Best Magic System

[Desdichado]

Thread crapping? All he said was Vancian Magic felt more like D&D. I would happen to agree and welcome the opinion since it's part of the poll.

IMO, if you don't like the Vancian system of magic, you really shouldn't be playing D&D.

That was the entirety of his first post. Yes, thread-crapping. And, ironically, the original post doesn't even mention D&D; there's no reason to assume that he's even talking about D&D necessarily.

Although I have to admit; I largely jumped on it because I strongly dislike Vancian magic, and refuse to play a magic-user of any kind that uses Vancian magic. But as an avowed tinkerer with the rules, I am a bit put-off by the idea that I shouldn't bother; I should just play another game. Which VirgilCaine has expressed many times in the past, and even was his sig file for a long time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The free-form style of the original Mage: The Ascension would've been a candidate for favorite magic systems except for one thing. The whole idea of avoiding paradox drove me up the wall. What could've been a vastly creative system boiled down to just coming up with ridiculous fabrications. I got very tired of electrical sockets shooting bolts of lightning.

I agree with you -- it just turned into a game of "oh yeah?" between players and DM (sorry, "Storyteller"). It sounds like the new Mage: The Awakening will finally put that nonsense in the grave, though, along with a reason to use spells (rotes) instead of always making things up on the fly. As such, it seems like the iteration of the system most portable to D&D.

 

[Voadam]

From what I've heard of warlocks they sound pretty cool. Unlimited casting but lower power and limited number of effects. Haven't seen the actual rules though.

Spontaneous casters would be my second favorite.

Vancian preparation would fall next followed by points such as psionics (I find point tracking and resource expenditure judgments more annoying than vancian slot preparation).

Skill rolls to achieve effects are annoying, I prefer magic to work unless actively disrupted somehow.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Whatever floats your boat - each system has pros and cons and the best answer is that it comes down to personal taste.

 

[interwyrm]

About the thread crapping bit... spells per day is pretty much a central part of D&D, and when I mentioned it, I was saying that I didn't like that about D&D. The purpose of this poll, for me, was to work through my ideas for a magic system for the rpg I am trying to create. The, if you don't like it, don't play it bit was a bit of a 'captain obvious' move. I don't like it, I am looking for ways to avoid playing it. That said, I was a bit taken aback by the "if you don't like it you can git out" rudeness. Thread crapping? Maybe. I don't really care though. What I do care about is seeing what people like and don't like about different magic systems, and I would prefer it if when someone brings up a system that hasn't been previously explained that they would give a short synopsis of how it works.

 

[JimAde]

What I do care about is seeing what people like and don't like about different magic systems, and I would prefer it if when someone brings up a system that hasn't been previously explained that they would give a short synopsis of how it works.

S. John Ross created the Unlimited Mana system for GURPS. I believe it's now in GURPS 4e as an official alternate, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, in that system instead of becoming fatigued you build up a tally of how much magic you've cast recently. If you go over a certain threshold BAD things can happen.

So if you really want to cast that Earthquake spell to level your enemy's castle you can do it. But you'll probably blow yourself up and damage the environment in the process.

Now that's fun.

I've cooked up a version of it for d20 as well.

 

[Merlion]

well, in case you arent familiar with it, let me explain the Arcana Unearthed system. Its similiar to the Vancian system in many aspects, but a lot more flexible.


You still have spell slots, and they work basically like D&D spell slots. The numbers are much the same too...a Magister and a Wizard of the same level have about the same number of spell slots.

There is a single spell list. Spells are divided into Simple, Complex, and Exotic, and also by descriptors. Different classes have different levels of access to spells.

You have "spells readied" which represent the specific spells you have chosen to have availble that day. Your number of readied spells is larger than your number of slots and is expanded by your ability score just as slots are.

You can cast any spell you have readied as long as you have slots for it. You can also heighten or diminish a spell by using a higher or lower level slot, and you can weave low level slots into higher level ones, or break a higher level spell slot into lower level ones.

Then there are feats like Modify Spell which lets you do most "metamagic" effects by using an additonal spell slot. And there are "spell templates" you can add and suchlike.


Hmm...not a very short synopsis I suppose, but theres a lot of matieral. It is (I assume) far more flexible than standard Vancian magic, and also does away with the "multiple copy" stuff. If you know a spell, you can cast it as many times as you have resources for.

 

[GlassJaw]

Other: see Iron Heroes.

I'm not going to offer any opinions on IH here (I've done enough of that in other places) but you think the IH is the BEST? Like I said, I'm not going to dump all over it but it certainly ain't the best.

 

[Psion]

Having tried many many point based systems, I find that there are definite advantages in terms of being able to balance power with scarcity and in terms of accounting, to the slot system.

Though I can say I have seen fair iterations (and bad ones) of all the choices in your poll.)

 

[interwyrm]

I have two problems with spell slots. The first, which appears to be solved by the arcana unearthed is the inflexibility of the system. You really have to know what you are going up against when you prepare your spells. The second, which is not solved by any mana point or spell slot system to my knowledge, is the lack of longevity the caster has as compared to the fighter. The fighter fights and fights and fights all day long. The caster casts a certain amount of spells, and then is done. The other effect of this is that casters end up being overpowered for short periods of time as compared to fighters as some kind of 'balance.'