I have a half-orc superstitious barbarian who I would like to refrain from the use of magic items, except his greatsword which he believes to contain the very soul of warrior spirit. He distrusts magic of all form and is even reluctant to receive magic healing. If he is aware of a buff spell being placed upon him, I roll a will save to resist the magic. If he is not aware to the buff spell, he believes that his sword is empowering him. How would I compensate the use of magic items and stay relevant as he gains levels and magic and magic items transfer from a luxury to a necessity?
I'd start by talking the whole thing over with your GM. Ask if he'd be willing to boost your barbarian's AC/Saves/Stats every now and then to keep up. The Homebrew forum has several threads where people have suggested systems to do that for low-magic games.
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This might support what you're looking for if your GM is up for it. It might be primarily flavored for monks and ascetics, but it could also be flavored to work for barbarians that don't get their bonuses from the magic of others.
My GM isn't up for adopting homebrew stuff. Within the rules (no 3rd party), how could I achieve this? If it's even possable.
Thanks. I thought this might happen when creating this character. It's a fun option, albeit a limited run.
Perhaps your GM would let you flavor "wearing" magic items as your sword absorbing and "purifying" the magic energies, which just happens to transfer the benefits to you. This could work almost entirely with the existing rules, I think, and would balance nicely.
I could be mistaken though, this is off the top of my head.
Edit: Perhaps a small added benefit would be deserved, since losing your sword would also lose ALL your items.
Superstitious cultures frequently assign supernatural properties to items taken from their enemies, like scalps or shrunken heads or severed fingers. As your armor or whatever gets enhanced, you can flavor it as totem pieces from your fallen foes making you stronger, frightening your foes, or keeping away bad magic. It would probably be best if these bonuses were purely passive, like standard AC and save boosts, rather than active magic that you have to think about to use.
Taking a bit from the two posts above, how about this: bling out your sword. Ask your gm to have all your item slots on the sword. Ask him to allow you use charms analogous to stat boosting items that require the same cost/effort/feats/etc. Gems on the blade, small hanging charms on the end of the hilt, decorative guards. Whatever strikes your fancy.
This way, their magic would come through the sword, which would have unbreakable MANLINESS that would be able to resist their evil magical wiles.
This would minimize how much the system would have to be altered. Also, as Paulicus said, you are assuming all the risks by placing all of your magic into one item. Being disarmed would mess you up completely. This means that the GM has a nice little tool with minimal changes to the system.
Heaggles: The book contained vows of poverty and such. I recall the one you are refering to, though the name eludes me as well.
Paulicus & Necroluth: Thanks, I never thought of refering to it in those manners. Of course it would remain passive buff on the magic item, because activating an ability would mean that my character would have to be aware that the item contains magical properties, of which he would probably disrobe immediately and stomp on the contents.
Intelligent items can have a lot of different powers. It's even appropriate for your character.
Pupsocket: Nice! I can even go ahead and consult with my GM to gie it the abilities that don't cost any extra at the moment.
The weapons of legacy book from 3.5 might help