So, I was trying to figure out how I would go about creating a world where there is no magic, but magic items are very abundant. And eventually each player would end up possessing an Intelligent Weapon/Item. Kind of like a Tales of Destiny sort of game. Would it be possible? What kind of problems would arrise in this sort of setting?
Possible, sure, you may have to think alternates to ALOT of classes. unless you say divine magic isn't "magic". no archetype i think it leaves you: fighter, barbarian, rogue, ... possibly alchemist, bard, paladin, ranger, cavaliers with different reasons for their effects and limited 'spell' selection... witches, wizards possible, kinda...
I was thinking of basically saying that any classes that have X per day in their entries wouldnt be allowed, unless they possessed archtypes that gave it up. For example, the Paladin is able to give up his ability to cast spells, so therefore he would be an available class to play. I would end up rewarding the PCs with a lot more magic items than normal I think, to kind of make up for the lack of magic available. It is just upsetting that you can play D&D for years, and never see any of these magic items ever see the light of day. Which is also why I wanted to try and maybe engineer a way for the players to receive an intelligent item. Never, EVER seen these in a game before.
I have seen possessed items before, in one. was interesting... was toying with that idea myself. But, you should be aware of how much you want to limit it, and how. ie: What do alchemists effects come from? if magic = no, if the potion, yes? bombs again, same.... *shrug*
have a friend that toyed with the idea of magic coming into the world, and being a part of that. ie: start no magic (so fighter/barb/ranger/expert) and eventually developed option to multiclass
A fellow GM recently ran a short campaign in a "minimal magic" setting. It sounded fun but magic items were also extremely rare.
The questions that immediately come to mind are:
1. If there is no magic, where did all these magic weapons come from?
2. What would an overabundance of magical items do to the economy?
3. If magical items are so plentiful, humanoid opponents would also need a bunch just to compete with the adventurers, this may lead to an even greater amount of in-game items than intended.
4. Most of the creature's CR's are based on a mix of player classes, including magic users. Some creatures would be incredibly hard to defeat without the benefit of magic.
5. Who would want to play a paladin with no magic powers? A level 8 paladin with no access to magic is a pushover next to a level 8 fighter.
6. You are seriously limiting your bad-guy toolkit. No hags, no Liches, etc.
7. Without magic, players with high fort and ref saves have a great advantage over those with high will saves, as willpower will become less valuable.
If you are going to run a no magic game, I recommend taking out the items as well, but it's just my suggestion. Good luck!
As far as a background to the world, you could say that a cataclysmic event occurred that destroyed all the gods. Maybe a god war on a massive scale, where one of the side effects was that everyone woke up one day (maybe generations ago) with no knowledge of what had happened before...perhaps because the god of knowledge is now dead. The god of magic would also be dead, thus while people may know that magic once existed, without a god of magic to facilitate the use of the arcane, no magic worked any longer. Divine casters have no one to grant them spells as well. Churches could exist to the old gods, thus there would still be religion if you wanted, but they would essentially be worshipping dead gods. All magic items created before this cataclysmic event still functioned as normal. Just an idea.
Or a artifact that does a massive anti-magic field for all magic but leaves the construction of and use of magic items available but requires more exotic magical materials to replace the spells needed for construction
Yepyepyep wrote: As far as a background to the world, you could say that a cataclysmic event occurred that destroyed all the gods. Maybe a god war on a massive scale, where one of the side effects was that everyone woke up one day (maybe generations ago) with no knowledge of what had happened before...perhaps because the god of knowledge is now dead. The god of magic would also be dead, thus while people may know that magic once existed, without a god of magic to facilitate the use of the arcane, no magic worked any longer. Divine casters have no one to grant them spells as well. Churches could exist to the old gods, thus there would still be religion if you wanted, but they would essentially be worshipping dead gods. All magic items created before this cataclysmic event still functioned as normal. Just an idea. Hah, great minds think alike. That is what I was considering. I was going to go and pick up my Dark Sun books, and start rummaging through them to get some ideas. I was thinking that maybe the creatures that my players fight, if they were spellcasters, such as Lichs, or anything that prepared spells, they wouldnt be creatures that could be encountered. Spell-Like Abilities, are not spells in my opinion. It is a magic ability given form by the users will. I would allow magic, for example, if my players decided to play tieflings, and things like that. Remnants of an age lost. I was thinking a history such as, Gods walked among man, and something cataclysmic happened, which they all end up dying off.
Actually, I have another question concerning this. What archtypes are available for classes, that force them to give up spell/extracts per day? I know they have that one Paladin class, but does Ranger, or Bard maybe have anything similar to that?
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