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[GlyphGryph]

Background
Dark Tides is a game system I've been tinkering with for a long time, but it's only really come into its own recently. For the longest time, it existed primarily to serve as a testbed for new mechanics which would then be ported over to whatever system I was legitimately working on at the time. But over the years, the world grew, and improved, and the lore expanded, and the best mechanics stuck around, and it's actually turned into a fairly good system. I would actually get requests from people to host it, or to put it all in a book so THEY can host it. The game, despite being quite fun to play, has never really gotten to that point, but it was long something I wanted to do.

It was only recently, however, that the final piece fit into place - the magic system. Dark Tides main defining feature, from the very beginning, was that it was a world in conflict, and the major symbol of this was it's two contrary magic systems. The Dark Magic is still in pretty much the form it began in. But the True Magic, what was supposed to be the primary magic system, changed every year or so.

Until now.

Purpose
I've finally developed a system that I'm happy with, both thematically and mechanically, but my spell list is remarkably short, and that's were you guys come in. I could just fill it out by myself, but I figured it might be more enjoyable to get other people involved, and I'm sure you guys have awesome ideas I'd never have thought of.

The System
Magic is composed of two components - summoning spirits, and using them to power spells. Spells are, in many ways, living things - you can think of the spell as the body, the casing, and the spirit as mind or the heart or the engine that drives it.

Because of this, a poorly crafted spell will be unable to contain the spirit powering it, and a variety of bad things can happen - the spirit can escape the spell completely, the spirit can take control of the spell to do with as it pleases, the spirit can turn the spell back on the caster, or the spirit can use the spell as a way to maintain a presence in the physical world while only paying it lip service.

So what IS a spell?

A spell, as in the thing people cast, that mages memorize, written in spell books, describes an action. It does not define a purpose - most spells can be put to use in a wide variety of tasks. For example, one spell, Song of Growth, is used both by healers, farmers, artists and assassins looking for a "natural" death. The spells action is to encourage and guide the growth of living things (or bits thereof). The healer can encourage wounds to close, the farmer plants to grow, the artist (assuming a living medium) can create bonsai trees to die for, and the assassin can cause the growth of lethal tumours. Less orthodox wizards have been known to use the spell to fuse disparate life forms together or create terrible mutants. The end result of a spell depends both on the casters intent, and the nature of the spirit being used.

Some spells can be narrower or broader than others.

What spells do I already have?
Song of Growth - Encourage and Guide the growth of living organismMemories Made Real - Temporarily revert an object or system back to a previous state, if possible.
Dirge of Spirit - Banish spirits to the spirit world. Good for fixing mistakes and disrupting enemy spells.
Runic Transcription - Write another spell into a book, creating a spellbook, or add a spell to an existing spellbook. (in the second case, you will need to summon a spirit - you will use the one bound to the book by in the initial inscription)
Induce Emotion - Cause and feelings and mental states in the targets mind. Effect strongly influenced by spirit type.
Trace Ancestry - Follow an object into the past to see where it has been. Like a bloodhound, but backwards in time.
Shatter Spellcraft - An explicit counterspell, similar in function to dirge of spirit. Good for spirits that are difficult to banish.
Invisible Hand - Generate force in a given direction on an object or area - only a single line of force is generated (unless you cast multiple spells), though you can control its path.
Stone to Flesh - Imbues a nonliving object with the properties of life.

And a couple other ones I won't mention, because they really could stand to be replaced.

So... any suggestions?

Description of the various spirits and a basic introduction to summoning

[GalenEvil]

Well... a few small suggestions that may or may not work out. Will put each into a heading of the spellname (subject to changing) with details about how the spell could be used:

Water Spell:
*  Can create springs, rain for farmers, floods if used in a dastardly way, or even be as simple as putting some water into a desert walker's canteen, create snow/ice for various purposes such as abnormally hot winter fairs and such

Fire Spell:
*  Can be used to start campfires, induce natural volcanoes into erupting, or dastardly purposes such as boiling away the water in a person's body, melting metal armours, or setting flesh on fire

Don't really have much more to add at the moment, but could be useful to have base elemental spirits and spells to work with. Just about any game that has spells in it has base elemental spells that are used for a number of things.

GalenEvil

[Mongol13524]

Barbarify: Turns one humanoid into a Mongol. The affected person gains 2 Dex and 3 strength, but is hostile to non Mongols.

[Darvi]

Awesome Charm:

The character becomes so charismatic (or adorable :3) that it pierces the fourth wall and even affects the GM the fabrics of reality itself.
On a roll of 10, the character can overrule any decisions made by the GM.

[GlyphGryph]

Galen, thanks for the ideas, but I should clarify: the main thing is that in my game spells are based /actions/, not /things/. There are spirits of the Fire element, Water Element, Earth Element and Air element, (which overlap as Magma, Lightning, Clouds, and Clay) and all of them can be used to power a spell, an action, to some end.

So both of your spells might be covered by some sort of "creation" spell or maybe some sort of elemental manipulation spell or something.

Darvi - I am not going to legitimize altering fate in such a way. Plus you can already do that with Character Points.

I might create a spell that legitimizes having sex with the dicebot, though. God knows it happens already, so why not...

[Darvi]

Humping the Dice: Reroll any die-roll.

[GlyphGryph]

Fail the spell, the spirit follows you around rerolling die FOR you. You didn't want that six, right?

[Trapezohedron]

Some kind of spell that's basically Bound Weapon in the TES series, except that it could be anything. Armor, weapons, farming tools, shields, walls from outta nowhere and even hand-cannons, assuming one knows how a hand-cannon works.

Of course, the item should be ethereal, temporary, but if one knows what to craft and how to craft it, he can create it. And no, the created object cannot copy the effects of the source material, like a magic ring. In short, duplicating a magic ring creates an ethereal ring that's less useful than an ordinary ring, which means it can't be enchanted at all.



Phasing - Allows the user to teleport (but really, it's just time that's slowed down, giving the viewers the illusion of instantaneous movement).

Transmutation - Changes an object's material. Destroys enchantment in the process, or if very skilled, weakens it almost to the point of uselessness.

Distortion - Creates a shield of force (as in gravity) around the caster, that can push incoming projectiles away. Or could be utilized as some form of force push.

Scorching Light - Utilizes the power of the sun to scorch and blind foes. Obviously requires the caster to have some form of fire resistance, whether by spell, intrinsic or whatever, as well as avoiding eye contact from the bright light, unless the caster wants to have the scene burned in his retinas.
Clever casters can also utilize small flames from a bonfire or even a candle, for a smaller effect.

Most of them are probably OP, or out of theme.

[GlyphGryph]

Thanks, I think those have provided me some great inspiration. Here's the spells they've become:

Spirit Tool - Summon a spirit into a hardened physical form. The shape and structure of the tool is up to the caster, and the durability and duration is based on the spell's power. If the item is broken, a control must be made - if you succeed, the spell ends, and you may immediately recast the spell with the same spirit at the same power level instead of dispelling it. A properly bound stable spirit can be used to make items permanent.

A caster may "summon" the Spirit powering the spell to return the item to their hand (or backpack, or belt loop) at any time by making a simple summoning check versus the spirits power. (More powerful spirits may be seen, and thus summoned, at greater distances)

Lens of Distortion - Objects passing through the lens of distortion will have their path altered, though larger and heavier objects will suffer less from the effect of the spell, and may even shatter it. The Lens of distortion also effects light, meaning your enemies will know when it is in effect, making it effective as a primitive cloaking tool or allowing the caster to focus sunlight into a powerful source of heat. When this spell is cast, its size and deflection force are based on spell power - however, smaller lenses will have more deflective force, while larger lenses will have less.

Transplanar Dislocation - An object is moved through the astral plane, and replaces an equal volume of stuff in the new location. The volumes swap positions, essentially. You don't want to miscast this spell. Higher power levels allow dislocation at larger distance, and the ability to overcome opposing forces (such as weight, or the nuclear bonds that hold objects together). Swapping someone's lower half and upper half, while hilarious, is notoriously difficult - doing so to yourself is significantly easier, due to the lack of a range component. You do not want to miscast this spell. Objects, by default, maintain their same facing and direction, and both swapped objects must share the exact same shape. You can fudge or outright overcome these obstacles, but doing so makes the casting more difficult, meaning miscasts are more likely. You do not want to miscast this spell.

[MikaTheCrazy]

Spirit bind- Bind a spirit to yourself for a period of time and gain some of it's power and characteristics.

[GlyphGryph]

Good idea for a spell, but it's already a racial ability, and I don't want to step on toes.
Definitely should have mentioned that one in the list anyways.

Regardless, it means you're definitely in tune with my own sort of thinking.

[MikaTheCrazy]

Nah, I just pay attention. (Have you read the Eragon books? They have a similiar magic system.)

[GlyphGryph]

I have not.

The fundamentals of the system are at least a couple thousand years old, though, so a bit of confluence there isn't surprising. It's perked my interest, though - /how/ similar, exactly, are we talking?

[MikaTheCrazy]

Not all that similar, but some magic uses spirits.

[MikaTheCrazy]

Decay- Causes stuff to rapidly waste away eg. corpses decompose, metal  rusts.