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To keep that 'low magic' feel the GM should probably ban all full casters. Thus, no Wizards, Witches, Druids, Clerics, Sorcerers, or Oracles. Banning the Summoner would be wise, too, given their over-the-top power level.
Whatever happens, don't allow Ye Olde Magik Shoppe. Magic items are so rare and valuable that there is no secondary market.
Start at level one, and expect to advance slowly. No campaign is 'low magic' when 3/4 spell casters reach high levels.
I expect the Bard & Inquisitor will get a lot of love.
Probably the biggest effect, play-wise, will be the lack of out-of-combat healing. Expect your PCs to routinely spend days or weeks recovering from wounds. This is a good thing that comes with many RP options.
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This is pretty easy to do without messing up CR or anything at all.
1. Ban 9-level casters, and the Summoner (which is a 9 level caster pretending to be a 6 level one).
2. Ban crafting Feats that make permanent items. Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, or Craft Wand should be fine, but no Craft Wondrous Item.
3. Only allow the purchase of mundane items or consumables (the ones you'd let the PCs get the Feats for). And no stuff from banned classes either.
4. Make sure the PCs keep up with WBL in treasure that's pretty good for their builds. Or institute a system of scaling bonuses to make up for not having it (Mythic might work for this, but isn't designed for it).
5. Do nothing else.
That ought to get a low magic feel without the PC group actually being inherently less powerful for the most part. It also still allows Raise Dead to be available (a Warpriest can have it at 13th level, and a Paladin at 8th if he invests in Ultimate Mercy...a Hunter could get Reincarnate at 10th level)...if notably rarer.
There are some interesting implications in a world that works that way, but I think they'd be fun to explore.
I'd start looking at HD as a base instead of CR...with the HD you'll still have to factor a LOT of other things (such as how many spells or spell like abilities an enemy has, AC, special defenses and attacks, etc), but HD can give a general idea of the power level of an enemy in relation to level.
Next off, you don't have to restrict casters, let them be a wizard or sorcerer or cleric...but I WOULD put higher restrictions on item creation. Perhaps make it like the game, but that they ALSO have to collect special materials that are harder to obtain in order to create an item (for example, for a potion of healing maybe the need the blood of a black unicorn which is the lead stallion of a herd, or for a scroll of sleep they need the skin of a goblin chief to inscribe it on...or things similar...so not really easy things to simply go out and buy or obtain).
Obviously no magic shops and other things like that, and make it so that magic items of course are much more rare and hard to find.
I ran a mid level magic steampunk game a few years back. This probably isn't really what your looking for but here's what i did:
1) No spells of above level 5 though you still receive spell slots.
2) Ban all reality bending spells up to that point. No teleport, fly and i vastly limited some of the enchantment school.
3) I made a complex item creation system where effects where either tech, magic or psionic. You're probably better off banning crafting unless you have a lot of time.
If I was going for low magic I'd probably:
1) cap spells at level 4.
2) Ban a lot more spells
3) Ban magic item creation
4) Make "buying" magic items pretty rare. Cloaks of resist +1 aren't a dime a dozen.
Ever thought od E6/E8?
E6 works great for Pathfinder!
Well i know they will want to go into epic play, so I won't be doing e6, but it's still not a bad idea.
So you want epic but not magic or E6?
My advice would be to play another game that isn't magic dependent or give people inherent bonuses to help with the loss of all those magic items that keep you alive. That might help give more of an epic feeling.
E6++
(Like E6 but more fun small objects.)
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If they want the campaign to feel "epic" without a whole lot of magic, maybe they intend a more literary interpretation of "epic", instead of the typical RPG interpretation of "level > 20" or "ridiculously powerful"?
If that's the case, this is as much a matter of athmosphere as it is of pure rules.
If there's a monster, say an Yrthak (picture), that's fairly dangerous (CR 9, nasty ranged attacks, flyby attack), don't just suddenly put it in front of them at level 9 and have them fight it. That's not epic, that's just a random monster.
Now imagine that they first heard about this beast at level 3, seen some of the devastation at level 4, had to run away from it at level 5, nearly got killed by it at level 6, and at level 7 they finally manage to kill it after a hard fight - THAT is epic.
Basically, you need to talk up the monster before the players smack it down. Go watch some showwrestling to see how it's done :P
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You're welcome :)
Players really like to "get even". Occasionally beating up some monsters that a few levels ago were really hard, allows the players to revel in power. To an observer that might look silly or "too easy", but for the players it's glorious.
Players also like to get even with NPCs that once did them a bad turn. Players can be extremely vengeful. Beating a BBEG that got away once (or that defeated the party once) is much more satisfying than defeating a brand-new BBEG.