Weird Spells & Powers

[Caliburn]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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...

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]

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]

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]

"SommmeWHERRRE oover the raiinbowww"

 

[Saigonnus]

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]

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

 

[Caliburn]

Ahhhhahahahahaha

 

[Miles Lacey]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.]

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]

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.