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.
@Butterbee makes a good point that it’s hard to effectively brainstorm some nitty gritty without knowing the function being designed for, and @TheOneCurly makes a good point about magical rarity vs density in the population, since knowing that provides avenues to mitigate the occurrence of “blow up a city” displays; perhaps ability is common but strength or capability is rarer, or the casting of magic is detectable, discernable, and/or able to be countered.
I immediately have a few thoughts and questions:
Does the casting of the magic have verbal, material, or motion requirements? Or is the gathering of magical energies for a given effect visible to everyone, rather than only the gifted/trained? Many times the visual component as described in writing or portrayed in the case of visual media is a device meant to help the reader imagine the world or to let the viewer know that something is going on. What works best for your setting?
How much of a distinction between “creating” and “converting” are you looking to explain? For example, one could “create” a rock from the air to laypeople but has really gathered surrounding particulate from the area and condensed it. There can be a distinction between what it’s rumored to be capable of and how it actually works.
What are the costs of magic, and how does that implication impact society in your setting? With physical materials, high impact magic can have high costs for the material required - manipulating time requires wood from a stand of the oldest trees in the world, or a fireball of a given size requires a comparable diamond to convert the amount of heat and pressure it’s undergone.
If it’s effort based, what is the toll on the body of the caster? Can they increase the effect of their magic by exertion and exhaust themselves into fugues or comas? Draw so much through themselves that they lose the ability altogether, or die? Use it for so long that their body itself begins to unravel from the strain?
I think, based on what story you’re aiming to tell, that you can set a limitation on what can be achieved through any number of factors. There can be an unlimited amount of usable magical energy (and potential devastation) and a perfectly normal reason that one can’t actually wield more than is appropriate for the moment of the story.