What you guys think are good limitations on magic? I always

I'm always a big fan of "Magic cannot touch [x], hard rule, no exceptions," or sometimes even "Magic cannot come within yea distance of [x]" rules. In the same vein, a setting I saw had magic hard-limited in how far it could reach from you, and not a very big one. "5 meters" was considered an enormous range for magic.

Other obvious ones:
1) Magic is fatiguing.
2) Magic causes other bad shit to happen when you use it. (a la Perils of the Warp; though this one is tricky since you have to keep in mind the fact that it punishes the entire party, and can be weaponized in the right situation)
3) Magic has to be secret / dissolves in the presence of non-magical people. (Mage style; basically it's above, but with a really common [x])

Simplest way to explain why magic doesn't overtake a world where it exist is to simply say it is very hard, complex, requires years of study with no guaranteed result. Casting a spell is a mentally taxing task and drawing/composing/creating spells is even more complex.

Someone who deals with really advanced math should have no problem understanding the limitations of magic. Imagine a spell as a very complex equation with many variables, and instead of using numbers, it uses several symbols for concepts. So you are limited in how you approach it not just by logic, but also by your own understanding of things.

So for example...A teleport spell is a better way to get somewhere than ship or cart. But few people know how to cast it, and they arent willing to go through all the effort in mentalizing and spending the energy to simply transport wheat into the capital. They use it for their own agendas, or as a favor to someone who can afford it. And even then, they can't mass produce the effect in a scale necessary for reliable line of production.

>>50405899
You could do it like the Stormlight Archive and make magic reliant on a mineable resource. This would naturally make the minable resource a good object to use as money.
There you go, now you can only use magic if you are rich or have someone rich to give you casting materials.

>>50405899
Life-casting as with Shadowrun, "looming self-destruction" points like corruption/sanity as from WoT d20 or attribute burnout like in Rolemaster. Basically, make it actually dangerous.

Since it's probably going to be the king of utility, make sure it's very much meh in combat, especially at direct damage, so that the sword swingers and spell casters can both be of importance in the party.

You can make it so it can only be used in times of heightened emotions. So maybe if you're super pissed at someone you can incinerate them, but you'd never be too emotionally invested in harvesting crops or whatever.

>>50408701
I think you are underestimating peasants whose whole livelihood depends on those crops.

>>50408718

I don't think difficulties like that would result in sharp emotional spikes. Rather, there would be a pervading sense of despair and hopelessness. For example, the fear of a crop failure is very distinct from the fear that you're about to get robbed by a scary person in front of you. The latter scenario is much more of a concentrated burst of feeling.

I was always a fan of magic having levels of complexity and difficulty. SImple things should have simple spells, things to help quality of life.

Shit like conjuring creatures, making something from nothing, or teleporting is incredibly difficult.

Even things like potion making, or smithing a weapon, takes knowledge and practice.

>>50409054
i usually like to arrange it so, that harder spells can be done with rare spiritually significant components lot's of preparations fasting staying awake falling into trance doing drugs and convoluted rituals.

the harder something is the more these layers of preparation help. they also decrease the chances of side-effects. also going on a spirit journey adequate to the tradition the wizard practices to find wisdom allies or helpers for a given ritual can be half the fun altho not without dangers.

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>>50405899
Definitely pic related.

Bloodline powers are gay as shit but work. Otherwise I like the whole "mages are jealous, murderous monsters that kill each other as soon as they catch wind of another mage"

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>>50405899
spell slots

Is "Magic can only alter, not create" a viable solution to the donkey problem? In essence, you could say, force a rainstorm out of a cloudy day, or rip holes through the physical plane to teleport, or imbue someone's life into a set of armor, but not create a soul or construct (non-natural) towers in an hour's time?

>>50412808
Not really. You wouldn't be able to conjure food from nothing but you could still conjure it out of garbage, or plant a whole field in 5 minutes and harvest it in 10. You could put every carpenter in the region out of business. If you had a source of iron you could do the same to blacksmiths.

tl;dr Transmutation is a god-tier school.