantment, mage's private sanctum, passwall, spell resistance

Conjuration (5/6/6/6/5/7)
0: acid splash, arcane mark, dancing lights, mage hand, prestidigitation,
1: grease, mage armor, mount, obscuring mist, speak with animals, summon nature's ally I, unseen servant
2: acid arrow, fog cloud, glitterdust, summon nature's ally II, summon swarm, web
3: lightning bolt, phantom steed, sepia snake sigil, sleet storm, stinking cloud, summon nature's ally III
4: dimension door, minor creation, secure shelter, solid fog, summon nature's ally IV
5: cloud kill, lessor planar binding, mage's faithful hound, major creation, secret chest, summon nature's ally V, teleport

Divination (6/6/6/5/6/5)
0: arcane mark, detect poison, detect magic, light, message, read magic,
1: comprehend languages, detect secret doors, detect alignment, erase, identify, true strike
2: augury, detect thoughts, darkvision, fox's cunning, locate object, see invisibility,
3: arcane sight, clairaudience/clairvoyance, secret page, speak with dead, tongues,
4: arcane eye, detect scrying, discern lies, divination, locate creature, scrying
5: commune, dream, prying eyes, telepathic bond, true seeing

Enchantment (6/5/6/6/6/6)
0: arcane mark, daze, lullaby, mage hand, message, ghost sound,
1: cause fear, charm person, disguise self, hypnotism, sleep
2: daze monster, enthrall, hideous laughter, scare, touch of idiocy, whispering wind
3: deep slumber, heroism, hold person, rage, suggestion, tongues
4: charm monster, confusion, crushing despair, glibness, fear, lesser geas
5: dominate person, feeblemind, hold monster, mass suggestion, mind fog, symbol of sleep

Evocation (6,5,6,6,6,6)
0: Acid Splash, Dancing Lights, Flare, Light, Mage Hand, Ray of Frost
1: Burning Hands, Floating Disk, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Shocking Grasp
2: Continual Flame, Darkness, Flaming Sphere, Gust of Wind, Scorching Ray, Shatter
3: Daylight, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Keen Edge, Lightning Bolt, Wind Wall
4: Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Resilient Sphere, Shout, Wall of Fire, Wall of Ice
5: Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold, Interposing Hand, Sending, Wall of Force

Illusion (6,6,6,6,6,6)
0: Dancing Lights, Daze, Flare, Ghost Sound, Light, Prestidigitation
1: Animate Rope, Color Spray, Disguise Self, Magic Aura, Silent Image, Ventriloquism
2: Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, Minor Image, Mirror Image, Misdirection, Silence
3: Blink, Displacement, Haste, Illusory Script, Invisibility Sphere, Major Image
4: Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, Hallucinatory Terrain, Illusory Wall, Phantasmal Killer, Rainbow Pattern
5: Dream, Mind Fog, Mirage Arcana, Nightmare, Persistent Image, Seeming

Necromancy (6,6,6,6,6,6)
0: Detect Poison, Disrupt Undead, Inflict Minor Wounds, Ray of Frost, Resistance, Touch of Fatigue
1: Cause Fear, Chill Touch, Cure Light Wounds, Detect Undead, Inflict Light Wounds, Ray of Enfeeblement
2: Command Undead, False Life, Gentle Repose, Ghoul Touch, Scare, Spectral Hand
3: Animate Dead, Blindness/Deafness, Halt Undead, Ray of Exhaustion, Speak with Dead, Vampiric Touch
4: Bestow Curse, Contagion, Death Ward, Enervation, Fear, Poison
5: Blight, Magic Jar, Raise Dead, Slay Living, Symbol of Pain, Waves of Fatigue

Transmutation (6,6,7,6,4,6)
0: Detect Magic, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Open/Close, Prestidigitation
1: Animate Rope, Enlarge Person, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Magic Weapon, Reduce Person
2: Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Darkvision, Knock, Pyrotechnics, Spider Climb
3: Fly, Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, Keen Edge, Shrink Item, Water Breathing
4: Mass Enlarge Person, Mass Reduce Person, Polymorph, Stone Shape
5: Baleful Polymorph, Fabricate, Overland Flight, Passwall, Permanency, Telekinesis

Any feedback on the spell groups or tips on running low magic campaigns with spellcasters would be much appreciated

[Jacob Orlove]

Conjuration and Illusion blow the other two out of the water, but that's pretty much in line with 3.X as written. At minimum, I'd drop Color Spray and Glitterdust from those lists.

Note also that illusions get almost exponentially more powerful in a low-magic world.

Edit: I would also plan in advance which pairs you will give out. I'd much rather see two players with Healing+Conjuration and Transmutation+Abjuration than Healing+Abjuration and Transmutation+Conjuration. Avoid overlap, and pair more powerful groups with less powerful sets.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Well there are the Adept and the Witch NPC spellcasters in the DMG. Spellcasting would really be toned down if all campaign spell casting was limited to the Adept spellcaster with a single domain like ECS, the Sorcerer (limited to the Witch spell list perhaps with a single UA Variant Mage Domain) and the ECS Magewright perhaps using the spellcasting mechanics but limited to the Core spells. Remember to modify what you throw at the PCs.

[Kilroy]

I'm a little confused about lightning bolt in the healing group. Any special reason for that?

[Kyace]

About the lightning, its mostly a throw back to the idea of healing being a good and holy power with the approval of God behind you. As an aside, I felt the group could use some sort of blasty type spell. Thats much the same reason I gave illusion Animate Rope as a throw back to the old rope tricks magicians used to do.