I wonder if I should point out the fact that a Low Magic server, and setting, by its very design, is one wherein it should be just as functional to play without a caster of any sort, as with one. So basing it on that.. yeah, what's it say when this server is clearly not one of those, going off of that criteria, and then having every single excuse against change be 'if you're having a tough time, get a caster! You can't survive without a caster! You'd be stupid to go without a caster!'
Ya know, it's not exactly functional to force every situation to be one wherein you need to buff yourself out the eyeballs just to stand a chance against an enemy of LOWER level than you. And thus in turn to force you to rely on one singular player who has the means to buff you out the eyeballs, as a result.
Mind you.. if the server were to use, say, a Quality-based system, then a lot of this stuff would go right out the window. Basically that you would be able to succeed crafting with far better chances, rather than the 'hahaha, fuck you' rates that crafting checks have now, but the results would thus be based on your crafting level, instead, and even failure would still provide a result, rather than a waste of money.
Elaborating a bit further: Let's say you're a Level One smith.. you make a sword. You succeed! Its quality is 'Below Average' to 'Poor'. 'Cause you're level one, duh. However, you gained experience for it, and you have a shoddy sword you could technically still sell to a low-level. Make it to level two, it's Average to Below Average. You fail at level two, and you create a Below Average to Poor instead. In turn, this would create a stable item scale where weapons and armor would be effective based on their quality, not on enchantments. You end up with weapons that have -1 and +1 to their base physical damages, rather than slinging around lightning blades left and right.
Heck, take it a step further, let's apply enchanting to the mix. Let's say you have a specially carved Fire Agate, like the ones we're talking about for the Attune Gem situation. Imbue it with a fire spell. You get a craftsman to embed it into a sword. That sword is now High Quality, and has 'Fire Agate' as part of the Material marker. Weapon has anywhere from 1 to 1d4 Fire damage, depending on the spell used and the craftmanship level.
Better still, you wouldn't be seeing those flat numbers. We have scripts that can hide stuff like player levels and other such things. Pretty sure it can be scripted so you can't see the weapon statistics such as that 1d4 Fire Damage and the +1 Slashing Damage. All you would see is the quality of the weapon, and the Material: Fire Agate marker, meaning players would also have to roleplay inspecting items, talking to merchants, getting second opinions and more - 'stead of just going 'THAT ONE *POINT*'. Heck, consider further how it'd balance out the economy to have this kind of thing.. rather than weapons being sold for 5000+ gold a piece, while the garda get freaking 3-5 gold per daily pay, you could reduce the cost of templates, for one thing, players would be more inclined to craft because they wouldn't be getting buttfucked by the crafting system's 'You must roll 15 with a -5' on recipes they have already succeeded on in the past.. farming would decrease too.
So that's: Fairer prices on templates, less anti-player crafting requirements, prices drop, balanced gear, enemy levels subside too, necessity to rely on casters goes down as well. All from the simple act of making the crafting more fair and accessible, and utilizing item 'Quality' over enchantments.
EDIT: Thought of another thing to add to this. If the player's Lore or Spellcraft is high enough, they could use the Examine feature on the item in question, and thus get a message like 'You sense magic in this blade.' or 'This weapon feels warm to the touch.' Or if it's a Unique weapon like me and Green have made mentions of, a Lore check could give you a historical insight into the nature or powers of the weapon.