Hello everyone,
I'm looking to start my own homebrew campaign, but I'm really green in that department as I've only been a player.
I apologize for the wall of text incoming warning now.
One of the things I'm looking into for a world setting is knowing the limitations and rules of what is going on in THIS world.
Without revealing too much into the story as it is also very pre-mature in the stages of being created I wanted to discuss about Magic and Gunpowder.
Currently in this world, there really isn't any gods, only denizens of the astral plane (angels, demons example) that play an interfering role of the happenings of the material plane (the Earth/Terra etc).
I decided there was going to be some naval ship sailing here and there in some parts of the game and wanted the option to use gunpowder cannons, so currently firearms are "emerging".
Cannons have started to be relatively common (still expensive to scarcity/demand of materials/specialty work), BUT hand-held weapons involved with gunpowder are still rare enough that they are being experimented with to make them common.
Magic is supposed to be rare, in the sense that it is more considered a lost art.
Magic is mostly inherent to beasts and other entities save to a few individually gifted people who either are discovered and taught under tutelage or have latent abilities that do not know how to properly channel their power.
I want players to be able to play what they would like, but I have to keep in mind of keeping them "in check" for how the world is supposed to be.
An example is, I plan to use a spell-less Ranger archetype I found for those that want to play a ranger.
One suggestion I found for bards was to remove the spells and implement the genius games archetype packages to swap out. (I never played a Bard so the scope of their role and how they work is something I haven't grasped yet)
I don't want to fully remove the PC's ability to "heal" themselves as we still clerics and such with divine gifts of healing etc.
But there is what I'm thinking and what to ask for an outside perspective:
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- All Classes run off a medium to slow exp progression.
- Classes based off of the theme of being more tied to "nature" (witches, shamans, druids) or the divine (cleric, inquisitor, paladin) that are spellcasting are bunched up in a slow progression (or require 50% more maximum exp than other class choices to keep pace?)
- Wizards and Sorcerers are either in the category of 50%? 75%? 100%? Slow exp progression?
Does this sound too harsh of a rule?
This is what I came up with as a possibility alternative, instead of having to re-invent the wheel of altering each individual spell-casting class and how they progress exp pace with everyone.
I was going to put the Magus with the Wizard/Sorcerer exp progression, but having played one I know denying them level pace more already is off putting so I was going to place it in with the druid/witch nature progression spell casters since alot of the class gating work is done already in their progression tables (save for maybe BAB?).
Thoughts and ideas?
Back in advanced, first edition, I had to find ways for the slow progression characters to catch up. You want to burden yourself for flavor, go ahead.
For crude arcane magic, see my topic The Savage Mage.
For crude firearms, there were hand cannons before there were muskets.
FYI; the Bard is a class that adapts to several rolls.
Some are pure arcane casters focusing on magic to buff the party, de-buff enemies, or even deal out a decent amount of damage.
Others are master duelists, focusing on their proficiencies with light weapons and feinting mechanics to deal melee damage.
Yet others are skill monkeys trained in nearly every skill on the table; capable of easily conversing with the noblest Queen in her court and just as easily escaping his dungeon after insulting the King.
I've played a couple of Bards, my favorite took up the rolls of party healer (he was the only one with access to Cure Spells) and Librarian (he had high Int and all of the Knowledge skills).
As for the mechanics of your world; I like the idea of making magic-based classes harder to use as they require more EXP to level. Another idea to consider is to constrain your party members to certain classes that fit the world you are making. My current game is a low magic game in which players were not allowed to choose a 9th level spell casting class and could only choose a 6th level casting class if part of their backstory explained how they were trained. The effect has been a renewed sense of focus on the battlefield and a greater sense of realism to the world.
Ask your players if they want to play a realistic game with almost no magic. If you can't find enough players who want to play a semi historical simulation, put this campaign aside till you can find enough players.