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[Neonivek]

What is bad is when magic is no longer mysterious, special, or in any way magical

If you put it in the hands of the players you have to expect a lot of the mystery being taken away

Otherwise if you WANT it to be mysterious, special, or your interpretation of magical you don't put it in the hands of the players...

Or rather: "Do it right or don't do it at all"

You can't really have it both ways.

Think of the game Gauntlet. A wizard, barbarian, fighter, and archer are all exactly the same with different models.

That was the point of the game (though Guantlet Legends seperates them a bit). Though that is an exagerated example.

[freeformschooler]

I, for one, am 110% behind the idea of magic being different every worldgen. Unpredictable and powerful, but not to the point where it's the most fearsome foe in the world. Or maybe weak, maybe this world is not very magic-reliant, and the ability to use it has withered down. Maybe, for that world over there, it could be like that terrible old game Phantasy Star III, where magic is in the bloodline of certain families. Maybe in another world it could only manifest as a passing wonder, unable to be told apart from a strike of lightning. It would make each worldgen unique, and give even more reason to come back again and again to the same world, rather than genning up a new world with the same concepts but different manifestations.

[Jacob/Lee]

I think an age named "The Age of Wizardry" or "The Age of Magic" where wizards are the most powerful beings in the world would be interesting.

[Barnox]

My opinion of how Magic should work is a force that is part of the world, like water or magma.
On worldgen, it is determined where areas of high and low concentration are.

Dwarvern magic is bound to artefacts, or items that have gained artefact status from continues use (like soldier's weapons).
It's effect is decided on creation, and unknown until it is used.
Dwarvern magic is used by simply using the item as intended. A soldier could be slashing Goblins with his Masterwork Shortsword, when suddenly focus swaps to the battle, and a pop-up appears, informing you:

Urist McSwordsman has unleashed UristBlade's fury!
A cloud of blood fills the air!

Magic would be randomly generated, using a variety of effects and materials.
However, due to this, things could go different ways.

Urist McLimpy has unleashed UltraCrutch's power!
Urist McLimpy's skin has become like Slade!

Urist McLimpy has unleashed MegaCrutch's strength!
A wave of fire is unleashed!

Some items would be one-use, some would be reusable.
The chance an item would have a magic effect, or how often that effect would be used, would be based upon the concentration of the magic in the area. Concentration is also based upon random rules at world gen: Some worlds have higher concentrations simply because dwarves are nearby, some have trees act as a drain for magic.

Spells could act like Dwarvern magic, or could be completely separate.
How I see them acting is a magic-user uses magic while in combat. Being context-sensitive, the magic may unleash fire around the wizard. It may raise his dead companions, either as they were or as zombies. Or it may turn his weapon into an iron fluffy wambler, or cause the tree saplings to grow faster that season.
Concentration would affect how strong the magic is, not how likely it is to do what you want, making it mysterious, unpredictable and feared.

[Areyar]

A single use magic item would be pretty useless if properties are discovered only upon use. . .

[Barnox]

A single use magic item would be pretty useless if properties are discovered only upon use. . .

Okay, yeah, I agree there.
I kinda meant "functionally one-use". Like a crutch that ends up burning itself.
Or a helmet that turns it's wearer's blood into venom. It's not something you're likely to use again.

[mcdonaldjord]

what if instead of the magic being so dramatic like turning people in to stone, make it "weak" but still unpredicable like making you faster or making your sword cause frost bite/minor burns and on rare-very rare occasions make them more powerful like (quoted) " a helmet that turns it's wearer's blood into venom" but there should be side affects to (!!FUN!!) EDIT: for side affects they shouldnt be anything like HAHA your dead. they should give you a chance to live like instead of the side affect being your head explodes its "you summon a snake" or minor burns all over your body / lava being place right next to you/ finger(eye?) exploding some that is dramatic but not game killing.

[Berlioz_26483]

I anxiously await the day my fort gets destroyed because my nobles got jealous of a craftsdwarf not giving up his artifact stuff, and the Hammerer gets sent down. My opinion is i want a high tower emerging from my underground fort and my wizard is up there studying like a Bookkeeper. some sort of implementation to make magic more understandible or more implementible

[Bronimin]

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[Sonlirain]

Imo the whole magic thing should be subtle but now totally useless. Each race should specialize in some kind of magic.

Elves are kinda magical already. Animals never attack them (at least the normal dont). Maybe give them some controll over nature so an invading elf force could for example couse your moat would fill in with some sort of seaweed and become traversable without swimming. Or make your wooden furniture come to life.

Dwarves could focus on rune magic. Golems and special rune based traps... for example a goblin who accidentaly stepped on a trap rune would get consumed by a pillar of fire comming out of the said rune. Also there could be some kind of magical engraving labour that would engrave runes on items giving them some MILD magical properties. For example make a sword cold no matter what (not freeze enemy and shattter him colb) or make it glow in the dark. Of ocurse engraving magical runes would not be  free and could require more or less exotix materials. And of course a mistake could end up in a failure ranging from mild things like making a the carrier unbelievebly fat causing muscle degeneration or just simply killing the FIRST dwarf that touches it to catastrophic like transforming the said dwarf into a nearly unstoppable berserker... or making him silently murder all his friends and go an hero afterwards.
And of course Golems but thats a story for a different topis... and since the forum already has several Golem topics...

[Rain908]

One magical sphere that I would really want to be included in DF is necromancy! Imagine, in adventure mode you're this super evil wizard who first recruits a band of mercenaries and then goes and slaughters an entire village, then uses his necromatic powers to create zombies, skeletons, ghosts and whatnot.
He grows in power, both magical capabilities, being able to raise dragons from the grave in the end, and having an entire army ready to attack the capital of a thriving kingdom and become an evil wizard-king, conquering a kingdom after a kingdom and making thousands of undead servants and eventually trying to take over the WORLD!
I went a little too ahead of myself, but that's what I want to do later on.

[dwarfhoplite]

A side note - in Middle-Earth Gandalf was one of only five semi-divine immortal beings in the entire world,

No he wasn't get your facts right and read Silmarillion.

[alfie275]

I think there should be 2 types of magic:

Runes/Artifacts - Predicatble, reliable. Dwarf carves rune into door, door is magic. Theme - Magic as technology.

Spells - Unpredictable, strong, emotional. Dwarf casts spell on door, dwarf is interupted with thoughts of alchohol, door turns into beer. Theme - Magic is alive/Magic as extension of body and mind.

[Candlejack]

I was trying to think of a system that many ways of using magic would work in, and this is what I thought up:

Magical power is generated by the spirits of all living things, but the rate at which certain spirits generate it and how much they can store at once is randomly determined. There are three parts to casting a spell: Channeling MP, breaking down a sphere-aligned component, and shaping it into something real. The first two steps require different amounts of exertion based on how much MP you're channeling/how heavy the component your breaking down is, and the third step requires more time the more complicated the final produce is. Different races are also better at different steps of the process(this is also randomly determined) and can get better through studying. Larger physical components can make up for smaller amounts of MP, and races with a lot of MP that aren't good at spell casting could make deals with races that are good at spell casting but don't have a lot of MP.

Objects are enchanted by trapping whole spirits or parts of spirits in them, thereby giving the object its own MP generation and storage. Runes are then added to shape the MP, and how good the runes are at generating the magical effect is directly proportional to how good the person who put them on is at casting spells, but still nowhere near as efficient because the object isn't consuming energy from and degrading the overall health of its user(unless it's cursed). Because it would be stupid for an enchanted object to break itself down to generate its magical effect(or is it?), the runecrafter's affinity for breaking down components would be added to their ability to channel MP.

I might have forgotten something because I'm tired, but whatever.