Which game has your favorite magic system?

[Blue]

Dungeons & Dragons, with the optional Spell Points system in the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide.
It's the best magic system that nobody has ever tried.

We playtested it and a number of the other variants like flanking at a few different levels early after it came out. We dropped it. It really lead to casters doing higher level slots because they were more efficient for the action, and running out of SP. And then either we got 5 minute adventuring days, or casters with mostly cantrips who were whiny. EVEN after seeing it happen and saying "I won't do that", it happened again and again.

Anyway, we also didn't feel casters were so lacking in flexibility and what they could do that they were underpowered without additional casting flexibility.

 

[Blue]

There was one I heard about that I thought was flavorful, but please forgive me if I get details wrong as I never played it. It was one of the WHFRP systems later than whatever was out in the early 90s (the last time I played). Magic was a chaotic and corruptive force. You made a dice pool to see if you succeeded, but you didn't have to roll your maximum dice. This was because any doubles would manifest that chaos, and less dice meant less chance of corruption. I thought that was nifty from how it tied into the lore and from a game perspective. Don't know anything about the actual system though, just that penalty mechanic.

 

[Anthras]

I'm actually a big fan of Vancian, but if I cant pick that, ill go with DCC. I love that you can just cast until you burn your spell or lose favor with your God. Its very flavorful in action.

In addition to that, you never know if the fireball you cast will be like a candle, cannon ball, or a Dragon Ball Z spirit bomb! Or completely backfire in your face haha.

Magic feels magical in Dungeon Crawl Classics!

 

[niklinna]

I had all the Castle Falkenstein books, long ago, and I remember loving the magic system. You had to play out cards to "charge up" your spell, which took time to do, and the suits of the cards mattered (for more than just spellcasting, too). I never found anybody to play it with, though.

One game I do not like the magic system for is Torg Eternity. You can take a perk (feat) that grants you a whopping 3 spells from a pretty limited list related to your character's home reality and magical/spiritual tradition. You can cast most spells at will (unless the spell itself specifies otherwise), but you are stuck with the spells you picked when you took the perk. There are some perks that grant you 2 additional spells, which you generally can take 1 of, once ever, but after that, you have to repeat-buy the base perk (with ever-increasing XP cost) to get just 1 spell each time.

There are hardly any ritual-type spells, except in the horror cosm, where doing so risks you losing a point of Charisma each time you do the ritual. Miracles work the same way, as do psionic powers (for which this approach does reasonably work).

There are hardly any provisions for gaining a spell/miracle outside of your magical tradition's or religion's spell list. Arbitrary siloing at its best. Of course the GM can override that and allow a PC to gain such things as makes sense the fiction, but the rules as written don't allow for it.

I've never liked magic in any edition of D&D.

(Edited for clarity.)

 

[ichabod]

I had all the Castle Falkenstein books, long ago, and I remember loving the magic system. You had to play out cards to "charge up" your spell, which took time to do, and the suits of the cards mattered (for more than just spellcasting, too). I never found anybody to play it with, though.

I know your pain.

 

[John Dallman]

Another favourite is clerical magic in AD&D1e or earlier, with heavily customised spell lists and no pre-memorisation required. Writing the spell list for a church is a significant task, but worthwhile, because it gives the clerics a lot of individuality. It's easier for a mythology with some depth to it. An important principle is that you should throw out a reasonable number of useful standard spells, and change the way that others work to be more in accordance with the deity. I have examples I can post if anyone is interested.

 

[Starfox]

niklinna mentions TORG Infinity.​

I want to mention the original TORG magic system from the Aysle sourcebook. Its a honorable mention only - it had terrible balance and was way too random, and spending possibilities (TORG's Xp and Hero Points combined) you could make spells very powerful at quite a steep cost. But the spell design system was very interesting. There was a state chart, where you had to select three elements of magic, and depending on your choice the table generated very different results - spells could be illusory, could have a more or less powerful effect for the same level-equivalent, all determined by the path you took through the table. Very interesting, but it could definitely have used more development.

Otherwise I feel that magic system is a part of world building. The Ars Magica magic system is super interesting, but is hard to port to other worlds.

 

[James Gasik]

Amber Diceless had a very nice take on Vancian casting, where you needed to spend time to set up spells in advance (called "racking"). Sorcery could move mountains, but the prep time required was a hassle, and once a spell was used, you had to rack it anew. Most Sorcerers spent a lot of time and effort circumventing these limitations (fast time Shadows, items of power to rack spells onto so they don't decay over time, etc.). Cantrip type spells, called Power Words, were very limited, but could be very potent if used at the right time.

In a game where any starting character could be on par with a demigod, this was really neat...and then new forms of magic were created in the sourcebook that broke everything, lol.

 

[Dioltach]

I also read the magic of the Wheel of Time RPG (d20, based on 3e maybe?), and I really liked how it was structured and followed the books fairly well, as I remembered.

It followed the books in that it was totally overpowered in actual play. WoT only works if you're heavy into the roleplay, with very little combat or skill-based challenge, because otherwise channellers blow non-channellers away. Even at very low levels.

The whole "you need to be circumspect how you use your powers" thing never worked at my table. Because, if you have powers, you want to use them.

 

[bigfruits]

Conan d20 2e