Campaign - Original Setting

[Aegis]

Well, I've recently decided to try my hand at running a campaign with a group of friends. This will be a completely new experiance for me.

In the process, I don't intend to use a pre-established setting, but create my own. Some basic info is this:

1. Low Magic
2. Low Level (15 will be considered epic in this setting)
3. High emphasis on Cleric and Paladin strengths
4. High emphasis on skills, rather than combat

In order to account for these things, I was considering making Cleric and Paladin into prestige classes, in order to stress how powerful they would be in my world. The backing for this, is that Vect (the name of the world I'm creating) has undergone war and cataclysmatic events, creating a very gothic and broken world, both physically and spiritually.

For the magic, I want to add a bit of flare, and gathered some inspiration from the Wild Mage class in Baldur's Gate games. Essentially, for every spell that is cast, I've worked out a chance of something else possibly happening, providing the caster fails a DC check of 5 + (level of spell casted x 2) + target's wis save (ignore if target is willing).

Not only that, but magic items will be in short supply as well (in order to counter the restrictions on castor type classes).

I intend to keep posting here as I work on my campaign (setting and game). Any feed back at all would be greatly appreciated.

[Rudar Dimble]

Do you want to make the paladin and cleric stronger? How do you plan on doing that? If you want to 'upgrade' divine magic then you should also review the ranger and druid class.

If it's magic in general that you want to see reduced, then you'd might rather think of something else than wild magic. Or at least review the Forgotten Realms-version of it. The chances of spell failure are huge with that system! Instead you could do something like reducing the stock of spell casting materials. Or may be there is one material that is always needed when casting a spell (adamantide for example) and it is exactly adamantide that has almost got completely erased from Vect during the war and cataclysmatic events.

Just some thoughts...

[Mr.Waesel]

D&D doesn't really lend itself to low-magic, but if you really want to, I'd say play from level 1-5. Dramatically increase the amount of XP to level-up, so the campaign takes a while. At higher levels, there's too much to keep track of, and you'll slip up.

edit: That's not a stab at you, just an observation.

[The Great Hairy]

The best way to do low magic (IMO) is to go through the spell lists for ALL classes, and remove any spells which you consider overpowered for your world setting. Like Fireball, Wish, etc., etc. A lot of work, but it does mean you can limit exactly what is present at any one time.

I wouldn't make Cleric a Prestige Class. Rather, set it up so that a Cleric MUST belong to a church, sect or cult, and the requirements for entering these religious groups are very rigourous and demanding. For example - in ancient China, for someone to become a Palace Eunuch required that they pass many exams as well as go through some painful (and often fatal) surgery.

DnD isn't the best system for this. Have you thought of 5th Ed Cthuhlu rules instead? That would make combat a *lot* more lethal, and PCs would be greatly advised to avoid it at all costs.

Cheers,
TGHO

[Raumoheru]

well in order to make paladins and clerics stronger i advise taking away their spell limit per day thing and change what spells they can cast and add the length to cast etc.

i mean who is to say that just because they used all their spells per day then they cany beg to their god for help?

[Volk]

Cuthlu rules would be very good for that.

[Aegis]

I'm not to familar with Cthulu rules, sadly, so I'm stuck with DnD.

As for the Prestige, I'm sticking with that, for some setting reasons. There is a heavy amount of undead in this world, not mention that while it is low magic, magic is still powerful (I'm designing it so that a level 5 wizard can easily best a solitary fighter of the same level). Not only that, but I will be including some special abilities that make these as prestige classes more appealing in terms of strength. Also, part of the reason I'm making them prestige, is not so much because it's difficult to become a member of the religious order (One God, Æsthelys), but because have become shaken in faith, and have lost the will power to became a member of these orders. To reflect this, a will save of +3 is required to become a Cleric or Paladin.

well in order to make paladins and clerics stronger i advise taking away their spell limit per day thing and change what spells they can cast and add the length to cast etc.

i mean who is to say that just because they used all their spells per day then they cany beg to their god for help?

This is also an interesting idea I might tinker with. Increase the effectiveness of some low level spells, or such.

Some other ideas I'm tinkering with is making magic a rune dependant system, rather than a component system. The spells would still act reletively the same way, but in order for them to work to their fullest, a knowledge in runes would be required.

The runes would also transfer over to (the infrequent) magical items. For instance, another prestige class I'm thinking about is something called a Runeborn. The beauty of this class is that they harness magic within their weapons, using a ranged weapon (like a rifle) that fires pure magical energy, causing havoc. The catch, though, is that Runeborn sacrfice strength for this new power/

Like I've said, ideas being kicked around.

[Rudar Dimble]

What about casting a spell causes the caster to get fatigued? To cast their next spell, they have got to make a succesfull concentration check. Every other spell after their second the concentration check gets harder and harder.

Failing a concentration check results in a wild magic effect...