What's the best magic system you've ever seen or heard

>Spells are based on learning a vocabulary of words that you strin together in order to castlike (element)+(range)+(power)+(degree)+(effects)

>White magic is classic "heal" and "cure" spells and you can choose to follow one of several gods, each one changing/augmenting your standard white magic spells depending on your closeness to that god.

>Magic is completely OP but 90% of the spell-casting experience is going around collecting materials and waiting for solar eclipses or some other specific bullshit.

Too bad modern RPGs aren't as creative anymore.

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>>50002826
I like Wheel of Time magic/channeling system, where 1% of population may have a trait that allows them to access either female or male half of True Source (yes, only two genders!)

Most are weak at it, but the stronger you are, the more your lifespans extends, ranging from 150 years up to 800 years if maximum strength.
Males cannot see females weave Saidar, and women cannot see men weave Saidin. (two halfs of the true source)

There is a risk of drawing too much power, which results either in burning out and losing the ability altogether, or even worse and having your body become a pyre of power as your entire being burns out, not just the trait.

Men can sense women channel, their skin turns to goosepumps, women cannot sense men similarly. Cats love women channelers and stay away from men channelers, meanwhile dogs feel comfy around men channelers and feel agitated around women channelers.

And in the setting of the book series, all men who channel turn mad because the source of Saidin has been tainted by Evil Dude/Dark One, resulting in them losing sanity over time, bodies decomposing whilst yet living and slowly becoming explosive atom heads that destroy their surroundings when they finally reach final stage before death. (which during ancient times, after the initial Tainting resulted in millions of men channelers breaking and trashing the world apart as they fell over centuries of societal destruction and decay)
as a result women channelers, Aes Sedai use their power to hunt down all men channelers, because they want to prevent more men from becoming destructive weapons that shatter villages or wipe out thousands of people before dying to madness.

So, the result is a world with very matriarchal structures where women hold a lot of power and the most powerful kings of men are careful when it comes to treading around Aes Sedai, (who however spend most of their time fighting/plotting amongst themselves because women)

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>50002826
Rolling!

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>50002826
Rolling!

On-Topic
I like the Words of Power from Pathfinder's Ultimate Magic. Shame literally no one allows it.

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I'm a huge fan of the Words of Power add-on to FATE. Utterly simple, with vast options for creativity.

>>50002826
rollan
also gurps

Rolled 14 (1d100)

>>50002826

Rolled 57 (1d100)

Roll roll roll your boat! Give me a class

Lightbringer drafting was pretty neat

>>50002826
Rolli'n

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>>50003003

>>50003003
Damn, I saw the thread title and I was about to post this, the series is full of small flaws and some characters are barely tolerable, but the way "magic" works is simply god-tier

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>>50003003

>>50003157
It's a cool system, I just wish the words were more diverse and meaningful in their applications, and the method of learning them more diverse as well. I don't like how you have access to all first syllables and it only takes a stunt to learn all the second and all the third. Why can't there is be master of Distance or Movement but not much else?

Rolled 38 (1d100)

>>50002826
I actually like Vancian as per 5th Edtion's version thereof.

Also, rollin'.

>>50003556
Ooh, assassin. Neat.

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Rolled 31 (1d100)

>>50002826
Mechanically I prefer magic to just be a list of effects and modifiers that I can fluff however I want
Fluff wise probably>>50003003 but without the Dark Ones Taint or Mage The Awakening

>>50002826
rollan

>>50003074
>>50003123
>>50003205
>>50003255
>>50003556
>>50004149

So far our group is a: Thief, Dream-walker, Dragon Knight, Enchanter, and an Assassin.

Would like a Cleric or someone else that can heal. But, hey, we a kill squad now.

GURPS has syntactic magic,which amounts to what you described for spells. The rest is makeable in GURPS, but I guess it isn't creative of the writers if you have to make it yourself, though there are plenty of suggestions for doing the third, so it's not like they couldn't come up with it.

>>50005184
This was meant to quote
>>50002915

>>50002826
I always loved Shadowrun's exhaustion based system. Yeah, you can be pretty damn powerful, but there is always a risk and if you overdue it, you can actually kill yourself.

>>50002826
would love to see someone make a system based on that pic

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>50002826
>>50004997
Rolling

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Song magic in Ar Tonelico

>>50002826

The One Power from The Wheel of Time

Its just so internally consistent with the world and story. Its basically woven into every bit of how the world works. Say what you will about the characters and story, the WoT's worldbuilding is top notch though.

>Tugs braid

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>>50008948

Rolled 72 (1d100)

Ars Magica

I liked David Edding's Sparhawk stuff. Practically all magic in that was essentially just a prayer (in another language) to whichever god you believed in along the lines of "Please x, I require y", resulting in the god casting it through you (y'know, if you were faithful enough). But all the god got was your words, so if you mispronounced something you might end up with a bouquet of snakes instead of roses, etc.

This was mostly cool for the contrast it set up between regular people and Sparhawk, who got a much more primal form of magic later, and was therefore absolutely terrifying simply because he considered killing a god a viable action. Until he showed up, no-one would have thought of it because no god would attempt to kill another "for in the death of one lie the doomed seeds of us all" or similar.


Favourite is actually a toss-up between that and the Luxin stuff Brent Weeks did for Lightbringer that anon already mentioned.

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>>50003423
>>50003487
I've read all of the books except the very last novel. Please source these charts given. Where is it told that the One Power users have such life? Pre-Dark ones taint?

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>>50010502
I guess it is based on interviews with Jordan and his notes. He had lots of details written down that never made it into the books.

http://www.tor.com/2015/10/27/the-wheel-of-time-companion-strength-chart-of-major-channelers/

800 is maximum for TIER 1 channelers, with only Rand, Ishamael/Moridin and Rahvin scoring that high of all living channelers.

IIRC, Alivia is strongest T1 good female channeler, Semirhage and Lanfear would also be there. T2 women include Mesaana, T3 Graendal and T4 or below for Moghedien. Nynaeve was able to equal Moghy when she wasn't even at full strenght, so maybe Moghy was T6, with Nynaeve growing from T6 to T3-4.

Moiraine was maybe around T12, with Siuan and Elaida too. Egwene/Elayne maybe around T8 thereabouts with Avi somewhere close too.

the notes are bit messy, considering he died before being able to sort it out properly. The tier rankings are bit confusing therefore.

>>50002826
Roll

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Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>50002826
>tfw you haven't played many fantasy games
>tfw you just want to play a wizard

I wish I could find someone for a Witcher RPG session. Polish dude, I miss your game and when the villagers accidentaly the entire tavern.

>>50002826
i've got a soft-spot for weird shit like Allomancy from the Mistborn series. Also love settings with kinda obscure magic, like the Skill and Wit in Robin Hobb's shit.

Never really played an RPG with shit like that tho...

>>50002826
roll

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>50002826
SMITE AND CLEAVE

time to roll this shit

>>50011602
I don't even know what a mentalist is

>>50003003
Im suprised someone brought up the one power in the thread right away. I think its a fantastic system.

I think psionics done in the 3.5/ pathfinder DSP manner do a great job of mimicking the one power. The ability to manipulate and grow your spells, and the added step of meditating before casting are very similar.

In my setting divine magic and Ki both work very similarly to psionics. Divine magic is like the one power, and is gendered into masculine being traidtionally arcane spells and feminine being traditionally divine spells. Ki is fundamental life force used to access other forms of magic, though can grow into a form of magic all its own. Worshipers of pagan pantheons and binders often call upon the Ki of another source and end up with more prepared spell lists.

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>50002826
Rolling

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>>50010562
Interesting. Thanks for giving your source.

Have a /pol/ meme as payment.

Rolled 100 (1d100)

>>50002826
Rolling

>>50016580
The fuck is just a "warrior"?
Also, oMage was pretty neat

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>50002826

>>50016533
>that swastika
hilarious

>captcha: chemin [sign for the autobahn leading to düsseldorf]
oh captcha

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Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>50011619
You get to be this guy.