I’m trying to write a story and have been stuck in the “as wide as the sea and as deep as a puddle” phase so I’ve decided to flesh out the mechanics first so i want your help making a magic system for it.
I’m trying to set a power level for it, making matter is way too OP energy wise and I’m trying to keep this a hard magic system so I’m not adding that. on the other hand lot’s of shows, novels and such use some form of glowing translucent matter or using magic as an applied force rather than item, that’s what I’m going for. so here is my question for this part. how powerful should it be?
i want it to be able to have a tangible influence otherwise it would be too dull, but i also want it grounded in some level of sense, making matter is way too energy intensive (except for light, otherwise it wouldn’t be visible at all.) so, what should i do? I’ve tried mathing it out to get a rough estimate and it’s finicky, it’s either too strong and they could blow up a city or it’s too weak and they can barely make a light breeze.
i like trying to get into the nitty gritty of the details so if anyone here has ideas or alternative completely please tell me I’m happy for any help.
How many magic users do you expect there to be in a given area? 1 per nation means you could make them pretty strong and influential but their abilities are limited by their physical presence, so most people are relying on traditional methods to do things and the fact that the wizard can make water or food is pretty meaningless. You still have to farm.
You can also limit magic by making it cost something. Some fantasy makes it physically exhausting, costing rest and food. That can be fun because dramatic, high emotion situations inherently allow for more dramatic uses of magic. It can also cost physical components, stronger magics utilize more or rarer components. That limits how a society might use magic to replace mundane tasks. Medieval peasant labor is going to be cheaper than whatever costly magic can offer.