How do you make a Mage magical?

[Thasmodious]

I'm in line with a lot of the replies here. It's the little touches.

Flavor your spells with a personal style - certain colors, movements, vocalizations, etc.

Use spell cards to keep the information you need readily available, nothing kills the magic like having to thumb through the PHB every round.

With the above, include component information on the card and make sure to use it in your descriptions.

Use your cantrips everywhere - light instead of lanterns, prestidigitation and mage hand to open doors, carry your tankard at the tavern, pull out your chair, light a candle, open your spellbook and turn the pages, etc.

Find ways to add magical touches to ordinary things. One of my favorite spells has always been Leomund's Secret Chest, few things say master of magic like a portable extradimensional closet. Leomund's Shelters, Mord's Mansion and such spells also up the magic factor.

 

[Stormborn]

Description is everything. My last PC was a half-elf Dragon Blooded Battle Sorcerer. Grayalyn was constantly making his eyes glow acidic green and muttering curses in draconic. When he cast magic missile I described it as talons growing from his fingers and shooting off at this target,mage armor covered him in glowing translucent scales, and fireball was accompanied by a dragons roar. He had Intimidate instead of Bluff and used it all the time as a substitute for for Frightful Presence. Whenever possible I took spells that played into his draconic heritage by replicating draconic abilities. I never said "He casts Spell Name Goes Here" I always described what he was doing it terms of the effects. He also constantly cast prestidigitation - to clean his boots, to make himself smell more draconic, and to otherwise make small magical effects go off around him.

You mgiht want to take a look at the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly. I found the description of Ink Magic to be very inspiring, with its talk of notebooks with sketched out summoned monsters and ink components.

 

[Jack7]

I like a lot of the suggestions thus far.

When I used to play a Wizard, and I don't much anymore (I play Rangers when I get to play), things I would do included:

1. Inventing my own spells
2. Modifying already existing spells to create unique and personal version of those spells that I named after my character.
3. I created my own script and set of glyphs that I imbued with magical force and would then would sew or weave into my clothing and personal items, and that I could use to decorate wands and things like that I had created of specific purposes. I also invented a personal Magical Coat of Arms which later decorated my robe and became part of my "magical armor."
4. I was personally good with chemicals (that is to say, me as an individual), so I adopted those same interests with my character. Back in those days you could easily run out of spells. So I carried bags and vials of chemicals as backup equipment. I created a naphtha. I carried chlorine which I could throw in bags and then hit with lightning bolts and vaporize creating a very toxic chlorine cloud. I would toss vials of oil or naphtha onto opponents and then alight them with fireballs. Things like that would do much more damage than normal, un-enhanced spells. (I called it Elementally-Enhanced Spellcasting.) And you could do other things with chemically mixed magic. Create lightshows and illusions, blind opponents, or even use them in ordinary chemical reactions if magic was low. As a matter of fact over time I got to where I rarely used magic without associated chemical reactions. You could come up with all kinds of magical-chemical interactions. I made traps that way too.
5. I created fake or sabotaged spellbooks that I would often give to other magic-users who I felt to be dangerous or evil, so as to weaken them.
6. I created my own unique magical times with strange or unusual properties or that could cast very odd or uncommon spells - it was really expensive back then, but I gained a reputation for creating items and made extra money at it, often recouping my initial losses. I often also created sabotaged items for people I didn't trust.
7. I created magical items only I could use or activate.
8. I took already existing magical items and modified or altered them, and if possible made them so that only I could use them.
9. I sometimes acted as a magical inventions overseer, a traveling magic-design master, or a magical consultant.
10. I built up a big library. So big I also became a Sage as well as a Wizard.
11. I eventually created my own magical/alchemical laboratory and workshop and put others to work under me at various projects.
12. And eventually I built a keep around my workshop, that became my private and personal residence and decorated it with furniture, statues, and other items covered in my own magical script and filled with magical traps and security measures.


Nowadays you could create your own personal rituals too.
Of course what you can do will depend on what your DM will allow you to do, but you could come up with a plan and then see what they say.

Also I'd like to second the Ars Magica game. Perhaps your DM would consider adopting elements of that magical system into your D&D game. It's an extremely good and flexible system for magic.

Good luck, and if I could give just one piece of advice, never be afraid to experiment.

 

[pawsplay]

One AD&D 2e mage stands in my mind. I had rolled pretty poor stats, except for a high Wisdom, and a cleric was just not what I had in mind. So I went with an Abjuration specialist. I remember him not only because I amused myself and others while playing him, but because of the image of the not astoundingly competent wizard with a powerful but cracked insight and no use at all for conventional behavior. He talked with himself in funny voices, wore a pair of large mittens that he used as puppets, and generally behaved in an erratic fashion. He met his death stopping to sniff the tulips in Castle Amber.

So I think one thing to do with mages is to imagine that anyone who would make so many sacrifices for the sake of magic is, at some level, probably not entirely sane.

 

[EroGaki]

The best way I've found is simpy to shun basic damage-causing spells and really choose spells that do work in mysterious ways. There is nothing mystical or interesting about plain damage, anyway - just a zap gun with a fancy name.

I played a wizard in the Dragonstart d20 universe, which is a fantasy/SF mix. With the martial characters equipping themselves with power armor, 50 round 3d12 railguns, bunch-of-d6:es hand grenades, etc, there wasn't much use trying to compete in the damage department.

And it was an absolute blast.

Trying to find use for odd, quirky, non-damage spells, trying to manipulate the situation into getting the most use out of them... Magic has never felt so special.

That's a good idea; blasting spells have bored me for years, anyway. If you've seen one fireball, you've seen them all.

What made (3e) magic originally interesting to you?

Magic has interested me since I started playing back in the 2E days. My problem is that many of the spells (the core spells specifically) have been done to death. Magic Missile, Fireball, etc, are common and over-used. However, many of them, such as featherfall, are almost required.

I'm in line with a lot of the replies here. It's the little touches.

Flavor your spells with a personal style - certain colors, movements, vocalizations, etc.

Use spell cards to keep the information you need readily available, nothing kills the magic like having to thumb through the PHB every round.

With the above, include component information on the card and make sure to use it in your descriptions.

Use your cantrips everywhere - light instead of lanterns, prestidigitation and mage hand to open doors, carry your tankard at the tavern, pull out your chair, light a candle, open your spellbook and turn the pages, etc.

Find ways to add magical touches to ordinary things. One of my favorite spells has always been Leomund's Secret Chest, few things say master of magic like a portable extradimensional closet. Leomund's Shelters, Mord's Mansion and such spells also up the magic factor.

These are some good suggestions. In the Pathfinder setting, you can use cantrips at will, so I could see spamming them all the time.
I also like the idea of Spell cards. They seem like a good way to describe an effect without saying what the spell is; I guess one of the things that bugs me is that magic is so common place that there is little mystery to it. I could describe a spell any number of ways, but if I announce that it is just a fire ball, interest is quickly lost. The Spell Card could help with that; just hand the DM the card, and describe what the spell looks like.



I like all the tips and suggestions so far! Keep it up!

 

[op1983]

Tons of great suggestions already.

Something I did when I played my bard was to play him as a very humble acting traveling wordsmith and musician. Things would happen around him that could or could not be because of him. We were in the woods and while driving a covered wagon got ambushed. The badguys could only see me so none of the people in the wagon seen it either. I told the badguys not to worry about me but to worry about the bear behind them. After the fight was over I was grilled by the party about how a bear just happened to be there.

 

[Mallus]

Magic has interested me since I started playing back in the 2E days. My problem is that many of the spells (the core spells specifically) have been done to death. Magic Missile, Fireball, etc, are common and over-used. However, many of them, such as featherfall, are almost required.

OK, so the problem is familiarity with certain spells is breeding contempt, or rather, ennui. It seems a combination of new/unique spells and perhaps some looser adjudication of existing spells --so that you can utilize them in new ways-- is all you really need.

 

[less_than_vince]

My 6 level mage have a great intel and skill focus, arcane (+15 at level 6). Much of the time, i close my eyes and search for magic. «There's magic in the air, be cautious»

I abuse the mage hand and the 5 pound telekinesis power of prestigitation. He never use his hand to open book or flip the pages.

Last session, we enter a long corridor with plenty of torch on the walls. When my mage pass in front of a torch, he uses prestigitation to light the torch up. The other players find it cool.

Always use cantrip. That is what makes my mage «magical». Dont uses your hand to take sometihing, or to serve wine, etc. Use presigitation to make things in your hand disapear. Use light, fire up the campfire, etc

Be mysterious and always seem to know the answer to a problem (anyway, you probably have the best arcana and history score of the group).

We also use an home rule to let the mage swap his spell after a short rest instead of a long rest. Not really that powerfull, but the mage seem more ressourcefull. And he is always in his books.

Use ritual a lot (and be sure that the other player help you pay the bill)

That's my take on the mage. I'm really having great fun with the new mage

 

[Ahglock]

For me what makes magic unmagicky is

1. Reliability

2. Repeatability.

Once something is reliable and repeatable it feels like science with a different skin to me. Since 3e+ has no backfires or other unintended effects, I'd focus on spells that have variable effects based on either a die roll or arbitrary facts about the targets like there hit dice.

 

[Thanael]

I second the liberal use of cantrips (for 3E give extra 0-level spell slots or take a hint from PF and give limitless cantrips/orison but exclude the problematic spells like Cure Minor Wounds) and spells in general and a strongly themed non-bland spell list. Crafting custom items and signature spells/items/tactics are also great. Also pick your feats to the theme, don't over optimize, go for interesting flavour. For example I clearly remember the paizo playtest characters of Demon boy, mechanically a halfling sorcerer with the fire-dragon bloodline feats, and the tomb born wee jas worshiping spellcastress who was herself very undeady.

Use the Valences model for spell levels to talk about magic in-game. Read Sepulchrave's excellent Story Hour for a glimpse of that. Sep also made use of very themed wizards who all stood out quite clearly from each other. His wizards were the rolemodel of what D&D wizards and their relations to each other should be. (Also much Jack Vance in there.)

A Spell Path system also works wonders for Wizards. Want to be able to tell one wizard from the others more? Give them different themes. Even if you don't implement the full spell path system use it to pick the different themed spells, I have always found the Spell Path System very useful for that. I've used the original 2E version by Kuntz/Baur from Dragon 216 quite a bit. A revised excerpt can be seen here: Spell Path Page

Sean K Reynolds adapted the basic system to 3E: Path Magic

And Green Ronin did an even better version in their Advanced Player's Manual, for their Eldritch Weaver class. The excellent Frilond site compiled an alphabetical list of spells and their Spell Threads and Spell Threads with spells from the Spell Compendium on their Eldritch Weaver Materials site.

Eldritch Weaver Materials

The eldritch weaver is a variant 20-level base class from Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Manual, an arcane spellcaster that chooses and focuses on several different specialties, or threads, of magic. Each thread represents a narrow series of thematically related spells, such as the thread of Fire, or the thread of Smiting. Following a thread gives mastery over the spells in that thread and also conveys some supernatural powers associated with the thread's theme. This class realizes a nifty concept introduced into second edition by Wolfgang Baur and Steve Kurtz in a great article from Dragon 216, "Paths of Power." The one downside to this class is that with so much flexibility comes a certain amount of complexity.