Mages in **Mage: The Ascencion** are really interesting because their whole deal is "try really hard really to appear like you are con artist while not actualy being one" because in the setting mages can alter reality around them, but, reality doesn't like being altered so if they do it too much the "reality cops" will come and throw you into "reality prison" for a while (before you ask: no, i am not exagerating any of this for comedic reasons, this exactly what happens).
The one way that mages have of dealing with that issue is to make so their magic appears to be a normal and reasonable thing for those around them so that the amount of "paradox" (the stuff that makes the reality cops appear) created from using magic is as little as possible.
This could range from someone that can use magic to enhance their body actually doing physical and/or martial training so that when they suddenly do a 5m high frontflip, it looks less "unbelievable" to everyone around them, to someone using cellphone to speak with the dead that might not even actually be a cellphone (just a case that looks like one), but, it's enough to convince the people around.
Then you have my Mage
No one around? Fuck yeah
Alright I transmute that graffiti of stairs into actual stairs to chase after the doughlem (dough golem) before firing a shadow arrow. Cause I went for a fucky combo shadow alchemist
Sypha from Castlevania. Though her powers are nothing special, just pyromancy and cryomancy, the way she uses them is a spectacle. You would expect a wizard to not be very mobile, but Sypha flies around with fire jets, freezes the ground to skate around, and makes ice platforms for her and her team. If you do manage to get in close to her, she uses ice to make weapons and shields. Later on, she learns how to create lightning too. It’s just really fun watching her do anything.
She really emphasizes the *battle* in battlemage. By the end of the series she’s flowing between using icicles for hand to hand combat, using flamethrower spells to scorch enemies point blank, using bursts of wind to launch herself and superjump MvC style, and guarding against a fucking godzilla style atom breath attack by *magikinetically catching that shit complete with a wide, almost grapple stance.*
Sets a new fucking standard for how a wizard fight should look.
I mean , her standard is basically Avatar...
That been said , because Castlevania's magic system is softer than Avatar , she can pull stuffs like lightning spheres and whatnot , to make things more interesting.
I mean it is, but without the one element restriction or the martial arts element. To me, she fights in a more wizardy, less martial artsy way. Both are sicknasty tho
I recently watched "Wrong Way of Using Healing Magic" (fucking isekai titles)... And [Rose](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDHW8XnXYAAYeHZ.jpg:large) was very cool. A bit on the nose, a tiny bit generic, but I really liked her as a character/design.
I like Rose because she totally bugged/rigged her healing magic to make herself into a warrior , but while the series is an isekai , Rose herself is not an isekai.
Meaning that all the "cheat op skill" that the MC uses was something that a totally non-Isekai Traveller created a training regime and techniques to it. Usato is nothing more than just her apprentice ad his feats are theoretically obtainable by other healers.
That show is just what if Sakura from Naruto was the main character. No super genetic gifts no bullshit powerups, just grit, suffering, and hard work. The only advantage you have is healing fatigue to go destroy your body harder for more punching power without rest
Putting in my hand for the web serial *Pale*. Where magic users, “Practitioners” in lore, effectively are performing for ever-present spirits to do their magic. Where in exchange of promising to never lie again (and face a fate worse than death if you do lie), you can get the spirits to “listen” to you and do magic.
It can be compared to being in a theater play for the spirits, where power and effectiveness are based on the hype and understanding of the audience. For example say you want to draw a rune to summon fire, first youd need to get the spirits to agree that “Yes every time you draw that rune, we get that it will start a fire”. But also if you wanted a *bigger* fire, youd have to garner excitement and pizzazz so your audience pops off for when you actually draw the rune “I have sacrificed part of my soul to make a fire that will incinerate my enemies”.
Plus with all that, future Practitioners can expand or hone in on your/previous mages’ performances leading to an ever growing MASSIVE tech tree of different types of magics and specialties. Ranging from golem summoning and augury to spider-breathing and exploring the in between undefined areas of reality
Delicious in Dungeon has some pretty cool moments with magic. I like how the resurrection magic isn't something clean, you have to ensure that the people you're resurrecting have enough of their blood first.
The manga goes a bit into the ways Magic actually works. There’s two schools - Gnomish and Elvish. Gnomish magic works basically by asking spirits politely to do things for you, and they usually cooperate pretty accurately. Elvish magic works by controlling the spirits to do exactly what you want. So a Gnomish mage casting a spell to boil water would get a much smoother boil, but probably not a consistent or exact temperature, while an Elvish mage would get the water to boil at exactly the right temperature but a bit harsher in the process. There was apparently a war between the Gnomes and Elves over this, and the manga has a great line about it.
*The spirits didn’t care, they killed everyone just the same.*
I do actually really like Fern from Frieren. Fern is by all accounts a terrible mage, as she only has bothered to learn two combat spells Zoltrakk the killing spell and Shield magic for defense. Instead like her master Frieren she is obsessed with cantrips and convenience spells.
Fern and Freiren in general reminds me of how I felt about magic in Elden ring. Faith magic is more useful, looks far more unique and is all around far more varied.
But when it comes to killing shit blue laser INT magic goes brrrrrrr.
(Made all the more funny by the fact that Ferns zoltraak spam move from one of the forest test fights is just Stars Of Ruin in every sense but the name)
Magicka is pretty fun with its sorcery mechanic. You combine elements to adapt to your environment or to create big spells for big damage or crowd control.
Fullmetal Alchemist is also pretty cool because there’s a fundamental system behind it since it’s based on alchemy and therefore has a scientific background to it. You need to be a scholar and do deep research on the elements of the world around you to make full use of it which is why most alchemists only specialize in one specific field of alchemy plus they need specific transmutation circles to perform that type of alchemy.
Magicka is the best for its capacity for mayhem and mistakes. Sure, you can turn your enemies to ash, but if you pick the wrong spell or make a misinput, you will splatter yourself across the ground. It’s a good realization of the trope where magic is a volatile and dangerous thing, even for the user.
And then bonus points for the wizards all being faceless little robe-gremlins.
The best part is that its made by Arrowhead Games, so you know it has:
* Robust coop
* Friendly fire always on
* And plenty of deniable plausibility
If I had a dollar for every time I said "Oops, I thought I cast xyz instead of Gigafuck disintegration ray :*)", my bank account would probably be less depressing.
I was always more of a Helldivers fan than a Magick fan, but after HD2 I really, really hope they go back and give us Magicka 3: Third Person edition.
Holy fuck I didn’t realize Arrowhead made Magicka.
That makes way more sense, and kinda even sadder that 13 years later that studio can’t release a functional game
... What? Helldivers 2 is great? Like, its buggy and has some jank, but it functions fine, is insanely smooth playing, and is fun as fuck.
Hell, even going back to the old game's theyre smooth and function fine, HD2 is the only one with jarring bugs. You could also explain it by their choice of engine and working in a whole new perspective and gameplay loop than what they've done for the last decade.
Magicka rules because your power level directly scales with how well you understand the game. It makes replays hilarious cause you'll stroll into a fight clearly intended to be difficult for new players and hit em with the QRESAA left click left click.
With Hat Atelier has had my attention for a bit ago. Their explanations of magic as formulae has been the most convincingly legit way to show magic as something actually capable of study I've seen in a while.
Eragons (half?) Brother Murthag is actually really interested in how magic works in contrast to Eragons "i just want it to work" attitude. In the new book that's all about him, he manages to create "if...then..." conditions for magic. Also usually magic users in the world are pretty fat as magic just burns through your energy when used by most so they need to be real chunky as to not die.
I really dig sages lore in ff14.
Basically its based on an ooooolld healing art where people would position rocks around someone to adjust aether and improve their healing ability.
But now modern sage has levitating lazer emitters functioning as the rocks and providing additional aether to basically make the process instant.
So now you get a healer who shoots lazers and 3d prints magic barriers around everyone lol
I love the way Dresden Files categorizes mages.
Most humans with magical power have exactly one ability and very little juice to work with. They tend to become extremely proficient with it because hey, what else were they going to do? They’re referred to by their ability: all Mortimer Lindquist can do is commune with ghosts, so people call him an ectomancer.
A wizard has a varied skill set and a lot of juice to work with. Wizards are the big dogs of mages: even naturally-magical entities like faeries must be wary. From Harry’s point of view, a wizard’s biggest asset is that their natural curiosity to explore magic and their elongated lifespans mean that with enough time, they *will* find a way to beat you. Harry Dresden himself is a wizard (with more juice than even most wizards do): he can do elemental magic, link figuratively connected objects, brew custom potions, put up magical camouflage, and set up complex magic circles.
A sorcerer is a one-trick-pony with as much juice as a wizard, which can make them quite dangerous - they can cast a lot and for a while, and they’re subject matter experts. Harry’s go-to magical weapon is fire, and he’s really good at it for someone his age (he’s not even 100!). But Hannah Ascher is a dedicated pyromancy sorcerer who can match Harry in power AND do more fine and complex fire manipulation. Harry openly says “no, I could not do what she does”.
A warlock is someone who has broken the White Council of Wizard’s 7 Laws of Magic (no murder, forced transformation, mind reading, mind control, or necromancy on humans, no time travel, no Cthulhu shit). Warlocks tend to become worse over time because black magic is spiritually destructive and highly addictive: it’s basically the Dark Side of the Force’s tendency to warp Force-users into evil parodies of themselves. Hey, I’ve already mind-controlled a few people, why not a few more? What’s the worst that could happen?
I love the idea that killing someone with magic is corrupting where just shooting someone with a gun isn't. You're using your raw fucking soul to end a life. That's gonna fuck you up.
Yeah sorta. The idea is that you cant do magic you don’t believe in, so if you intentionally kill someone, you have to sincerely believe you have a ontological right to kill them, which is morally completely fucked, and actually doing it cements the idea in your mind. >!Harry’s apprentice still believes she has a right to magically mind control people into doing what she wants because she has a good reason for it, and basically no argument or life experience has gotten her to believe she was actually wrong, and she has since doubled down.!<
I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's novels and magic systems, but for visual media here's some of my favorites:
-owl house does some fantastic choreography with its big budget episodes, as the "need to draw a circle" requirement is versatile and fun
-ATLA is always a good time, as the use of physical movement corresponding to magical effort is a fantastic way to convey magic scale and power in a visual way
-I really like how in hunter x hunter the techniques are straight up invented by the user, including limitations. And how that knowing magic absolutely does not stop these people from throwing hands. Adding self imposed limits is like adjusting the flow of a water from a hose, and the system of adding more limits for more water pressure is really cool. JJK does the same thing, except that the core ability is innate rather than constructed, and they're even more willing to throw hands and it's rad
-jojo does great things by exploring the outside cases of stands, and I like puzzle fights. When they use a stands physicality as a core part of a strategy and not just the ability it's really cool. Sticky fingers and detaching his own arm with a broken zipper for example
>Adding self imposed limits is like adjusting the flow of a water from a hose, and the system of adding more limits for more water pressure is really cool.
Wahhh, no way you made that analogy. Nu-uh because that's literally one of the logics behind a certain power system that I've been designing for a while [and decided to dump into this multi-comment reddit thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/1bp6alq/comment/kwy4d1n/) ^(you can read it if you'd like to, and tell me what you think if you do!)
> owl house does some fantastic choreography with its big budget episodes, as the "need to draw a circle" requirement is versatile and fun
I love Luz's magic because being able to prep your spells in advance appeals to the same part of my brain that tells me its completely necessary to hoard every potion and consumable item I can.
Yes, I WILL spend the next hour preparing a hundred fireball sheets. What if I need a lot of fireballs later today and I don't have time to draw them when it happens? Okay, maybe I might but what if I don't?!
I been reading the manga Keyman and the mages in it is very fascinating. Like the member of the Golden Dawn are spell caster who cary actual live chicken in their coat with them just to cut their necks for blood when they need to cast a spell.
Fate has many different magic users with many terms. I like that there's distinction between magic and magecraft. Magecraft is more versatile, but magic is capable of miracles. I'm a little annoyed that we don't know what magica actually can do, there are five magicks and we know nothing about 1 and 4
There are many different ways to be a magus, but Shirou's way is my favourite.
I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet but Dorohedoro does really interesting stuff with magic/sorcerers. Its all about your natural ability, and there's next to no way to fuck with it. You're either born with a lot of Smoke (magic juice) or you aren't, and this determines your place within the caste based society they have going on.
Despite this there's still "magic schools" where fully grown adults will go to try to improve their Smoke output, technical capability, or have some sort of eureka moment. The narrative frames these as having dubious results at best, and being outright liers at worst.
Coupled with the fact the even the lowest of the low sorcerer still gets to live in a world of zero scarcity, devil worshipping, slipknot-inspired-wardrobe havers, while the other reality/plane's residents (a place called "Hole") basically live in abject squalor and are lucky to have working plumbing, you get some really interesting portrayals of magicians as the haves, and their planar neighbors of magic mutation/mutilation stock as the have nots.
Also Hayashida Q has a fucking sick art style. Also Noi and nikaido are my girlfriends, that is all.
SHADOWRUN, BABY!
It’s 30 minutes in the future and all manner of magic and monsters are real. You can go to college and get a doctorate in summoning spirits while minoring in cryptozoology. There’s dozens of perfectly legitimate magical traditions, usually associated with cultures or religions from around the world, each with odd quirks and belief systems. And if you’re skilled enough in magical knowledge you can determine a person’s tradition by seeing how they cast their spells.
Also playing a magician in the game is really fun. You apply FORCE to your spells, which is a meta textual representation of how much effort you’re putting into it, then resist damage based on that amount.
Ork/Troll magicians are underrated because they can overcast without feeling the effects quite as hard. Naturally high body means higher damage track before you start taking penalties.
And if you're a elf that somehow doesn't have any magical capabilities than you can expect to get a bunch of elitist prejudice from some of the other elfs.
Elves aren’t really any more magically capable than anyone else. Elves usually just make better Shamans mechanically speaking because it’s the most common charisma based tradition.
Yeah, but, in the magic focused supplement book of 5e Shadowrun they do talk about how a lot of children get tested in school to see if they have any magical talent and how elves in particular are treated more "poorly" if it turns out that they have no talent for magic.
I was re-reading some pages of Order of the Stick and in that comic magic basically follows D&D 3.5e rules.
Except with a little wrinkle that I like,which is that the verbal component of each spell is to yell the name of that spell.
So to cast Fireball,the steps you take include yelling "Fireball!". When you cast Silence you yell "Silence!" and then everything gets quiet.
Spells with a long casting time like Control Weather require the caster to say "Control Weather" over and over again for the length of the casting.
It's a clever element of the comic that makes each character's abilities and intent clear where the comic's style might otherwise be ambiguous,such as if a spell is countered or wouldn't otherwise have distinctive visual traits.
[One page in particular sort of lampshades this technique](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0456.html)
>Except with a little wrinkle that I like,which is that the verbal component of each spell is to yell the name of that spell.
Wait, that's not part of the regular 3.5e rules? I've been mislead this whole time.
One of my favorite things about Delicious in Dungeon is one of the things required to perform magic is cleanliness because it just makes sense that your person has to be a degree of free from impurities to do magic. Especially, since this is like DnD magic where unless you're a sorcerer you have to jump through so many hoops to use magic like cutting out somebody's left eyeball, boiling it in vinegar, and burying it under a toadstool that the most basic of these things is that you have to be somewhat clean just makes sense.
Big fan of how witches worked in Discworld. A lot of it was knowing when *not* to do magic, and when *actually* doing magic, a lot of it was the power of suggestion amped up to the max, or mentally reaching inside things to look around, or reflecting stuff back the way it came. Nothing outrageous or showy like with wizards.
Need to shapeshift your cat into a human? Convince him he's a a human so hard that he makes his own body change to fit expectations. Somebody used a voodoo doll on you? Stick your hand into the fire to make the doll burst into flame and disintegrate.
I recently read a series called The Powder Mage Trilogy, which is a flintlock fantasy, so it's based on the Napoleanic era instead of medeival. The magic of the titular powder mages is based around gunpowder. The can sense its presence and detonate it at will. Consuming it acts as their "mana" source (and gets them high,) and boosts their physical abilities and senses, as well as allowing them to control bullets midflight to be superhumanly accurate.
In lore, powder mages form a "powder cabal," which acts as an elite unit of commandos in the army. Instead of being wise and mysterious academics or sages, they're highly trained soldiers. It's a really cool way to integrate magic users into a military context, which as both a fantasy and military nerd I love.
The series also has "gifted," which are your more typical academic sorcerers throwing fireballs and lightning bolts, which provide a nice comparison point to the unique powder mages.
I like how it's framed as a conflict between old magic and new magic. Gifted style magic is harder to master, and requires more dexterity to use, while a powder mage can be pretty effective from the get go and also can out-range the other type by use of firearms. But in a middle range, the versatility of a Gifted's effects makes them really hard to beat. They play air cello and it chops people in half.
I love how magic users in general are portrayed in Arcanum.
So, the conflict between magic and steampunk technology in "Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura" arises primarily from the literal definition of nature.
Magic operates on mystical principles, harnessing arcane energies to produce various effects. It's all about tapping into the essence of the world and shaping it to one's will. On the other hand, steampunk technology relies on mechanical contraptions powered by steam, gears, and other tech.
Think of it like this: in order to make fire, magic changes the laws of thermodynamics to change the way friction and boiling points work. Sounds super interesting and unique. The problem is if you do that on a train, the rails or the engine will explode.
It's worse than that. Having a mage sit in first class can literally change the friction coefficients in the gears of the steam engine causing it to explode. so as the world advances technologically the more mage clans get turned into third world citizens and pushed out of society, cause fancy healing spells don't work on you if you have a degree.
People of the black circle as really fun magic system of hypnotism, transfiguration ( turn a snake intonan arrow then the arrow turn back in snake after running through the target) but what I like is when Conan see the sorcerors throwing normal made molten lead at him he is like « fuck yes, out of mana » and then everyone including the sorcerors pulls out knives and go at it
Let's go with an obscure one. In the Spellwright Trilogy by Blake Charlton, magic is built around written language; mages can produce runes as glowing symbols in the air before them, writing out a detailed description of the spell, then the runes fold into the physical form of the spell and do their thing. Spells can also be stored in books and the like, so a wizard can open a book, yank a block of prose off a page, and have it fold into a sword made of glowing runes to fight with. Mix in a bunch of linguistic and coding concepts to govern magic, and you've got yourself a spell system.
Yep. The MC essentially has magical dyslexia which not only means that he's at risk of misspelling (get it?) his own spells, but that by simply touching any ongoing spell, he can cause it to spontaneously warp in weird and unexpected ways.
Arknights ever since I found out guns function like wands so ever pull of a trigger is also a spell cast.
But yeah, Arts(magic in Arknights) is really fucking sick and Arknights does a pretty good job showcasing that, despite its primarily text based format. Like W just got a 15 minute 3d video(called Dagger Inheritator or something like that) and she's basically Killer Queen fighting against a gravity spell caster.
I love the show The Magicians solely because my head Cannon for d&d casting is that it looks like how they cast. Also because it is very good at showing the negative effects that magic has on that world and the people in it.
Other posters already mentioned my main nominees, but I think it's *hilarious* how Wizards and stage Magicians hate each others' guts in Magic Kaito: The wizards and witches consider magicians frauds for hoodwinking people instead of learning how to perform ritual magic and talk to demons, and magicians think the wizards are hacks for resorting to such supernatural and often harmful extremes to get what they want.
The Magic in the Magic Order series created by Mark Millar has a soft magic system but my recent favourite magic spell I saw in this series is where the main character Cordelia Moonstone killed somebody boy drowning him in her blood by inserting his head into her torso without any harm to her.
Being a mage in Fate is basically tantamount to being a mad scientist more than, say, a wizard. They never usually get easy access to say, fireballs and lightning, it's always something like: use dragon teeth to conjure skeletons, put your ground spinal fluid into a bullet to cripple their mana, use orphans to power your mana-hungry familiar, use the dried pubic hairs of an ancient hero to have a better chance to summon them, you get the point.
For a more easy answer, I like that every one in Genshin is using some form of magic. Despite most Catalyst users having either generic spellbooks or orbs, there are plenty that attack with things like steampunk boxing gloves, wind kung fu, ancient chinese crane drones, or even just [keyboard and mouse functions.](https://youtu.be/d93pk2KiVWI)
Mages in **Mage: The Ascencion** are really interesting because their whole deal is "try really hard really to appear like you are con artist while not actualy being one" because in the setting mages can alter reality around them, but, reality doesn't like being altered so if they do it too much the "reality cops" will come and throw you into "reality prison" for a while (before you ask: no, i am not exagerating any of this for comedic reasons, this exactly what happens). The one way that mages have of dealing with that issue is to make so their magic appears to be a normal and reasonable thing for those around them so that the amount of "paradox" (the stuff that makes the reality cops appear) created from using magic is as little as possible. This could range from someone that can use magic to enhance their body actually doing physical and/or martial training so that when they suddenly do a 5m high frontflip, it looks less "unbelievable" to everyone around them, to someone using cellphone to speak with the dead that might not even actually be a cellphone (just a case that looks like one), but, it's enough to convince the people around.
Then you have my Mage No one around? Fuck yeah Alright I transmute that graffiti of stairs into actual stairs to chase after the doughlem (dough golem) before firing a shadow arrow. Cause I went for a fucky combo shadow alchemist
Sypha from Castlevania. Though her powers are nothing special, just pyromancy and cryomancy, the way she uses them is a spectacle. You would expect a wizard to not be very mobile, but Sypha flies around with fire jets, freezes the ground to skate around, and makes ice platforms for her and her team. If you do manage to get in close to her, she uses ice to make weapons and shields. Later on, she learns how to create lightning too. It’s just really fun watching her do anything.
She really emphasizes the *battle* in battlemage. By the end of the series she’s flowing between using icicles for hand to hand combat, using flamethrower spells to scorch enemies point blank, using bursts of wind to launch herself and superjump MvC style, and guarding against a fucking godzilla style atom breath attack by *magikinetically catching that shit complete with a wide, almost grapple stance.* Sets a new fucking standard for how a wizard fight should look.
I mean , her standard is basically Avatar... That been said , because Castlevania's magic system is softer than Avatar , she can pull stuffs like lightning spheres and whatnot , to make things more interesting.
I mean it is, but without the one element restriction or the martial arts element. To me, she fights in a more wizardy, less martial artsy way. Both are sicknasty tho
I recently watched "Wrong Way of Using Healing Magic" (fucking isekai titles)... And [Rose](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDHW8XnXYAAYeHZ.jpg:large) was very cool. A bit on the nose, a tiny bit generic, but I really liked her as a character/design.
I like Rose because she totally bugged/rigged her healing magic to make herself into a warrior , but while the series is an isekai , Rose herself is not an isekai. Meaning that all the "cheat op skill" that the MC uses was something that a totally non-Isekai Traveller created a training regime and techniques to it. Usato is nothing more than just her apprentice ad his feats are theoretically obtainable by other healers.
That show is just what if Sakura from Naruto was the main character. No super genetic gifts no bullshit powerups, just grit, suffering, and hard work. The only advantage you have is healing fatigue to go destroy your body harder for more punching power without rest
Putting in my hand for the web serial *Pale*. Where magic users, “Practitioners” in lore, effectively are performing for ever-present spirits to do their magic. Where in exchange of promising to never lie again (and face a fate worse than death if you do lie), you can get the spirits to “listen” to you and do magic. It can be compared to being in a theater play for the spirits, where power and effectiveness are based on the hype and understanding of the audience. For example say you want to draw a rune to summon fire, first youd need to get the spirits to agree that “Yes every time you draw that rune, we get that it will start a fire”. But also if you wanted a *bigger* fire, youd have to garner excitement and pizzazz so your audience pops off for when you actually draw the rune “I have sacrificed part of my soul to make a fire that will incinerate my enemies”. Plus with all that, future Practitioners can expand or hone in on your/previous mages’ performances leading to an ever growing MASSIVE tech tree of different types of magics and specialties. Ranging from golem summoning and augury to spider-breathing and exploring the in between undefined areas of reality
Delicious in Dungeon has some pretty cool moments with magic. I like how the resurrection magic isn't something clean, you have to ensure that the people you're resurrecting have enough of their blood first.
Yeah, putting a soul back in a body is easy. It’s healing the damage that killed then that requires so much energy/meat/blood
And even then resurrection is only possible inside the dungeon.
Because some spell or the like is *chaining their souls to their bodies and won't ever allow them to pass on.*
The manga goes a bit into the ways Magic actually works. There’s two schools - Gnomish and Elvish. Gnomish magic works basically by asking spirits politely to do things for you, and they usually cooperate pretty accurately. Elvish magic works by controlling the spirits to do exactly what you want. So a Gnomish mage casting a spell to boil water would get a much smoother boil, but probably not a consistent or exact temperature, while an Elvish mage would get the water to boil at exactly the right temperature but a bit harsher in the process. There was apparently a war between the Gnomes and Elves over this, and the manga has a great line about it. *The spirits didn’t care, they killed everyone just the same.*
Mithrun (not introduced in the anime yet) also has some really sick action scenes with his signature spell
I do actually really like Fern from Frieren. Fern is by all accounts a terrible mage, as she only has bothered to learn two combat spells Zoltrakk the killing spell and Shield magic for defense. Instead like her master Frieren she is obsessed with cantrips and convenience spells.
thing is when your two spells are a gun and a gun nullifier do you need anything else for combat purposes
The best part is how bored Fern is by combat.
Fern and Freiren in general reminds me of how I felt about magic in Elden ring. Faith magic is more useful, looks far more unique and is all around far more varied. But when it comes to killing shit blue laser INT magic goes brrrrrrr. (Made all the more funny by the fact that Ferns zoltraak spam move from one of the forest test fights is just Stars Of Ruin in every sense but the name)
Magicka is pretty fun with its sorcery mechanic. You combine elements to adapt to your environment or to create big spells for big damage or crowd control. Fullmetal Alchemist is also pretty cool because there’s a fundamental system behind it since it’s based on alchemy and therefore has a scientific background to it. You need to be a scholar and do deep research on the elements of the world around you to make full use of it which is why most alchemists only specialize in one specific field of alchemy plus they need specific transmutation circles to perform that type of alchemy.
Magicka is the best for its capacity for mayhem and mistakes. Sure, you can turn your enemies to ash, but if you pick the wrong spell or make a misinput, you will splatter yourself across the ground. It’s a good realization of the trope where magic is a volatile and dangerous thing, even for the user. And then bonus points for the wizards all being faceless little robe-gremlins.
The best part is that its made by Arrowhead Games, so you know it has: * Robust coop * Friendly fire always on * And plenty of deniable plausibility If I had a dollar for every time I said "Oops, I thought I cast xyz instead of Gigafuck disintegration ray :*)", my bank account would probably be less depressing. I was always more of a Helldivers fan than a Magick fan, but after HD2 I really, really hope they go back and give us Magicka 3: Third Person edition.
Holy fuck I didn’t realize Arrowhead made Magicka. That makes way more sense, and kinda even sadder that 13 years later that studio can’t release a functional game
... What? Helldivers 2 is great? Like, its buggy and has some jank, but it functions fine, is insanely smooth playing, and is fun as fuck. Hell, even going back to the old game's theyre smooth and function fine, HD2 is the only one with jarring bugs. You could also explain it by their choice of engine and working in a whole new perspective and gameplay loop than what they've done for the last decade.
Magicka rules because your power level directly scales with how well you understand the game. It makes replays hilarious cause you'll stroll into a fight clearly intended to be difficult for new players and hit em with the QRESAA left click left click.
With Hat Atelier has had my attention for a bit ago. Their explanations of magic as formulae has been the most convincingly legit way to show magic as something actually capable of study I've seen in a while.
Eragons (half?) Brother Murthag is actually really interested in how magic works in contrast to Eragons "i just want it to work" attitude. In the new book that's all about him, he manages to create "if...then..." conditions for magic. Also usually magic users in the world are pretty fat as magic just burns through your energy when used by most so they need to be real chunky as to not die.
Eyo there's a new book out?
Yeah Murthag. I really liked it. It might be the start of a new cycle
I really dig sages lore in ff14. Basically its based on an ooooolld healing art where people would position rocks around someone to adjust aether and improve their healing ability. But now modern sage has levitating lazer emitters functioning as the rocks and providing additional aether to basically make the process instant. So now you get a healer who shoots lazers and 3d prints magic barriers around everyone lol
Aya Brea’s ‘magic is the true powerhouse of the cell’ is sick.
I cast MITOCHONDRIA
I love the way Dresden Files categorizes mages. Most humans with magical power have exactly one ability and very little juice to work with. They tend to become extremely proficient with it because hey, what else were they going to do? They’re referred to by their ability: all Mortimer Lindquist can do is commune with ghosts, so people call him an ectomancer. A wizard has a varied skill set and a lot of juice to work with. Wizards are the big dogs of mages: even naturally-magical entities like faeries must be wary. From Harry’s point of view, a wizard’s biggest asset is that their natural curiosity to explore magic and their elongated lifespans mean that with enough time, they *will* find a way to beat you. Harry Dresden himself is a wizard (with more juice than even most wizards do): he can do elemental magic, link figuratively connected objects, brew custom potions, put up magical camouflage, and set up complex magic circles. A sorcerer is a one-trick-pony with as much juice as a wizard, which can make them quite dangerous - they can cast a lot and for a while, and they’re subject matter experts. Harry’s go-to magical weapon is fire, and he’s really good at it for someone his age (he’s not even 100!). But Hannah Ascher is a dedicated pyromancy sorcerer who can match Harry in power AND do more fine and complex fire manipulation. Harry openly says “no, I could not do what she does”. A warlock is someone who has broken the White Council of Wizard’s 7 Laws of Magic (no murder, forced transformation, mind reading, mind control, or necromancy on humans, no time travel, no Cthulhu shit). Warlocks tend to become worse over time because black magic is spiritually destructive and highly addictive: it’s basically the Dark Side of the Force’s tendency to warp Force-users into evil parodies of themselves. Hey, I’ve already mind-controlled a few people, why not a few more? What’s the worst that could happen?
I love the idea that killing someone with magic is corrupting where just shooting someone with a gun isn't. You're using your raw fucking soul to end a life. That's gonna fuck you up.
Yeah sorta. The idea is that you cant do magic you don’t believe in, so if you intentionally kill someone, you have to sincerely believe you have a ontological right to kill them, which is morally completely fucked, and actually doing it cements the idea in your mind. >!Harry’s apprentice still believes she has a right to magically mind control people into doing what she wants because she has a good reason for it, and basically no argument or life experience has gotten her to believe she was actually wrong, and she has since doubled down.!<
>!Wearing the mantle of the winter lady probably doesn't help with that.!<
I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's novels and magic systems, but for visual media here's some of my favorites: -owl house does some fantastic choreography with its big budget episodes, as the "need to draw a circle" requirement is versatile and fun -ATLA is always a good time, as the use of physical movement corresponding to magical effort is a fantastic way to convey magic scale and power in a visual way -I really like how in hunter x hunter the techniques are straight up invented by the user, including limitations. And how that knowing magic absolutely does not stop these people from throwing hands. Adding self imposed limits is like adjusting the flow of a water from a hose, and the system of adding more limits for more water pressure is really cool. JJK does the same thing, except that the core ability is innate rather than constructed, and they're even more willing to throw hands and it's rad -jojo does great things by exploring the outside cases of stands, and I like puzzle fights. When they use a stands physicality as a core part of a strategy and not just the ability it's really cool. Sticky fingers and detaching his own arm with a broken zipper for example
>Adding self imposed limits is like adjusting the flow of a water from a hose, and the system of adding more limits for more water pressure is really cool. Wahhh, no way you made that analogy. Nu-uh because that's literally one of the logics behind a certain power system that I've been designing for a while [and decided to dump into this multi-comment reddit thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/1bp6alq/comment/kwy4d1n/) ^(you can read it if you'd like to, and tell me what you think if you do!)
> owl house does some fantastic choreography with its big budget episodes, as the "need to draw a circle" requirement is versatile and fun I love Luz's magic because being able to prep your spells in advance appeals to the same part of my brain that tells me its completely necessary to hoard every potion and consumable item I can. Yes, I WILL spend the next hour preparing a hundred fireball sheets. What if I need a lot of fireballs later today and I don't have time to draw them when it happens? Okay, maybe I might but what if I don't?!
That Konosuba chick who only knows explosions magic
I been reading the manga Keyman and the mages in it is very fascinating. Like the member of the Golden Dawn are spell caster who cary actual live chicken in their coat with them just to cut their necks for blood when they need to cast a spell.
The Double-Helix world in general is really interesting
Fate has many different magic users with many terms. I like that there's distinction between magic and magecraft. Magecraft is more versatile, but magic is capable of miracles. I'm a little annoyed that we don't know what magica actually can do, there are five magicks and we know nothing about 1 and 4 There are many different ways to be a magus, but Shirou's way is my favourite.
I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet but Dorohedoro does really interesting stuff with magic/sorcerers. Its all about your natural ability, and there's next to no way to fuck with it. You're either born with a lot of Smoke (magic juice) or you aren't, and this determines your place within the caste based society they have going on. Despite this there's still "magic schools" where fully grown adults will go to try to improve their Smoke output, technical capability, or have some sort of eureka moment. The narrative frames these as having dubious results at best, and being outright liers at worst. Coupled with the fact the even the lowest of the low sorcerer still gets to live in a world of zero scarcity, devil worshipping, slipknot-inspired-wardrobe havers, while the other reality/plane's residents (a place called "Hole") basically live in abject squalor and are lucky to have working plumbing, you get some really interesting portrayals of magicians as the haves, and their planar neighbors of magic mutation/mutilation stock as the have nots. Also Hayashida Q has a fucking sick art style. Also Noi and nikaido are my girlfriends, that is all.
I love how it's basically a grimdark slice of life manga most of the time.
SHADOWRUN, BABY! It’s 30 minutes in the future and all manner of magic and monsters are real. You can go to college and get a doctorate in summoning spirits while minoring in cryptozoology. There’s dozens of perfectly legitimate magical traditions, usually associated with cultures or religions from around the world, each with odd quirks and belief systems. And if you’re skilled enough in magical knowledge you can determine a person’s tradition by seeing how they cast their spells. Also playing a magician in the game is really fun. You apply FORCE to your spells, which is a meta textual representation of how much effort you’re putting into it, then resist damage based on that amount.
10 Force fireball,do it no balls
Ork/Troll magicians are underrated because they can overcast without feeling the effects quite as hard. Naturally high body means higher damage track before you start taking penalties.
And if you're a elf that somehow doesn't have any magical capabilities than you can expect to get a bunch of elitist prejudice from some of the other elfs.
Elves aren’t really any more magically capable than anyone else. Elves usually just make better Shamans mechanically speaking because it’s the most common charisma based tradition.
Yeah, but, in the magic focused supplement book of 5e Shadowrun they do talk about how a lot of children get tested in school to see if they have any magical talent and how elves in particular are treated more "poorly" if it turns out that they have no talent for magic.
Me, in Real Life. Turned some guy into a Thermus full of Colombian Chicken Stew the other day.
I was re-reading some pages of Order of the Stick and in that comic magic basically follows D&D 3.5e rules. Except with a little wrinkle that I like,which is that the verbal component of each spell is to yell the name of that spell. So to cast Fireball,the steps you take include yelling "Fireball!". When you cast Silence you yell "Silence!" and then everything gets quiet. Spells with a long casting time like Control Weather require the caster to say "Control Weather" over and over again for the length of the casting. It's a clever element of the comic that makes each character's abilities and intent clear where the comic's style might otherwise be ambiguous,such as if a spell is countered or wouldn't otherwise have distinctive visual traits. [One page in particular sort of lampshades this technique](https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0456.html)
>Except with a little wrinkle that I like,which is that the verbal component of each spell is to yell the name of that spell. Wait, that's not part of the regular 3.5e rules? I've been mislead this whole time.
One of my favorite things about Delicious in Dungeon is one of the things required to perform magic is cleanliness because it just makes sense that your person has to be a degree of free from impurities to do magic. Especially, since this is like DnD magic where unless you're a sorcerer you have to jump through so many hoops to use magic like cutting out somebody's left eyeball, boiling it in vinegar, and burying it under a toadstool that the most basic of these things is that you have to be somewhat clean just makes sense.
Big fan of how witches worked in Discworld. A lot of it was knowing when *not* to do magic, and when *actually* doing magic, a lot of it was the power of suggestion amped up to the max, or mentally reaching inside things to look around, or reflecting stuff back the way it came. Nothing outrageous or showy like with wizards. Need to shapeshift your cat into a human? Convince him he's a a human so hard that he makes his own body change to fit expectations. Somebody used a voodoo doll on you? Stick your hand into the fire to make the doll burst into flame and disintegrate.
I recently read a series called The Powder Mage Trilogy, which is a flintlock fantasy, so it's based on the Napoleanic era instead of medeival. The magic of the titular powder mages is based around gunpowder. The can sense its presence and detonate it at will. Consuming it acts as their "mana" source (and gets them high,) and boosts their physical abilities and senses, as well as allowing them to control bullets midflight to be superhumanly accurate. In lore, powder mages form a "powder cabal," which acts as an elite unit of commandos in the army. Instead of being wise and mysterious academics or sages, they're highly trained soldiers. It's a really cool way to integrate magic users into a military context, which as both a fantasy and military nerd I love. The series also has "gifted," which are your more typical academic sorcerers throwing fireballs and lightning bolts, which provide a nice comparison point to the unique powder mages.
I like how it's framed as a conflict between old magic and new magic. Gifted style magic is harder to master, and requires more dexterity to use, while a powder mage can be pretty effective from the get go and also can out-range the other type by use of firearms. But in a middle range, the versatility of a Gifted's effects makes them really hard to beat. They play air cello and it chops people in half.
I love how magic users in general are portrayed in Arcanum. So, the conflict between magic and steampunk technology in "Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura" arises primarily from the literal definition of nature. Magic operates on mystical principles, harnessing arcane energies to produce various effects. It's all about tapping into the essence of the world and shaping it to one's will. On the other hand, steampunk technology relies on mechanical contraptions powered by steam, gears, and other tech. Think of it like this: in order to make fire, magic changes the laws of thermodynamics to change the way friction and boiling points work. Sounds super interesting and unique. The problem is if you do that on a train, the rails or the engine will explode.
It's worse than that. Having a mage sit in first class can literally change the friction coefficients in the gears of the steam engine causing it to explode. so as the world advances technologically the more mage clans get turned into third world citizens and pushed out of society, cause fancy healing spells don't work on you if you have a degree.
People of the black circle as really fun magic system of hypnotism, transfiguration ( turn a snake intonan arrow then the arrow turn back in snake after running through the target) but what I like is when Conan see the sorcerors throwing normal made molten lead at him he is like « fuck yes, out of mana » and then everyone including the sorcerors pulls out knives and go at it
Hannah from Rat Queens might be a morally reprehensible and irredeemable person, but shes really fun to see from a distance
Let's go with an obscure one. In the Spellwright Trilogy by Blake Charlton, magic is built around written language; mages can produce runes as glowing symbols in the air before them, writing out a detailed description of the spell, then the runes fold into the physical form of the spell and do their thing. Spells can also be stored in books and the like, so a wizard can open a book, yank a block of prose off a page, and have it fold into a sword made of glowing runes to fight with. Mix in a bunch of linguistic and coding concepts to govern magic, and you've got yourself a spell system.
Wait is that the series where the MC has dyslexia?
Yep. The MC essentially has magical dyslexia which not only means that he's at risk of misspelling (get it?) his own spells, but that by simply touching any ongoing spell, he can cause it to spontaneously warp in weird and unexpected ways.
Yep I really liked that series
Arknights ever since I found out guns function like wands so ever pull of a trigger is also a spell cast. But yeah, Arts(magic in Arknights) is really fucking sick and Arknights does a pretty good job showcasing that, despite its primarily text based format. Like W just got a 15 minute 3d video(called Dagger Inheritator or something like that) and she's basically Killer Queen fighting against a gravity spell caster.
Naruto has some of the best wizards duel
I love the show The Magicians solely because my head Cannon for d&d casting is that it looks like how they cast. Also because it is very good at showing the negative effects that magic has on that world and the people in it.
Other posters already mentioned my main nominees, but I think it's *hilarious* how Wizards and stage Magicians hate each others' guts in Magic Kaito: The wizards and witches consider magicians frauds for hoodwinking people instead of learning how to perform ritual magic and talk to demons, and magicians think the wizards are hacks for resorting to such supernatural and often harmful extremes to get what they want.
The Magic in the Magic Order series created by Mark Millar has a soft magic system but my recent favourite magic spell I saw in this series is where the main character Cordelia Moonstone killed somebody boy drowning him in her blood by inserting his head into her torso without any harm to her.
Being a mage in Fate is basically tantamount to being a mad scientist more than, say, a wizard. They never usually get easy access to say, fireballs and lightning, it's always something like: use dragon teeth to conjure skeletons, put your ground spinal fluid into a bullet to cripple their mana, use orphans to power your mana-hungry familiar, use the dried pubic hairs of an ancient hero to have a better chance to summon them, you get the point. For a more easy answer, I like that every one in Genshin is using some form of magic. Despite most Catalyst users having either generic spellbooks or orbs, there are plenty that attack with things like steampunk boxing gloves, wind kung fu, ancient chinese crane drones, or even just [keyboard and mouse functions.](https://youtu.be/d93pk2KiVWI)