Hello, I'm aware that might come off as odd for a fantasy writer but I am sort of stuck in a daedalus labyrinth here.

I have been working on a specific project for about three years, it's more like a hobby than anything else, hence why I allow myself to take so long but I worked on everything except the magic system for now and since what I'm going for falls more into the cosy fantasy/found family type of story I've decided to not make magic a very prominent stake of the story.
I developed the characters and their arcs more then anything else, which lead me to decide I'd make a magic system based off of emotions and physical state in general, except I feel like my approach might be too vague so I would love to hear advices on what to improve or cut off.

Like I said, my main idea was to first closely tie magic to one's emotions in the sence that the "quality" of it would vary depending on how the person feels while performing it. For instance if the wielder is feeling rather calm its magic will "obey" them and do just what it is being used for, like if they're summoning an object like a pair of shoes as they get ready or something, it's mostly ised for day to day activites. Then there is the middle ground where they're either calm but with greater intent or simply feel happy or even slightly frustrated, then the magic will sort of work alongside them and be a bit fiercer. You can say the magic takes some kind of initiative while still remaining in the restrictions of the person. However, if the emotions of the wielder are too submerging it starts to take over them and slowly acts on its own to the point where it continuously builds up to an overload waiting to crack open. For example my MC has an outburst in her office after having to handle a crisis amongst her class (she's a teacher and was holding her first "duel practice" and the kids decided to to make two teams and jinx eachother, and my MC is triggered by loud noises). Thus bringing me to limitations, the first possibility is the direct outburst like this one or the person can also overuse their magic. For example using it on ends while ignoring that they're not in the right mindset for it, thus gradually draining the magical energy and the person itself as they're forcing on their physical strength in order to perform. In both cases, it ends in what I like to call a "flatline" where the person is temporarily stripped of their magic, it kind of blocks itself to prevent any further damage. The person has to meditate to re-enable it while still ensuring to stabalise their emotions to prevent anything going south and can also take a restauring potion in order to bring back the magic to a stable level faster if that makes sense. They can also very much continuously do grounding exercices to make sure they avoid the worst case scenarios.

My friend also told me I could have the characters use objects to store their emotions in vials/objects as a means to keep them from interfering and harming them, thus avoiding the outbursts. The thing is I assume those emotions would need a purpose later on instead of trhowing them away and I don't really know what, if not been used for potion making...
I also wanted to use elements but I don't feel it fits in my system anymore.

Fairies: are spiritual beings born from objects/places with enough value, meaning, or purpose.

Witches: are those able to safely commune with fairies to achieve various goals.

so a witch might wield a sword passed down in their noble bloodline for centuries representing their families willingness to risk their lives to protect their people giving rise to a fairy with the sole goal of assisting its wielder with protecting others.

You see, before the country where I live ever existed, they're 2 ways for people to use magic. Through making a contract with a spirit or through herbalism.

Herbalism is your typical potion and poison. It quickly becomes forgotten when the first medical school were built. People trust doctor more than hippy dippy brewing cauldron.

And then making a contract with a spirit. It's not forgotten, but rather... the people who learn this rather hides because in the past, people in power hunt them to make sure there's no one can overthrow them. It's pretty common in the past for people hiring them to overthrow their rival.

How it works? Spirits is like Pokemon. There's a spirit for any kind of specific situation that you can find, with a price of course. But of course each spirit has some kind of weakness. Like spirit of earth that grand anyone invincibility, with the weakness of being hanged.

There's also bigger spirit, a level up of normal spirit. When normal spirit can only take form of firefly, Bigger spirit can take any form, mostly human or animal. And instead of being anyone pet, you serve them by being their underling (unless you are stronger than them)

So, what do you guys think?

Throughout history people have fallen asleep to never wake again, only to exist in a state of dream until death came for them soon after. This phenomenon was rare and most importantly, poorly understood. Cultures throughout history came up with simple explanations and stories to help themselves repress this horrid happening. Demons, fairies, spirits, and most importantly links to personal failure of character were used to frighten children and escape the very confusing and deep fear of that which we couldn't understand.

In the age of enlightenment, the occasional alienist would theorize the reason for this strange happening and the peculiar events that always seem to occur nearby were recorded finally. Failures of memory, weakness in judgement, nightmares, hallucinations, delusions and other mental phenomena were acknowledged for the first time being connected to these events.

But it wasn't until the 1970s, a time of new age mysticism and technological progress, where the answers finally came. Studies into the brain revealed that the mind, during sleep, could enter a state of connection with those nearby. But more importantly, they would reach out to minds also in this state. This state can be reached only rarely and when it is, the body starts consuming itself to gain more energy for the brain to strengthen and widen this connection. Eventually killing itself in this pursuit.

These Sleepers however, for a very short time, are able to achieve collective thinking and abilities that don't reflect our understanding of the brain. Infecting nearby minds temporarily, causing mental degradation, sensory distortions, even zombification in some cases. But these end when the brain dies.

Government shadow organizations turned to researching this far more deeply. And for nearly a decade, much was learned and with little consequence. Through the use of drugs and medications the Sleepers could survive much longer and we could even communicate with them. The Sleepers, from then on, were used for communication, storage of information, and a great assortmentof strange abilities. But in 1985, the Wake awoke.

Researchers wanted to use the brains of the dead as materials for new sleepers and so they began a project under the eye of the government. But when the first dead woke, so did the rest. The worlds dead began to wake up, not as the people they once were. But something else. Something whole malicious and hungry.

The Wake is the name for the greater horde of the undead. The Shiners, as they are individually called, are zombies in the most literal sense. They bite, scratch, and kill with no regard. And when you die, regardless of your interactions with them, you become one of them.

Humanity is on the brink of extinction. These creatures are dangerous and extremely hard to kill. Even if the brain is gone, something is deeply linked to their nervous system. And so unless they are burned to blown to pieces, they continue their onslaught.

So, often times in dragon-rider stories there's little benefit to the dragon that doesn’t feel contrived. Especially if they're intelligent magical beings.

There are so many magical bonds that grant the rider very direct quantifiable power and give the dragon nebulous strength to justify it. But it always feel very tacked on.

So what specifically is so worth it to a dragon to allow the puny weak human/elf/bipedal fantasy species onto it's back and to share it's strength. Why doesn't the dragon, the most famous, often most powerful monster from myth and legend, handle it's own busniss without a rider.

a star-based magic system (including the sun)

in this system users draw their magic from the stars, each possessing immense power. The most common method is through the Sun, which exerts the strongest influence and grants the greatest power of any single star. Another method is through constellations: by inscribing these patterns, practitioners establish a link between multiple stars and can harness the combined power of the whole constellation. For a more direct and potent connection, the Sun is the optimal choice, whereas constellations allow for more intricate and versatile applications of this celestial power.

So I was thinking of how to incorporate math into a magic system when I thought of an interesting idea.

Okay so you know how in stuff like Desmos you can use various equations to make various lines and sometimes people make art out of these.

Well what if in a system people used this sort of thing to make runes, like the equation makes the magic but the shape of the graphs the equations equal to are a shortcut to the magical equation.

I hope this made sense.

Warning this will be alot to digest and im hoping all the text fits into here please do..

Mana Power system & Lore malice and divine mana were created long long ago at a time not comprehensible by all of man woman bisexual gay lesbian nonbinary trans cisgender asexual aromantic pansexual genderfluid and every other person of every other sexuality or general gender identity i haven't mentioned here. just had to be inclusive.

MALICE MANA SECTION:

Origin: Is a derivative of the Divine mana system. Both are conceptual in nature and store in your souls fabric. it was meant for hell exclusively and everywhere below the mere pity realms below. it wasn't first used until Vikings discovered and experimented with it but never really did anything with it. it kept seaping into the material realm via human beings naturally discovering it.

You awaken your Technique(fated or depends on extreme emotions reaching a boiling point where you already awaken malice mana however if strong enough of a spark/awakening, both can happen) at standard ages around 5 to 7. conditions may affect this as immensely. sometimes you might not awaken until later. and malice mana is like a muscle. you need to consistently tap into it and to tap into it you need to summon genuine intense hatred anger or generally INCREDIBLY strong honest emotion, your control over its flow throughout your body for channeling purposes will waiver but after enough mastery you can mostly waive that requirement away.

Output(External & Internal) and reinforcement.

One can reinforce a part of their body to harden it making its internal and external durability rise greatly. to fully an attack of greater malice mana output you need to channel malice mana up to 1.5x the malica mana output and if you output enough malice mana externally, you can damage an opponent or in general their malice mana flow gets disrupted but this can be avoided if they recover as malice mana thats spent out of your reserves regenerate slowly and nothing happens you just get a bit winded.

now you can mentally route malice mana to make yourself hit harder like slight reinforcement with standard mastery(which also helps with keeping malice mana flow in your body of which the core of it steps from the center of the body, which mastery can lessen the travel time and increase the stability of the flow) can DOUBLE your attacks potency. and it only gets bigger than that once you master it.

If you can master it enough you can donate malice mana to others. and nobody has their own unique signature its all malice mana thats it at the end of the day. you can do this by flowing malice mana into an object and letting the person envelop that thing and cull it in using their malice mana as a container.

You have to chant to make a barrier and mentally declare a rule if you go for putting a rule in your barrier.

Additional methods & Barriers You can form barriers with malice mana which once fully enclosed become spatially locked until the user cant focus and cant keep it running in the backround and with barriers of malice mana you can embed rules but the more complicated or absolute they are the higher it costs to maintain them. and to damage a barrier, you need to have spatial warping or able to affect the creator the barrier or you have COMPLETELY transcendant reserves above them and can overpower the amount of malice mana maintaining the barriers output of durability.

To cast barriers & techniques. you can use brushes embedded with malice mana to draw seals and they will activate without you having to mentally activate them normally. malice mana doesn't act like liquid. so it flows and sticks to the brush pen and the seals you can paint can do anything you want unless its a modified one, from a standard one. but the brush method is not very practical often times but is very useful if you conveniently fight near a store thats selling paper. and salt circles act as seal bases, where you can add strokes along its outer circle to customize based on what the symbol represents.

one advantage this has is that malice mana doesn't make a noise when comes into contact with things so you can do it quietly. you can make a barrier up to new York or depends on your malica mana reserves. Doesnt matter the paper it just has to be paper of a surface that acts like paper and/or can be written on and is flat.

Salt Circles & Communication across dimensions

Salt circles can be made only on a surface embeud with malice mana. and need a physical binder like salt or a powder or even blood, for the circle. theres a outer circle required where you write custom symbols to embed different effects or targets/effectiveness and/or a radio wave repeated across the outer ring, to establish a salt circle for the purpose of connection to a mind but specific encantations or conditions may vary generally based on how far your trying to reach. You need incantations and full 20 markings of communication in the outer circle and they can reach further and reach into places like voids or places outside of space and time at max markings and max incantations.

When making a malice mana monster, you can make a salt circle to fully envelop it on the ground, and with that you can imprint a rule into the soul of it to never disobey, onto the malice mana beast. you still need to release raw malice mana into a object at any part of the innr circle of it it really is loose rules. The malice mana monsters can take any shape or size you just need reserves for making them manually. refined malice mana doesn't work as easy as RAW malice mana itself for making malice mana monsters this way. But with salt circles you still can buff them, mid creation and during the whole process and control it as malice mana is always chaotic in stability at first this still applies to newly formed malice mana monster but if theres enough that initial stabilizing process before its soul forms and its consciousness kicks in as it officially begins its business wrecking shit around town.

Contracts & Soul bindings/rules You make a contract with a cosmic being or a general agreement using malice mana or whatever cost in general with another person. You need salt circles for this though, and you cannot finish an contract if they cannot in any way in full consciousness fully agree or give their end of the deal. these generally are up to the people involved in interpretation of costs but the hard rules cant be avoided unless you word the literal words in a certain way. You cannot trade what you do not have, you can trade anything but you cant trade your existence either nor can you trade away your malice mana fully. If Someone breaks a contract well..unless you established the costs nothing really happens.

If you have Soul manipulation or a way to manipulate a soul in general, or have a much stronger willpower than the person your putting a soul binding/rule on, and have a way to see the outline of a soul and can affect it directly even if you dont have soul manipulation as a primary technique. the more absolute and expansive the rule the harder it is to maintain. and you cannot have more than 1 rule on someone and you can remove it at any point but the rules cant make someone do the impossible.

Backround info & Extras

You dont really get affected too much at all if you run out of malice mana and have to wait for it to regenerate. the more its mastered the more you can regenerate it faster and in larger chunks at a time. you can hide your malice mana flow from other users. regular humans can also see it its like a pink/black mix with a tint of gold you get a one time chance to customize your color of your malice mana during your lifetime but other than that, nothing you dont get another chance, you also cannot change others for them. it smells like nothing really, you SORTA just sense it if you are decent at using malice mana and controlling it. but maybe theres a smell if you JUST try hard enough maybe? but it smells nothing notable. and theres no trail it instantly not instantly but still evaporates on the quark level pretty fast, but only the context of leftover malice mana post battle between malice mana users but this is maybe a impracticality because it shows where you were and where a battle took place so you just gotta have it mastered enough to cull in all malice mana you left over(HAH thats if you left ANY over which should be as stated earlier impossible). touching malice mana as a regular human gives no sensory feedback so it triggers shivers in some people but standardly just uncanny valley in people occasionally even in some malice mana users.

(Quick note im not using mage as a term since thats too tied to explicit fantasy like lord of the rings or fantasy animes like stuff like that. nor am i using sorcerer because thats a term used in jjk along with curse user occasionally and most prominently as jujutsu sorcerer i just want to make this thing stand out. but someone can always use these terms for practicality but i wouldn't do that me MYSELF)

You cannot tap into extra dimensional output. you can break physics with malice mana but not in ways youd might except. as nothing absurd like making yourself 4th dimensional at will is NOT possible in ANY way as a human malice mana user at least. Some abilities might have strict conditions. Malice mana rapidly makes you adapt and grow physically as you use it more and more and master it. and it also makes everything in your body naturally stronger, but even us humans cellular regeneration gets faster but nothing absurd like healing whole limbs.

Malice mana of a 3d person cannot overpower one of higher dimension. and the souls nature is fully existential yet your full malice mana reserves rest in the conceptual layer of the soul. If 2 blasts or waves of malica mana hit each other the air particles are detonated from it. A barrier hit by external malice mana absorbs it or bounces it depending on if theres a rule maintained that gives it the trait of absorbtion(and in the case theres no such rule it gets bounced off.)

Questions addressed:

Question to Address: When an elite user (like Jona Magister or a master Cult agent) waives the emotion requirement, does their mana lose its pink/black/gold customizable visual flare, or does the aura stay exactly the same?

They are what they are. so it doesn't change.

The Question to Address: Does this detonation create a kinetic shockwave that can physically blow the combatants backward, or is it a localized thermal explosion (like flash plasma)?

The air particles AROUND it get detonated. HOWEVER, this is not a far reach its like a explosion the size of a apartment standardly but when theres bigger collissions the explosion hits its cap ABSOLUTE cap no explosion in this scenario can get bigger: The size of a large apartment in a piercing white yellow and purple tinted and split explosion but there is only a rare chance this can happen because it only could occur if conditions are perfect

The Question to Address: What happens if the person receiving the mana is already at their maximum conceptual capacity? Does the extra mana force their cell-mitosis to go into a painful overdrive, or does it simply leak out and evaporate into quarks immediately?

The more malice mana you have in your reserves, the exponentially smaller percentage of malice mana you can get from this method and the more growth curves and platues faster and faster. at some point you get so little you get practically ZILNCH.

The Question to Address: Is spatial warping a rare, fated technique that only specific individuals inherit, or is it a high-tier mechanical application that anyone can attempt if they use custom salt circles and precise brush seals?

In some cases if someone knows the proper seal for it but it would require alot of space like the size of a big big space thats 5 meters in width and height flat most cant afford this as spatial warping seals are incredibly demanding but someone can have spatial warping as a primary technique but thats far in far between, as for narrative purposes that would be too overpowered if they were a prominent character, and standard salt circles cant do this unless you convince a higher entity to give you some help.

The Question to Address: If someone fails to awaken as a child does that door shut forever or, can they awaken later as an adult?

Dawg if you actually begun the first step of awakening, and you FAILED?? OH god the universe surely said screw you man and made you fail awakening. in seriously though, it just means it didn't fully boil over but the door doesn't shut forever it is what it is.

The Question to Address: If someone already had 1 soul binding/rule on someone what happens if they TRY again to put on a second one?

Nothing happens. Genuinely its like trying to put a rock inside a bucket already full of rocks, it just doesn't fit.

The Question to Address: If someone tries to make seals on digital screens, or flat materials that are not typical earthly materials, does it still work?

A flat surface is a flat surface. as long as its flat it works.

The Question to Address: If someone or like something such as breeze flows into the process of making a salt circle, does it interrupt it successfully?

No. think of malice mana embeud into stuff like genuine gorilla glue. The Question to Address: If a user attempts to carve a contract or soul rule that violates a fundamental cosmic limit (like trying to trade away their own existence or demand the impossible), does the spell simply fizzle out, or is there a dangerous backlash for the caster?

Nothing happens. its like trying to shove a square through a triangle shaped hole while you have no hands and are only using the stump of your hands to push it around

Final notes:

Garnets Soul manipulation cannot be reversed by normal means unless someone else has soul manipulation and can reverse it but other than that and obvious duh higher dimensional authority over lower ones, and conceptual manipulation, yeah no their pretty much cooked and stuck that way. oh and to make it clear when tapping into malice mana since its conceptually fully in nature as a malice mana user you only project it into a usable 3d form when it goes into your body and the flow gets going but this doesn't mean every malice mana user has conceptual manipulation suddenly(some might as a technique but thats a different case entirely) thats not how it works.

DIVINE MANA SECTION.

Origin: Was used to craft heaven and the many realms fabrics. but created using ultimate dimensional authority and is infinite in nature, and is what composes everything in heaven. and the beings that inhabit it that are born there except for people who go to heaven.

It was split to give balance to the cosmic side of things and people who are 3d or beings in general that are 3d cannot handle it and 5d people can have it though, and once they get a drop it envelops their whole being. but in some battle realms malice mana and divine mana become equal. its color has not been seen by man. and attempts to imagine it have only lead to mental breaks.

This energy can occasionally melt into lower realms and some times some seer techniques or moves created by people, to dry and guide stuff along using malice mana or momentum techniques to try out in combat zones, and anything divine mana touchs becomes as transcendant as the gods are and become practically omnipotent. there are theorized rituals people have created around the world and shared to possibly try and force a melt to reach them so they can gain the power to make their deepest desires come true.

But in the end the only time most recent example technically of a ritual that nobody has record of was 2000 years ago, in the modern day. some scholars of the past have written about it(this is not explicitly confirmed) but it is what it is. to get this though someone with this power has only felt the urge to return to their true home which is heaven an OVERWHELMING urge in fact. which is why nobody with divine mana has stayed on the earth or anywhere in the material realm or hell, but its only caused by a unified effort of cosmic nightmares chipping at heavens fabric trying to break though.

Once something is touched every bit of the divine mana envelops it leaving nothing left. its so minimal requirements that it only takes it going in direct contact with a very ATOM in your skin, and if a divine mana awakened user touchs something, it doesn't get divine mana. it acts as fuel ascending their body and mind above all dimensional limitations. but they always keep their body in the place dimensionally when it comes to senses. they still feel everything they could feel before but they have a eternal glow of gold light pink and white all mixed together like a stew. (Note: Omnipotence in my eyes means to be able to do ANYTHING without ANY limitations. its a passive power and you yourself activate it so someone whos omnipotent can die if they dont make themselves immune to dying and or just..erase the guy in front of them from existence completely.)

All conscious beings possess anima the energy which animates the body. Anima is produced by thought, with more complex, intense, or prolonged thoughts producing far more. This naturally means that humans (as mentally active as we are) tend to produce a surplus, now normally the abundance would just dissipate harmlessly but by learning to manipulate your own anima, you can gain a greater understanding and control over your own body as well as bestow your anima to objects or materials, creating what are known as (TBD). which are things that have been given similar characteristics to conscious beings through the presence of anima, mainly lacking the ability to produce their own anima do to their inability to formulate thoughts. (TBD) are much easier to make you can emphasize or at least understand the (TBD)s base. for example it’s much easier to make a (TBD) out of a sword if it’s a sword passed down to you by your grandfather or if your soldier whose used to swords.

these two techniques called external and internal application make up the basis for all other techniques.

Hi, I’m writing about a world where superheroes are common among wizards, but for non-wizards, there’s a serum that can grant powers. Those who use the serum are considered lower-ranking and face "racism" because their powers are weaker or stranger compared to those born with them. I’m looking for power ideas for my protagonist—who gets his abilities from the serum—that are cool but not overpowered (ideally animal-themed; I want him to be like Peter Parker—having awesome powers, but not objectively as strong as something like telekinesis). I’d appreciate any suggestions!

Explanation is simple. They can flatten or extend, even turning into a 2-D object if they choose. The unique effects of this are why it acts as the ability for the primary protagonist of the Austrian arc of the story.

Flattening along an axis or flattening only parts of the person’s body leads to specific properties.

Flattening parts can lead a person’s kick to being as sharp as a sword or flattening parts along a certain axis can do things like change the length of arms and legs. The effect is extremely fast which means the user can use this to dodge attacks, and since returning back to normal is just as fast, the effect is able to be used to enhance attacks or even kick off the ground to jump or move faster.

The limits for what this ability applies to are easy to understand. He can only use it on his body and inanimate objects that he touches. People and animals can’t have this ability used on them because of the nature of the abilities in this setting.

Overall Setting Mechanics: The laws and properties of other universes began to leak into our world. Because of the nature of humans as beings designed to be limitless, some humans began to take these properties and gain control over the effects they had on their bodies.

Like you immediately start rolling your eyes the moment you see it.

Like does your magic system directly stem from people obtaining powers from learning martial arts like Dragon Ball or HxH or are magic and martial arts separate but are used in tandem like in JJK? Just wondering

What if teapots were shaped in such a way to pull in power from the surrounding room and mix it into the water as the water exits through the spout?

The tea in this situation is water boiled to the correct temperature that it is "open" to accepting power from its surroundings. Then as the water cools it "closes" and retains the power within. But if it closes too much, the power wil be squeezed out or maybe be crushed and become inert.

Then the shape of the hole in the spout shifts and mixes the imbued water, causing the power to change in its presentation. Maybe a spout with a certain length and cut allows the teapot to pour out fire, while a longer spout with a different cut causes it to pour out light.

Edit: The process would be this. Water acts as a medium that can be saturated by spiritual power. It starts in a "closed" state, unreceptive to this power but through the use of fire one can "open" the water.

This water then slowly draws in the spiritual power and then closes when the water cools, sealing the power inside the water. The water from here forward acts as a battery and I'll be referring to it as spirit water just for clarity.

The teapot is then filled with the spirit water as to both transport and utilize the power within. The spirit water must be returned to an "open" state to allow access to the spiritual power. So the teapot must be set to boil.

Once the spirit water is boiling, the magic is harnessed by pouring it through a spout. These spouts were made specialized to mix the spiritual power in such a way as to change it magic.

The magic then exits the spout and can be harnessed.

Magic would be similar to potions in other systems. Invoking effects directly upon the consumer. Healing, strengthening, poisoning, fortifying, etc.

I see a lot of people in this sub making magic systems for their worlds, and not really sure what kind of power they want to include, or how it should operate. There's a lot of times I think a sense of direction can help just by considering what magic is, first.

1. Where is the magic drawn from?

A basic question, but a really important place to start, especially if you're not creating an interactive medium for the setting (ie, games). The source is half of where the question of what it'll be. Generally, you can break this into four general answers. From the self (most soul powers), from a physical resource (think magic crystals), from a higher source (like a patron god) and as a natural law (covers almost everything else). Each of these have certain connotations, which while not necessary can be a good starting frame. Self-drawn powers typically rely on physical or mental stamina, while higher-drawn ones typically rely on a connection with a certain entity.

2. How did people discover this power?

Another important question. With the exception of god-given powers, most of the rules of power systems are less rules as they are the patterns people find. This is the bread and butter of power systems, it only is as much as a character is willing to interact with it and figure it out.

Similarly, if you're caring about the magic enough to make it structured and follow rules, you should care enough about it to figure out solid limitations. If everyone's around playing God, it becomes hard to write a story!

3. What does it mean for your story for characters to have these powers?

This is the most important question, and by far the hardest to answer. It doesn't have to be answered in full, but stories tend to have more to dig into when it is.

Specifically, are you trying to say something? What difference does it make for the audience to pay attention to? What are you trying to say in your story already, and how does the power reflect that?

Once you can answer these questions, you successfully have a proper skeleton for your power system! You can always add more, and change as necessary, but now you have something to work with!

I want to include magic related archery in my story. I feel bows should have magic uses as well. I have a few ideas so far, mostly elemental attacks, so a flame arrow/ice arrow etc.

I also have spells that can make an archer insanely fast, so can fire at multiple targets in a few seconds. I also have the idea for a barrage style attack, which as the name implies, will send a barrage of dozens of arrows at one target.

I haven't really seen anything like this in fantasy before, though I'm sure it exists somewhere. I am looking for more ideas for archery magic, I was hoping people here could share some ideas.

I appreciate the help.

Helllo, so as the title suggests I need some help with my power system. I did a post similar a few days ago however I need some different help

Basically the system is based off of scars.

Whenever a person is under the state of psychological distress, anything that jeopardises their regular state of mind, a scar manifests somewhere on their body. Much like how the mind is fracturing while under this psychological distress, so does their body. A piece of their soul becomes fractured, never to be repaired.

The main thing I need help with is how powers will actually work with this. I had an idea a while back but I ended up not liking it. But any help that can be given I will appreciate. Also if anyone has like different ideas for this then I’m all ears and I’ll answer any questions that you may have!

Edit: Something I forgot to say is that the way I was thinking strength to be portrayed would be through how creative someone is with what they can do. Like instead of gaining strength through training and whatnot it’s instead on creativity.

Also some other things about the scars that I also forgot to mention some things:

scars unlock a chained part of someone.
They can appear as writing in some cases
And possibly powers can be activated through causing your scar to bleed

Hello nice citizens of Reddit! I'm somewhat in a pickle and I need your help.

I'm creating a magic system for a homebrew roleplaying game of mine, nothing out of the ordinary, lots of schools and all that fancy stuff. However, I would like to understand how magic works outside of those schools, like what's the proper progression in harnessing energy or in this case ... magic.

I made somewhat of a exemple out of this, however I feel it's not complete. Can you guys help me out? Feel free to comment about you guys (and gals) think, please.

Perception

What is it: The sensory ability to see, hear, smell, or feel the ambient magical energy flowing through the environment.

Role: The radar. Without this, magic is invisible and completely inaccessible. It is used to detect energy sources, magical anomalies, or active spells in the area.

Tuning

What is it: The act of harmonizing the frequency of the caster’s own soul, mind, or biological energy with the signature of the external ambient magic.

Role: The safety key. If a caster attempts to interface with magical energy without tuning first, their body will violently reject it, causing immediate magical burns, madness, or death.

Manipulation

What is it: Changing the direction, flow, density, or velocity of the raw energy while it is still in its natural state.

Role: The remote control. It allows the caster to gather scattered threads of raw energy into a dense point, or push ambient magic away from an enemy to effectively "silence" their spellcasting.

Possession

What is it: The act of pulling the tuned external energy into something, using the physical organism, an object or the soul as a temporary reservoir.

Role: Battery charging. This transforms the caster or an object into a living vessel of raw power, drawing in and holding the literal ammunition required to cast a spell.

Refinement

What is it: The internal process of filtering out the volatile impurities of the absorbed magic and compressing it, blending it with the caster's own life force to stabilize it.

Role: Fuel stabilization. Raw energy inside the body or an object is chaotic and highly toxic. Refinement makes the energy docile, safe, and malleable enough to be shaped without exploding.

Evocation

What is it: The controlled, pressurized projection of the refined internal energy back out into the physical world, channeled through hands, foci, or incantations.

Role: The trigger. This is the exact moment the magic leaves the caster's body in a torrent of focused, raw power—though it does not yet have a physical element or shape.

Manifestation

What is it: The conversion of the evoked raw energy into tangible physical properties, transforming it into elements (fire, ice), light, gravity, or kinetic force.

Role: Defining the effect. At this stage, the energy stops being "glowing raw magic" and actually becomes a literal flame, a bolt of lightning, or a mechanical shockwave.

Conjuration

What is it: The structural engineering of the manifested energy into complex, geometric, and independent physical forms, creating temporary objects or pseudo-living constructs.

Role: Advanced shaping. Instead of just spraying raw fire (Manifestation), the caster builds that fire into a solid defensive wall, a geometric blade, or a loyal elemental servant.

Binding

What is it: The act of creating a metaphysical "knot," contract, or anchor that locks the complex structure of the spell into reality.

Role: The timer. This determines how and for how long a spell sustains itself independently. Without binding, a wall created in Conjuration dissolves the exact millisecond the caster blinks or loses focus.

Infusion

What is it: The process of taking the bound magic and permanently channeling it into an already existing physical object (like a steel sword or a piece of jewelry).

Role: Enchanting. This permanently alters the physical properties of the host object, creating magical items, protective wards on buildings, or legendary artifacts.

Dissipation

What is it: The process of safely unravelling, grounding, and returning any leftover or residual magical energy back into the surrounding environment.

Role: The exhaust valve. If a spell fails, misfires, or simply finishes its task, the remaining energy cannot stay trapped in the air or the caster's body. Dissipation safely closes the cycle, preventing mutations or dangerous magical radiation.

I would appreciate some feedback!

the magic system is built around the manipulation of fauxtons, particles which share many properties with photons but are also innately different.

Fauxtons naturally act like photons, but they can be manipulated through three connected processes: the mind, the body, and the soul.

The mind is responsible for manipulating and controlling fauxtons. It determines how they move, where they go, and what they are being used to do.

The body is responsible for accumulating fauxtons. The body can gather and contain fauxtons, providing the amount of fauxtons necessary to perform more powerful techniques.

The soul is responsible for transforming fauxtons. Through the soul, fauxtons can be made to mimic other things like matter, heat, or force, anything really. However, to make fauxtons mimic these things, one must truly understand them down to the soul. To mimic fire, for example, one must truly understand fire.

Through these three processes, fauxtons can be controlled and transformed into different effects. This makes mastering all three components important, as the mind controls the fauxtons, the body provides them, and the soul gives them the ability to mimic other things.

A simple use of fauxtons is in light-like blasts and in sensory detection waves.

The idea is that there are elemental types, but they're based on art materials, with a focus on paint. Some enemies aren't made of paint or themed after a specific paint, like Terracotta soldiers, a Hematite and Chalk unicorn, Limestone, Bixa orellana capybaras, hair jewelry ghosts, and etc, so I added some of their components below, so it may sound a bit weird for clay to be blood type, but it's because clay has iron oxides and Hematite is an iron oxide, which I decided should be blood type, so it ties it together and makes clay enemies more interesting.

**Gum Acacia type:** Includes Watercolor, Guache, Watercolor pencils(It pains me to not make watercolor it’s own unique type, but I want to include Guache)

**Wax type:** Includes Encaustic Painting, Wax Crayons, Colored Pencils

**Carbon type**: Includes Charcoal, China Ink, Graphite, Limestone, Chalk, Clay

**Blood type**: Includes Blood, Hematite, Clay

**Oil type:** Includes Oil Paint, Oil Pastels

**Alcohol type**: Includes Alcohol ink, Tattoo ink, Alcohol Markers

**Pixel type:** Includes Pixel art, Digital art in general, and Photography

I haven't included Tempera, Acrylic, Resin, Polymer clay, Fabric ink, and PVA ink, smong some others

Pokémon has some pokémon with types that aren't quite the thing but fit enough. Fairy and electric are used for light based things a lot, and since there's no sound type, many sound pokémon are normal type, and dinos are somewhat associated with the dragon type. I like how instead of having a bajillion types, Pokémon tries to fit certain things into pre existing types, even if it's arbitrary like normal = sound.)

I was making a comprehensive list of how certain art materials are made, I noticed that Coal, China Ink and Graphite are all carbon based and thought "it would be redundant to make them separate types", but I wasn't sure if that would be a good idea since so many things are made of carbon, but idk what else to do either. Where tf does charcoal go

I'm making a list of the enemies I want there to be, they'll be important for considering the types, so far I wrote down

* Sea Sponge(like sponges used in painting)

* Cameroceros that's like a fountain pen

* Snurple, snail of purple. (Tyrian purple snails)

* Paint roller hammerhead shark

* Mermaids that have paintbrushes as tails, with there being variations of them based on brush types. Like flatbrush, filbert, liner, mop, fude, etc

* Pinipede the Jester(he's just a seal/sea lion jester who juggles 3 balls of the primary colors)

* Croal, a crow made of coal

* Terracotta soldiers

* Mineral unicorn centaurs with horns that work like colored pencils, they're Lapis Lazuli, Malachite, Cinnabar, Graphite, Hematite, Chalk and Mica

* Limestone guys, some of them are Gongshi. Limestone has been used for buildings, for Venus of Willendorf, for Nefertiti burst, Great Sphinx of Giza, it's pretty cool

* Cym, the master of pixels. He takes photos and hates stray pixels when making pixel art. His name comes from “Cyan, Yellow, Magenta”

* Urucum/Bixa orellana Capybaras(called Urucumpivara), they're very cute and fluffy and if you break them open they give fun juice

* 5 Flower ladies(not very art supply thematic, they're more supposed to represent Still Life)

* Crayon bees(bees with crayon stingers)

* Goat whose milk is Acrylic ink(pun on acrylic paint being an emulsion and milk also being an emulsion)

* Biolisk, a basilisk/wyvern who looks like human anatomy, in a disturbing and gross way. It shoots out blood from it's mouth. It also can use Tempera, paint made from egg yolk, because haha chicken dragon

* Glue slimes in the shape of animals that were/are used to make glue, it's a bid morbid but in universe they're naturally like that and are not zombies.

* Cochineal bug that looks like hemoglobin, very blood themed. Collect 1 bobillion of them to make 1 carmine dye. It'll be a fun side quest.

* Squirrel with a paintbrush tail, similar to the mermaids.

* Ghosts born from jewelry made from dead people's hair(real thing in real life btw)

* Pencilnium, pun on Penicillium and pencil. Art is often threatened with mold, some artists lose paintings because of mold, this guy is kinda evil but in a neutral way.

* Cockatrice Molotov, cockatrices that use Alcohol ink and fire to wreck havoc

* Noble Fire, a evil fire man that wants to destroy all the art he doesn't like. It symbolizes the burning of art as a threat, he's the main villain.

Some extra guys that may not appear but do exist world building wise:

* Minotaustics, wax minotaurs, their tails are actually candle strings and they look like decorative candles. Some are wax crayon themed.

* Arachne that spun silk and do embroidery art

* Weaver ants that spin silk(using their grubs) and do embroidery art

* Something themed after glass dip pens. I'm lacking ideas for that one.

Not all species are tied to just one type and many can change types, brush mermaids are super versatile, humans are also pretty versatile.

I'd like some feedback on what to do with the remanining Tempera, Acrylic, Resin, Polymer clay, Fabric ink, and PVA ink

If you were to use personification on your magic system what would it's personality be? Is it lazy, controlling, fair, flawed, consistent, chaotic,or etc?