I've seen a lot of people talk about adjusting play to fit a low magic world but I'm looking for a well-balanced way to do it. I know that pathfinder expects different "levels" of magical gear at different levels but I'm looking for a way to let the players still be capable without +1 everything. so I suppose what I'm looking for is just a way to even the field. there will be magic items but they will be very unique almost always. so what do you guys think would work well as a ramping up buff to keep the party on par?
On a side note any other threads on this would be helpful to me
First you have to define exactly what you mean by 'low magic' as that means different things to different people.
However, one easy way to achieve the few magic items goal without changing balance is to adjust treasure downwards drastically, but give the players options of selecting a bonuses as they level up. Basically rather than having a belt of strength, they have a +2 (special) bonus to strength that isn't connected to a magic item.
There are a few methods out there of doing this, but the simplest is probably just cutting their treasure to 20% of what you would otherwise be and give them 80% of the WBL difference each level in 'virtual gold' that they can use to by bonuses like that of the 'big 6' but that are part of their character, not part of a specific item. As a corollary, these 'big 6' items don't exist in the world, but an NPC would have the same bonuses anyway, since like the PCs they have improved themselves.
Dave Justus has some good points.
The biggest issues with "low magic worlds" are no Big 6 stat items, which the game essentially expects you to have, and monster resistances/immunities at higher levels that special materials and magic are designed to overcome (Incorporeal is a big one).
The common advice is to exchange wealth for the big 6 as non item bonuses, and to use caution when using monsters vulnerable only to magic, as it may be impossible for the PC's to harm them in any meaningful way (which is no fun).
In addition to the scaling magic items, you may want to check out the E6 rules. They stop the game right before magic starts to become this horrifying chasm of OP-ness that makes not having magic start to look a little foolish.
There are a few schools of thought on this.
If you want to use the use all the same kinds of opposition as a 'standard' campaign. Most people will recommend something along the lines of giving class bonuses that match what would typically be bought by a given class of the Big 6 magic items. There are several different methods in the homebrew forums on doing this.
It does work with very little change to the rules or how the game is played.
Personally, I don't see that as necessary. The 'typical' magic items that a well prepared adventurer buys include bonus to offense and defense. And you have to figure the significant opposition also has magic items for offense and defense. So if you take that away from both sides, there really isn't all that much effect.
Where it can make a bigger difference is with the monsters that don't make much use of magic items. The dire lion is a bit more dangerous because the party doesn't have the same bonus to hit or defense as expected. So you as GM just need to not use some monsters quite so soon in the adventurers' careers.
So if you are planning some encounter for the group and feel they are fairly optimized level 6 so they should be able to handle a dire lion in a regular campaign. Maybe wait until level 7 or 8 before you throw that dire lion at them.
(Unless of course it is intended to be a possibly deadly encounter.)
If you want to remove "magic" from a campaign, the simplest thing would be to remove arcane and divine spellcasters, but leaving other supernatural things like Alchemists & Monks. You'd think this would heavily limit things, but it still leaves you with quite a number of Classes.
Basically your available Class list would look like this:
Barbarian
Fighter
Monk
Qinggong Monk
Warrior of Holy Light Paladin
Temple Champion Paladin
Skirmisher Ranger
Trapper Ranger
Rogue
Ninja
Samurai
Alchemist
Cavalier
Gunslinger
Brawler
Investigator
Slayer
Swashbuckler
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This leaves 18 classes - 3 of those classes use Ki, and 2 make use of Alchemy.
This should really be enough to create a very complete "no magic" campaign with still a twinge of the supernatural involved.
The Alchemist & Investigator, especially, are nicely balanced in being only 6th-level "casters", with the added boon that Alchemy both mechanically and fluff isn't "spellcasting".
Ki, as well, should be fine, since it's just typical wuxia fun, and slightly-magical Martial Arts still mixes into a "low-magic" campaign well, even the Qinggong Monk, who would probably be the closest to "actual" spellcasting.
Once Occult Adventures comes out, that'll add a few more classes to the mix, if you feel like incorporating Psychic things to the mix.
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One thing to remember is that, if you're going for a very "low-magic" campaign, some dynamics will change:
The Alchemist & Paladin will likely become extremely helpful due to being the only true "healers" of the group - without them, the party will need to rely more heavily on things like standard Heal checks, etc.
Without magical items, Alchemical items will become much, much more desired, though you could rightly keep Potions as very real (albeit rare) things, since they are an intimate part of Alchemists' lore, and can easily be re-fluffed as "alchemical" themselves.
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You'll probably want to reflavor magic Armor & Weapons Enhancements to just being further grades of Masterwork - things like straight +1 to +5 would work as before, but not be considered "magical"
Also look through and consider which Enhancements fit thematically with a "low magic" setting: Impact and Keen work well as Enhancements even in low-Magic campaigns, because they can be written off as simply extremely-masterful qualities of weapons. Other things like Flaming or Frost, though, probably not so much.
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You'll also find that special materials beyond the typical Silver/Mithral, Cold Iron, Adamantine - things like Wyrewood, Darkleaf Cloth, Elysian Bronze, Living Steel, Frost-Forged Steel, etc. - will become more necessary and desired, especially as a means for you to add special abilities to items without getting into "magic".
Look back at Special Materials from 3.5 - some had special abilities like having a natural Ghost Touch quality (Serren Wood), extra elemental damage (Rimefire Ice), or overcoming DR of certain subtypes (Kheferu).
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Don't be afraid to make magic items, especially magic weapons, real things, but make them extremely rare to even unique. Keeping GP will help you determine WBL, but probably make it that those Magic Items are so rare and valuable that they can't be bought, and probably can't be traded for, either.
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Damage Reduction will very likely completely trump Spell Resistance for monsters, so realize that SR will be significantly less-threatening in a low-magic setting, and instead put greater weight on high AC, high Touch AC, and high DR - Invulnerable Rager Barbarians will probably be an EXTREMELY nasty class to hack onto monsters due to DR being 1/2 their Barbarian levels.
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You'll also probably want to use the Piecemeal Armor rules. I personally like them for most of my games, but for a low-magic game they're indispensable.
With Piecemeal Armor, you can actually make Armor that's superior to Full Plate armor: +9 Armor, +2 Max Dex, -4 Armor Check, 30% Arcane Spell Failure (which you won't need to worry about anyway), 20ft. Movement.
You can also make medium armor that's fairly comparable to a Breastplate: +7 Armor, +2 Max Dex, -3 Armor Check, 30% ASF, 30ft. Movement.
This will help players get significantly-higher AC than usual, while not sacrificing things like Dexterity. Again, Special Materials like Mithral become much, much more useful than they already are, simply because of the boost to Max Dex.
David James Olsen (GM Blood) used an interesting houserule during his Rappan Athuk campaign.
He replaced the basic big six with with general boosts the players selected at each level. To avoid a wall of text, I'm spoilering the
"Every level you can choose from one of the following five categories (Melee, Ranged, Armor, Shield, Saves). You will get a +1 bonus to that category everytime it is chosen. You can choose any one of the five once every block of 4 levels (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-20). So you cannot choose +1 to saves at 3rd and 4th level, but can choose them 4th and 5th level.) And yes this starts at 1st level
"Every even level your character will receive an extra +1 to a stat over the normal rules. That means at 2nd you get to raise a stat +1, 4th a +2, 6th a +1, 8th a +2, etc) You cannot choose to raise the same stat twice in a row.
"Weapons The bonus is an enhancement bonus but does not make your weapon magical. For that you need to find an item with a magical power on it (like flaming or keen) or cast a spell like magic weapon. It makes having these weapons useful for overcoming DR and having less chance to break. Masterwork weapons still give a +1 to hit if you haven’t chosen the weapon bonus and also has 1 additional point of hardness. (The extra point of hardness should be added to magic items).
"Armor/Shields The bonus is an enchancement bonus but does not make your armor magical. For that you need to find an item with a magical power on it (like fortification or slick) or cast a spell like magic vestment. Finding magical armor makes the armor harder to destroy. Masterwork armor reduces armor check penalty by 1 (This includes magical armor)
"Saves The bonus is a resistance bonus.
"Ability Boost All boosts to a skill are considered enhancement bonuses and are from experience and training. For this game, enhancement bonuses stack up to a total of +6 maximum. So you could have boosted your strength up +2 and cast bull's strength for another +4 for a total of +6. But if you boost your strength up another point for +3, bull strength still only boosts to +6. That means that the top score for most races will be 26.
"If by any chance the trading post comes by magical weapons or armor and puts them up for sale, the price of the weapon or armor for sale will be figured out as normal for the item like it had a +1 bonus on it. A Sword of Flaming will be priced as a +2 weapon."
Steal from the best, I say.
I also agree that E6 or E8 are a good approach to managing a lower magic campaign. You can reserve higher level NPCs as mythic characters like Merlin or Gandalf without having them compete directly with PCs.