I won't lie; I prefer Swords & Sandals or Game of Thrones to typical D&D fare, and especially the magical treadmill of Pathfinder (I'm guilty of abusing this too).

So...started looking at the base 5e PHB, and deciding where and what to change for my own brand new low magic setting:

Player Races: thinking of axing Dark Elves and Tieflings. Maybe Dragonborn.

Classes:
- Clerics: Literally make it so only one representative of each God (there are 9, one for each alignment) exists on the Prime Material plane. So, limit that there can only be 9 Clerics, in total. There's still plenty of people with the feats of Magic Adept or Ritual Caster, but only one avatar of each god at a time.

I see one of two consequences of this reduction: either each avatar would become a huge celebrity in their own right, devoutly guarded in a virtually impregnable fortress to cheering masses, or spirited away to secret boltholes, protected by special guardians, their status a closely guarded secret, to try to avoid assassination attempts by rival cults. Or both.

- Druids: Again, reduction to 9; one each for the terrains mentioned in the Circle of the Land, and one only for the Circle of the Moon. Members try to be present when one falls, to cast Reincarnate, but otherwise the soul just reincarnates in a babe (which can mean a terrain is without it's protector for a decade or two; hence why they try to be available to cast Reincarnate for instant protector)

- Paladin & Ranger: I don't have too much grief for these classes, honestly. Paladin's can resurrect at 17th level, but I don't see that as a huge problem. Curious if making Paladins "holy warriors" without an alignment restriction, would play well...

- Warlocks: Again, not really a problem. They seek magic knowledge from dark, dangerous places. It fits so well as a villainous NPC, and I know several people I play with will flock to this class.

- Wizard: Taking from one of my favorite Epics: 8 schools. One Master. One Apprentice. From the Masters number, one is elected Archmage. They reside at a fantastical magical tower (Dragonlance's Tower of High Sorcery or Floating Castles come to mind). Apprentices may have students they themselves teach. Wizards engaged in Byzantine politics both within and outside the Tower.

My Problem Children:
- Bards: Not sure how to limit a source of personable, up-to-level 9 spellcasting Class. Bards have a hodge-podge selection of spells, but I wouldn't call it weak. This is my biggest stumbling block.

- Sorcerers: Just thinking of not allowing. Warlocks and Wizards do what I want, and fit the world's backstory better.

Bards are rare because their spell-songs gave been lost for centuries and only a handful, disguised as ordinary travelling minstrels, exist.

Sorcerers are just rare as hen's teeth and/or tend to get burned, hanged or stoned to death by angry mobs when discovered. Learning and practicing formal wizardry people can understand, but being born a spellcaster? Unnatural.

Fascinating. I'm used to a bigger sketch of setting and then start editing classes and races heavily. Given archetypes and backgrounds, a bit more work, but works very well with a concept driven place dictating demographics later.

I'm sort of tempted to sit back and watch this method of design. The sheer open buffet of choices already is surprising. Very unlike my viewpoint.

However, I should ask: what sort of world is this, and what regions will the players play in?

Oops, sorry. Pathfinder Primer here:
Io Pathfinder Campaign Setting

Quote from: The Butcher;817389Bards are rare because their spell-songs gave been lost for centuries and only a handful, disguised as ordinary travelling minstrels, exist.

Hmmm, Bards being part of a Secret Society (a la the Harpers). Yes, that could definitely work, especially given that the setting already has one built in (based off a modified Chess/Go motif).