# Weird Spells & Powers



## Caliburn (Jun 26, 2012)

*ACTIVITY: Try to come up with the weirdest spells or magical effects you can. No rules here, just be as weird as you can.*

I'm thinking about a psychedelic magic system that doesn't have any discernable underlying structure or logical framework (I guess that means it isn't a system), and I wanted to give you fine people an excuse to think outside the box in terms of magical spells and effects. 

I've been very influenced by a comic book series called _The Invisibles_, if that means anything to you.

Here's a random idea for a spell-thingy to start things off:
The caster rolls a pair of dice and something happens based on the number rolled. The higher the stakes set by the caster, the greater the potential calamities and rewards. It could be relevant to some kind of wish on part of the caster, or a completely random effect.

Have fun


----------



## Queshire (Jun 26, 2012)

the ability to change non-living matter into cheese! In my stories this is a common effect of untrained mages just coming into their powers or buggy spells. Nobody really knows why uncontrolled magic tends to turn stuff into cheese, (rule of funny actually) but it does.


----------



## Ireth (Jun 26, 2012)

A magical character suffering the common cold, which causes random things to happen around them every time they sneeze. Things suddenly appearing, disappearing, turning into other things... XD Happened to Jareth in a fancomic called _Roommates_.


----------



## Saigonnus (Jun 26, 2012)

Bodily functions provide "power" for spells... for example farting can cause deadly poison gas clouds. Burping could lead to stinky whirlwinds (the aroma dependant on what the mage had to eat recently) and peeing could cause a flood. Picking one's nose could create bombard boogers (as opposed to magic missiles).


----------



## Caliburn (Jun 29, 2012)

Queshire said:


> the ability to change non-living matter into cheese! In my stories this is a common effect of untrained mages just coming into their powers or buggy spells. Nobody really knows why uncontrolled magic tends to turn stuff into cheese, (rule of funny actually) but it does.



hahaha. Do different kinds of failures create different cheeses? xD 



Ireth said:


> A magical character suffering the common cold, which causes random things to happen around them every time they sneeze. Things suddenly appearing, disappearing, turning into other things... XD Happened to Jareth in a fancomic called _Roommates_.



Haha cool  some kind of sinus-magic...



Saigonnus said:


> Bodily functions provide "power" for spells... for example farting can cause deadly poison gas clouds. Burping could lead to stinky whirlwinds (the aroma dependant on what the mage had to eat recently) and peeing could cause a flood. Picking one's nose could create bombard boogers (as opposed to magic missiles).



Cool! Why isn't that in an RPG? Stinkmage! Gastromancer!
What about the 'other' bodily functions? My imagination soars! .....


Hmmm what else...

- speaking of bodily functions, how about a "you are what you eat" spell? I would eat a flan.
- teleporting by jumping into a puddle of water and coming out another one (not oceans, only puddles on roadsides)
- A spell that summarises the point someone is trying to make if they are taking forever to get to it, so you can think about something else and still seem like you are actively listening. Oh wait, that's just intuition *facepalm*
- Beardsense: the hairs of your beard become mobile and work like feeler tendrils
- Beardshot: you fire dozens of needle-sharp hairs from your beard. Why you do it? No one knows.
- Channel Rockstar: you channel the essence of a rockstar, adopting their mannerisms, behaviour, memories, songwriting and performing abilities. (early in the comic book I am reading, the protagonist contacts a deified John Lennon)

I also kind of like the idea of commonplace items and trash becoming magical tools or foci. For instance: 
- a discarded microphone that is used to speak with otherwordly beings
- a "trashbag of holding" 
- a kettle that can summon genies by filling the kettle with specific mixtures of liquids, plugging it in and boiling it.


----------



## Ireth (Jun 29, 2012)

Caliburn said:


> Haha cool  some kind of sinus-magic...



Actually it's because he's one of the Fae (specifically the Goblin King), and his magic went wonky when he got sick. But sinus magic is funny. XD


----------



## They'reWatchingUs (Jul 9, 2012)

What about if whenever you point at something, it blows up? It's simple but effective 

"Where's Bob?"
Points at Bob, "Over the- Oops..."


----------



## Caliburn (Jul 10, 2012)

"SommmeWHERRRE oover the raiinbowww"


----------



## Saigonnus (Jul 10, 2012)

They'reWatchingUs said:


> What about if whenever you point at something, it blows up? It's simple but effective
> 
> "Where's Bob?"
> Points at Bob, "Over the- Oops..."



Could be dangerous even to the user... what if someone asked him what he pees with?? *points down and Boom*


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 11, 2012)

The ability to find a convenient parking space but _only_ when someone's life is in danger.


----------



## Caliburn (Jul 11, 2012)

Ahhhhahahahahaha


----------



## Miles Lacey (May 13, 2018)

What about spells where the effectiveness and power of the spell is linked directly to the physical health and fitness of the spell caster?


----------



## valiant12 (May 14, 2018)

Ireth said:


> A magical character suffering the common cold, which causes random things to happen around them every time they sneeze. Things suddenly appearing, disappearing, turning into other things... XD Happened to Jareth in a fancomic called _Roommates_.



I love this trope. However I think it's better when a person get hit with some magical attack and develop "the magic cold"


----------



## Sheilawisz (May 21, 2018)

There are some unusual types of Magic in my _Alice into Darkness_ story.

You see, the protagonist of that story is a psychopath lady that also happens to be colorblind. Alice suffers from complete red blindness, or Protanopia, which is much more severe than the more ordinary cases of red-green color blindness. This affected her through her entire life, but Alice gains full color vision after traveling to a Fantasy world.

There, Alice becomes a _Color Mage_ with many abilities. One of them is the power to steal colors from anything or anyone, which is instantly fatal if used against living creatures. The stolen colors are then used to fuel up Alice's magical abilities, and different colors are all associated to one type of Magic in particular.

There are also _Weather Mages_ in that world.

In spite of that name, they are actually very dangerous combatants thanks to a wide variety of powers similar to magical electricity. Their Magic is particularly good at causing climatic disasters, and this makes them very useful in magical wars.

The thing is that Weather Mages exist in relatively low numbers, so their job with weather tricks is often more important than sending them to actual battle.

There are also _Fire Mages_ with powers similar to deadly lasers and waves of unstoppable heat.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (May 21, 2018)

A Spell of Uncontrollable Drooling. Its effect on your enemies is self explanatory. 

What about a 90's wizard who uses an old TV remote control to cast spells and has different buttons for different spells?


----------



## Corwynn (May 21, 2018)

Door to Anywhere:

This spell, when cast upon any closed door, window, or other valid portal, will magically link that door to a similar one somewhere else in the multiverse. The catch is, you don't get to choose where it goes, the connection is random. Also, the spell is irreversible. The link will remain as long as the door stays open, but if it is closed, when reopened it will link to another random door.


----------



## Malik (May 21, 2018)

I have a shield in my series that's carried by a minor character who becomes the Wedge Antilles of the whole thing. The shield has a charm on it that makes an enemy attack anyone other than the bearer, but he doesn't know about this. He goes through all these battles kicking ass and thinking that other knights are just stupid, and doesn't get a scratch on him. He finds out about the shield's powers right before the epic final battle, and the last time we see him is charging into battle beside his best friend, who's carrying the shield after he gave it to him "for luck."


----------



## Miles Lacey (May 22, 2018)

In the world I created the police carry both hand cuffs and mage cuffs.  Handcuffs do what handcuffs do here on Earth but mage cuffs neutralise the ability of mages to use magic.  The only way to unlock them is to use a mage key or to scratch all four symbols that make up a mage mark and which gives the cuffs their ability to function.


----------



## R.B. (Dec 26, 2018)

I've got one. I call this spell Eternal Lapse.
For the cheap price of the caster's life, the victim will fail at everything they do.


----------



## Night Gardener (Dec 30, 2018)

Ok... 
How about a magic coin purse that always has the exact amount of money and coin change needed to complete a transaction? 

Pens that immediately throw themselves away when they won't write anymore? 

The ability to harmlessly mute barking dogs and hysterical infants? 

When you're in an awkward or dangerous situation, you can actually point and say 'Look! What's that over there?!" and some terrifying hallucination effects your would-be attacker, allowing you to escape.

The ability to always find an immaculate public bathroom stall. 

Oh boy... this could get very distracting... last one for now...

Always know who stole your lunch from the office fridge by calling out "Theif!"... and the theif immediately vomits up the stolen food.


----------



## R.B. (Dec 31, 2018)

Night Gardener said:


> Ok...
> How about a magic coin purse that always has the exact amount of money and coin change needed to complete a transaction?
> 
> Pens that immediately throw themselves away when they won't write anymore?
> ...


That last one's pretty funny.


----------



## Firefly (Dec 31, 2018)

-Confetti/glitter spell. Perfect for wizards who want to be dramatic, less perfect for whoever has to clean the carpet
- Spell that switches around everything's colors so that the sky is pink and sheep are green. Could be more interesting if it were something more specific, like "all utensils are bright blue, except for sporks"
-Dyslexia curse that makes you incapable of understanding writing.
-Spell that establishes a permanent telepathic link with a random person. Or animal.
-The words you write change when you write them down. (Could be as harmless as synonyms switching,once the meaning of everything you say, make things rhyme, or just turn everything to gibberish.)
-Curse that only lets you wear the color black
-Curse that makes everything you eat taste like cinnamon.
-Curse that turns animals into furniture and vice-versa.
-Curse that makes you automatically fall asleep at sundown and wake up at sunrise, no matter what you're doing. Or, alternatively on some other trigger, such as hearing a certain name of smelling a certain type of soup.
-Fires only light when you say please.

I could probably think of more, but I should probably make myself stop now. Chaotic magic systems are my favorie, I think they're so much more fun than the ones that are super dry and technical.

Oh, and I particularly love this one:


Night Gardener said:


> When you're in an awkward or dangerous situation, you can actually point and say 'Look! What's that over there?!" and some terrifying hallucination effects your would-be attacker, allowing you to escape.


----------



## EponasSong (Jan 4, 2019)

Every time the character sneezes, a volcano will errupt.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Jan 7, 2019)

I was coming up with weird superpowers and thought of a person who can light things on fire by swearing at them.


----------



## Ben Bryant (Jan 7, 2019)

How about these?:
-An attraction spell that's always a little bit off. For example, attract bullets causes the case to fly across to the target while the bullets stay put.
-Flight/levitation, but the user can only go up- they have to use a ladder or something to get back down.
-Spontaneous solar flare-with very unpredictable, but usually destructive results.


----------



## Sheilawisz (Jan 12, 2019)

There is something else quite curious about Magic in my _Alice into Darkness_ story.

All Mages in that world are capable of creating almost any object out of nowhere, and that includes all variety of food and drinks. You would think that this power would be extremely useful so the Mage Queens could provide unlimited food for their armies in combat, but... only Mages can enjoy magical food safely, so it's not for the ordinary folks!

Magical food is delicious, chemically identical to natural food and full of nutrients, but the fact remains that it was created by Magic and that cannot be changed. If ordinary people eat or drink any of that, well... it's absolutely lethal.

At first nothing bad would happen, but a few days later you fall sick with something similar to severe radiation poisoning and that's all.

Even the legendary Queen Amethyst depends on vast reserves of natural food if she wants her armies to fight and win a war, logistics remain critically important and this aspect of Magic is unique to that story in particular. In other stories of mine, ordinary folks can eat magical food and nothing bad happens to them.


----------



## CupofJoe (Jan 16, 2019)

Firefly said:


> -Confetti/glitter spell. Perfect for wizards who want to be dramatic, less perfect for whoever has to clean the carpet


I know someone that would probably kill to get that ability if it was real...


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Jan 29, 2019)

CupofJoe said:


> I know someone that would probably kill to get that ability if it was real...



Is that person me?


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Jan 29, 2019)

Ben Bryant said:


> How about these?:
> -An attraction spell that's always a little bit off. For example, attract bullets causes the case to fly across to the target while the bullets stay put.
> -Flight/levitation, but the user can only go up- they have to use a ladder or something to get back down.
> -Spontaneous solar flare-with very unpredictable, but usually destructive results.



The levitation one is hilarious


----------



## CupofJoe (Jan 30, 2019)

DragonOfTheAerie said:


> Is that person me?


I don't think so, unless you went on holiday with me in the 80s and are hiding your identity REALLY well.
My friend used to pack their clothes with Glitter and Pot-pourri, so whenever they unpacked there was a shower of sparkles and nice smells. I assumed that the Hotel Staff HATED us...


----------



## Firefly (Jan 30, 2019)

CupofJoe said:


> I don't think so, unless you went on holiday with me in the 80s and are hiding your identity REALLY well.
> My friend used to pack their clothes with Glitter and Pot-pourri, so whenever they unpacked there was a shower of sparkles and nice smells. I assumed that the Hotel Staff HATED us...



That's amazing.


----------



## MrBrightsider (Feb 2, 2019)

*ACTIVITY: Try to come up with the weirdest spells or magical effects you can. No rules here, just be as weird as you can.
*
I read a comic once where the main character had a left arm that could lift any object, no matter how heavy, so long as he was holding his breath. A weird one, but also pretty cool and unique in its own way.


----------



## S.T. Ockenner (Dec 22, 2020)

Kung-Fu Laser Fingers:
A spell that turns your fingers into laser guns- it also comes in enchanted thimble form, but it is very expensive. A favored weapon of wizards everywhere.
In order to use Kung-Fu Laser Fingers, you need to know Kung-Fu, then you can use Kung Fu to cast it.
There is also a Cheesy Laser Fingers, which is similar but you have to be cheesy, and know no other spells beforehand- you also need to steal cheese from Ban the Duke of Limbuger OR you must be made out of cheese. Never transmute someone into cheese, very bad idea, unless you want them to have cool magic powers.


----------



## Saigonnus (Dec 22, 2020)

A spell that makes any container you point at to be unable to hold liquid... it just "dissipates" almost instantly.
A spell that changes the color of someone's blood to the same color as the shirt the mage is wearing. Over time this would affect the skin color as well.
A spell that permanently gives the target bad eyesight. (think coke bottle glasses)
A spell that make a person's nipples itch. The itch comes at random and can only be satisfied if scratched for a full minute.
A spell that summons 20 tentacles from beneath the ground. They can move along the ground at a fast pace, and they tickle those people they capture until they pee. Note: One must pee to be released; even if not ticklish.


----------



## Aldarion (Dec 24, 2020)

A power where you gain a superpower for that day based on the first idea you had in the morning or else last dream you had during the night.

So with former, if you thought "I'm hungry, I wanna eat a pancake", you get superpower to make pancakes pop out of the air.
With latter, you get completely random stuff based on whatever BS your brain came up with while you were dreaming.


----------



## S.T. Ockenner (Feb 3, 2021)

Firefly said:


> random person. Or animal.


Or plant. Or rock. Or concept.


----------



## S.T. Ockenner (Feb 3, 2021)

A mage that, when handed a glass of cold milk, drinks the glass and discards the milk in the dishwasher.


----------



## Nighty_Knight (Feb 3, 2021)

A spell that makes you taste sounds.


----------



## Saigonnus (Feb 3, 2021)

A "toxic tempest" spell. Whenever the mage breaks wind, the smell increases the further from the mage it travels. It also picks up speed (think the butterfly effect) until it is a hurricane wind. It is even worse if the mage has diarrhea... you get "rain" amid the wind.


----------

