DnD really is even less balanced without magic due to how the CR system works. However it could work out fine at low levels where mundane characters are assumed to have very little magic at their disposal. Also it is hard to maintain verisimilitude in such a setting as magic is so overpowered that deliberately forsakes magic would never be able to stand against magic using foes. A possible solution is to have all magic users be state controlled and heavily regulated. So the military has magic but there are no freelance independent wizards sorcerers or clerics. This could be enforced by having the higher level magic users support the system as they are in positions of great power. Sort of like how Dragon Age does it really.
This could be an excellent solution.
I want magic in this part of the world to be ridicolously rare, but off course it exists, it's D&D there's bound to be magic.
If a player wants to play a wizard he would be a renegade, and a cleric would be a faithful servant of a god, who suddenly discovers that the god empowers him.
This could all work very well, with low level casters being hunted down and burned (or brain washed into serving the powers that be), while the real power is still employing wizards.
Sure, craft (alchemy) will be able to create potions, this will solve the healing problem if the cleric doesn't dare to cast cure spells all over the place so as to not get revealed to the watch.
If wizards and sorcerers are banned, what about Divine magic. Or things that aren't actually magic but sort of act like it: psionics, incarnum, binding, truenaming, shadow magic, maneuvers, invocations.
I'm not trying to be an ass or anything, but these are issues I've run into while trying to design a world with no magic.
My plan was that since the watch aren't that aware what is magic and what is not, and there are only a few experts (read wizards who are smart enough to not cast spells) that are studying magic lore, almost any court would regard anything that looking like magic (even spell like abilities), as magic and thus punish you for it.
Problem 1: What if a human magic use learns magic from the elves and decides to go and destroy the kingdom? There are numerous mid to low level ways to do this with what are generally considered to be iconic spells such as Planar Binding.
Problem 2: If you choose the right spells, a wizard or sorcerer in the kingdom should be able to evade/defeat most CR appropriate enemies, which means the strong arm of the law clamps down on them hard. This, however, creates a problem when you have to give CR appropriate encounters to the PCs unless they do something astoundingly stupid.
Hmm. I guess I'll have my elves be very seclusive with their magic. There are other human kingdoms where one could learn magic, but due to the well-organized no-magic kingdom they really have a hard time attacking them.
I agree with the second problem, and I'm not really sure what to do, since my players will probably have picked up a few tricks on min/maxing, their characters should be able to deal with level appropriate CR fairly easily, given magic items, without those I think it might increase their difficulties, but not be impossible, as long as I don't throw them into fights with ghosts.
Also bear in mind that one of the players will almost certainly play a wizard. But I'd like him not to show off his powers in public, since that would get him killed.
What if almost all the elven magic works on prohibiting the Conjuration school? This would help against most of the spells that allow you to dodge the watch? And planar binding and things like that, it would only solve it for wizards, but I'd still be something.
EDIT: These are all great ideas, and questions I need to be able to answer should my players ask, or attempt to find out, so keep them coming and thanks for the help!
