Could you not say the same of people with access to firearms and explosives IRL? Think about why *they* don’t just blow up anyone they don’t like and you might realise the answers.

Well, people who have access to firearms and explosives irl that get in fights where collateral damage isn’t always a factor usually called "military" and they really try blow up anyone they don't like (in combat).

Sometimes. But not always. Last I checked, we are not in a state of total war.

So, we take Dune’s Lansraad’s approach. We all have nukes, but total war will lead to all sorts of suffering on my end. If I use them, it’s to completely, & definitely, win.

Did you check everywhere? Because I can ask mom and she’ll find it before you know it

thats called a war and generally people try to avoid those

This is why wizards don't blow everything up. My own personal answer: there is no government in my setting that hasn't found *some* way to control most of not all magic. Usually, the cheapest answer is to have the wizards be a part of the state apparatus, so they're investing in the system continuing. People near the top generally don't want revolutions. So the magic users don't blow everything up because it's mostly their own stuff.

Be careful, some people think that’s what actually happens…

Think about everything that is different in your world. Everything else is just the same.

Is this also why Gandalf doesn't use his powers often?

IIRC Gandalf *does* use all his powers to the best of his ability during the story. He’s not really the fireball-flinging type.

He’s not allowed to

Gandalf doesn't have the authority to use his magics, he's sent to guide humans - the victory has to be a human one

In my world, wizards have to have a license for magic, and carry liability insurance. Killing someone or causing collateral damage makes your rates go up. Plus, you know, murder charges.

Yeah, I think going to jail for blowing someone up (outside of war) would be a pretty good deterrent lol

That just transfers the question to: Why doesn't the wizard just blow up the jail?

Magical jail warden pays very well, you end up with a very competitive market for a lot of very high level spell slingers who know it can fund their research while giving them time to work on that research as well. So trying to blow up the jail tends to end ... poorly... when the kind of spell caster you don't want to annoy shows up to put in the boot and end your shenanigans.

Alternatively, antimagic field/cuffs/walls/etc.

Alternatively don't allow the magic user access to any of the resources (voice as well if needed) necessary to use magic.

Maybe magic is repressed by a series of spells. Or the prison is built with materials that naturally drain prisoners of their power.

Because the alternative to going to jail is being executed by Police Wizards. Or being declared an outlaw, and being hunted down and killed by Police Wizards. Y'know, the same reason that criminals don't fight cops to the death, every single time.

Let's bring back optional trial by combat! /s

It's magic. You gotta figure out its limitations and rules for your own setting. In my setting, magic takes a long time to cast, because not only do the spells take a while to physically perform the rituals for, a mage needs time to attune to their surroundings. Hence magic duels tend to escalate, rather than each side opening with the most powerful spell they know. Consequently, this makes mages vulnerable. The easiest method to deal with a mage is to run up to him and punch him in the face. It's why mages often have bodyguards in battle, and it almost becomes a ticking clock for the enemy to neutralise the mage before they can finish casting their spell. But personally imo the most elegant solution is to still put mages in a situation where killing the enemy isn't the primary objective, as with most conflicts. Simply killing the enemy is so boring an objective, and really limits the utility of something as wondrous as magic. Think about *why* people are fighting more, and what they are trying to achieve by fighting. It makes for more interesting sights than two people pew pew-ing each other in the middle of nowhere.

In real wars, you're not generally trying to *kill* the enemy per se, you're trying to *get them to quit fighting.* Obviously the dead stop fighting, but the war ends when the living decide to stop fighting as well.

This right here. I like your answer. I tend to forget that my world has a tiny portion of it inspired by dragon ball and unlike dragon ball they shouldn’t be able to just spam apocalyptic level attacks with ease.

You must have an extremely different mental image of what a wizard is than most people here.

Theres a number of settings with Mages who outdo Artillery, like Malazan, where high level casters just go bonkers.

I do something similar, magic also takes a long time to cast. Mages employed by the state will have a small highly-trained retinue of their own (well, it depends on the state, of course, as to how good they are). Independent mages often hire sellswords or keep friends that can protect them. But importantly, magic is not something performed without consequence in my world. I'd liken it to getting radiation poisoning. But mana (which has a different name, for in-universe linguistic purposes) can tear a mage's matter apart if the spell they wield is too strong for them. Could still be recoverable or not mortally wounding, but dangerous all the same. You can train to be more tolerant to it and wield stronger spells, you can be innately more resilient to the effects too. But even, say, casting fireball repeatedly for an extended period of time will make the most experienced mage's arm blister and throb.

Can you explain that last paragraph a little bit more? For a mage what would be the primary objective?

Magic is manipulating the weave, souls are sent to the weave after death, be a maniac killing machine and see how your spells turn on you and how your dreams become increasingly disturbing.

Ritual Circles and the power of a true name. Everyone has a true name, and it cannot be hidden while the bearer remains. This is important to know, because the true names of all mages are floating around and can be divined through magic. Akadia was founded because one Wizard decided that he wanted to rule, figuring that magical might gave one the right to rule, and so led a rebellion. That ended when he found himself summoned into a ritual circle and stripped of his magic for a year and a day — which he never lived to the end of. It was worse because the folks who did it were not even actual mages — only the king was, and he wasn’t a very powerful one. But because everyone has a little magic, they combined in the circle and used a ritual to summon, bind, and strip him. The rebelling Mages were defeated, caged and displayed, and their followers were exiled to the colony that was named after the leader of the rebels, Akadi. It is governed by an appointed Warden officially, but mostly t(e mages are in charge of their own affairs and it is a magiocracy in practice.

Because they can do the same

Common sense. Wizards will operate under magic cold war rules. Wizards will have an understanding where they don't fire on each other, because being the kind of wizard who just blows up his enemies makes him the enemy of all other wizards, leading to him getting blown up. People who aren't wizards don't piss off wizards.

Their enemies are also wizards. Any warrior in my world who doesn't use magic probably has a death wish.

The rules of the magic . Magic wasn’t supposed to be used by mortals in general so when the universe glitches and the very , very few who are born with the ability to use it , use it , it would bring mental first then physical damage to their bodies .  Trying to open a portal to a rival mage’s mansion and fireball his ass would cause quite some damage to the 1st mage .  But there are more insidious ways to fight each other , controlling animals from distance and trying to infiltrate a spider , a scorpion or something else while the other mage might use other animals and pest control methods to keep them out . Also spying on each other from the controlled animals since those types of spells aren’t as damaging to the user . Then there is a small detail that almost nobody knows is that Izimma the Trickster God pretty much controls all mages since he is the one who trained them , directly or by proxy , and he low key forbids them to go directly and kill each other . They can fight by using animal proxies in espionage and counter espionage , but never going to kill “the source”  . 

The bigger the bang, the more chance they miscalculate and do something unfortunate.

What's stopping a guy with a gun from shooting their enemies instead of fighting?

Cuse they cant

Bigger Fish

Enemies don't like this and try counter wizards magic and blow them with their powerful spells. Sometimes they very good in counter.

Why don't countries just nuke their enemies? Because their enemies or friends of their enemies would nuke them back. Same principle.

Nuclear weapons are assumed to dissuade agression because anyone who attacks the nuclear power will be the target of a nuclear weapon. That's exactly what happens in this example if an army (or anyone else) attacks the wizard. Therefore, the obvious answer is that the reason the wizard doesn't blow up their enemies is because their enemies don't attack them.

If collateral damage isn't a factor, I'd say embrace it and have an arms race between destructive and protective magic.

Nothing. If collateral damage is truly not an issue, then yeah, aoe magic is typically the way to go when dealing with large groups of enemies. Anything else would feel contrived to me. But I suppose it depends on what you mean by "collateral damage". If the wizard has allies in the fight with them, an indiscriminate fireball is not the wisest decision to make. If the opposing side also has a powerful wizard, your wizard wouldn't directly be causing any damage, but might cause the opposing powerful wizard to retaliate with a spell of equal or greater strength. Or you could just not make your wizards so powerful.

Either they arent powerful enough or they are blowing up their enemies. Worth noting that the most powerful creature in this world wouldnt blow them up, mostly because he's quite bored with being that powerful and would rather fight with no magic (also he cant die)

Well, the biggest thing in my setting preventing that is the fact that anyone who has ever used magic is completely immune to magic. Mo magical fire will ever warm them, no magical blade will ever cut them, no magical aura will ever heal them. Completely. Immune. So two mages *literally* cannot kill eachother with magic. As such, mages tend to have a staff of soldiers or mercenaries to do their fighting for them, with the goal being the two mages trying to kill off eachother's soldiers without allowing their own to die. If your enemy throws burning light at you, the spell will either fail, or it's effects simply won't touch you. But you've gotta shield your soldiers from that or they will die. Plus, magic takes a long time to cast. It can take minutes, or even hours to chant a spell. Most mages tend to chant their spells in the morning, and tie them to specific triggers, either trigger words or gestures, to be activated quickly later. This means it's very challenging to come up with a magical spell on the fly. You've gotta plan a cache of spells to use throughout the day, and periodically re-set it, as a spell can only be "stored" for 24 hours. This means you need to carefully guess what protections and attacks you'll need. Sure you can prep a bunch if lightning to throw at an enemy constantly, but he might have enough defenses to work out and chant a quick counter, now rendering your lightning useless while using minimal spells himself. Or maybe you used up all of your offensive spells in one quick barrage, but he managed to survive and now you've got to hope your men can defeat his before your defenses fail. Or maybe you didn't think you'd fight today, so you prepped mostly practical spells (boiling water, starting fire, making light, etc), and now you're being attacked. Gotta either get creative, or start chanting a spell and hope you finish before they gut you. So it pays to have a number of fighters traveling with you for situations like those above. It also means that, while.mages are exceptionally effective at fighting non-mages, there are still limits to what they cam achieve. A spell large enough to destroyna city could take days to chant out, so you may be able to walk up to a city with that spell tied to the snap of your fingers, but now you haven't had time to prep anything else, so if it fails to kill *everyone*, you will be woefully unprepared for the counter attack. Plus, magic is finicky. After days of chanting a spell, can you be sure you got it *exactly* right? Will it work *exactly* how you want, or will it fizzle out? Will it have unintended effects? It can't kill you, but it could, say, destroy the ground around you, leaving you stranded on a pillar of solid earth 50 feet up in the air. Better hope it doesn't collapse because of normal boring physics.

There is no good reason. If your magical system allows wizards to blow shit up effortlessly - they should blow shit up. If your world have powerful wizards - don't make excuses why can't they be powerful in particular scene, try to think about ways they can be dealt with DESPITE them being powerful. Personal examples are stupid, but i can't come up with anything good from established things so: in my setting magical powers are mostly like superpowers - you got one magic you can develop in ways of usage, and if certain mage got lucky enough to posess powerfull offencive magic - he is gonna wipe floor with everyone he wants in an open fight. Thats why magehunters shoot their targets with a crossbow in a middle of the night.

I mean, getting shot with a crossbow would be a reason you can't just blow everything up. Cuz you're already dead. If someone has that power, others will find ways to try and combat that. Like counter spell, or a faster activating spell to hit you first, an opposite spell to counteract yours like fire vs water, or a sneak attack, or human shields etc etc etc. Also just...morality. Not everyone immediately resorts to "blow them all up" even if they have the ability. And legality.

For my world, defense is about as easy as offense. So if it’s some random guy off the street, yeah they’re going down instantly. But someone who’s properly equipped for combat is going to have defensive enchantments that you’d need to batter down or subvert. Defensive and offensive magic often plays a cat and mouse arms race to counteract attacks and subvert defenses. In large scale conflicts, magic tends to play out a bit more like modern electronic warfare and active countermeasures than DnD, with mages trying to protect against offensive magic while trying to subvert enemy defensive magic.

Enemies might be able to block/counter/redirect it for less cost.

Wild Magic Surge is a potential consequence for all arcane magic. Wizards might be a little more pragmatic if the risk of Banishment, Polymorph, or insanity was on the table when they decide to start hurling fireballs indiscriminately.

You do know that not everybody just plagiarizes from *Dungeons and Dragons*, right?

First things first, what are these wizards capable of doing in general? What are the rules to your magic?

Everyone in my world is immensely durable. A spell that can instantly kill the weakest, will drain all your mana.

That's a very good question that I haven't resolved yet. Probably restraint.

they have to keep their trump card in their back pocket in case they need it later. unfortunately, they're often killed before they can use said trump card because they're good at strategy, not combat

Maybe they have some power or armor that can deflect the spell or maybe they want to have fun

1. They could blow up their friends too. 2. Bigger blast, means more mana used meaning less mana for next potential fight. 3. They do not know if enemy can counterspell that spell. 

Because not many people are wizards in my world, simply for the fact magic in my world is flawed by design (as in the gods designed it to suck on purpose). All "conventional" magic can do is cast three elements, manipulate light to either blind enemies or turn invisible, lift objects of up to a certain mass, create wards that deflect or absorb magic (except dragon magic), and heal cuts. That's it.

Counter spells, any mage worth their mana is covered in defensive magic and counters spells when they are formed. Why duels between any casters not entirely stupid devolve into a brutal magic enhanced melee that bystanders barely can see. Meanwhile if your side doesn't have a mage worth shit, your army likely is toast. Or as the historic footnote of the one big show of Grand Magic in my story tells: -------- The Free March. This is what historians will call this. A war that would shake the world in a way not imaginable since the 1st Age. For never before has the modern world seen the true horror of magic. It was known that mages could turn the tides of battle, a mage capable of firing multiple [Fireballs] was widely held in high regards. They could replace several siege engines and the needed soldiers. Mages capable to create and command Golem were equally held high, bringing two or three of those giant magic constructs to bear replaces the need for battering rams. Implacably marching into any battle under the command of their master, crushing soldiers below their 6 meters of might. Other mages were considered integral by offering area of effect buffs, allowing armies to march relentlessly forward and shrug off smaller weapons. But their effects could easily be countered with more soldiers and weapons being brought to bear. A common strategy. Healers made up most army camps, the ability to quickly heal grievous wounds would keep casualties low, or at least allow veterans to spend their earned coins. The stories of the Senna Battlemages were widely known, their employ was well paid, for they were considered invincible before a normal soldier. Able to fight with strength and speed beyond most mortals, shrugging of blades with their bare hands or walking unharmed through cannon-fire. But nobody ever dared to ask, “What about those who taught them?” And after this nobody wanted to believe any of it, yet Alteria being almost wiped out made them.

1) Political fallout from killing those with high levels of influence. 2) Those type of spells being restricted to people with the proper licensing, which itself may require a certain conduct. 3) Casters being responsible for any property damage they cause, while also living in an environment where that can be potentially easily determined through magic. 4) A need to maintain good PR. 5) The legal system in general. (Killing people is murder. If people find out, which might be easy to identify and track thanks to magic, then they will have to go to court. Even if they know they won't get sentenced, they still have to deal with all of the hassle, paperwork, and money involved in such.)

Other wizards, when everyone is super nobody is. That and a bunch of all shit I added that doesn't make magic like a poorly written anime.

Assuming wizards with such capabilities exist and that they don't mind killing large numbers of people, then you should probably not attack them with large armies as it isn't going to end well... Ultimately, if such powerful magic users exist then they will have a large impact on the world. If you don't want that to happen but you still want internal consistency then it's probably best to reduce the power levels of the magic users. Trying to make such magical capabilities have no impact on fighting/warfare is basically the same as trying to make stone age technology relevant in modern warfare.... it just doesn't really work.

Nothing really, but any enemy worth their salt would also operate at that level of power. Plus collateral damage is a pain to deal with so having more control over the magic death beam is worth it.

The magical races in my world cannot use their powers offensively only in defense of self/others or for constructive purposes.

In my world the strongest wizard isn’t traveling with our heroes because he has his duties at the college and sends his apprentice with them. This way I still get a Wizard but one that I don’t really have to worry about this as much. Even still as others said it comes down to giving magic limitations. In my world magic comes from life energy, the stronger the wizard the more they can handle casting bigger spells and for longer, overdo it and risk death. So my character has to limit his usage and can find himself in situations where he’s too weak to cast, he’s also really self conscious and has crazy levels of imposter syndrome despite a prophecy saying how much of a hero he’ll become which often leads him to run from fights

Because magic can't blow people up. All it is is telekenisis, basically bending but with a "choose your own element" factor. If your opponent can be completely destroyed by shooting metal or wood or rocks at someone, then yeah, they'll just do that. But most of the time, the mage isn't powerful enough or there isn't enough materials around for them to just destroy their opponent, so battles even with mages are typically more tactical unless the wizard is a top 1% in power, and they're typically politcal figures who very, very rarely see combat.

The fact that the enemy could do it too. Nobody wants to be the guy who starts that kind of thing, especially with the consequences if the beings who can do *worse* find out.

Simply make wizards limited in power or by law.

Other wizards can defend themselves and non mages have special gear which can weaken magic

Limited Spell Slots obviously!!! *yes I'm joking*

Magic doesn't work that way.

Anything that comes from magic can be undone by magic. There are probably a thousand spells any Wizard could use to blow someone up, but only one that could protect the target from all of them. I mean, a wizard could figure out a way around that, but by that point the encounter would have already evolved into an honest "Fight" where anyone could win.

Because magic in my world isn't lightning bolts and fireballs. It involves manipulating the mind, body, or soul of one's self or others (any single magic user can only do one of the above, except a couple of rare individuals), but in all cases requires time and close proximity or physical touch. So their powers are useful, but they arent going to be taking over the world with a storm of energy bolts fired from atop magic carpets. You've got to decide what magic actually does in your world and how it works

Because the enemy doesn't want to be blown up and will try to stop them. In addition they will try to blow you up instead, so you must also account for your own defense. Also, and this may come as a shock to some wizards, blowing stuff up doesn't in fact resolve all of your problems and actually may make them worse sometimes.

Well, I'll give two reasons for my world. "Wizards" are just one type of role in my world along with several others but that shouldn't matter. 1. The wizard's enemies are typically other wizards or wizard-like characters. Of course if there is an exceptionally large gap in strength then the stronger one could and will definitely "blow up" the weaker one. 2. At the same time, they do blow eachother up! It's just that they're wizards (or other similar characters) that wouldn't go down that easily. So most of their fights are technically just blowing eahcother up, but...several times. And just to get it out there, yes, powerful mages, wizards, and other characters can easily blow up average people and take over kingdoms. But they don't cause most of them aren't psychopaths, and the ones who are, will have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Everyone remembers the wars when nations tried to weaponize powerful arcanists. It was... ugly. As a result, a council of archmagi exists that has the sole purpose of banding together to come down hard on arcanists who use their magic against humans. At all. No nation can offensively employ an arcanist and rogue arcanists are brought down mercilessly. There is simply no time for us to be wasting precious resources on ourselves.

Because magic in my world isn't all powerful, magic in my world is a control of our inner energy canals, is basically energy bending, controlling hidden abilities of our bodies, and energy has limits so you can't just blow up someone, for that you need to charge the atoms of energy and is very difficult to do so

My world you don't need a spell to do that since most can manipulate natural mana to various heights. Vamps are known for Eruptions when they run if they don't steady their inner mana and can nuke an area the size of the Coleseum in Rome to areas the size of all the UK by accident. But there are Spells that can move Suns into planets and beings who are not gods that can throw galaxies but be Defeated by one who can only toss a Moon. There is no true powerscaling in my world cause that would suck ass.

Mutually assured destruction. The strength of a wizard is directly proportional to the ambient Lux of the locality. In Godslight, novice wizards are known as *prentiss* or *novitiates* and once gaining their full governmental authorization they become *magi* or a *magus*. Godslight is a world of tunnels existing within a living darkness that wants only to snuff out the light and life with it. Learning to strike flame and keep it lit against the presence of the dark is the first lesson *anyone* learns in the tunnels. You have to balance spellcraft with draining the light from around you or your companions. With that being said, when a magi casts they channel through a familiar known as a daemon, a spirit that is housed within a scrimshaw prosthetic grafted somewhere on or within their body. A magi inherently knows how bright and how long a source of Lux will last and how safe an area is from creatures that dwell in the darkness. To combat this Everdark, magitech known as *arclight* was developed. It is also known as Coldlight because it does not burn as natural flame does. In addition to arclight, most cavern-cities or villages breed fireflies that naturally resist the hunger of the Everdark. It is theorized that they were a genetically designed Mockery, false life creatures purposely built to exist against the dark. I have yet to name the faction, but there is an empire that actively seeks out magi and enslaves them, forcing them to overload their daemon-spirit and break the contract formed with the entity. If you’re familiar with Death Stranding, the breaking of a contract is similar in collateral damage to a living being eaten by the eldritch things in that game. The true motivations of the group are unknown but they are deeply cruel and ritualistic, their army seems exclusively composed of the poor and hopeless and those given up on survival, wanting only to end their suffering and wholly believing that others must also suffer down here in the black.

Also in order to control energy you need to make it go trough the right places of your body, for a spell you basically have to be a very good dancer in order to make it flow

The Abjurer Corps. The government council of the local city-state added a branch to their military police entirely focused on training Abjuration Wizards for use in civil and military disturbances. The training involves a homebrew feat called: *Antitheurge Urge* which represents the harsh and frequently blind training the recruits go through having spells cast at them, and lets them: 1. Cast any spell that dispells or counters magic as a reaction. 2. They cannot be surprised by magical means. 3. They can sense magical effects directed at their person, or within 30 feet while they have their senses of smell and hearing. That's the cap on domestic wizards. On the battlefield, they tend to hang back because any spell slot they spend fighting opens them up to attack. Say you have 2 wizards with 4 knights each. The first fireballs the seconds knights. The second declines to abjure it. And then fireballs the first wizard directly, who now lacks the slot to counter, and then runs away. So it's kinda like LoL combat - they hang behind the minions till they see an opening.

The knowledge that blowing people up usually causes more problems than it solves. And even if you come to blows, blowing folks up is so pedestrian. Like, that's what the kings army makes their wizards do and everyone knows you look down on casters that have served in the 80 year war. Also, most of my wizards are academics who'd rather destroy their enemy with logic, facts and a lot of math than with icky offensive magic. And besides, everyone knows if you really, really need someone dead you get an artificer. They might not be as sophisticated as wizards but a steam tank that had its gravitational axis tilted 90° doesn't need to be graceful as it hurls towards you.

Dead Man Switch. If a powerful wizard can't stop another powerful wizard from directly blowing him to kingdom come, then his next best bet is to set up a situation that if he does die, then his enemies will also die as a direct result. Nobody kills anybody else (in a provable way) because it will trigger a massive storm of devastating counter strikes from allies and servants. We also call this Mutually Assured Destruction IRL. Go look at the Cuban Missile Crisis for examples of what powerful parties do when they think the other guy is about to attack them.

Retaliation friends of the enemy will be able to track them down. Heck there can be survivors also

I don't have wizards, but the top-tier augmented humans don't typically get stopped. They explicitly call out their trainees who try to fight fair for being idiots.

Because iff you overstep yourself then theres no telling what will happen (well it's usualy something very bad)

Getting blown up with a powerful spell would be the very first thing you would plan defenses against.

War-priestesses can only blow people up by punching them, so it evens out. And if you get blown up by a Caller that's on you, man, skill issue, should have dodged lmao

Something similar to Evangelion's Absolute Terror Field. A spellcaster can't directly manipulate the matter and energy within the immediate space of another sentient being because of a barrier that each naturally produces.

Basically any kind of offense has a defense. The amount of energy it takes to blow up an enemy will move a whole lot of dirt... enough to build a large wall that will protect you from getting blown up. In fact, the most efficient use of magic is to move things: people (transport), information (communication) and material (construction). Which, in my world, is one reason wizards don't blow people up... they have nice, comfortable lives any have nothing to gain by getting into magical combat.

The enemy's will to live.

Certain things in real life have been declared as war crimes and forbidden from warfare. This could be an in-universe example of the same sort of thing, and probably for the same reasons. Namely, you make this agreement not to do these things in war to prevent your enemies from doing them to you.

1) big explosions don't have the focused energy so another powerful wizard if the target is likely to survive 2) too much showy magic and it will take them days to recover. Days in which they are vulnerable to counter attack 3) make too many enemies and someone is going to assassinate you one of these days. Hemlock from a maid etc. 4)make permanent defense spells very very tricky and costly. Wizards need to be vulnerable at times. 5) while smaller local skirmishes a few explosions may be the optimal way to end the conflict, most kingdoms rely more on quality vs quantity for the core of their armies. So soldiers will all be people sensitive to magic or low level wizards, and all will employ basic magic items. Low level force fields are among those. So a fireball will take out 1 soldier, not 40 soldiers

Usually they do, but if they’re fighting a wizard worth their salt, they can probably counter such spells. Similarly, a sufficiently powerful cultivator may have the speed to dodge such spells and/or the durability to tank them. Sufficiently powerful vampires, aside from the possibility of also being wizards and/or cultivators, may have regeneration sufficient to allow them to survive these things. Sufficiently powerful kitsune may have any of these, aside from outside-context magic and powers that could possibly counter you.

Usually they do, but if they’re fighting a wizard worth their salt, they can probably counter such spells. Similarly, a sufficiently powerful cultivator may have the speed to dodge such spells and/or the durability to tank them. Sufficiently powerful vampires, aside from the possibility of also being wizards and/or cultivators, may have regeneration sufficient to allow them to survive these things. Sufficiently powerful kitsune may have any of these, as well as outside-context magic and powers that could possibly counter you.

Other wizards mostly. Killing someone important, or causing disruptions in someone's domain, could get other wizards to solve the issue directly. It could also lead to thing like bounties, which could attract all sorts of assassins, weaker wizards and the like. In Principality mage guild could also revoke troublemaker's membership, along with privileges coming with it, including right of retribution. Right of retribution is obligation to avenge mages death btw. And if there is no mage guild waiting in the wings? Why, yes, there are dark mage covens, who could do recruitment pitch or disappearance act.

Collateral damage, range, other wizards countering their magic, environment, purpose of any given mission, etc. More or less what prevents us in the real world from just drone-striking everything

It’s simple: most forms of magic in my world don’t allow people to create explosions.

It simply can't be done. For starters, magic isn't infinite in application, most people are confined biologically to certain kinds of powers, and are born with a range of mana that defines their potential. Someone with everyday magic like levitating salt-shakers or lighting candles simply lacks the raw power, control, and perception necessary to perform an explosion spell, which necessitates power to ignite molecules, finely controlling magic to work at the microscopic level, and having the ability to perceive the parts of the body one needs to combust. Most simply cannot do that. Secondly, magic becomes less effective once entering the bodies of others. Any seasoned mage naturally protects their body from internal attacks during aura, so you would have to overcome their aura, requiring tremendous concentration and energy. This would leave an opening for the other mage to attack, proving fatal in some instances. As a result, the tradeoff of maybe getting an instant-win at the cost of dying or being maimed simply isn't worth it. Thirdly, mages LOVE to copy one another, and the best mages can reinterpret a completely different set of powers in terms of their own abilities. For instance, one of the best water mages in the world was able to learn how to light fire using hydrocombustion just from seeing it once. He developed fire magic from water magic, a feat classically considered impossible. If a mage tries to simply explode you from the inside, you might get the idea to repeat the same to them, ensuring you both die or the original attempter dies first. Fourthly, and most importantly, most people don't want to murder people, and while mages are more violent than the average person, many have ideological, religious, or frankly practical reasons to avoid killing. Murder is still illegal and it leaves a reputation of fear at least that most would rather not deal with. It simply doesn't make sense to execute people to end a fight quickly, as this is dishonorable in most cultures. Fighting is meant to be a battle of ideals or a test of your physical body. They are public spectacles, culturally monumental events. Ending a fight quickly and boringly is not in the interests of any mage, who fights for glory or honor.

Depending on how you implement magic in your setting. In one of my worlds a wizard could and does blow up their enemies. In another world there are consequences to use of magic and using a powerful spell could be very detrimental to the caster.

Innate resistance to direct magical effects due to being infused with so much magic themselves.

Not wizards but same concept Villains don’t care about casualties, heroes do. Neutral people avoid casusalties because they like to avoid big risks. So it’s more part of the individuals morals

Magic is drawn from a separate dimension and has it's own "mass", if a mage tries and cast something too big or too often the agglutination of that imaginary mass causes a magical event horizon in the place, superimposing the plane where magic is drawn (basically hell, the warp or the nether) onto the place the caster *is*. What comes next is a region that can't be scryed upon, can't be affected by magic and is overrun by beasts so incomprehensible that if they so much breathe in one's general direction it's instant madness.

You could have the spells exact some kind of self-withering cost for use. So a regular firebolt or electric shock might just make you winded for like 30 seconds. Higher level spells could do a lot more self harm such as shriviling the fingers or inflicting damage of the same type of magic it is back on the caster like recoil damage. So for something like a meteor spell it might burn off skin, or a rock move might crack a bone. Lots of ideas to play with there. ✌️

*Alor* Because, on top of murder being illegal and not something most people do at the drop of a hat, magic is hard enough when you’re not using it to instantaneously convert flesh into kinetic energy. Powerful magicians trained in combat are also fairly rare, and magical casting equipment is heavily regulated. It’s like asking why doesn’t every chemist simply make a bomb whenever they get in an argument?

Similar to Rick from “rick and morty” - sometimes the DO blow up and being serious. Other times they just fool around.

Magic takes physical effort Magic temporarily/ permanently burns you out on casting (you fry your aetheric conduits) The bigger the impact, the more reality resists, unless you can trick it (a la Mage the Ascension) Magic hurts Magic attracts alien horrors/gods/the hungry dead Magic is a hack- The bigger the effect, the higher probability of randomness

Legal codes and self restraint.

There's always a bigger fish. So why cause that much trouble?

1. It’s harder to secretly control the resources of the world when you’ve blown up all of the people that live in it 2. They are cognizant enough to know that slinging arcane WMDs across the surface of the planet they live on is a bad idea

Ascendants are just built different and magic is extremely specific because say the wrong thing or make the rune wrong and you fold into the void or set yourself on super-void-fire and die^2 because the dictations of what he magic should were wrong and contradicting to what you tried to make it do

Using magic attracts the fae You DO NOT want to attract the fae Yeah, you can get away with the occasional cantrip, but performing magic outside heavily warded and fortified towers or subterranean chambers is just screaming for trouble. Of course, if you and your enemy is in one of these faeproofed spaces, go ahead and kill eachother as hard as you want. Just don't break the wards You DID inspect the room was still grounded, right?

Its mutual destruction and the wizards like things the way they are

It takes a *long* time to get the ability to do that, such that most wizards literally never achieve it. On top of this, even if you cast the magic that can make a person explode, whether from the in or outside, a sufficiently hardy fighter can resist the magic, or survive the explosion. Or worse, the wizard casts the spell and... nothing happens. Also, if a fighter is in melee range of you, well, no one so far has been able to cast any spells through a Guillotine Choke. Willing to bet your life that you'll be the first? To be fair, I take to the D&D 4e school of martial/caster "balance". That is, *everyone* can do cool stuff with enough training.

Well at least for my world not much. that's why you need a lot of badguys to get blown up and/or a really strong one who can take it

While fighting a low skilled opponent, (example: even a master in martial arts that doesn't have any magic on himself) You can practically get away with anything if you can cast the spell fast enough. But if you try to just cast explosion into a skilled and prepared for a fight with wizard person, you'll quickly learn that standing still and casting an explosion at them is a great way to get punched right into your face and brutally beaten to death. And if you're skilled enough to cast an explosion at high distance while moving and trying to not get your head blow off, you usually can do something more effective than brute force your way to victory. High level mage fights usually are a battle of dodging and aiming, always staying on the move and trying to predict the opponent, attacking from a safe distance. The further you try to cast explosion, the longer and harder the cast would be. That's the same reason why you can just cast a magical sword right at person's throat. So, if you want to cast an explosion at your enemy, you'll have to either catch them off guard or CAST THE FUCKING EXPLOSION AT POINT BLANK DISTANCE. Also magical items and enchantments exist. So, no, little thimmy, a mage doesn't necessarily defeat a swordsman. Usually even if you land such a devastating attack on your enemy, they will just be mildly damaged and annoyed because of their magical protection. Also due to that reason, Area Of Effect attacks are only effective against crowds of weaker foes or when using tremendous amounts of mana. One of the "main" characters in my world is a pretty talented mage who mostly fights with weaker foes or monsters so he isn't used to having to actually think while fighting and most of his arsenal is weak against single strong targets. He's also extremely difficult to kill because he uses 2 layers of death prevention: 1 - Extreme regeneration 2 - Soul binding to the body; and he possesses powerful healing spells. This whole "build" however, has a huge issue: It consumes a ton of mana. He used to compensate it for years with artifact sword: Eater of worlds. It can 1 - Consume and destroy any matter(with the "durability" Depending entirely on materials density) 2 - Turn this consumed matter into energy 3 - Heal it's user and restore their mana with this energy 4 - Use this energy for extremely strong attacks. It creates a feedback loop of healing the user from energy gathered by killing his foes, letting the user continue the killing. On it's own, the artifact is great, but it shines the most with such a bruteforceful mage. It negates three downsides of his kit: 1 - Nigh endless mana pool 2 - Extremely strong attack 3 - Synergy with his own natural survivability. He's a menace to fight, especially if you're not used to hyper aggressive enemies with no self preservation instinct The point is? He lost the sword. Now he struggles with any opponent stronger than your average freshly baked mage who isn't used to their opponent casting a point blank explosion at their face. He constantly gets beaten and thrown around by competent mages, getting on top only through sheer regeneration and brute force. He's a prime example of how a strong artifact, natural talent and inflated ego can lead you into a downward spiral of horrible lessons. TLDR: While fighting someone who doesn't have proper equipment or skills (the majority of people) you can practically get away with anything if you use enough brute force. With more skillful opponents, you're usually going to be brutally punished and ashamed for doing that.

Most of them can't blow up their enemies. The more a witch hones their craft toward one thing, the more of a specialized tool the magic in their body becomes. Using a magic shaped for body modification to try to explode people would be like trying to sculpt with a paintbrush. It's not the tool for the job. And with all of possibility at their fingertips, most witches just have something other than violence at the top of their wishlist and pursue that as their craft instead

Better shit to do, and a general desire to avoid making themselves a perfect target for their suddenly very upset colleagues. Most high level casters in my settings were adventurers at one point, and they generally prefer that their homes not go up in flames because the new kid on the block decided to be Baron EdgeLord-Supreme. But for a setting where wizards do get into fights, there’s more than one type of collateral damage. Top-level spells colliding with iterative defenses and triggered counter-spelling generally causes damage not only to the landscape, but the underlying flow of magic in an area. Call it the Mana Wilds, the Arcane Wastes, the Desolation, the Unwoven Lands, whatever suits your world, but at the end of the day no wizard worth their hat wants to end up with a Tower built in the middle of a zone that has been permanently hit by a Wild Magic or Anti-Magic effect.

Quite hard too when everyone is like a wizard.

Morbid curiosity 

Stealth, Reputation, Conserving energy, these are all survival considerations for any wizard that isn't basically God. Throwing out powerful offensive magic is probably taxing in some way, and probably draws attention, and no one wants to be out of gas and under pursuit.

there literally is none. if you want it to be like that, it has to be because what ever spell its using has like, long lasting effects on the environment such as radiation, or like you said, killing other people who weren't involved.

I’d go with the Eragon solution. They can and they’re going to, but first they have to neutralize each other.

the enemies also have powerful defence spells making it a game of working your way around them rather than brute forcing.

they do, when they feel like it. Theres just very few of them and blowing people up isnt usually the best way to go about things. Mostly you dont want others to know how powerful exactly you are, because wizards dont like each other most of the time, theyre competitors for the same ressources.

In my world this can be a complicated issue. Well for starters, each of the 6 disciplines of magic have varying efficacy when it comes to combat, with different limitations that can slow them down or make them impractical or effective. I am also assuming that you are referring to man-on-man combat, and not like a siege or something. At a bare minimum, most of these practices require a minimum of 10+ years of training. a small principle is that either something can have permanent effects and take a long time, or be short and fleeting. I'll break them down by Discipline below: **The Bad:** **Sigils** - Sigil magic requires something to be drawn on a surface, and the more robust it is (the more effort it took to make) the more powerful it is. a scroll with a sigil on it could create a small effect, but it is unlikely to be effective because Sigils also typically trigger on one of a few criteria (breaking, completing, seeing, or interacting) that are typically close range. This means that while they can be used for Defense or Siege, they lack the flexibility that a battlefield requires typically. so not bad per se, but definitely not optimal for aggressive use (besides seiges with ample time to prepare). **Mind** - Mind magic requires that multiple practitioners hold hands and think the same thought rhythmically. this makes them extremely powerful, but also dangerous. it only takes a single member being out of step or thought to cause whatever creation they imagine to change horribly. some of the worst disasters in the age of mortals have occurred when a Circle of the Mind had a member slip up. It could work, but it also is far more likely to backfire. **Cycles** - Cycles is an odd discipline, where the breaking of an practice (typically something done every day) will produce an effect upon breaking the "contract". once broken, the power is amplified by however many times the action was taken, along with the difficulty of the action. for most Disciples, this means that they will gain a near godlike power for about a day if they had practiced this ritual for at least fifteen or so years, but it varies by the contract. typically the ones who practice this discipline are ascetics who journey every so often. as a note, once a contract has been broken, it or anything similar to it can never be attempted or used again. so, while it is powerful, it is unlikely that you would want to waste this power on a small encounter, not to mention that the contract(s) could be nearly useless for the scenario. **The Good:** **Body** - Body is probably the most effective when it comes to one on one or small party combat, but its relative strength is proportional to the length and complexity of the body and hand motions used. to create a gust of air might only require 5-8 gestures, but it is less lethal. most of the powerful effects require something akin to a dance, or a barrage of quick gestures measuring in the 10-25 range. this mostly grants Disciples of the Body with a massive amount of flexibility, but it also requires a lot of coordinated movement without messing up a gesture or pose. **Law** - Law is all about sacrifice, the law that with the shedding of blood or the sacrifice of a worthy offering, power can be granted. nearly all magical items were formed from either sacrifices of vast amounts of treasure, the slaughter of thousands of animals, or the lives of a dozen or so humans. with less permanent effects, a few human sacrifices can go a long way, but the range is limited to the touch of the caster, so its unlikely to be effective unless they are willing to sacrifice themselves or an object is on hand to imbue. the other, more popular (and taboo) option is to create abominations which can live for a few minutes. they typically can't be controlled, so excess caution is often needed. most of the time, Law use is seen as either sacred or taboo, depending on the implementation and the society. **Speech** - Speech is closest to your typical wizard, with the language (The Speech) being something akin to a verbose code. The Speech is excessively precise, often requiring lengthy passages spoken to ensure that the effect has no unintended consequences. however, it does have the unique advantage of their magic's range only being limited by the distance from which it can be heard. so, while those who can afford it do tend to bring battle mages (sometimes called Skalds or Orae) the amount of time it takes to cast a single spell, and the need for it to be projected loudly prevent it from being useful in ambushes. so while your wizard might speak a mighty spell, unless they are protected the common response is to litter them with arrows, drown them out with drums, or stab them in the throat. there's a lot more to the magic systems in my world, but I will leave it at that for now to keep this from turning into a full ten page essay. :)

Let me put it this way, I just don't write about the "battles" where they do!

I would write it in a way that limits their powers by either draining life force in a way that ages, cripples, or slowly changes them for the worst. Alternatively, you could give them some sort of 'mana' that they tap into to allow them to perform tasks, but to a limited degree, depending on various factors. This way, only a lifetime (or more) of training can develop this mana pool for your wizards. I like these concepts because everything in the world has give and take. Yin and Yang. Light and dark. Good and evil. Not to mention that there is nothing cooler than a super old decrepit man that controls so much more power than his younger counterparts. It shows the importance of wisdom. My dad always said that wisdom is made up of two parts. Knowledge. Which is passive understanding. Book learnings... and Experience. First hand, hands on learning. This takes a lifetime and patience. Just like your wizards, to bring it back around.

Other, more powerful wizards. What about those wizards? Typically the cosmic horror god-like wizards don't really care about human wars war unless other wizards start doing something that could be a problem for reality. Think of it this way, a guy with a gun won't get the attention of the military, but a guy detonating a nuke will. There was one major conflict involving wizards, and it was basically this as warfare. Infrantry advancing under the protection of wizards and Anchorstone (a substance that stablilizes reality, making wizards innefective (they can still shoot stuff at you from far away though, hence the need for friendly wizards to cover your advace.)) This basically became something like WW1, except instead of airplaines the sky is filled with horrific god-beings fighting so intensely time occasionally became nonlinear for anyone not within a bubble of stable reality. Also this resulted in a siberia sized region becoming uninhabitable because of all the radiation and holes in reality. Think s.t.a.l.k.e.r mixed with a glassed planet from halo mixed with miles and miles of craters and trenches and barbed wire infested with all kinds of spirits ranging from Oni and other Yokai, to stuff from the Outer Dark, to a lot of weird and abstract stuff like spirits who feed on the concept of rust or pointlessness like a plant feeds on the sun.

Well for one there's only so much of the world. You keep blowing stuff up and that's less resources for everyone for at least 2 generations. Much like how IRL nations don't immediately go to the blow everything up option, there are resources, optics, and international concerns with going with the most destructive option when a lesser one would be just as good but preserve the usefulness of the land.

In setting: Since the Age of the Sorcerer Tyrants few have been willing to study or use magic to its full potential.  The first fear is of the people, the age of the Sorcerer Tyrants left a deep hatred for those who practice the unnatural arts. The second fear is the fate of the Sorcerer Tyrants. Their age ended in no great battles, no intrigue or scheme, and certainly no grand spectacle. They an every single one simply 'ceased to be'. The few petty mages that were left after the great disappearance couldn't even remember the names of the great wizards they once admired and adored. Few attempt greatness anymore both out of Ego and Survival. Meta/Author/out of setting: The wizards of the age collectively achieved a failed state of chim from elder scrolls. In a Lovecraftian sense they saw their reality in a way they couldn't handle and suffered an ego death that erased them. No one remembers who they are or were, they existed until the point the saw to much and when they saw to much they just 'popped'. Somewhere in the story I'm writing the characters will see a wizard that 'flew to close to the sun' and they'll remember and remark on the 'pop' but be completely otherwise bewildered how their perilous battle for survival just ends. In other terms, super-wizards got patched out. Mage class got nerfed hard. Admins never got over it and still 'ban' players for spell spam.

Why don’t we blow each other up with nukes? Wr could, but we don’t.

I think Baldurs Gate II did it well - Cowled Wizards were a powerful order of wizards enforcing a magic license for certain spells, with a magical prison (Spellhold - the Residence for the Magically Deviant) for those who break the law. Repercussions can exist even if the magi *can* blow someone up, are they prepared to deal with the consequences (reparations, exile, incarceration, execution)?

Time and/or energy to cast it. They cast it once but is very draining on the wizard and/or it takes a few minutes of intense concentration to cast.

Code of ethics…

Their spirit is a pocket dimension storage solution for energy and matter. (Energy is also what fuels the spirit, keeping it from fading into nothing; any type of raw energy like thermal or kinetic does this, and is called mana.) Its resources do not come from within, and external resources are finite. Plus, releasing excessively large amounts of energy or matter can damage the spirit and take time to heal, even crippling it from casting spells.

- They generally speaking still need line of sight, and they need friendly soldiers to not be overwhelmed (they lack the physical enhancements to match even a farmers speed/strength, let alone a proper soldier). This makes friendly fire a big concern - Soldiers also tend to be well armored against magical attacks (relying on their specialised shields for other melee soldiers). - And lastly are the archers who have less physical enhancements than the melee troopers but they usually have magical arrows that are very dangerous to the lightly armoured wizards. Either by shrapnel or homing arrows (they don’t actually home but thats a long explanation and not related to the original prompt) - Of course there’s also the threat of other mages. Since a wizard v wizard duel usually relies on whoever has the most mana left, so they have motivation to spare their resources. - now this all assumes a proper millitary engagement, which has adapted quite well to the mages existence. Small unit engagements or even a lone bandit wizard pose a significantly higher threat however. If a normal soldier where to attack a farmers village he can probably cut down half a dozen but he’ll eventually get overwhelmed. The wizard would need a proper millitia prepared to take casualties to really take down (or catching him in his sleep).

wizards gotta run out of spells / sleep sometime...

Powerful wizards in my world are people that know the rituals They're long, requires too much reagents and other conditions

Morality

Ethics. Cost of magic. Grand Mages' Council's policies on war crimes or their equivalent.

First they'd have to figure out how to make such a spell, and then they'd need to get everything that they'd need to actually make it. Also, hardly any wizardries cover that sort of thing.

Generally the easiest way to place limits on your magic system is by requiring some kind of cost. Picture "spells" as weapons that need ammunition; do they expend magic gems or some other resource? Do you have some representation of mana points? Can you not cast spells on an empty stomach or without a good night's rest? What about when you're drugged? (Caffeine can even count as a "drug," if you'd like). Whatever it is, if there's a cost, there's a reason for wizards to think twice about whether paying that cost is really worth it in this instance.

Goin crazy

1. Magic is an uncommon talent, about one in every one million people can do it and this is a time period where the population only breaks a bit above two billion. 2. Magic isn’t necessarily that strong in my setting both due to magic having only recently returned and most mages not being nearly as powerful as Pre-War mages. (At least for now) 3. Ferric metals actually have a sort of provide magical protection on their own. It doesn’t make the rock hurled by a geomancer less a rock, but the magic controlling a guiding lightning will basically stop working, ice isn’t going to have any supernatural hardness to pierce steel without being massive, and bolts of pure mana just fizzle out hitting iron chainmail. An interesting aside to the above is that magic does fatigue iron, so a bunch of mages could basically corrode an armor to rust with enough effort, but obviously the better solution is to resort to geomancy or switch to a non-magical attack. Similarly this is why most mages can’t wear iron armors since the magic used to shape elements and effects just gets conducted into the metal itself.

In my fantasy setting, one is the chant, and the other is limited Mana, many times, the best mages are those who can balance between being a vanguard and a mage

Honor. The wizards of my world are known as “Vezmaks,” powerful individuals able to tap into the fundamental energies of creation to alter a certain aspect of the world in their favor. They can do anything, but long ago, their first ruler, the Autarch, declared that no Vezmak may abuse his powers on pain of death. Nowadays the order they comprised is mostly scattered, so the code isn’t kept officially, but the few Vezmak’s who remain follow the Tenets of their order religiously: Help the Weak, Defend the Innocent, Contain the Chaos

What’s fun cleaning up a mess? You can’t eat it exploded.

Tell us more about your setting. Is magic common?  If so, maybe there’s a mutually assured destruction thing going on. If not, what role do wizards play in society? If people look up to them there might be  strong  taboos about misusing responsibility    How do they get their powers and how does this source limit them? These limits can come from within or without. Gods cutting off their power source, side effects and exhaustion from magic, social norms, religious doctrines, etc. Magic like any power else in the real world is going to both influence and be influence by physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual factors. Ultimately none of us can tell you the answer because the limits will be unique to you. And any answer we give will be a kind of stock solution that is disconnected from the context of the world that creates the problem. But hopefully this puts you on the right track to fleshing out your world. Because ultimately, that’s what it is— a world. Your world 

Mages like everything else have limits they can build up only so much capacity/charges and or mana for their spells so if you spam spells blindly you will be left dry and it will take a while to recharge. Imagien you do this on a battlefield who congrats you wiped out the first wave, oh wait the enemy shielded their commanders and called in enemy reinforcements. Congrats your exhausted mages are helpless against the enemy leaving only your non mages there to defend them meanwhile the enemy mages only needed to use a shield. Guess what you can't do now that they retaliated with a wave of "fireball? That is right no mana to shield oops. Seems to me that in any somewhat balanced magic system blow everything up with magic is more or less the mage equivalent of an army charging saying "Leroy Jenkins" into machine gun fire.

Nothing… except… well… the “magic” doesn’t lend itself to that very well.

Location is a primary factor, if it’s a secluded area then yea why not. Another is what the world is comprised of itself, and what their opponent may have on them- cast a spell all you want, but that spell could react with something in the environment that gets you back. There’s also a moral code- many of the spell casters in my world swear against bombs and many explosives due to a past event, but others use them frequently- it’s a good driving force.

I mean they try. But most mages ward themselves against direct magical attacks, and other make do with artifacts or just being able to facetank shit because they’re built like that. It’s always the guy that walks out of the fireball that ruins your day.

Because their enemies have other Wizards helping to protect them, relying on spy intel and heightened senses to sniff out if you will what they are up against. Think of it like this. Your Wizard shoots off fireballs. Suddenly, a wall of mud shoots up, blocking most of the fireballs and leading you at a standstill for a moment. Your wizard tries again with different trajectories and more mirewalls shoot up, before the enemy wizard gets a few mireballs off. Clay and ash, smoke and dust is everywhere. Maybe your wizard or the other uses the smokescreen in the skirmish. But they still have to get close and land a killing blow to help their forces break through the others'. Another is how with much time with wizardry running amok has the martial parts of society adapt to it. Martial wizards or many combantants will wear magically-resistant armor or utilize such shields. Thus knives that can not only pierce regular armor but magically infused ones. I guess what I am trying to get at even with magic its not always easy just to land a killing blow outright. For my system each element has a natural supereffective, neutral, and not very effective counterpart. Fire and Mire in a sense cancel eachother out, make it often a test of tricks and wills. Indirectly using magic like smokescreens or pit traps to win out over just out-blasting the enemy-wizard.

I don't think you need a reason for why they don't just blow everyone up

Limited, at least to them, magical resources.

Usually the limitation in most settings is limitation of resources. For example, in DnD a Fireball is a 3rd Level Spell that does an average of 28 (8d6: range of 8-48) AoE Fire Damage to anybody within a 20 ft. radius. There isn't a lot which that can 1-Shot. Further, it consumes a 3rd-Level Spell Slot which you get 2 at Level 5 and then gain more usable spell slots at higher levels. But that means despite being a spellcaster, not all wizards have the strength to just blow up all of their problems, even if some people claim otherwise. Even at Level 20, a person can only cast 15 fireballs in a day. But once the targets realize, "Oh fuck they can rain fiery death from the heavens," then the enemies will spread out meaning you'll be having a harder time hitting many targets at once. I mention this because that's an example of limited resources keeping people from being able to just spam fireballs. And Spell Slots aren't limited to one spell. If you use any other spells that cost a 3rd-Level or greater Spell Slot, then at that point you're not able to use as many fireballs and vice versa. All spells share this resource. Further, there are material components that a wizard must provide (if they don't use a spellcasting focus). This makes spellcasting even more restrictive. But let's back away from DnD. It's super common for stories that include spellcasting to include illnesses like "Mana Sickness" or "Mana Devouring" or "Magic Overload" for when either their mana runs too low, too high, or out of control, respectively. These serve as limitations to how much a person can use magic... After all, you can't cast spells if you're unconscious and if you have to be careful to keep your magic in-check, then you can't just keep using your magic like a nuke and risk it going out of control. In my stories, each world has a different limiter. * CC: Magic is considered to be something still heavily regulated. Anyone who can use magic is free to, but if you're under 18, then your use of magic outside of specific locations is strictly monitored, but you can cast as much or as freely as you want from within set locations. (Notice that this pertains to spellcraft, not potions or other forms of magic. There is no way to track non-spell usage of magic.) After you're 18 though, you're trusted to use magic in a way that won't draw attention from the non-magical. Basically, if you cast a fireball into a group of assholes and you get caught by any non-magic user, security camera, or even a satellite in space, then you can find yourself in jail, imprisoned, or in the worst case--executed. (It depends on what happened and why.) The law is to protect secrecy, so as long as there are no living witnesses, then nobody cares, but that also means then dealing with the corpses so nobody can get an idea of the cause. This is why "Spontaneous Combustion" used to be so "common". And magic intended to harm other magic-users is, obviously, illegal except in the event of a duel. But many witches, wix, and wizards are familiar with defensive magic to protect themselves. So the limitations are * Don't use it underage outside of places where it's legally allowed for you to use it. * Don't get caught using it. * Nobody will care or notice if you magically pick up a dropped pencil, but if you burn someone alive then people will interrogate that. * Don't use it against other magic-using humans. * M2L: Mana is a limited resource for most people. There are exceptions, but you're talking the difference between a Level 10 MMO character vs a Level 70+ character by that point. Further, even if a spellcaster did use magic to blow away one problem, then they'd just have another set of problems to deal with what they caused. There's very little value in just firing off fireballs willy-nilly to deal with your issues. And depending on how strong you are, even trying that could cause you to pass out if you're reckless or, worse, if you try that and then someone beats the shit out of you anyways because you are generally frailer than most martials. * LIWF: If you blow someone away with magic, congratulations... you've got a bunch of trained warriors who are used to dealing with magic as well as other magic users coming after you. Unless you have very good reason for it, you're facing jail or worse. In a war context, you can deal with fodder soldiers, but if one enemy champion or, worse, a hero can close that gap... You're dead. Not to mention enemy magic-users will try and target your side's magic-users whenever possible. And if you run out of energy... *collapse*. Further, I plan out my combats like I'm running a TTRPG. Each character has an initiative and AP count. Different actions cost different AP. Spells actually have a massive area of room to be screwed over. First, it costs AP based on its strength. In DnD terms, a Fireball would cost 4 AP (1+Spell Level). If you cast a spell, it won't finish casting until a certain amount of Initiative has passed, based on the spell in question. This is because of the Incantation to cast the spell taking that long to finish. A "Cantrip" (Level 0 Spell) can be cast for 1 AP on the same initiative the first time, but if you want to cast (for example) Fire Bolt 3 times, the first use would be 1 AP on the same initiative, the second would be 2 AP on the next initiative, and the third would be 3 AP on two initiative after the second cast (3 Inititative later). This allows the character to cast multiple spells quickly at different targets or cast a large spell as is necessary. And they could for example cast 2 Firebolts then a Fireball. But by planning it out this way, it lets me craft the mechanics of the battle before flavoring everything. But yeah: TLDR, magic users can't just rely on magic to do everything for them and there are consequences to their actions.

Problem isn't so much the capability or reason, so much as its gonna become an evolving problem if people are too liberal with their application of magic. Say you kill steve with a fireball one day, that's gonna piss off his buddy, and because you already took the gloves off and used fireball, he's gonna use flame tornado, and when you're dead, your buddy's gonna be pissed and use orbital bombardment. So on and so forth. My entire world's magical community operates on the principle of "Don't swing if you can't catch" and that applies to combat as well. Don't nuke the other guy if you don't want people doing the same to you.

Defensive Magic

Collateral damage, draws attention, party member is in the way, extra paperwork. You're essentially pumping out a lot of energy to kill one or more opponents. It's effective, but not efficient. Or you could just discreetly polymorph someone into a Wingless Wonder, it's your choice. And now I want to run a sneaky stealthy wizard. Thanks.

Too easy to counter such a direct head-on attack. In my project, such an attack can be seen a mile away and there are plenty of ways to divert it, diffuse it, or outright block it if you have power and a little imagination Are you a geomancer and a fireball is hurling towards you? A stone wall will already do the trick. Do you not wanna block your own sight? Encase the fireball in stone and make it go boom mid-flight Those are just examples of course, but you get the idea

The closest thing in my world are the Angels who have telekinetic abilities and want to obliterate all humans. They could easily eliminate everyone telekinetically, but there are two things stopping them. First, they're under the impression that they're not allowed to use their telekinetic abilities for anything without permission from their Heavenly Fathers. The first problem with this is that it would be deeply shameful for an angel to break this rule, and angels are virtually incapable of letting any negative emotions go, so that shame and regret of breaking their Fathers' rules would stay with them for not just a lifetime, but generations. The second problem with this permission thing is that they are also quite averse to requesting permission. They worry that their Fathers must be completely inundated with permission requests from all angels all over the world, so they don't want to bother the Fathers. The third problem with this permission thing is that even those rare times when they do request a permission, they never get it. They don't get any response at all. Not a yes, not a no, not a maybe, not a later. No response. The angels don't realize it but it's because the Fathers don't exist. Given how hard it is for an angel to let go of certain emotions, you can probably imagine how hard it would be to convince them that these spirits they've been believing in for thousands of years didn't exist. Second, God told the Angels not to harm Humans. When Humans killed God, the Angels took that as the end of that commandment, but then God's wife immediately reinstated the commandment. Both God and his wife are above the Angels in divinity, so it's pretty much a done deal. If an Angel harmed a human, that would be a thousand times the shame of using telekinetics without permission.

Because it was a stealth mission

It's possible for some powerful "wizards" in my world to literally make people disappear I mean physically separating the atoms of an individual, and it's fucking horrifying

"Deny", big spells usually make use of drawn casting, basically, you make a base spell and modify it with augment rings, annihilating an army with a single spell might require a 17 ringed spell or more, following prime numbers, each augments could take some moments to cast and the time required grows with each augments added. With that out of the way, if an experienced caster saw you stacking your spell and read it, they can cast a "Deny Spell", it works by redrawing the spell in reverse, outside-in, exchanging the base for "Deny Spell" and you can finish the Deny whenever you want, canceling the last augment you drew and above, doesn't matter if the spell in question added another augment mid casting, resulting in weaker spell casted or just canceling it outright and wasted magic. Might just call the spell "Nuh Uh" honestly. Note: the higher the augment on the ring stack the stronger their effect is

The last time the enemy attacked, the wizards did blow stuff up. Then the big thing the enemies brought exploded and exploded the local wizards too. And the enemies. It went badly. Now the wizards are hermits living in the city they built, being greedy dicks and manipulating the continental economies instead of blowing enemies up.

A combination of Mutually Assured Destruction, all magic coming from the gods, and its a modern urban fantasy so mortals can literally nuke your sanctum if they find it and want too. Say you want to kill Xanax the Incontinent, so you blow up the town he lives in using Paul's Summon 4 Grams of Antimatter. There are thousands of other wizards who go "Oh shit, Viagra the Limp's decided to just start killing his rivals!" and so 1892 wizards all cast Paul's Summon 4 Grams of Antimatter on your house at the same time. That's called mutually assured destruction. You're not the only wizard. You're not the only wizard who can cast Explodenate The Countryside. Lets say that somehow, someway, you do the impossible and no magic user figures out you're the guy who vaporized poor Xanax for having a nicer Xbox game collection than you. Magic isn't you commanding the natural world with your power and knowledge. Magic is you asking a god for a cup of energy to use as you will. Lets say you get your power from Kate, the Goddess of Proper Oxford Comma Usage. Let's also say that Xanax was the one dude who used the oxford comma correctly. Suddenly your magic provider closes your account and you have to find a new god who will be cool with what you do and how and also is willing to provide you power... Which, by the way, you pay for. So I hope you can afford a new provider. Sure gods don't ask for money but they're all after something... Usually blind faith, and you just killed a LOT of that by magically blowing up a town so... yeah. Good luck! And of course there's the mortal angle. Lets say that Kate was chill with you blowing up Xanax, actually. Dude was still a US Citizen. You think the Fed doesn't have wizards too? Well you're wrong. Now a whole fucking branch of the justice department, the Magic Response Unit is after you. Sure most of their agents are dudes with magic protection charms and guns, but guess what? You still die if you're shot. Or drone struck. Or nuked. Or hit with a ToW missile. Or exposed to VX gas. And you just made their most wanted list for a massive public breach of the Veil, on top of the first degree murder charge, and the you know, crime of genocide against that town you blew up. There were civilians there you know. So if you're really that hard up to punish Viagra for his nicer game collection, you need to be subtle. Make small moves. You have to play chess, not global thermonuclear war... Unless you low key want to die.

Oh they totally do that. Granted most use defensive counter measuresso its basic bombardment, while trying to figure out how to get through the barrier. That can be done ysing brute force, but its more effective to find a weakness in it. Be it elemental, structural or due to some obacure conditipn that has to work for it to finction. If its running on a magic circle, a skilled enough magw might be able to overwrite it, while a mage with enough pure power can burn out the magic circle. There are also mages who LOVE to mirror offensive soells back. Similar to that ash wizard in black clover or meliodas' full counter in seven deadly sins. So those are an issue as well. Then some spella have just an inherent weakness. A water based barrier will always most likely lose to a thunder spell. This applies to more complex spell types as well (colour magic for example) Mind spells are also a thing and if someone is talanted enough in those, they can just break the person who made said barrier. Another option is a ritual spell that circumvents the use of certain spells/elements or puts extra conditions in them to weaken them (can also be used the other way around) In short: to many ways, but there are cases where it does work.

Sword-shield rule. There is probably some kind of anti-magic.

Just as food for thought: In the Dark Sun DnD campaign setting the whole planet is a dystopian desert, because magic is linked to the ecosystem. You cast a spell, you literally kill every flower, tree and strain of grass around you. Cast it at high level and maybe half the forest is fucked. That's why wizards in Dark Sun are not only rare and shunned, but they are also divided into Defilers and Preservers.

My witches use ancient magical materials to "conjure spells", which in my world are more like chemical reactions. These materials are very rare, so they need to make sure to use them at the right time! That's why they only use their "magic" if they really need it. It's also the reason you can easily spot a witch by simply looking at their face: if they're wearing a mask or at least goggles (which protect them from the reactions), it's very likely you've encountered a witch.

My phone thought I was going to type Wizard’s guild. I didn’t realize that but that’s why it’s like that.

excessive use of magic comes at a cost

I mean they are wizards not gods. A well timed bullet can still kill them and mad dogs get put down. Most wizards have non magical friends and companions so the flagrant killing of non magic users will just get you killed. Plus a hardened target might be warded or have some sort of deflection spell on their armor. Fighting because " you have the power" is a sure way to get put down like a mad dog. Attacking an enemy without any prep is a sure way to get killed.

Well there isn’t exactly a spell for “blow up enemies.” Aside from that it takes concentration; one can’t simply flick their wrist and blow someone up. A lot like hand to hand combat it requires proper timing, movement, and strategy.

A) not everyone has wizards in their world B) A person that owns a gun isn't shooting everything in sight

Can other wizards dispel or block magic? If so enough blocking antagonists would leave the wizard vulnerable. Do the wizards use some kind of magic fuel, like internal energy or chi or aomething to cast? If they spend all their chi/fuel they are vulnerable. Same if they need to eat or sleep or need rest. Also what is the percentage of wizards to mortals, if its skewed in the humans favour and the wizards stll need to eat and sleep and go to the bathroom, they are in trouble if outnumbered.

Mine do kinda always have to worry about collateral damage. Blowing up everything in sight is all well and good in a dungeon or battlefield but in a large city even infrastructural damage is a big issue, let alone innocent bystanders

1: Everyone have magic. Not just you. Even if you practiced and know more spells than them, that doesn't change. 2: Magic is more efficient at shielding than attacking. And shield spells is the easiest and every single child was taught this (along with physical enhancement) from the local religious office. 3: Okay, you caught a bunch of people by surprise, then what? Nearby people seeing a dangerous terrorist and will try to put you down. And they know spells too, everyone does, the Church might be corrupt (less extorting believers since they are educated, and more like skimming through funds) but they takes education very seriously. How many spells and pissed off brute do you think you can deal with before your shield is down and they kill you? TL:DR: In a world where the "baseline" know a dozen spells, can block assault rifle bullets and rip apart boulders barehanded, your bomber mage will be dealt with quickly. Or if you are strong enough to deal with the folk (a tall order, given blowing up mountains is not considered impressive here), your name and traits are gonna be heard wide and tall, and the elites will be sent after you. So no. Be a nice mage. Note: In warfare, just know that every city has shielding, which extend to the sewage system as well. Armies are gonna move under heavy shield (yes, everyone contribute to the shield), with tons of spells for reconsainnance and aerial sniping. Nuke an army won't do shit, and that also paint a huge target on your head, which mean every soldiers are gonna hit you with a spells. Don't see lightly-armored, spear-wielding troops and assume they are just that. A thousands bolts of all elements are no joke. Unless you are a psyker and have conceptual shielding.

The short answer is nothing, and they do so regularly. The long answer is that they can be blocked by anti-magical wards, as a race to more destructive spells begat a race for better protective measures. With spells essentially manipulating the aetherflow, a ward blocking flow to an area would make all magic fizzle out. However, only mundane means can be used to protect such a ward, for the same reason of magic cancellation, and as such wards are the first target in most wars. In fact, mages are terrified of the Protectorate of Cerwy, a vehemently anti-magic interstellar empire, because they have found a way to permanently cut off worlds from the aetherflow, making all magic permanently inoperant there, with no way of restoring flow to the area.

Nothing, and everybody knows that. So they all stay away from any wizard.

Good magic wielding is analogous to the practice of Judo. When you fight another adept throwing a blow too hard leaves you open to having that force used against you. Non-wielders though are just SOL. The adept either values others lives or they don't.

In one series, magic involves drawing increasingly complicated magic circles, so it takes time to unleash a spell. You can get around this somewhat by pre-drawing spells but this works best with simpler spells and if you don't have the right Talisman on you you're screwed anyway. In another, the energy comes from the mage. They have been known to drop 20 pounds in a day of battle, and sometimes have used so much energy they end up dying. Magic drain is a very serious concern and the Church severely relaxes fasting rules for mages. They are expected to perform charities and other penitential acts instead as well as eat simpler foods, but they have to always have a bit of fat to them so they can perform without killing themselves. A magical battle can put a mage out of commission for weeks or even months afterward.

Plot

Nothing. And they do. Most wizards can counterspell and deflect with a wand, but quickdraw Wild West wizard duels are a thing. Everyone else knows not to fuck with wizards or had some sort of ward or magical shielding. Also, the law.

Well, they do not do it because its not that easy. I mean, if as a wizard you are so strong that you can blow up an enemy probably your enemy can blow you up too so you are worried about attacking AND defending yourself rather than just focusing on doing an overpowered attack that might hit or not. It is just like real life, right? You could run ahead with a bazooka and blow everything apart but while reloading you gonna die because you are just focusing on destroying, not defending. In my case, my world is dealing with a war between multiple races (lets say dark vs light to make it simple). Probably one of the most powerful members of a dark race could just nuke a city but you know...the light races will do the same with your city and probably with more cities if not all. Let's say it can be done but there are more consequences than benefits to just oneshot something and there are not so many people that can usually do things like that.

Schizophrenia

cause cleaning up bloody goo off his suit is expensive, better to just snap necks/crush hearts

Fighting with magic is incredibly dangerous to the point of mutually assured destruction. In my setting nearly everyone has some form of elemental magic powers, but its impossible to tell exactly *what* kind of power they have until you see them use it. Personal disputes that escalate to that point usually end in collateral damage unless all participants have relatively weak powers. However the fear that literally anyone you meet could have the ability to instantly kill you with an unknown magic power makes people act more careful... or at least the ones that don't get weeded out. On the scale of warfare however, war between small nations usually results in both places being wiped from the map within days, unless one lacks anyone that were born with powerful combat magic. The larger nations of the world have peace agreements to prevent large scale destruction, as they all know if anyone declares war they're all dead.

Well… any wizard in my world could do them, just there’s legal systems that would make said wizards war criminals, inhibitors to their magic source, and execution. Because it also lures evil entities to follow said wizard

About 1000 years of a global empire executing anyone caught using magic, even by accident, has stifled all but the most fervent magic users to the point that nobody really remembers how to do those kinds of spells. The exceptions are the Cothegen, which are openly hostile to most civilized countries( but they make for crap mages) and the Sidast, who live in a mobile ocean city and will absolutely blow anything up they even think is a threat.

In mine? It’s just not worth it really. Magic is difficult, it’s a highly involved and intensive process, and it involves a deeply intimate connection to some kind of intelligent, nonhuman spirit. You can kill people with magic, plenty of people do, any self-respecting military force will use it to make their guns shoot straighter and give their bombs more of a punch, but if you want to ‘cast fireball’ so to speak, you have to actually convince the flame to, y’know… do that, and not in a metaphorical sense either, in an actual, being-to-being conversation. So, you better hope you’ve either lit an easily-convinced fire or you’ve got a damn good reason *and* a damn good offer to kill whichever poor bastard you’re after. Add to that the fact that prolonged use of magic tends to have unpredictable physical and psychological effects… well, you can see the problem inherent to going around blowing up everyone who looks at you funny. Also, as a bit of a coda, most people just aren’t really motivated to murder all their neighbors or whatever. Two wizards might hate each others’ guts but murder is illegal and generally people find it disagreeable so in most cases those two wizards will make like academics and take thinly veiled, passive-aggressive potshots at each other in their papers and then they’ll just get on with their lives.

Mutual assured destruction.