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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9413463" data-attributes="member: 907">Very good point – it depends a lot on the focus of the game. If this is a game explicitly about playing magic-users, there needs to be enough variance about those magic-users to let each player do their own thing, and having a flexible magic system can be a big help there. If a spell-caster is one character type among many, they can have more narrow and fixed capabilities.From a flavor point of view, I like it when rote magic is highly specific. For example, D&D has comprehend languages. It lets the caster read and understand, but not write or speak, any language. That's useful, but boring. Exalted on the other hand has The Eye and the Mouth, which summons a disembodied mouth and an eye of golden light, which can read and translate any given text (as long as it isn't coded or the like). However, it comes with some limitations: the mouth/eye refuses to repeat itself – you can tell it to pause, but not go back, and it won't correct you if you mishear something. And it will only help you a maximum of 10 minutes per day. That is a much cooler spell, even if they fundamentally do the same thing.</blockquote>