Gary writes:

> Here are the possibilities for restricting the amount of magic items
> possible in a 3e BR campaign that I`ve gleaned from this thread and from
> past discussions. I just want to put them all together in one post so as
> to have a list that one can choose from.

Personally, one campaign-specific restriction I was thinking of placing on
magical items is that you need to be blooded in order to use a magic item,
just like you need to be blooded to use a spell. I think this will both
lessen the amount of magical items available and provide for the dichotemy
between the fantasy endeavors of the divine and the "mundane" abilities of
the common man.

In my campaigns, all magic-users must be blooded, including priests, druids,
bards, etc. Their bloodline strength determines the maximum level that they
can achieve in magic-using classes. Magicians don`t actually cast spells,
but are rather quasi-scientists and such that the word "magician" would
normally imply. Magicians don`t have magic items, but often require
components or tools to make their "spells" work.

However, I was thinking of also introducing a new kind of rationale for my
next campaign... I`m thinking all clerics will have a sort of "virtual
bloodline" derived from their connection with their god, granted through an
investiture by the church. Hence, through an act of investiture, divine
energy and possibly Regency are (temporarily?) placed within a (demi-)human
host giving that person a bloodline. Hence, a priest of Kriesha might get a
Minor Bloodline of Kriesha at a certain bloodline strength allowing that
cleric to cast spells and use magic items. The blood abilities aquired by
this bloodline would probably be uniform throughout the church and would be
things like Turn Undead, Spontaneous Healing/Harming, Divine Might, Special
Mount, etc.

I`m currently trying to think about how issues like Bloodtheft, Awnsheigh
corruption, spending regency points, and already possessing an ancient
bloodline would interact with this theory.

I like the explanation because:
* It no longer makes priests this massive exception to the cosmology of
the world, but includes them in the system
* It ties divine bloodlines to divine spellcasting which just makes sense
in my mind
* I like the idea of their being a distinction between newer, relatively
weaker bloodlines and the idea of ancient bloodlines
* It allows me to put similiar restrictions on divine casters that I put
on arcane casters, allowing me to easily make magic more common or rare in
the world. (In my case, the restriction I like to use is that bloodline
determines maximum spellcasting level.)

-Lord Rahvin

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