Hello! I'm about to run a campaign on my own setting, but I'm having some trouble handling magic.
My setting is low magic, so magic is a bit rare, but I have a city called "Feeric" where there's in a functional mythallar-like giving power to the city. That's the only place where magic is strong, and people can research, study and learn it (thru great effort) but still, there are some lucky ones that were born with magic within them.
My struggle is: is there any way that I can show this in game mechanics? Like if they try to use magic outside Feeric, I want it to be weaker and sometimes not work, but I also dont want them to get frustated, I cant seem to balance this.
Make it a part of the world's culture that spellcasters either journey to "Feeric" at some point, or pay to acquire a crystal shard (spellcasting focus) that has been steeped in the magic of the mythallar. As long as they have it, their magic works just fine away from the city. In the city proper, their magic gets a small boost (+1 to spell save DCs and such). Those spellcasters outside the city without these stones may get a small penalty (-1 to save DCs, etc.). This way, you can assume the PC spellcasters have their stones one way or another, but have a tension where they can have those stones lost or stolen by unscrupulous folk looking to get a crystal for a spellcaster who may not have one. But also with a small stone market, these stones could be re-purchasable or found in treasure or among the bodies of dead spellcasters in dungeons.
You can also make it so that the stones may need recharged after a time. So maybe a pilgrimage is required to recharge the magic battery. Maybe some nature of the wild environment can hamper the stone's magic, giving the PC casters with the stone a slight negative and those without a stone a larger disadvantage temporarily.
EDIT: Also, just consider how you describe what happens when an enemy succeeds a spell save or a spellcaster misses on a spell attack. It may just be because the magic is so weak that the spell isn't strong enough to take hold or the targeted magic stutters and sputters out before reaching the target. The spell that misses or fails doesn't have to be missing or failing at "full force."
Make it a part of the world's culture that spellcasters either journey to "Feeric" at some point, or pay to acquire a crystal shard (spellcasting focus) that has been steeped in the magic of the mythallar. As long as they have it, their magic works just fine away from the city. In the city proper, their magic gets a small boost (+1 to spell save DCs and such). Those spellcasters outside the city without these stones may get a small penalty (-1 to save DCs, etc.). This way, you can assume the PC spellcasters have their stones one way or another, but have a tension where they can have those stones lost or stolen by unscrupulous folk looking to get a crystal for a spellcaster who may not have one. But also with a small stone market, these stones could be re-purchasable or found in treasure or among the bodies of dead spellcasters in dungeons.
You can also make it so that the stones may need recharged after a time. So maybe a pilgrimage is required to recharge the magic battery. Maybe some nature of the wild environment can hamper the stone's magic, giving the PC casters with the stone a slight negative and those without a stone a larger disadvantage temporarily.
EDIT: Also, just consider how you describe what happens when an enemy succeeds a spell save or a spellcaster misses on a spell attack. It may just be because the magic is so weak that the spell isn't strong enough to take hold or the targeted magic stutters and sputters out before reaching the target. The spell that misses or fails doesn't have to be missing or failing at "full force."
Amazing! Thanks a ton, you have no idea how much that helped me!
You could use a meta-physcial Law vs Chaos approach.
Inside the City magic has been tamed and works as normal but the further out of the city you get it becomes chaotic with the risk of Wild Magic surges, the further away from the city the greater the risk of wild magic surges when magic is used. Then just come up with some increasing nasty/interesting effects for the wild magic surges for the areas furthest away from the city.
The city might have magical wards set up that repel the chaotic effects from the city and they employ a cadre fo magic users to go along the city walls empowering sigils or wards to stabilise the magic and there is a rival faction trying to destabilise them, maybe the rival faction views the city as an afront to the natural order and want to return the city to a more "natural" state.
EDIT: You can also look into Faerzress, which is a magical radiation effect from 3e that messes up Divination and Conjuration magics.
You could use a meta-physcial Law vs Chaos approach.
Inside the City magic has been tamed and works as normal but the further out of the city you get it becomes chaotic with the risk of Wild Magic surges, the further away from the city the greater the risk of wild magic surges when magic is used. Then just come up with some increasing nasty/interesting effects for the wild magic surges for the areas furthest away from the city.
The city might have magical wards set up that repel the chaotic effects from the city and they employ a cadre fo magic users to go along the city walls empowering sigils or wards to stabilise the magic and there is a rival faction trying to destabilise them, maybe the rival faction views the city as an afront to the natural order and want to return the city to a more "natural" state.
EDIT: You can also look into Faerzress, which is a magical radiation effect from 3e that messes up Divination and Conjuration magics.
Implement a possible mental drain on spellcasting outside of the wards.
Everytime someone casts a spell, let them also roll a d12, 1-2 are fails - the spell fizzles and the spell slot is lost, the die then reduces to a d10, next fail the die reduces to a d8, d6, d4. failing on the d4 roll means instantly falling unconscious for d10 minutes unless you take damage. A long rest restores the "drain die" to the next higher die. (or if thats too harsh back to a d12)
And maybe even the wards only reduce the fails to a 1. You could then also implement feats and/or magic items that allows number of x rerolls for fails per day.
Example Feats: "Reroll a failed mental drain check twice per day." Or "Once per day, you can restore a mental drain die back to the next higher die with a short rest."
My setting is low magic, so magic is a bit rare, but I have a city called "Feeric" where there's in a functional mythallar-like giving power to the city. That's the only place where magic is strong, and people can research, study and learn it (thru great effort) but still, there are some lucky ones that were born with magic within them.
Make it a part of the world's culture that spellcasters either journey to "Feeric" at some point, or pay to acquire a crystal shard (spellcasting focus) that has been steeped in the magic of the mythallar. As long as they have it, their magic works just fine away from the city. In the city proper, their magic gets a small boost (+1 to spell save DCs and such). Those spellcasters outside the city without these stones may get a small penalty (-1 to save DCs, etc.). This way, you can assume the PC spellcasters have their stones one way or another, but have a tension where they can have those stones lost or stolen by unscrupulous folk looking to get a crystal for a spellcaster who may not have one. But also with a small stone market, these stones could be re-purchasable or found in treasure or among the bodies of dead spellcasters in dungeons.
You can also make it so that the stones may need recharged after a time. So maybe a pilgrimage is required to recharge the magic battery. Maybe some nature of the wild environment can hamper the stone's magic, giving the PC casters with the stone a slight negative and those without a stone a larger disadvantage temporarily.
EDIT: Also, just consider how you describe what happens when an enemy succeeds a spell save or a spellcaster misses on a spell attack. It may just be because the magic is so weak that the spell isn't strong enough to take hold or the targeted magic stutters and sputters out before reaching the target. The spell that misses or fails doesn't have to be missing or failing at "full force."
Amazing! Thanks a ton, you have no idea how much that helped me!
You could use a meta-physcial Law vs Chaos approach.
Inside the City magic has been tamed and works as normal but the further out of the city you get it becomes chaotic with the risk of Wild Magic surges, the further away from the city the greater the risk of wild magic surges when magic is used. Then just come up with some increasing nasty/interesting effects for the wild magic surges for the areas furthest away from the city.
The city might have magical wards set up that repel the chaotic effects from the city and they employ a cadre fo magic users to go along the city walls empowering sigils or wards to stabilise the magic and there is a rival faction trying to destabilise them, maybe the rival faction views the city as an afront to the natural order and want to return the city to a more "natural" state.
EDIT: You can also look into Faerzress, which is a magical radiation effect from 3e that messes up Divination and Conjuration magics.
thanks a lot! that's very helpful and insightful!
Implement a possible mental drain on spellcasting outside of the wards.
Everytime someone casts a spell, let them also roll a d12, 1-2 are fails - the spell fizzles and the spell slot is lost, the die then reduces to a d10, next fail the die reduces to a d8, d6, d4. failing on the d4 roll means instantly falling unconscious for d10 minutes unless you take damage. A long rest restores the "drain die" to the next higher die. (or if thats too harsh back to a d12)
And maybe even the wards only reduce the fails to a 1. You could then also implement feats and/or magic items that allows number of x rerolls for fails per day.
Example Feats: "Reroll a failed mental drain check twice per day." Or "Once per day, you can restore a mental drain die back to the next higher die with a short rest."