>ITT: we talk about spells and magical systems (from a fluff

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something i always thought would be cool to do as an alchemist that not many games allow, is to allow your potions to effect people you throw them at/on. Normally they have to drink it, or you just are straight up limited to helpful effects, where I always thought throwing a vial of powerful debuffs at enemies, like shrink potions or even polymorphs would be entertaining as hell.

>>52091388
>we talk about spells and magical systems (from a fluff perspective, not game mechanics).
i really like weaverdice/worm's use of how your character backstory dictates exactly what kind of abilities you will get based on the kind of trauma leading up to it, the tragic irony of how the power does not instantly fix your situation and that fact that its up to other players to come up with what your power actually is.

the game is still an unfinished pile of shit though, so don't ask if i played it.

>Whats your favorite magical system in all of fiction?

HunterXHunter's Nen abilities in an instant.

>>52091896
An idea I had to get around the difficulty of drinking potions with face protection on is to make the potion contents act like a living liquid that once removed from the vial will go for the mouth.

So to heal you just smash a vial of restore health onto your facemask and the contents slither through without wasting a drop, you could adapt this for poisons to chuck at enemies.

My favourite system of magic is somewhere between the Ancient Language in The Inheritance Cycle and the Charter in The Old Kingdom series. I just like the 'build your own, and also you can get fucked if you go too long in your sentences or miss something out' unforgiving nature of it.

>>52091388
Whenever I try to create a magic system, I usually end up just deciding to base it around five elements that I thought up for my homebrew setting, and then just bullshitting the rest. That said, Bone Blood Blight Blaze and Brume are damn fun elements to base a magic system on.

For high level combat alchemy, I have two words for you: Universal Solvent.

>>52092284
>Slime of Cure Moderate Wounds

This is one of the more difficult things to come up with because I hate how D&D just has a list of spells that do stuff and demphasizes knowledge and utilization of that knowledge. More so the fact that it's entirely locked away from other classes unless you multi-class and/or take feats to do it.

What I'm getting at is if your some veteran fighter who's been fighting werewolves you'd learn a thing or two about how it works and how to make magic items that work against them even if you're not explicitly a magic user.

>>52091896
Fantasycraft has Elixirs, Tonics(I think) , and Vials. There is a default selection of general ones, but by taking one or more feats, you can create them based on spells. You don't even need to be able to cast spells, you just select a few you can craft when you take the feat.

Elixirs are ingested, tonics are spread on an object or creature, and vials are thrown as a weapon. You can only take one elixir and one tonic per day, but can be affected by any number of vials.

I have made vials of hold person, vials of Fireball, vials of Summon Monster I, etc.

The only downside is that Fantasycraft takes a more realistic approach to crafting, so unless you are focused on it, you may have to invest a lot of time for one-use effects.

I liked runescapes system, simple and intuitive, and the limits on spellcasting felt natural

casters could also do their thing without overshadowing anyone else

Big fan of Werewolf the Apocalypse's "fetishes", where you had to convince spirits to inhabit items and in exchange for something the spirit asks for the spirit does a given effect when the item is used. It's a nice way to use roleplaying to directly and clearly affect what characters are capable of and the favor you owe the fetishes could range from major side plots in themselves to "quickly, I need oregano at 1am and all the shops are closed!" wacky shenanigans.

And anything that can lead to arguments between a character and their equipment when shit hits the fan is always good.

>>52091896

You want smoke bombs basically - reagents puff out and have the effect when inhaled. (might have problems if you're dropping a lot of different ones in a confined space - give the GM room to start giving everyone in the battle who breathes slight effects of the gas potions as it wears on)

>>52091388
Here's one

>Tar Glass
A heavy, viscous, clear liquid distilled primarily from the sap of Hailcloud Spruce. When mixed with olive oil, it hardens into a glass-like material and must be quickly molded into shape either by hand, mold, or blowing. It acts as the opposite of a non-Newtonian Fluid: At rest or in slow motion, it is quite hard, capable of handling moderately high pressures, but when subjected to an impact over a short amount of time, it flows like a liquid.

As such, it has found interesting uses in the field of potions and alchemy. Potion bottles made with Tar Glass can be thrown at a target with little worry about glass shrapnel, as the faux-liquid wraps around the victim instead; What few drops escape quickly dull themselves from air friction. This can be used defensively to seal wounds in very rigid, very difficult to remove casts, or offensively to block a man's
eyes, nose, and mouth. The time consuming process of "slapping" the substance off of oneself is what gave rise to its current moniker.

How do we (alchemists) weaponize this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-time_crystal

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>>52091388
I'm thinking of trying to make an original magic system from this.

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I've been pretty unhappy with most magic systems I've come across. Some I've liked more than others, but it just always seems like superpowers rather than magic, just magic shields and energy beams kind of stuff.

One thing I've always sort of liked is, oddly enough, D&Ds Vancian magic, by which I mean, without the limitations. I like the idea of using ingredients, incantations, gestures and stuff to do magic. From there I began trying formulate exactly how I'd like magic to be in something and I've been having a hard time making it succinct.

To me, it'd be like folk magic but on an absolute scale. It would be completely decentralized with no mana or energy or power source to draw from. It would utilize symbolism, will, intent and desire, it would use ingredients with magical properties, incantations, words of power, gestures, pacts, bargains and bindings with spirits and gods and devils, it would utilize times of day and night and cycles of the moon and stars - you name it, it's there. The power of the spell is the dependent upon a bunch of factors.

Weaker, more simple spells require little materials - an incantation, a gesture, maybe some small concoction, just one or two of these and you've got yourself a spell.

The more powerful a spell, the more it requires - more unique ingredients, dangerous words of power, bound demons, more ritual based and the sort of stuff you'd prepare beforehand.

But then, truly powerful spells start to creep back into simpler territory again, but only after a wizard has attained a higher degree of mastery and understanding or other prerequisites. Then you move into realm of calling up the dead with a whisper, creating firestorms with a stance, power that seems inherent and inborn rather than a manipulation of outside forces.

Really the whole point of it is to keep magic feeling strange, capricious and mystical, but with dedication and cunning, you can master it.

>>52095434
There's a difference of knowing how to make something, and having the means to do so. A veteran fighter that's been fighting werewolves may know how magical methods and items that work against werewolves, but because he is not a magic-user himself, he doesn't have the means to make it himself.

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I like the heavy use of ritual, high risk, and high bullshit powers in the Type Moon universe.

I tried to make one from scratch for the Accidental Magical Girl thread years back. I didn't like the idea of an encyclopedia or named spells -found it removed the magic feel for me- so I went with a system of tags. The better you are at magic, the more tags you can use to create spells on the fly. I haven't been in the thread for years, but I think they're mostly just ripping the rules out of another system for their purpose.

>>52092081
>HunterXHunter's Nen abilities in an instant.

I actually reversed Hunter X Hunter's restriction system and applied it to curses. The more hoops you have to jump through to break a curse the weaker the curse becomes, with them having no power if it's outright impossible.