Have you ever run a D&D campaign where you couldn't play wizard (and/or cleric) PCs? Either because the world itself didn't have it (low or no-magic), or because it was super-rare, or for some other reason inaccessible as a PC class?

Ive played in two where all sorts of casters from wizards to bards were either non-existent or rare NPCs only. The class options were Fighter, Thief, Monk and magic-less Paladins, Rangers and Bards. Another one it was all fighters and thieves with magic users and clerics lumped together as as usually hostile NPCs. And a third that doesnt quite count that had just fighters set in a Barsoom themed campaign. No magic at all. Closer to Gamma World minus the mutant powers. Which someone else ran.

Currently we are prepping still a 5e campaign where everyone is playing just a Fighter. Everything else is NPC only.

I played in a campaign where Druids were NPC only. The DM used them as a "godless" faction where Druids were actually vessels possessed by the "World-Spirit" itself. The greatest of Druids were almost demigods--or at least so we were told; we never ran into any near that level of power.

I ran a 4e campaign with only Martial classes (fighters, rangers, rogues, warlords) and NPC casters only had rituals. I wanted to do something Conan-esque and it worked great. Since 4e doesn't rely on healing from clerics, it wasn't a big issue to nuke them or the wizards from the setting.

Quote from: RPGPundit;932641Have you ever run a D&D campaign where you couldn't play wizard (and/or cleric) PCs? Either because the world itself didn't have it (low or no-magic), or because it was super-rare, or for some other reason inaccessible as a PC class?

No.

For starters, if I were to do that, I would not use D&D because I would have to remove too much of what I feel makes the game D&D. I would use Traveller instead and cap the Tech Level at 0 or 1, maybe 2, and have the 'monsters' be animals created using the Animal Encounters system. I could even use it again as a lost colony of some kind.

Not where they couldn't exist, but plenty where they didn't exist.

If I want D&D where PC Magic Users are not possible I'll play Pendragon.

But I have seen plenty of parties, especially at low levels, that didn't include any spell casters.

I've run some Conan-style games where the only magic users were NPCs, and some Lankhmar games where I had placed a strict level cap on magic users at 4th. My problem is that my wife only wants to play magic users and so that tends to limit the style of game I run if I want her to play.

Personal Experience:

Tried it in 2nd and 3rd, and it works well at lower levels, but above 7th, magic becomes necessary, especially in 3.x.  However, if you have house rules in place, then they'll work.

No. Players aren't fans of that.

Quote from: RPGPundit;932641Have you ever run a D&D campaign where you couldn't play wizard (and/or cleric) PCs? Either because the world itself didn't have it (low or no-magic), or because it was super-rare, or for some other reason inaccessible as a PC class?

Not in a full D&D campaign, no, but certainly in some one-off or similar games.

Quote from: RPGPundit;932641Have you ever run a D&D campaign where you couldn't play wizard (and/or cleric) PCs? Either because the world itself didn't have it (low or no-magic), or because it was super-rare, or for some other reason inaccessible as a PC class?

Yes, more than once:).
The most recent was when I ran a one-shot of Backswords and Bucklers, where there's only a Wise (Wo)man class, which is definitely not the same as a Wizard or Cleric. Unless, of course, you believe that the ability to find missing things with two crossed twigs, brew poisons and emetics, and perform basic healing and surgery, is somehow the same as Burning Hands, Sleep, and Cure Wounds;)!

Quote from: RPGPundit;932641Have you ever run a D&D campaign where you couldn't play wizard (and/or cleric) PCs? Either because the world itself didn't have it (low or no-magic), or because it was super-rare, or for some other reason inaccessible as a PC class?

No. Could be fun.

Indirectly related, I did manage to get off a session of Pathfinder where only Half-Orc, Human and Orc were playable Races. Every other one either didn't exist implicitly or existed in inaccessible terms mechanics-wise. It was quite interesting to see the reaction of the PCs to the starting event: an Orc being beaten by Humans in the middle of the street because he apparently "stole something" (he didn't but that wasn't the point, evidently) and so you very quickly had the players actually kinda size each other up from there and have their PCs act accordingly (tried talking first via the Orc Sorcerer, had limited success but then the Half-Orc Monk PC failed a Will save due to one of mob throwing the racial slur of "skinner" and decided to stove in one of the mob's heads and it devolved from there -- the Human PCs didn't really combat what the mob was accusing the Orc NPC of which was VERY interesting and caused tension for the last couple hours of the session).

I was just thinking that I've run many games of Mazes & Minotaurs where nobody played a spell caster. My main play of M&M has been my ongoing campaign with drop-in players who pick their PC from the collection of characters aboard the ship. I've got a dozen PCs and only 4-6 players so thinking back, I know I've run non-caster games. Which is interesting because I do the same with my on-going OD&D campaign but I doubt that I ever ran an OD&D session without at least one caster at the table.

My ACKS game had no magic; D&D-derived system where I binned all the magic (and monsters) as a starting point. That's because it was a historical game, the only "magic" retained was divination.

Most of the PCs were variations on the Fighter, with one who was a Ranger-variant.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;932687Personal Experience:

Tried it in 2nd and 3rd, and it works well at lower levels, but above 7th, magic becomes necessary, especially in 3.x.  However, if you have house rules in place, then they'll work.

Sorry. No. Magic does not become "necessary" if the DM is actually paying attention.

The fighter PCs might need some magic items/weapons against possible NPC casters. But run properly even that might not be needed.