Some folk don't like the magic item christmas tree effect that 3e introduced to D&D that persists in Pathfinder and produces the 'magic item economy' that can often break immersion and verisimilitude for many gamers. Myself I am a fan of taking all of those magic 'bonus' items and simply internalizing them directly into character progression and then just simply dropping them from the world entirely. Character wealth should be reduced as a result:
Character Level Progression | Bonus |
2nd and every 2 levels after | +1 two stats |
2nd and every 4 levels after | +1 all saving throws |
3rd and every 4 levels after | +1 attack and damage granted by wielded weapons* |
3rd and every 4 levels after | +1 shield bonus granted by equipped shield* |
4th and every 4 levels after | +1 armor bonus granted by armor* worn |
*Proficiency required to receive this bonus
No other changes to rules are required. Magical weapons and armor begin at the '+2' level only providing special properties, no bonuses, at the same price.
Characters still require items with special materials to bypass certain monster resistances and magical resistance become a little tougher to bypass with fewer magical items available (i.e. 99% of all weaponry in the low magic setting are mundane now). To the normal folk these creatures are all the more scary with even the majority of the Kingsguard having some difficulty fighting such foes. Spells such as Magic Weapon lose their ability to provide bonuses to weapons but instead allow the now 'rare' ability to bypass magical resistances and affect incorporeal creatures.
With this house rule there should be relatively little impact on the balance of game play. Magical items become more of an option for DMs and the items uncovered by the players have more active magical properties rather than passive bonuses. Magic shoppes are no longer necessary to sustain the D&D magic item economy.
Due to the generous flexibility of stat bonus progression I'd recommend saddling your players with the base 15-point buy as now it become more palatable for your players to handle. This sets the bar lower but characters rise in power much more evenly through out the campaign.
The next 'gritty'-esk low magic campaign I run I'll be implementing a system like this and will have a chance to play test it!