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Matinta
2019-07-04, 01:00 PM
I'm really found of Dark sun "Cast only where mana and life exists but not too much otherwise you drain literal life from the land" system it added a lot of flavor.

Magic as a technology stand-in and magic as an infinite resource wave are among my least favorite.

MarkVIIIMarc
2019-07-05, 01:03 PM
I'm really found of Dark sun "Cast only where mana and life exists but not too much otherwise you drain literal life from the land" system it added a lot of flavor.

Magic as a technology stand-in and magic as an infinite resource wave are among my least favorite.

Magic is pretty finite in 5e D&D. You get soo much "energy" a day. My fellow players seem to like it when I just mention my caster is spent, no one locally wants to refer to it as manna or anything.

Is that what you're asking?

MeeposFire
2019-07-05, 01:31 PM
I am rather fond of the pact magic system used in the 3e tome of magic. Lots of flavor and plot hooks but also an easy system to use (though the fact you get everything in clumps means that there is some reward for system mastery).

Anonymouswizard
2019-07-05, 03:06 PM
I tend to find a lot of great magic systems outside of D&D. But I'm going to focus on two, both of which use the pretentious spelling of magick.

The first is Mage: the Ascension. Her the universe runs on Consensual Reality, or 'if enough people believe in it strongly enough, it's true'. Therefore the are no dragons because, well, do you believe in dragons? This gets messy when you start to include other WoD lines, Mage works a lot better if you taste it as standalone. But anyway, the requirements for magick are three things: having an awakened Avatar* to actually cast the spells, a deep belief in something, and the willpower to impose that belief on reality. Spells are easier to cast when unbelievers aren't there, and don't cost anything to cast (although Willpower and Quintessence can make them easier to better).

* It's the part of your soul that reincarnates. oWoD metaphysics are weird, the Avatar can be essentially destroyed by iron.


The second is Unknown Armies. UA is much more cagey about how reality works, there's some Consensual Reality elements but it's not clear hours far they extend, and if magick is really related to them. But magick is split into roughly four types.

Avatars channel the powers of Archetypes. Essentially Archetypal Characters, their powers are better and more reliable the more in tune with the Archetype they are, represented by skill levels. Each Archetype gives four powers, one at 1%, 51%, 71%, and 91%, and a Taboo which, if broken, drains 1d5 skill points. Every Avatar also has to avoid getting too numbed to stimulus in order to maintain their powers, because they have to be able to think and act in line with how normal people think.

Adepts are the Sorcerers to Avatar's Clerics. While Avatars have to be in tune with human society in order to maintain their powers, Adepts are always a step apart from it. Adepts are crazy, absolutely crazy, and obsessed with something. So absolutely obsessed with it that they can force reality to bend to their willin ways related to it. But there ain't no such thing as a free lunch mate you'll need Charges to cast spells,and to hey Charges you'll have to do things reissued to your Obsession, although somewhat awkward or dangerous. But you can hold as many charges as you want, as long as you don't break Taboo (which drains all your charges). But what self respecting Adept would go around not casting spells.

The advantage of Ritual Magick is that, as long as you've got the juice, anybody can do it. The problem is that it's dinosaur magick, many rituals don't work anymore, and most are incredibly specific. On the upside, if the ritual does exactly what you want you're in business.

Gutter Magick is using willpower and symbolic logic in order to bruise reality and make what you want to happen happen. It's very useful, if used right.

I'm currently running a game of UA where the only magic user in the group is a Thaumaturge. Which means that while they can do pretty well they're going to have to be careful once their efforts begin to draw the eyes of Adepts and Avatars, who hold the major mojo in the setting.

M Placeholder
2019-07-05, 03:39 PM
The 2nd Edition setting Birthright had a system where magic was linked to the type of terrain and the use of the land, and each province had a magic rating. So a province which was mostly cities and farmland was magic poor, while untouched forests and mountains were at the other end of the scale. Ley Lines lcould be laid down from province to province, and hugely powerful spells that needed months of preparation (Realm Magic) could be cast that incited riots in other lands, closed off entire realms and caused the weather to rage.

Illusion and Divination magic could be mastered by anyone with sufficient effort, Elves, Half-Elves and Human with a Bloodline could cast arcane spells from the other schools at a level higher than 3rd.

I liked the magic system for the ley lines, the Realm Magic and the explaination of why there were so few spellcasters in that setting. It was stated that only 140 could use True Magic (able to cast spells above 3rd level from all schools of magic).