Cleaning spells are common, yeah. There's a few things. Information is rather limited; magic-users are properly paranoid and well-aware of the consequences of letting Joe Hillbilly learn Deathblast.
Your common villageperson has a variety of little tricks that are useful. I encourage y'all to think of some. Off the top of my head? Glow, Scour, Hardball, Cure Lesser Wound, Block Pain, Lesser Telekinesis, etc. Some things are common to those with schooling, some are passed down like family recipes, etc. The thing is, though, you can hurt yourself pretty badly or kill yourself with magic. It's something taken for granted, but treated with careful respect. You might, instead of doing a "mass clean house" spell, sweep the floor twice and then use Scour.
Thought I had put this in, but I see I missed it:
Ritual Magic is as draining as physical activity; attempting a spell of too much power, trying to invent new rituals, and errors in the ritual can leave you exhausted, put you in a coma, or just kill you outright.
Power always comes with a price.
The obvious risk to Blood Magic comes from accidentally cutting too deep, shock from blood loss, infection from untreated wounds, and the like. However, overuse of Blood Magic can permanently strip you of powers altogether; necromancy and dark magic are also quite risky - especially so for the latter, and especially if you are caught performing certain spells.
With Chaos Magic, any number of horrible things could happen to you - sudden new limbs and/or organs, forced gender change, spontaneous combustion, high-velocity orbit around the planet, being sprayed by a skunk, turning canary yellow and sprouting feathers for a week, braided nostril hairs, etc.
Most Alchemists die by accidentally blowing themselves up, poisoning themselves, drinking certain potions together, exposure, etc. Aside from that, Alchemical Magic is relatively free of risks - if you trust your local Alchemist or stick to known alchemical recipes.
Divine magic? Pissing off the Gods by whining for more spells is never a good idea; likewise, the God you pray to has rival Gods who view you with an apathy bordering on revulsion.
Summoning too powerful of a spirit can leave you possessed, too powerful of a creature could break free, and sometimes, what you call won't answer. Likewise, malevolent spirits could decide that your newly-called firestorm would be best off being focused on you.
With elemental magic, you run the risk of drowning, burning to death, asphyxiation, electrocution, hypothermia, and the like. There is also the risk of spontaneous and instantaneous teleportation to an Ascendant Plane, but that doesn't usually happen unless you fuck up pretty spectacularly.
Psionics also have the risk of bloody noses, depression, schizophrenia, brain-asplodey, THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN, and, of course, the ever-popular "secretly brainwashed as a sleeper agent for Daimonas" thing that happens. Which is really creepy, because you never know until you're a spectator in your own head.
Anything with aether is usually free of the side effects, but your chance of instant death from soulburn is a lot higher given the whole "cast from soul" flavor that goes with it.
God Power? Well, young wannabe heros training under you in hopes that you'll reveal the secret in your dying breath, rivals making ridiculously complicated schemes to get you to reveal the secret, fate demanding you die in confrontations with mysterious hood-wearing assholes with a Plan, etc, etc. Plus, the whole "getting the Gods to let your lifetime of effort spent purely towards this one task be regarded with favor enough to equal their skill" thing.
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Topic: Adventuring Party OOC Thread - Adventures in Hiatus (Read 268620 times)