And what would you consider low magic?I just don't like easy, cheap and reliable magic, or magic as artillery, or magic as the primary method of healing. Imho it inevitably leads to shit worldbuilding implications, plus people seem to subconsciously expect martials to be realistic while letting wizards do crazy shit.Do you think the following is a sensible approach?> only spells are divinations, buffing/debuffing/curses, and rituals (that might have effects such as healing, summoning or artillery, but rituals take longer, are expensive and unreliable.>rather than having a dedicated party mage, the party might have someone who knows one or two spells, but still has other skills rather than relying on magic only.>magic items might be an alternative and perhaps more common way to cast spells.>no mage schools, dedicated mages are fucking rare. Mages either learn on their own, or rarely a mage might seek apprentices (so that they can aid their master in his own goals).>lots of charlatans and lies around magic, although educated fellows do know that mages are in fact realidk what system, maybe something setting neutral like gurps/savage worlds/fate could be flexible enough for this sort of tinkering.
>>94847985dnd 5e unironicallymagic items isn't neededyou can have literally no wizards in the world except for the partyand you can reflavor the wizards to be like monks or druids or something instead of magic
>>94847985These textures aren't correct and it bothers me.
>>94848305nah, the core books literally do assume that magic services (buying scrolls/magic inks/arcane foci/paying someone to cast spells for you) are very much commonplace.>and you can reflavor the wizards to be like monks or druids or something instead of magicthat's just fucking magicplus it's not only the wizards who are the magic class, all casters/half casters are what other games would deem "wizards".If you have to homebrew most of the game's assumptions away, something went wrong
>>94848318sorry, I didn't realize how shit the picture was until now, I just saved the first thing I found
>>94848305>dnd 5e unironicallyOver half of its rules are dedicated to magic in some way, shape, or form.
>>948483055e stops being low magic very quickly. Doubly so if you have fullcasters be that rare, because it means the people of the world have no countermeasures to the party's magic, so it just becomes a weird wizard show. >>94847985To give an actual recommendation, I'd take a look at the Song of Ice and Fire RPG. The most you can get in terms of magic is premonitions in your dreams and wargs, and they're a pretty dedicated investment. They aren't the sort of thing you can reliably bust out to suddenly turn the tide of a fight. The more expansive and varied your magic system, the less low magic it's going to be. Especially if you've actually got practical combat spells that can be cast in a timely manner to debilitate foes or boost allies.
>>94849181>The more expansive and varied your magic system, the less low magic it's going to be. Especially if you've actually got practical combat spells that can be cast in a timely manner to debilitate foes or boost allies.mostly, but spells can also exist just to be used by ancient lizard people and slutty fairies against the party, witth said lizards and fairies being extremely rare to begin with.In such cases you can still manage a decent low magic feel: only npcs have any chance of maybe getting practical combat spells.Pc's best chance to get those spells could be enslaving one of those beings or using items linked to those beings, but they'd still be a lot less practical than what npcs could do naturally
What I consider low/high magic depends on three factors:• It *is* magic in-world, that is, it is unnatural or supernatural to its world and it is called magic by the author of the work, whether through the mechanics, the narration, and/or the characters.• How prominent magic is in that world.• The magnitude of the observable effects of magic's use in that world.A fun way I thought to make a low magic game is to have magic tied to monstrous components that would-be mages have to introduce into their anatomy, such as letting a parasitic flower take root in them, digging a well in their skin and muscle to implant an evil eyeball, drilling a pair of hateful horns into their own skull, etc, and their spells would be linked to the type of component introduced. Magic in that game would be a shortcut to power, and one not many people would want to take, even if they did find these rare components. A slower, but more rewarding and less risky, path to power would be the art of cultivation to build one's strength and health, and eventually giving one access to healing arts and projectile energy. This cultivation is not magic, because magic is a supernatural power tied to materials attuned to darkness to produce supernatural effects, and such cultivation is a natural way of life that any natural being can comprehend and pursue naturally. The separation is in its mechanics; acquisition, cost, and effects, and compounding this is the radiant energy of cultivation is anathema to demonic components (anti-magic, if you will).One idiot's faulty perspective doesn't change how these things work and what they *are*.
>>94847985warhammer rpg. Its literally a major setting point. wizards are like one in a few ten thosand, if that. Magic users are rare and you only come across them occationally. And the magic they use is both dangerous to them and others. Most of the more civilized human mages keep thier powers to one domain, like fire or life or death. Hedge wizards tend to explode more often and get corrupted by chaos with mangly mutations. And even those civilized human branches of magic still have risk and they tend to impact the user physically and mentally, like a fire mage developing more of a firely temper and thier hair slowly turning red before becoming actual flame. THe game makes it clear that a lot of parties will have little to none of this magic though (though you can make a mage), and magic in the world is not very abundant on average.>plus people seem to subconsciously expect martials to be realistic while letting wizards do crazy shit.well duh, one is defined by just being a combatant, while the other is defined by bending reality.
>>94850021>>plus people seem to subconsciously expect martials to be realistic while letting wizards do crazy shit.>well duh, one is defined by just being a combatant, while the other is defined by bending reality.not really a duh for high magic settings, it's silly to throw realism out of the window only for some characters rather than assuming it'd permeate all aspects of such settings
>>94850112Been through this argument a lot, so dont want to get too bogged down with it. by the fuzzy nature of magic its limits are kinda vague, but its not usually assumed that someone with no specific supernatural traits would just naturally develop them when they become of an arbitrary level of experience.A setting may make that the cause, but that's not the base assumption broadly speaking.I dont think thats silly because it happens so often and it doesnt seem to spring from any one source, its just the natural consequence of having mystical things alongside not so mystical things. Automatically assuming they should be equal just because both might be playable seems really artificial to me. In many settings being magical DOES mean you are a cut above plain out.Not that I have a hard stance on if wizards should be ultra powerful or relatively modest compared to fighters, thats world dependent. Generally, I personally like mages to act like artillery, large effects, but requires a lot of resources, in time, material, otherwise and etc. while I like martials to be less rawly powerful, but more adaptable and dynamic in various situations on the small scale. Get in and mess something up that a wizard needs perfect alignment for, like doing two actions in the time it takes a wizard to do one, like clamp his mouth to stop a wizard from finishing their incantation and bringing a broadsword down on his neck. versatility vs glass cannony.
>>94850021>North and South Pole are literal holes to hell because of exploded magitech star gate.>World is dotted in ancient magic pylons and cairns.>Woods are full of superdevil worshipping beastmen and mutants>Cities are full of cults of superdevil worshipping fops>Elves live on top of a crazy magic whirlpool that keeps the crazy hell magic from taking everything over>Ghosts and zombies and vampires all over the fucking place.>There was just a giant fucking war where everyone teamed up against the superdevil's biggest worshipper.Warhammer Fantasy isn't low magic.
>>94850356Yes there are more magical parts of the setting, but where the rpg is set in the empire of man and what you are dealing with usually, its pretty irregular. Unless you consider various brutish creatures like orcs and ratmen and beastmen who want to hit you with clubs "high magic". You probably aren't going to be meeting sorcerers all over the place.
>>94847985Assuming that powerful magic existing would necessarily lead to mmorpg gonzo bullshit is asinine, it's more a matter of costs/benefits than power perse. For example take the Elric of Melnibone saga: magic is absurdly powerful but to wield it the sorcerer has to deal with otherworldly spirits (and gods!) that have their own, even alien and inesplicable agenda, on top of the fact it is physically and mentally taxing, to the point sorcerers gradually lose their humanity by striking deals with demons and spirits in trying to offset their mortal limitations for enacting yet more powerful forms of magic.
>>94847985"oops all warlocks!" Badically you can't actually learn how to do magic and instead spells are something that is bestowed upon you. magic becomes more about searching for occult tomes that will let you summon creatures so you can make a pact with them that let's you use magic, kinda like hiw witches get their magic from Satan
You go high magic instead because wizards who come up with clever ways you didn't think of to solve your quests don't make your anus bleed profusely in rage.
>>94847985
