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How Deadly is Ice Magic

Queshire

Auror
Ice is the element of protection, loyalty, defense, and counter attacks.

So, this suggests to me that the direct offensive options should probably be fairly simple. There's a lot of inspiration that can be found in video games. Off the top of my head there's the ice destruction spells from Skyrim or all of the Ice type moves in Pokemon.

With the counter attack part I can imagine stuff like summoning up a wall of ice to block an attack, shattering the wall and sending the shards flying at his foes or a freezing wind that dramatically increases in cold the closer you get to him. A foe smart enough to give up can survive, but if they charge they're likely to end up an ice statue.
 

Scott

Acolyte
Try reading Sword of Kaigen by Miracle Wang. It just won the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off. That has a type of ice magic. Great book.
 

Saigonnus

Auror
Imagine shards of ice that impale targets, or a deep-freeze AOE spell. I have contemplated "ice missiles" for a story. They embed themselves in the target and explode, dealing damage and causing permanent harm in the way of frozen tissue.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
Imagine shards of ice that impale targets, or a deep-freeze AOE spell. I have contemplated "ice missiles" for a story. They embed themselves in the target and explode, dealing damage and causing permanent harm in the way of frozen tissue.
This character is known for one case where he was attacked by assassins and by the time his guard got there the enemy assassins were ice statues and while this is cool the first few times around I'd like him to have other offensive skills. Another skill of his is to make ice javelins since their magical he can control them midair.
 

Faye

Acolyte
So working on a story with a main character who is a warlord who possessed powerful ice magic. However this made me think exactly how deadly is Ice magic? In media, it's common to see ice magic used to encase the enemy in ice but I can't imagine this would be dangerous to them at all but would moreso be a way of trapping enemies in ice. Now if it freezes blood that's a different story. Any ideas as to how ice magic could be offensively used in combat

"Spinning Silver" by Naomi Novik is an excellent example of the two extremes of ice magic. How it can be and deadly and unrelenting as a blizzard starving a whole town, or as gentle and beautiful as the first snowflakes of the season. Novik creates a whole "winter dimension" where she drives into ice magic's creation of the "Staryk" ice people. I would recomend the read and it can certainly provide a feel for both ends of the spectrum of ice magic.
 
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