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[FlareStar]

Magic is a thing which was discussed for a long time, it is in the roadmap even. The way it can be implemented may be speculated, what I suggest is to make most of it an Elf-exclusive thing.

The reason why is that it will add both usefulness to them if you decide to be their friend, and challenge if you decide to be their enemy. Elven caravans have much less useful stuff than human/dwarven ones, and during sieges they are equipped with weak wooden armor/weaponry. Magic on their side will definetely help them to keep up with others.

If you are friends with elven civilization, they may offer to you powerful healing services - able to restore normally incurable conditions, like severed nerves and limbs, vampire/werewolf curses or insanity. Since they are nature themed, you may ask them to change the weather for some time - prolong summer or cut the winter. Ward your units against curses and undead. Bless your crops to yield more fruits, or your warriors to be more durable, and so on. In exchange for additional restrictions, fulfillment of diplomatic needs, or goods/gold.

If you are enemies - in additional usual combat magic (fireballs, magic missiles, summoning of legendary monsters and such) they may use various rites, which should be interrupted or your fort will be cursed. Start an everlasting winter with ridicuosily low temperature, curse dwarves for their wounds to fester and heal much more slowly, spoil your crops and food, make your dorfs much more suspectible to stress, tantrums and insanity, and so on.

I think this will make elves much more viable threat or friends. Of course some of the magic might be accessible to other races, in forms of enchanted artifacts or rare deep underground !!fun!!, but I think for elves it should be main gimmick and thing they use often, and for others it should be a rarity.

And it should be easily moddable to give spells to your dorfs, if you don't want it to be mostly an elven thing, and get some bearded spellcasters!

[PlumpHelmetMan]

A version of this would be neat, such as a slider in worldgen that allows players to choose which races have access to magic, but I don't personally think it should be as restrictive as suggested here. One of the primary goals of the myth & magic arc is to make worldgen more unique, and I think implementing suggestions such as "only elves have access to magic" across the board would be terribly limiting in that context. Toady's goal is to implement a series of procedurally-generated systems so that players can create almost any kind of fantasy setting they desire, rather than a single universal system.

[Eric Blank]

I tend to agree with PHM, I think the current road map of procedural generation per world is more ideal than a mandatory fixed setting. But I do like the idea of elves using magical alternatives more often, for instance of they have in some way a higher "magic modifier" on their civ and creature raws that makes them more likely to develop magic and more kinds of magics. I also like some of the suggestions of possible effects and diplomatic options here, where civs or individuals that have access to those may sell or reward to friends and allies some of what they can, and explicitly use them in war.

[Egan_BW]

Some level of elven magic seems necessary because their life style isn't very realistic, living in trees and avoiding harm to plants and being friends with the animals and using only wood which can be harvested without "hurting" the trees. If those guys didn't have any magic to help them do all those things they would have a hard time surviving, let alone keeping up with dwarves.

[Eric Blank]

Yeah, their growing wood/plants ability is necessary for them. Would be fun to see worlds where they didn't survive worldgen - even in large worlds with lots of civs - because none of them had the ability to make plants grow and so starved, or at best are all running around naked nearly-starving.

[Egan_BW]

Or some abandoned their values and live more like humans, aka high elves :p

And elves being a ye olde race who are on the decline now is enough of a trope.

[Resmisal]

Every suggestion to make elves less like glass and more like glass cannons is a great addition in my book!
While I disagree that elves should have a monopoly in matters magical, I agree that the slender dwarves treelubbers need to be more of a menace. Currently they're nowhere near an threat to warrant any kind of serious dislike. I have spent a lot of time brainstorming how to improve their standing in the world. Mind you, I'm a fan of fun.
So far what I've come up with is, in no particular order:
a) ironwood: equipment dwarves can't create which equals iron in combat so you need steel or a trained militia to best them confidently;
b) enable trade for iron and steel, and give humans a non-zero chance to discover steel so you have a non-zero chance to encounter ironclad elves;
c) and druids, which would be like necromancers only for elves and trees or/and like ASOIAF's skinchangers - Imagine that, a squirrel deactivating your traps! Elephant building destroyers. Who needs elves riding dragons when the dragon is one?
In any and all cases regardless of the subject of this thread, elves should live everywhere where trees are. There's only one tree in the whole map? There be elves.

PS: I don't get the declining old race trope. Where did that start? I really want to know.

[Egan_BW]

PS: I don't get the declining old race trope. Where did that start? I really want to know.

Tolkien, I guess? In Lord of the Rings the elves had their time in the past and now it's the time of humans, and by the ends of the books the Elves are straight-up leaving because it's time to leave. I'm not sure if it showed up anywhere before that.

[anewaname]

...
c) and druids, which would be like necromancers only for elves and trees or/and like ASOIAF's skinchangers - Imagine that, a squirrel deactivating your traps! Elephant building destroyers. Who needs elves riding dragons when the dragon is one?
...

Agitated wildlife raids that are sent by elven druids and arrive clad in grown wooden armor, and with some combat skill. Since players enjoy their highly savage worlds, they'll also enjoy the horror of wooden armor so heavy and thick that steel maces bounce off it.

[Nordlicht]

PS: I don't get the declining old race trope. Where did that start? I really want to know.

Tolkien, I guess? In Lord of the Rings the elves had their time in the past and now it's the time of humans, and by the ends of the books the Elves are straight-up leaving because it's time to leave. I'm not sure if it showed up anywhere before that.

I wonder if it is some collective memory from the fall of the roman empire. I think their monuments hugely influenced the advanced old race trope.