Magic Categorization

[Roman]

Not sure whether this fits better here or on houserules, but anyway:

Just as a theoretical exercise, how what 'schools' of magic would you implement if you were not using the core schools and wanted to encompass all magic (arcane, divine, etc)?

I thought of something like this:

Life Magic - healing spells, resurrection spells, etc.
Death Magic - death effects, undead creation, etc.
Dimensional Magic - summoning, gates, instantaneous movement, time manipulation, etc.
Energy Magic - blasting, telekinesis, etc.
Transformation Magic - polymorphing, direct buffs, imbuing items & creatures, etc.
Mental Magic - charms, domination, compulsions, etc.
Illusion Magic - phantasms, glimmers, etc.
Divination Magic - question & answer spells, scrying, etc.

Am I missing something?

Dimensional magic and transformation magic do seem more powerful than other schools in this case, but they make conceptual sense. Perhaps they could be split up into two schools each:
Transformation magic into - Transformation magic and Infusion magic
Dimensional magic into - Dimensional magic and Temporal magic

That would give:

Life Magic - healing spells, resurrection spells, etc.
Death Magic - death effects, undead creation, etc.
Dimensional Magic - summoning, gates, instantaneous movement, etc.
Temporal Magic - hasting, time manipulation, etc.
Energy Magic - blasting, telekinesis, etc.
Transformation Magic - polymorphing, transmutation, etc.
Infusion Magic - imbuing items & creatures, curses, etc.
Mental Magic - charms, domination, compulsions, etc.
Illusion Magic - phantasms, glimmers, etc.
Divination Magic - question & answer spells, scrying, etc.

Any thoughts?

If differently from core rules, how do you split up and categorize magic in your campaigns?

 

[Mercule]

Somebody's gonna slap me for this, but how about this?

Correspondence
Entropy
Forces
Life
Matter
Mind
Prime
Spirit
Time

 

[Voadam]

Mercules is from Mage the ascension

This list is from ars magica
Air
Water
Earth
Fire
Mind
Body
Animal
Plant
(I forget if there are others, magic? Image?)

Combined with these
Control
Create
Destroy
Change
Detect

So you can have create fire, for example.

 

[Roman]

Not bad - I like the Ars Magica one.

 

[arscott]

Air Magic
Earth Magic
Fire Magic
Water Magic

Light Magic
Dark Magic

Charms (Buffs)
Curses (Debuffs)

Nature Magic (Animals and Plants)
Divination

Blood Magic(Summoning, mental domination, and some miscellaneous nasty effects)
Fairy Magic(Nicer enchantments, and Most illustions)
Dragon Magic(Miscelaneous and otherwise complex effects)

 

[hrafnagud]

Air
Water
Earth
Fire
Mind
Body
Animal
Plant
(I forget if there are others, magic? Image?)

Combined with these
Control
Create
Destroy
Change
Detect

So you can have create fire, for example.

Forms:
Animál, Aquam, Auram, Corpus, Herbam, Ignem, Imáginem, Mentem, Terram, and Vim.

Techniques:
Creo, Intéllego, Muto, Perdo, Rego.

 

[houser2112]

Life Magic - healing spells, resurrection spells, etc.
Death Magic - death effects, undead creation, etc.
Dimensional Magic - summoning, gates, instantaneous movement, time manipulation, etc.
Energy Magic - blasting, telekinesis, etc.
Transformation Magic - polymorphing, direct buffs, imbuing items & creatures, etc.
Mental Magic - charms, domination, compulsions, etc.
Illusion Magic - phantasms, glimmers, etc.
Divination Magic - question & answer spells, scrying, etc.

Am I missing something?

No, it looks like you have it covered, in exactly the same way as the core books do, with different names (except for the healing spells broken out into a separate "school"). Were you looking for alternate names for the existing schools of magic, or were you looking for a different breakdown?

 

[Gez]

This list is from ars magica
Air
Water
Earth
Fire
Mind
Body
Animal
Plant
(I forget if there are others, magic? Image?)

Yes, magic and image. 10 forms and 5 techniques.


If I had to redo the D&D magic schools, I would have:

• Energy (all energy manipulation, so abjuration, evocation, necromancy, and healing spells -- positive and negative energies are energies)
• Dimension (all conjuration/planeshift/teleportation/etc.)
• Transformation (all transmutation and most necromancy spells)
• Spirituality (all divination, illusion, and enchantment)

 

[Wombat]

Forms:
Animál, Aquam, Auram, Corpus, Herbam, Ignem, Imáginem, Mentem, Terram, and Vim.

Techniques:
Creo, Intéllego, Muto, Perdo, Rego.

**purr purr**

I love this magic system

 

[DrNilesCrane]

I'm not very familiar with Ars Magica (have seen it, haven't played it) but the system seems elegant.

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but in my group's next campaign ("the 6 elements"), we're dropping the D&D divine/arcane split and spell lists entirely and using new lists based on six categories (elements) which define our campaign world's reality:

1. Quintessence: the raw essence or material of reality (what was there before reality was created)
2. Sardra: All matter and energy without life (evocations, transmutations)
3. Lithos: Lifeforce, living creatures (healing, shapechanging, "buffing" spells)
4. Menta: Reason, intellect (basically psionics)
5. Animus: The past (what the previous elements become; realm of spirits and ghosts, divinations and knowledge of the past)
6. Umbra: What doesn't exist, imagination (illusions)

The main idea is that magic isn't another force in the world or random collection of spells and rules, but instead is just a different way of doing/manipulating what's already there, so it's always a natural manipulation of the world. D&D magic that doesn't fit the mold is pretty much dropped (although about 80% of the spells end up fitting our mold pretty well).

Edit: Me type pretty some day.