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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5473876" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Hmm. Here's what I would like in a magic system:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Most magic is low-powered (except the occasional Grand Ritual of Doom that takes days and ungodly amounts of components to cast), but magic is also rare. In other words, while your wizard may have to struggle mightily to cast a spell of invisibility, the world is not set up to defend against invisible people, so it's worth the effort. I like this both for thematic reasons and because it makes it easier to comprehend the game world. Besides, DMs who aren't specifically interested in exploring the consequences of magic on the setting tend to fall back on "rare magic" without even realizing it; in systems that don't anticipate this, wizards can become crazy powerful because there are no checks on their actions.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No "Swiss Army knife" wizards. Each spellcasting class has a defined and limited power-set oriented around a theme. In 3E D&D terms: Less of the wizard and sorceror, more of the warmage, beguiler, and dread necromancer. Each class should have its own unique mechanics that serve the theme, as far as it is practical to implement. In a classless system, each thematic group of spells/magical powers should have a high point cost to "buy in," discouraging dabblers. This adds tremendous flavor to the spellcasting classes, and also helps keep the casters balanced by preventing them from becoming the goddamn Batman.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No Fantasy Gasoline. This is just a pet peeve of mine, and has less to do with the mechanical system than the conceptual underpinning. I get really tired of magic systems in which the mundane and the magical are strictly distinct, and all magic is fueled by [mana/magical energy/the One Power/the Force/quintessence/lyrium/what-freakin'-ever] which must be poured into wizards to make them go. For all my dislike of Vancian magic, I will give it this: It doesn't run on Fantasy Gasoline. (I'm more open to systems in which magic runs on "fuel" if that fuel has a function outside of a wizard's gas tank. For instance, I don't count Dark Sun's defiling magic as Fantasy Gasoline, because the life-force used by Dark Sun wizards is also what keeps living things alive. It's part of the natural world, not an adjunct whose only purpose is to make the magic happen.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic is dangerous to the user, but not in a nuisance way. This is a major design challenge. I want wizard characters to fear using their magic casually--but not so much that they never use it at all! Moreover, the danger should not take the form of a "gotcha" where a bad die roll means you're arbitrarily screwed over for using your own class features. I think one approach worth looking into would be to tie the dangers of magic to entities in the game world. You can use your magic, and it won't blow up in your face, but sometimes it will draw unwanted attention, in the same way that picking a noisy fight with the guards can draw unwanted attention when you're trying to infiltrate a fortress.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic favors subtlety and cunning over flashy destruction. Just personal taste, and again there's an exception for the occasional Grand Ritual of Doom.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The mechanics of the magic are shaped by the flavor of the magic, and thus heighten the flavor in-game. For instance, if your spells involve calling on spirits to do things for you, the spirits should exist as distinct entities within the rules; they should not simply be handwaved as a "flavor detail."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic feels organic and natural. This is very hard to define, but to a great extent it's about having the magic be tied into the world it's a part of. Again going back to Dark Sun, defiling magic always felt strongly connected to the game world, in a way that the vanilla Vancian magic of other D&D settings never did to me. It felt like it belonged there, instead of just being slotted in. I've never read the Dying Earth books, but I'm willing to bet Vancian magic feels a lot more natural in the Dying Earth than it does in D&D. Of course, achieving this feel can be difficult when designing a "general-purpose" magic system to be used in multiple settings.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>

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