Magic systems please!

[MSadiq]

Sword: speed, power, and range are well balanced. However, this means that sword users are only most effective against other sword users, as well as in one-on-one combat, and are on less than equal ground with the other weapons.

I have to question this, as swords aren't all the same length or weight, especially if you're dealing with multiple periods, if your world is period-agnostic, or multiple cultures that have different swords, unless you're saying that all manifested swords are the exact same length, weight, and shape, then this is a non-factor.

Dagger/short spear: amazing speed, but lacking in both power and range most effective against spear users.

I have to question this, too. Someone with a knife has almost no chance against someone with a spear. The range is just too different. However, if this is a fantasy world with what's basically super humans, then this also won't matter as much, but still, spears, realistically, shouldn't lose to daggers, but it's fantasy, so why not have daggers beat spears?

Great weapon: excellent power, and average range, but suffers horribly in speed.

Idk how BIG are your great weapons, but, for example, a great sword isn't that heavy; you could balance it on the tip of your finger. Also, they're not slow by any means. Sure, no dagger fast, but quite nimble in good hands.

• Magic is tied to one of their eyes, so it's harder to lose. If the eye is taken out, it grows back over a week. During that time, magic is unusable.
• The linked eye is a distinct color

Would be interesting to see a ring user create an item that hides someone's eye color for a bait or something like that.

Enhancement/imbuement: the strength, durability, or speed of the magical creature is used to enhance your own, or the energy of the beast (same energy as projection) is imbued into a melee attack. Ex: an ogre bound could make himself as strong as said ogre, or a summer fae bound could imbue a physical strike with radiant magic.

This is really interesting, but might annoy some people if some user have it suddenly reveal that his bound creature has this life-saving ability in the last moment.

Overall, it's a good system with parameters that can create high stakes, but I think the best part is that it's categorized, yet it doesn't have me question it in the way categorized systems do because the exceptions are defined. If there's something that's can be seen as a negative, it's the parameters; they make fights more predictable, depending on execution.

 

[MSadiq]

As for my magic system, I'll just post what I've posted already because it's p much a done magic system.

he power system is a quasi-elemental magic system that relies on the senses of words—their denotations and connotations. These elements are fire, earth, wind, ice, lightning, sand, diurnal, and nocturnal (not simply dark and light because they cover the larger concepts of day and night and what's in day and night)

In this world, Tilmun, people essentially speaking two languages: Arabic and English, basically. Those that speak "Arabic," mainly humans, call it Tamtheel—representation, acting, analogue, simulation, and modeling. The "English" speakers, who are a race called Lykins, call it Shaping.

The powers of Tamtheel are split into two kinds. Attributes, which are quite self-explanatory. Each person has only one attribute, usually, and these are: fire, earth, wind, ice, lightning, sand, light, and dark. The second kind are simahs or manes, as Lykins call it; they're inherent abilities that creatures are born with and are separate from attributes, and where a person can only have one attribute, he has access to all the simahs of his race, like the jald, jass, hidayah, and muhakah of the humans, or the dimming, latting, bremming, and bying of the Lykins.

The thing that activates Tamtheel is ma (water)/might. But there's a key difference in activating simahs and attributes. Attributes require the Mumathil's/Shaper's own ma, while simahs only require the ma that exists naturally everywhere, but attributes have no physical effects on the Mumathil, while a simah drains his stamina.

This difference in naming, produces a difference in perception between humans and Lykins, and the difference in perception produces differences in effect. To humans ma sensed through jass is sometimes is placid like a puddle after intense rainfall, or a raging whirlpool, or a gentle wave. or a crashing one. To Lykins, might sensed through latting is a glowing abstract shape of pure power: sometimes it is barely giving off any light, or it might be blazing like a miniature bluish sun, or like a raging turquoise fire. Also, both experiences are separated from the usual senses. A Lykin won't go blind nor a human get crushed from its intensity. They're senses that exist on a separate plane, so to speak.

Moreover, the manes of Lykins are quite different to the simahs of the humans, as the Lykins' manes all manifest physically or in a physical-like experience. The word mane comes from the old word mægen, which is where we get the word main, but mane has retained its old denotations and connotations of bodily strength and physical power. So, while they both can sense ma, as I have stated above, humans can't see it nor hear it; they can only feel it pushing on them, like you can feel the wind.

A common ability amongst light mumathils is enlighten, an ability that makes the person it is used on less rash, more logical, and more comprehending. This only works because light, metaphorically, is perceived as informing or inspiring. You can even summarize it in phrases like light is knowledge, light is perception, light is clarity, and so on. These perceptions of light makes it possible to create abilities that reflect these perceived qualities of light.

Lykins, who speak English, for example, have the phrase "to plant one's feet in the ground," which means to be firm and insistent, and so when earth mumathils literally plant their feet in the ground, they become resolute and determined, making them harder to intimidate. Humans don't have this idiom, and so this effect doesn't manifest.

The difference in perception, and therefore in effect, isn't exclusive to wider perceptions. While the difference in simahs between individuals of the same race are quite minute and almost imperceptible, as they're hard-baked into them, the difference between individuals that have the same attributes grow more pronounced as a mumathil gets more experience, and his attribute grows more unique to him.

For example, two people can have a fire attribute, but if for some weird reason, the other can't feel heat, but experiences burning, his fire won't be hot, because doesn't know what hot is, and it won't be producing the pain associated with fire, but it will produce the effects of burning in his victim. Or if a wacky fire mumathil think his if his fire gets hot and big enough it will push people, then it will literally push people physically when he feels like his fire is big and strong enough.

This is also why there's no water attribute while there's ice. Humans already perceive themselves as using water because they use ma. I.e., water, while the Lykins are a relatively primitive in Tamtheel and haven't had the time to manifest it nor is water major enough in their culture for there to a pressure to make it manifest.

Because of the effects of perception, lexicographers, rhetoricians, and grammar have worked very hard to document language to prevent semantic shifts in words and keep the connotations of words as consistent as possible, making teaching an attribute to a new mumathil quite easier, especially as education became mandatory 360-ish years ago.

All mumathils that have the same attribute learn the same basic abilities, but it is up to them to develop these abilities and create new ones. For example, some mumathils lean on the more abstract aspects of wind, and so you see a wind mumathil who interprets the ability swift step as himself becoming light like the wind, becoming faster, while another manifests wind that propels him off the ground, and he glides on the earth. With experience, the former might only become faster, while later, his wind get more intense and develop into an entire new ability that lets him fly.

And that's about it without getting into all the details. There's more to this, as well as a secondary power system, but this gives you the flavor.

 

[mr_clean]

I have to question this, as swords aren't all the same length or weight, especially if you're dealing with multiple periods, if your world is period-agnostic, or multiple cultures that have different swords, unless you're saying that all manifested swords are the exact same length, weight, and shape, then this is a non-factor.

I have to question this, too. Someone with a knife has almost no chance against someone with a spear. The range is just too different. However, if this is a fantasy world with what's basically super humans, then this also won't matter as much, but still, spears, realistically, shouldn't lose to daggers, but it's fantasy, so why not have daggers beat spears?

Idk how BIG are your great weapons, but, for example, a great sword isn't that heavy; you could balance it on the tip of your finger. Also, they're not slow by any means. Sure, no dagger fast, but quite nimble in good hands.

Would be interesting to see a ring user create an item that hides someone's eye color for a bait or something like that.

This is really interesting, but might annoy some people if some user have it suddenly reveal that his bound creature has this life-saving ability in the last moment.

Overall, it's a good system with parameters that can create high stakes, but I think the best part is that it's categorized, yet it doesn't have me question it in the way categorized systems do because the exceptions are defined. If there's something that's can be seen as a negative, it's the parameters; they make fights more predictable, depending on execution.

I do understand weapons, I have also seen spellsword arts, but there needs to be some kind of ballence system, so think of the stats as more the stats of the magic used, as opposed to the weapon. Does that make sense? I feel I worded that weird, sorry.

 

[Chicken317]

Its a hard magic system. Magic originates from another dimension (no, not THAT another dimension, Kirby fans, though Another Dimension does have a heckton of magic). It enters into the main
through rifts. These rifts are not spread evenly across space. Some places have more/have more intense ones than others. Its not even spread evenly through/across a single planet. In some places there aren't any. Some areas go through cycles of magic and nonmagic, or otherwise varying in intensity. I can see scenarios where a particularly powerful rift on another planet/moon/comet might periodically come close enough to a world to boost the amount of magic. Magic I guess would be some sort of exotic particles. We call it magic here as a generic term, but there are actually different things different cultures call it. Some might call it something along the lines of "the power of the gods". Or just a mundane part of the world they see as normal.


The main reality is made of multiple layers. There's the physical layer, and the mind layer, where one's consciousness is. If you could see the mind layer, one's consciousness would appear as a weird blob at and surrounding one's physical location I guess. This is called mind matter. Mind matter and physical matter can't directly interact. But magic can bridge the two layers, allowing your consciousness to interact with the physical directly. You use the energy in the magic to do work. The most basic stuff is lifting/pushing/pulling an object, and speeding up or slowing down physical particles to change temperature. If you could see the mind matter blob, you'd see it reaching out to where whatever it wants to interact with. You don't necessarily need to gesture with limbs to guide magic use, but it makes it easier to focus for some. As it does work, the energy contained in the magic particle transfers into the environment, and the magic particle destabilizes. The magic user would need to hang out in a rift area to recharge; the magic particles are attracted into special cellular pockets in the magic user's body. Something equivalent to opposite charges attracting maybe. I could see the evolution of both specialized organelles within each cell, or an entire major organ just for housing magic storage, depending on how it evolves. The weaker the rift, the longer recharging could take. The magic can also embed itself into objects, often attracting to other magic embedded atoms and forming a crystalline structure that can be picked up and used as a portable magic storage. Call it crystallized magic (magic itself is not crystallizing, but is embedded into the crystalline structure of a substrate, often made of silica).

However, your consciousness can interact with the physical layer without magic by its connection to the physical body via traces of special multidimensional crystal formed within the brain. Let's call it neurocrystal. Neurocrystals exist as an alternate simpler mind body connection that just sticks your mind to your body so life can actually happen. There's a weird field known as a link field that maintains this. Unlike magic requiring rifts, this field permeates all of reality. Fluctuations in the link field can create various types of crystal deposits just out in the world. Higher magic levels in the area can increase the chances of this occurring. There's a type of link field crystal that warps the field in a way that forms a barrier between mind and body that blocks the ability to do magic. There are also link field crystals that enhance telepathy. These can also be used to control machines. Basic machine automatons cannot use magic due to the lack of a guiding consciousness. Crystallized magic can be placed in the machine with the telepathy crystal for the magic user to remotely activate magic runes in it. Higher quality crystals can store consciousnesses instead of just acting as a relay station. Other kinds can block telepathy, and some magic if your consciousness bubble is required to reach further distances to work it. The most reliable way to obtain small amounts of neurocrystal that isn't hunting for telepathic crystal deposits formed just out in the world is to harvest it from brains (they do exist in smaller quantities in the rest of the body). Potentially very unethical, especially considering sapient beings have the most/best.

Magic can't just be harnessed by anyone. Magic flowing through one's body can cause damage over time. The magic kind of... wiggles(the best way I can describe it) as it moves. I might could describe it as radiation of some kind. One must have either evolved a resistance to the damage, or have enough mental control to decrease the wiggle. Your emotional state also affects the amount of wiggle. Creatures living in a rift affected area gain more resistance over generations. The more/ more intense rifts a world has, the higher its magic level is said to be, and the more magical ability its inhabitants are capable of. It also affects how much magic one can store at a time. Trying to use more magic than your body can handle at once can result in a lot of damage to the body. Your body starts breaking down. You start going crazy. In extreme cases, your body visibly melts. Interestingly, this melted state can bear similarities to a zeroid's (proper name for dark matter; composed of a magic matter regular matter hybrid substance known as zeronium) form.

Rift areas that consistently put out magic can make for some over powered organisms, so I've set some limits. There's the damage caused by magic use, so you usually can't be using higher power magics constantly in rift areas. Organisms would need to invest extra energy and resources to fixing cellular damage. (This would also have a side effect of making organisms more resistant to radiation in general. More life forms would need regenerative abilities. This might lead to some rift area life to have extended lifespans if they are careful enough.) Due to this, I can see extra magic use being used to display one's fitness to a potential mate. Or use lower amounts of magic over a longer time to support a display structure, such as using gravity counteracting magic to allow absurdly big and fancy head ornamentation. Generally, the more mass you have, the more magic you can safely store and use at once. Depending on whether you use the cellular pockets or the singular organ method, or some other way I haven't thought of. This might result in creatures of increased size. Though after a certain size you'd need to use some of your magic to help support your mass with counteracting the effects of gravity.

Not everyone can use the same magic abilities. It has something to do with how your neural pathways and patterns form. Genetics play a role. You are likely to have similar abilities to your parents. This magic system does not have elements, however many species organize magical abilities based on application. Magic using non sapients tend to be more specialized in how they use magic, but sapient species(more advanced minds) are able to more easily branch out and have a variety of magical abilities throughout the species. Your magic development is both nature and nurture. Genetics, personality, how you were raised, etc. Major changes to your mind can alter your magic to a degree. If you get a brain injury or experience major trauma for example.

 

[Chicken317]

Its a hard magic system. Magic originates from another dimension (no, not THAT another dimension, Kirby fans, though Another Dimension does have a heckton of magic). It enters into the main
through rifts. These rifts are not spread evenly across space. Some places have more/have more intense ones than others. Its not even spread evenly through/across a single planet. In some places there aren't any. Some areas go through cycles of magic and nonmagic, or otherwise varying in intensity. I can see scenarios where a particularly powerful rift on another planet/moon/comet might periodically come close enough to a world to boost the amount of magic. Magic I guess would be some sort of exotic particles. We call it magic here as a generic term, but there are actually different things different cultures call it. Some might call it something along the lines of "the power of the gods". Or just a mundane part of the world they see as normal.


The main reality is made of multiple layers. There's the physical layer, and the mind layer, where one's consciousness is. If you could see the mind layer, one's consciousness would appear as a weird blob at and surrounding one's physical location I guess. This is called mind matter. Mind matter and physical matter can't directly interact. But magic can bridge the two layers, allowing your consciousness to interact with the physical directly. You use the energy in the magic to do work. The most basic stuff is lifting/pushing/pulling an object, and speeding up or slowing down physical particles to change temperature. If you could see the mind matter blob, you'd see it reaching out to where whatever it wants to interact with. You don't necessarily need to gesture with limbs to guide magic use, but it makes it easier to focus for some. As it does work, the energy contained in the magic particle transfers into the environment, and the magic particle destabilizes. The magic user would need to hang out in a rift area to recharge; the magic particles are attracted into special cellular pockets in the magic user's body. Something equivalent to opposite charges attracting maybe. I could see the evolution of both specialized organelles within each cell, or an entire major organ just for housing magic storage, depending on how it evolves. The weaker the rift, the longer recharging could take. The magic can also embed itself into objects, often attracting to other magic embedded atoms and forming a crystalline structure that can be picked up and used as a portable magic storage. Call it crystallized magic (magic itself is not crystallizing, but is embedded into the crystalline structure of a substrate, often made of silica).

However, your consciousness can interact with the physical layer without magic by its connection to the physical body via traces of special multidimensional crystal formed within the brain. Let's call it neurocrystal. Neurocrystals exist as an alternate simpler mind body connection that just sticks your mind to your body so life can actually happen. There's a weird field known as a link field that maintains this. Unlike magic requiring rifts, this field permeates all of reality. Fluctuations in the link field can create various types of crystal deposits just out in the world. Higher magic levels in the area can increase the chances of this occurring. There's a type of link field crystal that warps the field in a way that forms a barrier between mind and body that blocks the ability to do magic. There are also link field crystals that enhance telepathy. These can also be used to control machines. Basic machine automatons cannot use magic due to the lack of a guiding consciousness. Crystallized magic can be placed in the machine with the telepathy crystal for the magic user to remotely activate magic runes in it. Higher quality crystals can store consciousnesses instead of just acting as a relay station. Other kinds can block telepathy, and some magic if your consciousness bubble is required to reach further distances to work it. The most reliable way to obtain small amounts of neurocrystal that isn't hunting for telepathic crystal deposits formed just out in the world is to harvest it from brains (they do exist in smaller quantities in the rest of the body). Potentially very unethical, especially considering sapient beings have the most/best.

Magic can't just be harnessed by anyone. Magic flowing through one's body can cause damage over time. The magic kind of... wiggles(the best way I can describe it) as it moves. I might could describe it as radiation of some kind. One must have either evolved a resistance to the damage, or have enough mental control to decrease the wiggle. Your emotional state also affects the amount of wiggle. Creatures living in a rift affected area gain more resistance over generations. The more/ more intense rifts a world has, the higher its magic level is said to be, and the more magical ability its inhabitants are capable of. It also affects how much magic one can store at a time. Trying to use more magic than your body can handle at once can result in a lot of damage to the body. Your body starts breaking down. You start going crazy. In extreme cases, your body visibly melts. Interestingly, this melted state can bear similarities to a zeroid's (proper name for dark matter; composed of a magic matter regular matter hybrid substance known as zeronium) form.

Rift areas that consistently put out magic can make for some over powered organisms, so I've set some limits. There's the damage caused by magic use, so you usually can't be using higher power magics constantly in rift areas. Organisms would need to invest extra energy and resources to fixing cellular damage. (This would also have a side effect of making organisms more resistant to radiation in general. More life forms would need regenerative abilities. This might lead to some rift area life to have extended lifespans if they are careful enough.) Due to this, I can see extra magic use being used to display one's fitness to a potential mate. Or use lower amounts of magic over a longer time to support a display structure, such as using gravity counteracting magic to allow absurdly big and fancy head ornamentation. Generally, the more mass you have, the more magic you can safely store and use at once. Depending on whether you use the cellular pockets or the singular organ method, or some other way I haven't thought of. This might result in creatures of increased size. Though after a certain size you'd need to use some of your magic to help support your mass with counteracting the effects of gravity.

Not everyone can use the same magic abilities. It has something to do with how your neural pathways and patterns form. Genetics play a role. You are likely to have similar abilities to your parents. This magic system does not have elements, however many species organize magical abilities based on application. Magic using non sapients tend to be more specialized in how they use magic, but sapient species(more advanced minds) are able to more easily branch out and have a variety of magical abilities throughout the species. Your magic development is both nature and nurture. Genetics, personality, how you were raised, etc. Major changes to your mind can alter your magic to a degree. If you get a brain injury or experience major trauma for example.

There are two methods of levitation. One uses magic and energy to push objects in different directions and is subject to g forces. Another is more complex and uses magic fields in a way that creates antigravity; is not subject to g forces.
Thwomps are definitely a possibility in high magic areas.

Creating wormholes/portals and connecting them to places involves going through a side dimension and returning to your reality somewhere else. This can be tricky to figure out. Connected wormholes can have the connection saved by placing certain runes and a magic source on the other side. On your side you also have an object inscribed with the same runes that you can then reactivate to reconnect to the set up wormhole connection and go through without having to find your way through the side dimension again. Its important to keep the particular runes used as your key a secret or else someone might steal your stuff if you used your key to connect to a storage space in a pocket dimension.

Transmogrification is possible, as its just moving molecules and atoms around. Unless you can regrow body parts or if you really know what you're doing, using it on living things is inadvisable, due to the complexity of life. Complex magitech with runes reading and changing DNA is the most reliable way to shape shift, and is often accompanied by a pocket dimension to store extra mass (basically Animorphs!). As nature can make things technology struggles with, there are probably some life forms with built in transmogrification runes (caterpillars and butterflies perhaps?). The speeding up of plant growth also technically goes under transmogrification, though simpler to use. Changing one element into another is also possible, but its impractical due to the energy cost.