I am also in the camp that considers low magic to be some magic.
I generally don't have loads of people walking around using magic, and the magic items are dominated by healing potions, which could be argued as alchemical and not magical. After that, there are loads of people walking around with +1 swords and a +1 shield, but after that, magic items drop of dramatically.
In my homebrew setting about 50 new PCs are introduced to the kingdom each year. Several of these die before reaching level 5, and half of them choose to stop adventuring at that level and find other employment. The reason is they did find some good treasure that will last them quite a while, but they were so scared by their last encounter they said, "Yup, I'm done."
Many of the nobles are former "class" players but they have their noble position to fall back on so they were only adventurers for a short spell to "prove their worth."
The Real Magic is still out there waiting to be found.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I've run what I consider to be a low magic campaign before, and I generally just kept it where magic was rarely seen by common folk. You might have a court wizard in a kingdom or a region might have a druid who lives in the forest, but magic isn't an everyday thing. I also keep a lot of the more basic humanoid races such as elves, dwarves, and halflings, but the mor supernatural races are also pretty scarce. I think banning class options isn't really interesting and doesn't add to the setting for me. I prefer to allow the PCs to be exceptional then banning option for ambiance. I also kept early encounters to non-magical beasts and bandits stuff just with more environmental challenges to keep the game grounded initially. My plan is as they get higher level to deal with a small number of spellcasters and more magical beings with, but keep a lot of more normal encounters that don't involve magic so that there's still that sense that magic is special or abnormal. I don't find no magic or limiting my players abilities to be necessary or particularly fun, but each to their own.
One of the issues with trying to run a low-magic campaign in 5E is how much even most of the non-caster classes depend on magic. Only Fighters and Rogues have a majority of sub-classes that are completely lacking in any supernatural powers.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Watch Lord of the Rings. Seriously, how many spells were cast in that entire thing? Aside from the One Ring, how many magic items were there? However, there will have to be changes made.
1) Almost nobody got hit in LotR (except Boromir...) so you either have to include potions or spells for healing or understand that the party will spend as much time resting as traveling.
2) There's something to be said for the big boom spells like Fireball but if you want, you can always cap things there. It allows for magic but none of the 'shake the world and end the battle' stuff.
3) Something else that you can try is allowing for Stored Magical Power. Essentially, allow players to cast more powerful spells if they cast spells less often. I actually think Gandalf did this because when you DID see him casting something he was doing something impressive like driving off multiple Nazgul with his Magical Searchlight. This way, if you have someone with a Healing spell but they refrain from casting it for a day, the next time they DO cast it, make up-cast a level or something. This means that during the big battle with the BBEG the casters can haul out the BIG spells but before that, they're rationing resources.
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I am also in the camp that considers low magic to be some magic.
I generally don't have loads of people walking around using magic, and the magic items are dominated by healing potions, which could be argued as alchemical and not magical. After that, there are loads of people walking around with +1 swords and a +1 shield, but after that, magic items drop of dramatically.
In my homebrew setting about 50 new PCs are introduced to the kingdom each year. Several of these die before reaching level 5, and half of them choose to stop adventuring at that level and find other employment. The reason is they did find some good treasure that will last them quite a while, but they were so scared by their last encounter they said, "Yup, I'm done."
Many of the nobles are former "class" players but they have their noble position to fall back on so they were only adventurers for a short spell to "prove their worth."
The Real Magic is still out there waiting to be found.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I've run what I consider to be a low magic campaign before, and I generally just kept it where magic was rarely seen by common folk. You might have a court wizard in a kingdom or a region might have a druid who lives in the forest, but magic isn't an everyday thing. I also keep a lot of the more basic humanoid races such as elves, dwarves, and halflings, but the mor supernatural races are also pretty scarce. I think banning class options isn't really interesting and doesn't add to the setting for me. I prefer to allow the PCs to be exceptional then banning option for ambiance. I also kept early encounters to non-magical beasts and bandits stuff just with more environmental challenges to keep the game grounded initially. My plan is as they get higher level to deal with a small number of spellcasters and more magical beings with, but keep a lot of more normal encounters that don't involve magic so that there's still that sense that magic is special or abnormal. I don't find no magic or limiting my players abilities to be necessary or particularly fun, but each to their own.
One of the issues with trying to run a low-magic campaign in 5E is how much even most of the non-caster classes depend on magic. Only Fighters and Rogues have a majority of sub-classes that are completely lacking in any supernatural powers.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Watch Lord of the Rings. Seriously, how many spells were cast in that entire thing? Aside from the One Ring, how many magic items were there? However, there will have to be changes made.
1) Almost nobody got hit in LotR (except Boromir...) so you either have to include potions or spells for healing or understand that the party will spend as much time resting as traveling.
2) There's something to be said for the big boom spells like Fireball but if you want, you can always cap things there. It allows for magic but none of the 'shake the world and end the battle' stuff.
3) Something else that you can try is allowing for Stored Magical Power. Essentially, allow players to cast more powerful spells if they cast spells less often. I actually think Gandalf did this because when you DID see him casting something he was doing something impressive like driving off multiple Nazgul with his Magical Searchlight. This way, if you have someone with a Healing spell but they refrain from casting it for a day, the next time they DO cast it, make up-cast a level or something. This means that during the big battle with the BBEG the casters can haul out the BIG spells but before that, they're rationing resources.