What's your favorite spell system?

[pogre]

Ars Magica

 

[Aus_Snow]

For Vancian? AU/AE, hands down.

For everything else, there are just too many systems that I like. How can I, in all fairness, name just one? I don't think Talislanta has been mentioned so far, so I'll put a bid in for that one, as I've still got a soft spot for it, along with Earthdawn, WFRP and several others.

 

[Melan]

I absolutely love the Vancian system. It combines in-game concerns with a great style. Magic-users have to abide by strict limits, and mastering these limitations need player skills. It gives a player interesting strategic options. Does he memorise offensive spells? Spells for evasion and manipulation? Spells for divination? Or a mix of these?

Also, I like the flavour a lot. Magic is inconvenient, quirky (like in Tasha's uncontrollable hideous laughter) and occasionally dangerous to the user (see fireballs and lightning bolts in older editions). And that's how it is supposed to be in the end.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I wonder what a world with vancian magic would look like if you could re-prepare spells at any time you had a spare slot free, rather than after 8 hours rest?

So many things now are being introduced which break out of the 24 hour cycle to recover spells (psionic feats, Tome of Battle manouvres, warlock invocations to name just a few). A vancian system which enabled wizards to use their 15mins/60 mins to refill used slots might be an interesting option.

My favourite system that I've used in anything is Runequest2. I liked the nonstackable battlemagic which you powered with your own spirit and the stackable, powerful rune magic that you gained through sacrficing your life force to your god and you regained by prayer at a temple.

I like the idea of Cthulhu d20, where each spell has to be learned separately, and casting a spell costs you SAN and ability damage. You can cast as much as you know and like but...

I also like the Arcana Unearthed model of splitting and merging spell slots, along with heightened and lowered versions of spells and quality material components and feat related options (as others have mentioned).

Cheers

 

[Fishbone]

HERO. Really customizable, pretty balanced.
The "Talislanta" style stuff.
Spellslot casting(think its too strong, but it is pretty simple and elegant)

 

[Dr Simon]

The thing to remember about Ars Magica is that it is designed to be unbalanced in favour of the magi. But it's an nice system, and I managed to merge it with RuneQuest (3) with reasonable success.

RQ itself - I like the subtly different styles of magic in all editions of that game, such that they all work differently, but not to the extent of radically different rules of, say, magic and psionics in D&D. Most characters tended, in my experience, to be mainly physical but with a few auxiliary spells to back them up, as it was very hard to focus on being entirely magical based. Which was probably the intent.

Arcana Evolved/Unearthed, I love for a d20 based magic. I wouldn't call it Vancian as such, since it isn't 'fire and forget' as much as D&D wizard magic. It straddles the divide between D&D magic and a point system, but because of slot weaving and the diminished/heightened aspect of magic you can get some wonderful tactical use of spell slots, and the templates and the access feats are great innovations.

I rather liked the more metaphorical magic of Everway (so sparse in rules as to barely warrant the term 'system'). But Fire magic, for example, wasn't just about blasting people with fireballs but because Fire was the element of action it would also empower physicality, or require quite dramatic gestures to cast. I often incorprate some of that as flavour in other games.

 

[Danyael]

It doesn't seem that there's a spell system with high number of faithfuls behind it.... and let me explain a little better what I have done (that's the original goal; explaining your favorite SPELL system).

I am not saying that D&D's magic system is bad, it is the Vancian System I'm analyzing. Some of you said that you loved how the Book of Nine Sword handled the Maneuvers, but sincerely, I was expecting more from that book; "either you know how to make this maneuver or you don't" was my first expression after reading a book that I felt kicked me in the crotch. I favor "fatigue" systems + skill checks, but the nature of d20 (that is, the die) makes such a system very unstable, unless the most basic spell has a DC of 5. Augmentations (after 3.5 Psionics) are a must (IMO) but I believe that there should be a universal table which lists the possible augmentations, stating that some augmentations are not possible to some spells (actually, a group of spells under the same descriptor or school or whatever). Anyhow, this could end up "delaying" the time in which you should acquire new spells (powerful ones that is).

That'd be me. Now, talking about "magic systems", I think that the entire list of spells in D&D are alright. There's something that bothers me regarding a class though; the Eldritch Knight. I know that some of the prestige classes in the DMG are supposed to be "accesses" to two classes at the same time, but this class in particular should have a totally different approach. Consider: a "spell" that allows you to charge your weapon with elemental magic, another that allows you to attack at range with a melee weapon (sort of spell + attack magic, to honor the name).

A lot of these sort of classes could have a different approach, creating multiple "magic" versions. (Remember 2E Psionic Magic? they could not be cast either by a wizard or a psion; only by a person who could "join" both).

I don't know... I'd like to see the "mage" or spellcasters to have a stronger role in combat.

 

[rgard]

For me, I am rather fond of the system used in SPI's DragonQuest (later owned by TSR). Experience is spent learning individual spells, which have a percentage chance of being cast correctly. Casting spells causes Fatigue loss. Try and cast too many spells, or too powerful spells, and you can rish the spell backfiring or you could just pass out.

Oh, and the spells are divided into schools, and you only learn the spells in your school.

It's really quite simple, elegant, and models itself well to classic fantasy fiction.

Yep, one of the best ever designed. I loved that system. Someday I'll get around to converting that to D20.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[rgard]

You know, I've never really seen a magic system that I felt was completely right. I've always felt I was "settling."

It's been a long time since I used the Dragonquest system. I'm not even sure I used it when we played DQ (can't remember what type of character I was playing). I did, however, use the magic system in a couple of Melanda, Land of Mystery campaigns. I felt it was a good system to graft onto other systems.

The Sovereign Stone system seemed like an interesting variation for a low magic world, but I never got to test it. It did feel like the spells should be a bit more for the length of time required to cast them, though.

For D&D, though, my favorite is Monte's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved system. Heightened/diminished spells are something I absolutely would like to see in the next update of the D&D system. Spell templates are a nice idea, allowing variations on spells without having 6 variations of the same spell floating around the books. The only thing I'd consider changing is keeping the divide between divine & arcane magic in some way.

I too find the Sovereign Stone system interesting. I'm not certain, but I think it is very similar to the Thieves' World system.

Would love to play either one someday.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Umbran]

Oh, another favorite of mine, for it's genre, is the Shadowrun magic system, circa 2nd edition. It has a nice balance of flexibility and dangerous limits to power...