How have you flavoured your characters' magic?

[Amaril]

In my current campaign, my character will soon have an opportunity to use some as-yet-unseen magical abilities of his, and since this will require a ritual, I've been thinking about how I might describe the process to the group. This has me curious: how have you guys gone about flavouring your characters' magical powers in the past? How have you made them work? What kinds of descriptive elements have you used?

Feed my curiosity!

[Draken]

A bit of groundwork for this tale: D&D 4th Ed. game, homebrew setting. I was playing a shardmind psion and, due to a combo of mild displeasure at the class and the DM becoming increasingly worried at the inevitable growth of the constant attack penalty, I decided to change classes (to a fire elementalist sorcerer). Disclaimer: My change did nothing to help the DM because we had a monk.

So the tale.

In this setting, most monsters were creatures strongly attuned to Chaos, and a particular category of monster was made up of people afflicted by a 'disease' that horribly mutated them and drove them mad (there are more details to this, but those are irrelevant), whereas shardminds such as my character were strongly order-attuned creatures hard-wired to hate chaos entities.

If you guess that my party of goody-two-shoes bleeding heart companions decided to adopt a pair of violent, diseased horrors that general wisdom would see killed out of mercy and safety in spite of the shardmind's protests, you are correct. Said monsters were, for the record, driders (no relation to drow).

So being a sensible individual, said shardmind decided to do his best to quell his murderous impulses by getting used to it. He summoned/created a fire elemental to help him get used to chaotic energies. This elemental was, because he wanted to get used to driders specifically, a spider, a spider made of fire. This became his familiar and thus he became an elementalist.

It took him time to get used to the chaos around him, and in his earlier days of it, all he did was the basics, strike things down with bolt of fire. Shamefully, constant exposure to something that literally made his crystal lattice sing with rage drove him mildly irate with wrath and righteous hatred on a permanent basis, and had some slight effect on his sanity, which is good because being a bit crazy is how he came to accept all the chaos.

And that is when he stopped just shooting fireballs and started drowning his enemies in spiders made of fire.

[Hopeless]

Ran a Halfling sorcereress named Olivia Copperbell and tried to make the spells bell orientated but was never picked up on!

Had a Paizo character ready whose idea of magic missile was to brandish her staff as if it was a bow and shoot arrows ala Hank in the d&d cartoon series.

Never got far enough to make it a subplot!

[Fable Wright]

Let's see... I'm currently playing a Druid with some inspiration from the Witcher, and so far my magical elements have rigorously been defined as a three-step process:

Step 1: Cast a circle over the area to be affected. This can be abstract; to curse a living target, he's used the sacrifice of a deer to set up a circle of life and death. To curse undead, he'd act as a midwife. To bless a farm, he'd circumnavigate it with a wand made of oak that he plants in the middle. To ward a space, he'd write glyphs around the perimeter.

Step 2: Charge the circle. This is the fun part, where the impressive effects occur. Anything from shooting lightning bolts in a fog cloud to charge a cursed storm, to mixing sulphur and iron filings in tonnage quantities beneath a forest floor to burn alive all who trespass in his woods, to spitting a literal black stream of curses over the proxy of his target, to dressing spiders in tiny clown outfits, giving them fire resistance, and then setting them loose in the home of the one to be given nightmares.

Step 3: Create a totem to channel the ritual. For a curse, this acts as an 'off' switch; break it, and the curse spirals out of control. For a blessing, it channels the energy towards a singular purpose. This can be anything from a bird's skeleton cast in fire and carved with runes of weather, to the crater left from the iron and sulfur, to a nithing-rod to channel a black curse on one individual, or the shed exoskeleton of a giant spider branded all over with the facsimile of smiling or mocking faces.

It creates a relatively clear ritual structure: You've got a clear beginning, you've got rising action as you charge your ritual, and you've got a climax as all the charging energy suddenly flows into the totem structure. Simple, effective, multi-purpose, and customizable with the symbology of the ritual purpose du jour. Served me well so far.

[Âmesang]

For years I've associated the image of a "blue rose" with my noble-born sorceress so I have thought about using that imagery in her spellcasting, such as her greater teleport taking the appearance of an explosion or whirlwind of blue rose petals that harmlessly disappear. In a similar situation she has a variation of the Noble trait from the Shackled City Adventure Path… and a below average Wisdom… so I imagine any disguise or altered form due to polymorph or the like would still retain a recognizable feature reminiscent of her natural state (due to the trait's penalty to Disguise checks).

…which reminds me, Magic of Faerûn has the Spell Thematics feat that not only allows you to flavor your spells' appearance but, if doing so, boosts the Spellcraft DC to identify 'em by +5.

[No-Kill Cleric]

I have a wooden wand, and I wave that how my character would.

[MonkeySage]

Hehe, my 5e conjuror, Varis... His signature spell was Witch Bolt, and every time he cast it, he'd use a bow. He'd pull back the string, and knock an "arrow" of lightning. He'd then loose the arrow to cast the spell.

Also, every single spell he cast that produced light( magic missile, light, witch bolt, etc) produced pink light. :)

[Slipperychicken]

how have you guys gone about flavouring your characters' magical powers in the past? How have you made them work? What kinds of descriptive elements have you used?

My cleric typically says things like a preacher when he casts spells, especially restorative ones.

• For instance, he cast a blindness-removing spell once, so I had him press his hand over the target's eyes and say something like "BY THE POWER OF THE ALMIGHTY, THY VISION IS RESTORED. OPEN YOUR EYES ONCE MORE!".
• When he removes a curse, he tries to say something fitting to the curse. Like he might put his hand on the target's head and say "May the Lord's light shine down and remove this curse of masochistic pain! You are cured!"
• Light spells usually get something like "His light will shine down here, even in this dark place!"
• For hit point restoring ones, usually something like "O Lord, close our wounds that we may fight anew in Thy Name!"
• For an attack cantrip, he usually settles for something like "Burn in holy fire" or just "Burn" when I'm not feeling particularly inspired

I feel like it's simple, emphasizes the source of power behind the magic, and helps retain the feeling of mysticism and wonder. There's no confusion as to how the character works: Anyone with ears instantly knows that he's a cleric, who he worships, and that the deity has given him powers because he is a frothing-at-the-mouth, holy-book-bopping fanatic who is entirely prepared to kill and die for his god. It's also a way to keep roleplaying going during fights and other situations where most people settle into tactics-mode.

[Calen]

In 4e I flavored a lot of my rogues magical items based on what had recently happened. Fire dagger? A tooth from the giant demon we had just killed. Pursuing Boots? Made from the Dire wolves we encountered the session before. Ghost Armor? Emulating the skills of the monk in the party.

In 5e my paladin uses blue light/fire as a theme. Pretty simple but it helps tie stuff together.

[Dire Roc]

My bard flavors his magic as the power of stories. Lesser Restoration is a fable of the first winter turning to spring. Heroism is a legend of a lone warrior who held a bridge against an army until he had killed five hundred men. And for Healing Word, "Rise, [Character Name]! Your story has not yet ended!"

[AvatarVecna]

I'm currently playing a 5e Feylock who's fluffed as having become a sea nymph queen's lover; while my PC is outside my Beloved One's immediate domain, my skin serves as a portal to her palace at the bottom of the ocean...and allows her magic, and her holy water, to flow through me. I can open a small part of that portal to allow the high pressure at the bottom of the ocean to push a jet of water through in order to attack my enemies (Eldritch Blast), and through a combination of my skin being a portal to the sea and a wave of water and foam constantly sweeping over my body, it's difficult to actually deal my physical form injury (Armor Of Shadows). Most of my spells are either refluffed to represent my skin-portal being used for different things, are represent my Beloved One's fae power allowing me to affect the minds of others.

[Belac93]

I especially like doing this with eldritch blast. So much you can do with it.

Let me see... I've done:

• A ball of mist.
• A pink laser.
• A skull.
• A cloud of ghostly fire.
• A hail of thorns.

[Aetis]

Candy magic!

Flavored by all the licorices and lollipops and chocolates and jawbreakers and taffies and tarts and cotton candies and gumballs of the world.

[goto124]

Is this relevant?

[Calen]

Candy magic!

Flavored by all the licorices and lollipops and chocolates and jawbreakers and taffies and tarts and cotton candies and gumballs of the world.

In our gameworld the players have decided that all the familiars are named after candy. It is funny but now I have to keep a list of candy around if they ever want to know the name of a mages familiar.

[Strigon]

I once had an Old Human Paladin/Warmage - and that's old as in -3 to physical abilities and +2 to mental. He was a Paladin for many years, but now he spends most of his time directing the younger generation, which gave him a good reason to follow the party.

Anyway, one of his signature moves was to cast Fist of Stone to make up for his lack of Strength, and then some. But instead of turning it to stone, it was imbued with righteous energy. Incidentally, this also led to one of the best RP moments my group has had to date.

Spoiler: Information for the curious

Show

The party was going to send someone they suspected of being part of the BBEG's organization to a municipality where she would be "interrogated", here meaning tortured. I advised that they not do this, pointing out that she wasn't even coming up Evil, but they felt that, Evil or not, she still had valuable information that she was hiding. They wouldn't even allow Zone of Truth, as they suspected she's either use clever language to confuse us, or else somehow make the Will save. I said that, as a Paladin, I clearly couldn't let this happen, and then asked, OOC, if everyone was okay with a bout of PvP.

Everyone else was in shock for a few seconds, as usually my character would allow them to go their own way, and simply try to limit or heal any damage caused after the fact, usually taking the opportunity to teach them a lesson about taking the higher road - they figured, at worst, I simply wouldn't be a part of this activity. Then we all agreed, with the caveats that obviously none of us would kill the others, as we didn't want each other dead, we simply had different objectives.

The DM then ruled that, if they were speechless, imagine how their characters would feel. He gave me a surprise round - which all players agreed with - that I used to buff up and draw my weapon, then took a five-foot-step back. I even rolled first for initiative, and blasted them with some AoE spell I can't remember. Long story short, I got very lucky and won the encounter, then stabilized them all with a point of healing, summoned my mount and told the prisoner to ride it away, while I drew their attention.

When the party came to, they figured that there was no way I allowed the prisoner to take my mount while I ran, so they followed the footprints rather than hoofprints. They also alerted the guards of the aforementioned municipality, who came with them. When they found me, they were surprised, but decided I'd try to stop them and arrested me - I was in no position to fight back, so I dismissed my mount and surrendered.

They then took me to the prison, where most of the guards were Evil, and I used that fact to escape in just a day or two. I then reunited with the party, after they discovered that the woman had simply insulted the local Lord, and he framed her. It was pretty awesome, all in all.

[comicshorse]

In a Shadowrun game I was playing a Wolf Shaman with a distinctly Norse mythology background and so re-named all the spells from the book to match that. Manaball became Thor's Hammer, Increased Reflexes became Hunters Speed, Increased Charisma became Loki's Blessing, etc

[Zalphon]

I'm still waiting for the opportunity to play an illiterate Half-Orc Sorcerer who carries around a book of spell illustrations and calls it his spellbook--telling other people all about how he is a great wizard and how he learns his magic by studying his spellbook.

[RickAllison]

5e

For a Warforged Sorclock, I've always loved the image of loading different energy cores into his arms to fire as the spells. The EB of death (17+ Eldritch Blasf gets four shots, and the Sorclock can Quicken to fire eight) is fluffed as a Gatling gun.

My current wizard rocks ice and Ravens, since he is a disciple of the Raven Queen.

For Dex-based Eldritch Knights, I love the arcane archer feel of launching spells from his bow. For Arcane Trickster, I like creating the effects through cards or other significant items.

[Quertus]

One of my characters carries around momentos of important moments in his life (similar to the shells carried by princess Kaiulani) and channels his magick through them as appropriate to the tenor of the situation.

Another character has had silent spell, still spell, and eschew materials so long, he is constantly "faking" casting spells so that no one catches on that anything is amiss.

My signature character took sense shifting AKA spell thematics (AKA "Quertus smells like cookies"), and themes most of his spells with butterflies and rainbows.

[Kami2awa]

The sorcerer in our group had a fairly strong theme of fire- and heat-based magic; when Cone of Cold came up, I suggested it be described as him telekinetically sucking the heat out of things.

[RickAllison]

The sorcerer in our group had a fairly strong theme of fire- and heat-based magic; when Cone of Cold came up, I suggested it be described as him telekinetically sucking the heat out of things.

In the Bayern trilogy, the girl learning fire magic actually does that! In one scene, she sends some mean youngsters who were throwing rocks running when she had them convinced the sun was revoking its warmth. She was sucking all their heat away and leaving them feeling cold on a sunny day in the desert.

[Âmesang]

I've been reading through Ed Greenwood's "The Wizards Three" lately and taking note of the different ways Elminster, Mordenkainen, and Dalamar would appear at Ed's house and, regarding my own sorceress, started to imagine a shimmering field of starry night appearing in view before coalescing into a feminine shape to represent her greater teleport/plane shift …since her primary attire is woven from starlight cloth (resembling this).

---

The sorcerer in our group had a fairly strong theme of fire- and heat-based magic; when Cone of Cold came up, I suggested it be described as him telekinetically sucking the heat out of things.

I presume you're playing 5th Edition? Because that's basically how it worked in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd:

When this spell is cast, it causes a cone-shaped area originating at the magic-user's hand and extending outwards in a cone ½" long per level of the caster. It drains heat and causes 1 four-sided die, plus 1 hit point of damage (ld4 + 1), per level of experience of the magic-user.

When this spell is cast, it causes a cone-shaped area of extreme cold, originating at the wizard's hand and extending outward in a cone five feet long and one foot in diameter per level of the caster. It drains heat and causes ld4 + 1 points of damage per level of experience of the wizard.

Cone of cold creates an area of extreme cold, originating at your hand and extending outward in a cone. It drains heat, dealing 1d6 points of cold damage per caster level (maximum 15d6).

A 2nd Edition issue of DRAGON Magazine had the WORLD OF GREYHAWK^® spell, Keraptis' flamecone, which was a fiery version with different material components ("a pinch of pure sulphur and a spark or flame") that I imagine would behave in an opposite manner; it adds heat to the area instead of draining it away… but then what happens when you use Energy Substitution or the archmage's mastery of elements? How do you explain adjusting it to be acid, electricity, or sonic? Vibrating molecules/atoms/string theory? (Granted if you use 5th Edition's explanation of it being a "blast of cold air" then the Energy Substitution becomes easier to imagine.)

[dysike]

I once played a dwarven druid whose body was heavily tattooed, different tattoos would glow when he used his magic depending on the spell. On his back he had a diagram of the world's cosmology bordered by the runic symbols for the four elements which glowed whenever he used elemental magic or weather-based spells. On his chest was a chimera which would glow when he used either buff spells or spells involving/affecting animals. Down his arms and legs he had twisting vines and flowers which would relate to his plat-based spells.

Another player in the same group played a soulknife whose blades were created from vials of blood instead of being made of pure energy.

I also once played an evil cleric devoted to a death god with some cannibalistic practices and a lot of my spells were fluffed around consumption/regurgitation. Death Knell for instance caused the targets' bodies to become dryed husks and the blood and other fluids extracted would them be consumed by the cleric.

[ShadowFighter15]

I've tried to do this with some of my characters - one character I've used in a couple of Jade Regent games (the first one died early on) in particular.

• I had her describe casting summon monster I by taking the candle and bag (the two material components of the spell), dropping the candle into the bag, securing them to the end of her staff and then swinging it like a spear to basically cut a hole in space from which the summoned creature emerged.
• I remade her as an Arcanist for the second campaign I got her into. The nature of the class' Arcane Exploits (basically finding loopholes, gaps and so-on in magic - I've sometimes thought of it as like how a hacker exploits weaknesses in digital security) gave me some ideas. Her first one* was Flame Arc and I described it as her basically having found a way to take the very metaphysical concept of fire and give it material form.
• For magic weapon, I basically just stole and paraphrased the description of Reinforcement Magic from Fate/stay night - pouring magical energy into the metaphysical "gaps" of the weapon. I also wrote in a little tidbit that such a weapon's ability to bypass DR/Magic was said to actually be an unintended side-effect of whoever first developed the spell - that it was just meant to make the weapon more accurate and hit harder, the ability to ignore a resistance to non-magical weapons was a pure fluke.

*Technically her second; the first one was for her to get a Familiar (arcanists don't get one by default) because I always pictured the character to have a raven familiar based on Arnold Rimmer. Yes, that Arnold Rimmer.

[Braininthejar2]

I once had a policeman who was a mage (mostly single dots, giving him sensory magic) He'd use a stopwatch, (time) gun (entropy, aggressive) a magnifying glass (entropy, sensory) and coffee (mind) as his magical tools.

Another one was an awakened car mechanic (an owner of a well known tuning shop) who would do all his magic by tinkering.

As suggested before, short poems, or made up prayers can work great for a priest. Actual bible quotes do too, if you have the patience to look for them.

"And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, like clay pots he shall shatter them to pieces." (greater magic weapon)

""I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment." (implosion)

Of course, coming up with your own can be just as much fun. I still have some very fond memories of playing a non-evil cleric to a local goddess of death. Getting rid of undead was a big part of his job description.

"No death without life.
No life without death.
You, who exist in a parody of life,
BOW TO DEATH AND PERISH!"

[Amaril]

In my session tonight, I finally got to pull out a bit of magic fluff I've been sitting on that I was really excited to reveal. My character is a necromancer who uses his magic to heal people and banish the undead (kind of like the Abhorsen, but with more doctoring and fewer bells). He can bring someone recently dead back to life, but there are a list of possible costs and penalties that must be chosen from, one of which is "they come back in your deep, deep debt". I had the idea that that's less because he's holding them in debt and more because by bringing them back when they should have died, he's tipped the universe out of balance, and there's a debt that must be paid for the balance to be restored. Thing is, the more life he's given that person, the greater their debt--and children, who are being given nearly an entire life they weren't meant to have, incur the greatest debt of all. So, that's how members of his tradition recruit their apprentices. When they bring a child back from the dead, that child must give their life in service, first to their saviour and then to all the living of the world, as payment.

Guess who I brought back from the dead tonight?

[GAAD]

The President's Daughter?
An Oracle?
The Archive?
Your child?
Your sibling?
A fellow party member?
The BBEG?
A True Fae?
Satan?

Your master? Who you already owed a debt to so the debts will cancel?

[quinron]

I ran a Hellbred Cleric who used the Purification and Diabolic domains. I came up with some mix-and-match phrases that sounded appropriate to Celestial and Infernal, and he'd say one of them when he cast a good or evil spell.

In battle, he would summon devils and fiendish creatures to take hits for him. I flavored this after Anima from FFX - he'd summon a massive chain that extended down into a pool of darkness, then the fiend would be dragged up and wrapped in the chain until it was dispelled.

[Frywick]

I once ran a sorcerer that was a road side trickster that used playing cards to cast spells and the card would need to be used differently for whatever spell. Ex. spun on his finger when using color spray or the card would be shattered and be accompanied by thunder when using lightning bolt.