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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7931204">Hmm.&nbsp; Thanks for all the responses, but I guess I didn't communicate the ask well.It's not a realism issue, or that if I just understood the underlying mechanism (&quot;it's magic!&quot;) it would all be ok.&nbsp; It's that I want a magic system with restrictions, preferably tied narratively to that underlying mechanism in a consistent way.&nbsp; Like the example in Lexicon.Instead of &quot;I can't do that because I don't know the spell. Yet.&quot; I want &quot;I can't do that because that's not how magic works.&quot;So maybe it's a magic system based on nature spirits.&nbsp; You can either persuade or enslave spirits, and the type of spirit determines what can be done.&nbsp; But basically there are animal and plant spirits. So no fireballs.&nbsp; Maybe necromancy is related to &quot;human spirits&quot;.&nbsp; Water spirits?&nbsp; Weather/sky spirits?&nbsp; (Lighting bolts?). Maybe.&nbsp; I dunno...typing as I think.Alternately, same structure but elementals.&nbsp; So fireballs (if that's the kind of elemental you have), but no entangle or spider climb.I could even see one game with both categories, elementals and nature spirits, with totally different mechanics and spells.&nbsp; But you don't get to have one character who does both.&nbsp; So part of it is that I don't like when one character can do so many totally unrelated things.&nbsp; But it's more than that, because the more of these you layered on (&quot;ok, spirits and elementals AND patrons...&quot;) the less it would appeal to me.&nbsp; In the same way that I think Tieflings are cool.&nbsp; And Tabaxi are cool.&nbsp; And Half-ogres are cool.&nbsp; And gnomes are....well, ok, not gnomes.&nbsp; But Tieflings and Elves and Halflings and Tabaxi and Drow and Half-ogres and everything else all in the same game just lacks any kind of coherence.&nbsp; It's kitchen sink gaming.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 7931204"] Hmm. Thanks for all the responses, but I guess I didn't communicate the ask well. It's not a realism issue, or that if I just understood the underlying mechanism ("it's magic!") it would all be ok. It's that I want a magic system with restrictions, preferably tied narratively to that underlying mechanism in a consistent way. Like the example in Lexicon. Instead of "I can't do that because I don't know the spell. Yet." I want "I can't do that because that's not how magic works." So maybe it's a magic system based on nature spirits. You can either persuade or enslave spirits, and the type of spirit determines what can be done. But basically there are animal and plant spirits. So no fireballs. Maybe necromancy is related to "human spirits". Water spirits? Weather/sky spirits? (Lighting bolts?). Maybe. I dunno...typing as I think. Alternately, same structure but elementals. So fireballs (if that's the kind of elemental you have), but no entangle or spider climb. I could even see one game with both categories, elementals and nature spirits, with totally different mechanics and spells. But you don't get to have one character who does both. So part of it is that I don't like when one character can do so many totally unrelated things. But it's more than that, because the more of these you layered on ("ok, spirits and elementals AND patrons...") the less it would appeal to me. In the same way that I think Tieflings are cool. And Tabaxi are cool. And Half-ogres are cool. And gnomes are....well, ok, not gnomes. But Tieflings and Elves and Halflings and Tabaxi and Drow and Half-ogres and everything else [I]all in the same game[/I] just lacks any kind of coherence. It's kitchen sink gaming. [/QUOTE]

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