Control Magic (HLC)

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Magic in an AD&D campaign is a splendid thing. It opens new possibilities for play and, more importantly, it provides a sense of wonderment for the players. Piles of gold and gems might make players' eyes sparkle, but magic is different because it gives PCs the power to do wondrous things. Magic puts a little bit of fantasy into the players' hands.
Too much magic, however, ruins play at any level. Excessive magic destroys game balance by giving the heroes too much power too quickly; the PCs cease to be heroic personas struggling in a hostile world and become high-powered exterminators who magically fumigate castles and dungeons, cleaning out the monsters and treasure before moving on to their next clean-up job.
Overabundant pluses also exacerbate the breakdown of game mechanics at high levels. Look at figures 3 and 4 again. Every plus a character gains (whether from magic, high ability scores, or special abilities) shortens each bar by one unit. The shorter the bar, the less risk of failure and the lower the level of tension in any particular encounter. Less tension means that every game situation is more commonplace and less satisfying to complete.
When magic is common, it loses its ability to evoke a sense of wonder in the players.
If magic is fairly rare, even a minor item such as a potion can be a momentous find. Players tend to appreciate whatever their characters can get when magical items are hard to find, and even the short-term boost a potion grants to a PC is significant. In contrast, even a holy sword is no big deal if every PC in the game already has two or three magical weapons. The more magic the PCs have, the less likely they are to be impressed with any single item. In the latter example, the PCs are undoubtedly much more powerful than the magic-starved characters in the former campaign, but magic in the former campaign actually has a greater impact on play.
Magical armor has perhaps the greatest impact on play. Every paladin on the block would love to have his suit of full plate +5 and a shield +5, but this presents some serious problems for encounter design. Not only do you have to create an encounter that builds on strengths and minimizes weaknesses, but now you must also provide opponents capable of striking a –10 Armor Class. Once characters get below an Armor Class of –4, a great deal of the tension dissipates. The heroes are virtually immune to most physical attacks. Proficient use of rust monsters and other armor-eating beasties are highly encouraged.
Bracers of defense and even mid-level rings of protection create the same problems as a suit of full plate +5. Bracers of defense AC 2 grant an effective Armor Class bonus of +8 and should be more rare than even magical plate—bracers of defense AC 0 should be viewed as gifts from the gods! When introducing protective magical items, remember that a little bartering or loaning of magical items within a party can allow a single character to attain an unbelievably low Armor Class. The characters who give up their magical items to protect a comrade make themselves a little easier to be attacked, while their friend is virtually cloaked in protective magic.
It is important to remember that campaigns can have too little magic. Finding magical treasure is an important award for PCs who have done well. Players become disheartened and cynical if their characters do not enjoy rewards commensurate with the risks they take. Consequently, giving out few or no magical treasures is not an appropriate way to control magic in the campaign. Workable—and fair—controls are discussed below.
==Use Magical Items==
When intelligent opponents have magical treasures, they should use them against the PCs. If faced with defeat, an intelligent opponent who owns a charged magical item should expend charges freely; if the PCs capture a charged item with lots of charges left, the opponent probably wasn't using the item properly.
If the PCs seek favors, information, or services from NPCs—or even from their own henchman—they should expect to offer magical items in payment, especially if the task set before the NPC is particularly demanding. Note that even the most loyal henchman is going to become a little surly if the PCs start carrying around (or storing) magical items they never use.
Don't forget to roll those item saving throws when a PC fails a saving throw, and remember that magical protections a character enjoys don't extend to his equipment once a saving throw fails. For example, if a high-level character wearing a ring of protection +3 and a cloak of protection +3 fails a save vs. a disintegrate spell, the character's items do not enjoy a +6 saving throw bonus. Each item saves individually.
==Magic is Tempting==
Remember that the bad guys want the PCs' magic as much as the PCs want theirs. Villains are prone to  demand magical items for ransom when a PC or henchman is captured, and hire thieves to pick the PCs' pockets or burglarize their homes.
==Remove Unwanted Magical Items==
Create situations where the PCs have saving throw penalties so that item saves become more common. A few pesky leprechauns are great for removing unwanted items from a campaign, either by stealing them or polymorphing them into bizarre shapes (or both). It's also possible to create situations where PCs might accidentally lose items.
For example, characters who fall overboard during a storm at sea might have a hard time holding onto all their equipment, and the bottom of the ocean is not terribly easy to search. Characters who annoy deities might suddenly find that their favorite items no longer work properly. Be careful not to overdo it. Offhandedly zapping a character's favorite sword is churlish, but a closet full of long swords +1 is fair game.
==Spell Memorization and Acquisition==
Magical items aren't the only source of magical inflation in a campaign. High-level spellcasters can become unstoppable engines of destruction if the DM allows them to simply dump out their full complement of spells every adventure. Remember that memorizing a spell requires a good night's sleep and 10 minutes of prayer or study per level of the spell; a 20th-level wizard requires 18 hours of study time to memorize a full complement of spells. By contrast, it only takes 37 minutes for the same wizard to cast every spell in memory.
==Magic's Limitations==
This point goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. The 5th-level teleport spell requires 50 minutes of memorization time, which makes it impractical for almost any trip that can be made in less than an hour by other means. Further, teleport is risky; even if the caster is very familiar with the destination there is a 2% chance per use for at least a minor accident (arriving too high) and a 1% chance for a potentially fatal accident (teleporting low).
It's important to remember that magic is unlike technology in that most spells do one thing and one thing only. Magic missile, for example, harms creatures but has absolutely no effect on inanimate objects; knock can force open doors and locks, but it can't bowl creatures over or effect portals such as portcullises and drawbridges. Players tend to have modern minds and they often expect their character's magic to be as adaptable as technology. Make sure that they don't get away with doing that.
==Magic Shops==
Do not let magic become a commodity. Magical items should never be bought and sold like milk and eggs. Allowing PCs of any level to simply purchase magical items, or even to purchase magical supplies such as quills and inks for writing scrolls, takes some of the mystique away from magic and makes the whole world seem a little more commonplace.
It is not necessary to stubbornly forbid the buying and selling of magic; the key to keeping magic fanciful is to make sure that any transaction is an adventure of a sort.
Magical supplies should never have clearly marked prices and be sold from neatly arranged shelves—that's too such like a modern supermarket. Instead, things such as spell components, quills, and exotic inks should be available only at specialty shops run by would-be wizards or retired adventures. Barter or intense haggling should be the norm. Of course, the only guarantee as to what the PCs are actually getting is based on the proprietor's reputation. (Is that really a cockatrice quill or did it just come from a large chicken?) A PC who needs a specific ingredient for a potion or scroll ink might have to choose between several similar items; only a series of careful questions about how each item was acquired reveals which one the PC should choose.
When it comes to purchasing magical items, make the PCs buy “pig-in-a-poke.” Characters generally sell only magical items they cannot use, so they really have no idea what they do. In most cases, mere cash is not sufficient. The seller wants a service of some kind, or wishes to barter for another magical item the character can use.
Player characters might occasionally wish to sell an item for cash. A harried DM can find gold piece values in the Encyclopedia Magica™ books, however, the values given there are more useful as a way to establish relative values between items. The market value for something as powerful and useful as a magical item is highly variable and hard to calculate.
Finding the right buyer should be an adventure in itself. A magical item for sale draws thieves like flies, and those thieves could range anywhere from the neighborhood fiend to the local tax collector. Perhaps a vampire drops by one evening and tries to charm the item out of the PC's hands. In most cases, the buyer is wary, because determining an item's true powers is a difficult task, and the buyer can never be sure exactly what he is getting.
Shops that sell magical items are a bad idea for several reasons. First, the quest for magical treasures is what drives the game. It's true that high-level characters tend to have more magical items than they really need, but such characters often desire specific items to assist with whatever task happens to be at hand.
For example, it is known that Lord Mayor Charles Oliver O'Kane of Ravens Bluff™ (in the Forgotten Realms® campaign setting) is seeking a cube of force so he can deal with a troublesome dragon. The DM could allow the character to walk down to the local magic shop, hand over a pile a coins and gems big enough to choke the dragon, and get his cube of force, but a clever DM seizes upon the character's desire as an opportunity to create an adventure. Several different adventures could arise from the mayor's search:
A charlatan might appear and offer the mayor a fake cube of force; some well-placed illusions might convince even the most skeptical buyer that the false item is genuine. Even if the mayor detects the hoax, actually catching and punishing the charlatan could prove to be difficult.
The character might locate a damaged cube of force. The cube might be completely inoperative, but repairable under some special condition that the owner might be able to bring about. Alternatively, the cube might be partially functional; perhaps it works at less than full power or randomly deactivates itself. The new owner might learn the cube's quirks through trial and error.
Someone might have a cube of force he can live without. The owner, however, refuses to sell the cube for mere cash and wants another powerful magical item in trade. Perhaps the cube's owner knows where the other item can be found, but believes getting it would be too risky. The cube owner, however, would gladly reveal the other item's location in return for a promise to trade the item for the cube.
The dragon might learn about the mayor's search for a cube of force and decide to pay the mayor a visit. Perhaps the dragon would be willing to negotiate, or perhaps the dragon opens hostilities before the mayor is ready.
Another powerful character, perhaps a political rival, offers to loan the mayor a cube of force, for a favor to be named later. If the mayor accepts, repaying the favor might prove especially difficult or embarrassing. Refusing the loan might prove equally difficult or embarrassing, especially if the dragon damages the city and the rival lets it be known that the mayor refused an offer that might have defeated the dragon.