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Schools of Magic, What vs How

Started by GeekyBugle, January 30, 2024, 03:04:04 PM

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GeekyBugle

I like @Chris24601 because it's full of flavour

I would prefer something like Talislanta's but the modes lack any flavour, starting by the collective name "modes" ending with the individual names, too mundane, perfect to exp`lain to the players, not so much for immersion IMHO.
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tenbones

Well the "Devil is in the details".

You can construct very specific effects that go beyond the "just do damage" or whatever. It's as detailed as you need it to be. In-game immersion or flavor is always in how you portray it.

I've run Mageocracy campaigns in D&D before where the Schools of Magic were effectively Orders in the Talislanta sense (What am I gonna do? I have Wizards and Sorcerers as classes to play with) but I made wholesale changes to the Magic system to further add granularity to "School Specialization" within the context of the Wizard class. It's about what you *want* from these distinctions. The mechanics are really the easy part imo.

I think Chris's structure is very good to build those details on. Depending on what flavor of D&D you're using, Talislanta's could be reworked too.

My criticisms of the Tal4e magic system (it's not my favorite) is that it *does* require a little work for each player/GM to craft their go-to spells. It can be as easy or hard as you wanna make it, but it does take a little bit of effort.

BadApple

I don't know how much my project would overlap with yours but I'm currently in the process of researching my magic system for a Japanese setting that fits in a traditional way.

There's essentially 2 different things I'm seeing in my research so far.  (I'm still in the beginning stages of learning so I might get something wrong.  Please feel free to enlighten me.)

First is the concept of forming a relationship with a supernatural creature that will then perform acts on your behalf based on their own ability and what the contractor provides them.  The bigger the supernatural creature, the more powerful and versatile they are but it comes at an increased cost.  Indeed, one of the books I have details the chants, prayers, and sacrifices in order to appeal to particular kami (spirits, gods, incorporeal supernatural creatures) for things like a good harvest and to protect a place from evil.  Kami are able to impart knowledge and power to people as well.  Also, if you have a relationship with certain kami, it makes relationships with other kami easier and harder based on the relationships between the kami in question

The second is the idea of primal elements; fire, air, water, earth, and light.  A practitioner can learn to manipulate these elements for various effects.  Not all effects are necessarily a direct connection to the element.  For instance, the ability to learn is associated with light.  (I assume a spell for passing a difficult academic test would be associated with light magic.)

There's an interesting overlap in that a kami is typically associated with a primal element.  If one were to be using fire, magical or otherwise, it may bring direct contact with fire kami.  This could be simply a neutral meeting just like seeing a wild animal in your yard or it could have real impact and lead to a more direct and meaningful connection between the person and the kami.  Also, there is a bit of a complex relationship between the different elements and kami as well.  There's a bit of the paper, rock, scissors thing with their powers but also level of compatibility with some as well.  It would be easy to pair a fire user with an air kami but not a water kami. 

In this regard, various schools would focus on specific elemental magic and kami relationships.  I could also assume that there would be certain thresholds where once you've developed a certain level of progression in one form of magic that other forms would be cut off.
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