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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5743996" data-attributes="member: 52734">Yeah, Croesus, that's along the lines I'm starting to lean.  I'm thinking of a game that basically on the order of an E6 game, and if spellcasters want access to higher magics, they'd have to be willing to endure drawbacks to gain access to spells of 4th level or greater.  Likewise if they wanted to go beyond their normal spells per day.  Magic items might even have these drawbacks as well.Personally, I wouldn't want any effect that results in outright death or has a chance of outright death.  No 5% or 1% chance the caster uses the spell and drops dead.  I'd prefer that you know something bad is going to happen (and about how bad it will be, if not specifically what it would be).  Even better would be if the caster chooses from a menu of 4-5 drawbacks based on the spell type.For example:Light-type spell1) Caster is dazzled for duration of spell2) All non-allied creatures that enter the light take on a ghostly appearance, gaining a +4 bonus to hide and can treat the area as gloomy for purposes of hiding3) Flickering firefly-like bug provide the light, distracting all creatures in the area of effect4) One art item of 100*spell level in gp is bleached of all color, rendering it worthless until the spell endsFire spells1) All the caster's non-magical clothing/fastners burns away, causing all items to drop to the ground unharmed2) The caster's body warmth is drawn away to fuel the spell, leaving him numb and shivering (-2 to Dex for X rounds)3) The consuming flames create a fiery creature with hit points equal to the amount of damage it deals; this creature has a nasty disposition and attacks anyone/anything in reach;  It loses X hit points per round that it fails to deal to any damage.4) The ground around the spellcaster erupts in flames creating a ring of fire around the caster.  Anyone attacking through or attempting to pass through the fire (including the caster) takes X damage.On the environmental front, I'd be looking for things that have a more immediate and mechanical impact; magic dead zones, unintended monster summoning, clouds of poison or acid rain, sinkholes and the like.  Flavorful or long-term consequences make for good background imagery, but my experience is they tend to get poo-pooed on by gamers if it isn't "in-their-face" sort of effects.</blockquote>

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