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[lordcooper]

So I remember reading a few examples of possible magic somewhere on these forums.

They seemed pretty abstract (which I like.)  Things like a container increasing the quality of stored goods, portal doors and the like.

All cool, but how about the obvious incarnation?  One that would fit in easily with the next release?  The DWARFMAGE!

The easiest way to handle the mechanics of this would probably be to use a variant of the fire-imp fireball attack.
Dwarfmages would be 'championed' instantly and the player would be unable to unrecruit them.  After being chosen as a Dwarfmage, Urist McMagic would spend all his time in a temple type building, studying the arcane.

There would be a small chance of having a breakthrough each season, possibly having the percentage based on the dwarves 'will'.

Each dwarf can only learn one type of magic.

Types include:

Fireball:  Obvious
Lighning strike:  Obvious
Healing:  Can heal one dwarf per year (Gives an incentive to keeping injured champs etc alive)
Teleportation:  Teleports a group (5 max) of hostile creatues to a random outside tile (useful to breack down large sieges)

etc etc

Many more possible, but these are the main ones I'd love to see.

[Capntastic]

Magic is pretty much post 1.0 stuff, so it can't 'fit easily in the next release'.   It's not really going to be in for a few years.

Also, the types of magic you suggested are pretty much specifically what Toady has said (as recently as this month's podcast) what he doesn't want to do.

[lordcooper]

Not even alongside the more 'subtle/fantastic' magics?

I can see this as being the lowest common form of it, as artifact (enchantments) would be far more impressive.

[Bricks]

You probably read http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=39965.0.

Most players are against a commonplace, flashy magic system, and prefer one that goes back to source material.  Still, I think you would be able to implement that sort of magic through modding.

[Phelix]

Bah magic something only a daft human or hippie elf would use. Real dwarves chain magic too items forging magic weapons and armor!

[JohnieRWilkins]

Not even alongside the more 'subtle/fantastic' magics?

I can see this as being the lowest common form of it, as artifact (enchantments) would be far more impressive.

"Not even the measely firebolt?" "What about an ice blast?" "No storm wind gust for 5d20damages?"

Nope.

Although I would like to think that a wizard noble would be available in the future, I doubt that he'd work in the way you'd imagine. He'd maybe do stuff like turn the river into beer or get angered at having a mandate ignored and turn your miners into various cattle/summon flying zombie carp.

[Grimlocke]

Bah magic something only a daft human or hippie elf would use. Real dwarves chain magic too items forging magic weapons and armor!

Or more likely, magical socks and mugs.

Toady wont be making such a system though, and modding it in the way you imagine it wont be possible untill the raws covers most of games mechanics.

[Candlejack]

Isn't dwarf fortress magic going to be similar to Lord of the Rings magic?

[Capntastic]

Toady's spent a good deal of energy explaining what he doesn't want DF magic to be, while putting equal force explaining that he has no idea what he wants to do.

[Aquillion]

Toady's spent a good deal of energy explaining what he doesn't want DF magic to be, while putting equal force explaining that he has no idea what he wants to do.

Some things have been specified concretely...

He wants to do a Wizard Tower mode, eventually.  This is where the player is most likely to get the most powerful magic at their fingertips -- I think the general implication is that in Dwarf Fortress mode, it's more likely to be used against you than by you.

Regarding calling down thunderbolts or hurling mighty blasts of fire, he's said that he wants the game to have a generalized framework for creating magic systems, rather than focusing on making one specific vanilla magic system.  The idea is that individual worlds might even have their own randomized magic systems or whatever.  So, you might have one world where magic is all about chanting words and making things burst into flames, and another where it's all about scratching runes or catching a special disease or who knows what else.

However, the key thing to remember is that Dwarf Fortress is not supposed to be a generic fantasy world -- it is supposed to be a generic fantasy world generator.  The things we associate with generic fantasy will be there and available, just not hard-coded into one concrete form.

[Hungry]

*Has a vision of a Elven Masterwizard leading a horde of goblins tearing its way through a seiged Dwarven Fortress, claiming its grounds for Tree magic...*

[Neonivek]

Yeah the things he spoke about for Wizard Mode is pretty interesting and some of the things we have now seem to originally be features planned for Wizard Mode.

Toady mainly from what I understand is that he wants to keep magic magical.

[Bricks]

He'd maybe do stuff like turn the river into beer

Totally read that as turn the river into bears.  That is the sort of magic I want.

[ArkDelgato]

Borgle the wizard demands a crystal glass sock!

And after a nice dip in the magma, he emerges unscathed (and unclothed) and changes beards into 70's sitcom laugh tracks.

OH THE HORROR

[Sensei]

Maybe the wizard can make pewter and black bronze mugs when you really need it?