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Almost fell into a BadWrongFun tone here, but I managed to recover.
I think you're severely underestimating how valuable the Big 6 are to the standard character. What's worse, they're more valuable to martial characters since they need Magic Weapons and bonus AC to stay competitive.
Damage Reduction is going to be a real problem for martials, while Casters don't care.
Having Min-Maxed ability scores are going to be more common since you can't qualify for feats with belts/headbands.
Instead of buying the Big 6, players will be drawn to buying consumables to emulate the Big 6, making consumables into the next Big 6.
I don't know what you're intending to accomplish with such a change, but the end result will likely be that Martials become even more dependent on Casters.
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I won't say that Automatic Bonus Progression (ABP) is perfect, but it simplifies things a lot for both players and the GM.
Gold is a resource just as feats is, and if you spend it well you're going to come out ahead of someone who wasted it. One of the greater benefits of ABP is that you, as a GM, won't need to keep track of how much gold you've given the players, or if they're spending it wisely.
Taking away the Big 6 is a significant nerf to the players' strength, and one that does not affect all classes equally. A Ranger is going to want all of the items below, but a Wizard only wants the bolded items.
Magic Weapon
Magic Armor
Cloak of Resistance
Stat-boosting item (headbands for mental stats, belts for physical)
Ring of Protection
Amulet of Natural Armor
All the items the Ranger needed are off limits, leaving him unable to spend his gold on items that would raise his combat capability. On the other hand, the Wizard has only lost two of the items he was meant to buy. The Wizard still has several options where he can place his gold to raise his character's viability.
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Is there a particular reason you don't want ABP? It's literally meant to make pathfinder less complex and powergamey.
Removing the Big 6 still leaves your players with a heap of gold they are supposed to spend on magic items. And if you planned on running a low-wealth campaign, then yet again, some classes will be more severely affected than others.
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The perceived feeling of progression is another aspect to consider. One thing I've learned from Starfinder is that level 5 feels really, REALLY good. It's a natural time to be able to afford your +2 attribute bonus AND it's the same time that you receive your level up attribute bonuses, so you start seeing significant jumps in character power. Incrementalism is mathematically simpler, but it also is less perceptible. If the feeling of progress comes solely from level up incremental increases, I can guarantee that there are types of players who would not be interested in the game.
The other consideration is that you're not able to create as interesting an encounter by reducing player capabilities, particularly at the higher end of play. The more relevant a basic Orc Warrior 1 is to a level 5 character, the less interesting you can make an encounter that's supposed to feature a BBEG with Orc Warrior minions and traps.
I was just thinking of mak8ng things less complex. Instead of adding more to the characters, take away from the monsters, The big six are just adding numbers to the characters, so I was wondering if just sending weaker monsters would work. Like making APL -1 average, APL challenging and so forth.
It will affect some character classes more than others, and it will affect them more the higher their level. (Level 1 characters will be unaffected.)
Armor Class is especially dependent on wealth for most front-liners. Take away a level 20 Fighter's +5 Ring of Protection, +5 Amulet of Natural Armor, +5 Celestial Platemail and +6 Dexterity Enhancement bonus and suddenly his AC is about 20 points lower. Even APL-7 monsters will be able to hit him almost every time.
This will be less of a problem if there's good caster support - spells like Greater Magic Weapon and Shield of Faith will suddenly be really valuable.
While you might be able to run a campaign like that, you'd probably have to tailor the encounters to your specific group. There's no simple 'APL-2' modification that will reliably work.
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Pretty much what’s in the title. How viable would it be if the Big 6 magic items were removed from the game, similar to how it is with the automatic bonus progression, but instead of giving the PCs the bonus, they just went up against lower CR enemies?
If it is viable how low?
Maybe -1 CR every 4 or 5 levels?
This fundamentally does not work. The reason you can't just excise the magic items and scale down the challenge is why things like Big 6 and automatic bonus progression exist.
Magic items are fundamentally baked into the math of the game.
Attack bonus and hit points inherently scale with level. AC and damage, by and large, don't, or at least not to a degree sufficient to compare to the AB and HP scaling.
The issue is not that you lower the PCs level of power when you take away the magic items. It's that you've broken the math of the game.
The reason this is not an issue in 5e, or 4e (sort of), or 13th Age, or hopefully Pathfinder 2e is not that they've done away with these bonuses. They haven't. They've simply moved or modified them, such that some things don't scale as much and others actually scale with level and class abilities, but that's fundamental to the design of those games, not just ripping it out whole cloth and improvising from there.
Also, this does not hit the classes evenly, or even close. Worse, the classes most in need of help are hindered most, and the classes least in need of help are affected least. Take away the big six from a Druid or a Sorcerer and they don't particularly care. You could send them into a war zone butt naked and they're still fairly close to full efficacy. Take away the magic from a high level Fighter's gear and they are completely irrelevant compared to any caster.
We have one guy adamant about sticking with PF, he bought all the 3.5 books months before 4th edition came out and now is made that he spent all this money on PF only to have them come out with a 2nd edition.
While this is a normal emotional response to a change in something of deep personal importance, it is both irrational and unfair, and your friend needs to learn to manage his feelings. Pathfinder 1e had a ten-year run. That is an extremely long run for any roleplaying game. An update is due, and necessary in order to keep Pathfinder from going the way of RIFTS.
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There are ways around the Big 6, but just lower CR isn't it.
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Personally I'm more a fan of the classic Big 6. It feels good knowing my character is getting better at their speciality.
If it seems boring, I try to play a more exciting class. Instead of Fighter, I play Magus. Instead of Ranger, I'd play Hunter. Instead of Sorcerer, I play Kineticist. You'd be surprised what moderate spellcasting and a minimum of 4 skills per level can do to make the game more engaging.
But hey. If other people have their fixes and it works for them, I'm happy for ya.
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These are literally NOT my big 6.
Magic Weapon 2k gp, 8k gp +1d6 damage
Magic Armor 1k gp, 4k gp +2
Cloak of Resistance +1 or 2 to saves
Stat-boosting item (headbands for mental stats, belts for physical) 4k 16k +4 (or +2 2 stats)
Ring of Protection 2k, 8k +2
Amulet of Natural Armor 2k, 8k +2
Next is Boots of the Cat 1k gp (20 max falling damage, unless spikes).
2 level dip into monk. +3 all saves. +1 bab. feats (EVASION, dodge, combat reflexes) +1 AC
wand of shield (2pp, 750gp) spring loaded sheath UMD as needed. +4 AC and cost wise 50 castings will last you way into level 6 in PFS (3 mods, 3 encounters per mod * 6), you just saved spending 3k on AoNA and Magic Armor = 200 charges, so saved 2250 gp and got the same AC, 3k if you paid with PP. And it stacks if you do buy armor eventually.
embedded ioun stone(s) +1 init (others, but that one is 2PP)
Muleback cords + heavyweight belt (takes a 10 STR to a 512lb light carry weight. Yes, yes I CAN pick up my friend's body and run at full speed).
I know one of these is not an item. But a 2 level dip in monk is almost always worth it IMHO. You get IUS, Evasion, Dodge, Combat Reflexes (if 14+ Dex), +3 saves. All for 1 BAB. A +3 save RoP is 18k. You will barely have that at level 7 PFS. And it stacks!
Cash wise, I've saved all my pennies for someday. Spent 8k gp, 4 PP and 2 levels. Got a +2(of 4 max with full bab and +1 weapon and stat item) to attack (of some sort) as well as the benefits the stat gives (Att and damage for Str, RAtt and init for Dex, HP and saves, AC and saves (if monk), Spells/level and skills for int, spells/level and maybe saves if pal or cha class). +3 all saves (instead of 1 or 2, with +1 to some other, which I still might have gotten). Four good feats, including one that is +1AC. +1 init. Extra AoO. Ref saves for no damage. Carry capacity out of this world (wear lead full plate!). Fall any height, take 20 damage and walk away (after level 3, level 2 is a bit shaky yet). Feats BTW cost about 10k (ioun stone prices). So the extras you get from monk really make a huge value difference, IMHO.
As part of my duties, I will carry a full lab for xyz with me. Maybe carry an anvil to throw at mobs.
You could ditch the big 6 and ABP and retool the enemies the party faces, but it's not going to be as simple as "reduce the effective CR of the party by 1 per X levels".
All the big 6 really do are inflate numbers, but the enemies in the bestiary are built around those assumptions (roughly). In order to make this work you would need to rebuild the bestiary, with the assumption of much less number scaling. Look at Starfinder as an example of this. The didn't completely eliminate it, but it is greatly reduced by comparison to PF1.
A game without the Big 6 and ABP is like a low wealth game. You need to build the encounters very carefully and avoid certain kinds of monsters/powers that could be problematic.