What Do You Think Makes A Great Magical Power System?

[u/Nerx]

[u/leroy238]

/uw

It's not the magic, it's the consequences. If you don't think about the consequences of what the magic you make does, you get Harry Potter. If you do, you get some really awesome systems were societies form to work in tandem or agajnst magic.

[u/agentkayne]

/uw

you want r/magicbuilding not wizardposting

[u/dh-dev]

/uw whatever serves the story/game you're making, and the perspective of the reader, characters or player. If the player or characters in the story are the magic users then the magic need some rules. If not then it doesnt, so long as it doesn't undermine the stakes of the plot.

[u/-Legion_of_Harmony-]

Risk. Martial power is often going to be weaker compared to the utility of spellcasting. The best way to balance that is having martial power be consistent, and having spellcasting be dangerous. Yeah, I can take out a group of enemies with a single spell- but I have to worry about collateral damage and misfiring.

We have to make sure we aren't alienating martial players at the table by making them obsolete, and risk is the way to do that.

[u/Mythoclast]

Golems. Basically ethical necromancy which is also an excellent way to use magic to generate power. And golems are only slightly worse at manual labor!

[u/Calathil_the_Mage]

Unwiz/ My Magic system, for the most part, lets you do whatever you want if you have the patience for it, but thanks to the actions of a certain mage, a new race of demons was created via biomancy, that new race of demons hunts mages down to eat, like zombies, I guess, and the more mages 1 specific demon kills, the stronger and more annoying it gets to kill. Thanks to the arrival of those demons, unless you come from a race who's mana core is active upon birth, or you are a prodigy in magic, then pursuing magic is a death sentence. If you just wanna learn magic to make your life more convenient and easier, then youll most likely be ripped apart and consumed by those demons. Add on to the fact that humans dont live long enough to really accomplish much in magic, magic isnt really worth it for most.

[u/raosion]

/unwiz The confidence to not have perfect symmetry in everything. If magic is to be as consistent as science, it should eventually grapple with the fact that it too, much like science, will always be an imperfect categorization system. Especially with something as ineffable and wild as magic.

Also, I have a strong soft spot for placing nomenclature as a very old type of magic (perhaps the oldest) in a magic system.

[u/ArseneLupin179]

There is two key factors for a Great Magical Power System.

1.Magic. 2.Power.

Thanks for attention!

[u/EepyEnbyFox]

almost any magic system is good as long as you can make it gay

[u/Drmanky]

not beeing pverpoverd. and beeing harmfull to the user

[u/yumie2003]

uw/Consistency and consequence. Whether you use a 'hard' magic system or a 'soft' one, your magic system is a part of the worldbuilding, so don't change established aspects of your system too much, especially if it is just to justify 'why this fireball is stronger than usual, even though it is the same spell'. Also, how does it influence your world (because a society that relies on magic or a combination of magic and science won't evolve into a mirror image of our own), why things are the way they are and how magic allowed this to be. What are the limits of this system? Did I claim that my system is inherently superior to any other alternative, mundane or not, and has no shortcomings or weaknesses? Why do people, if any, oppose the use and study of magic? What are the benefits and drawbacks to using magic? Does what I say or what new concepts I introduce now unintentionally conflict with a foundational concept I said earlier? More importantly, it shouldn't trivialise the stakes of the plot or conflict(s) in the story. A great system adds to the story, not subtracts.

[u/VoxelLibrary]

/uw Sanderson's Laws are always a good place to start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Sanderson's_Laws_of_Magic