More on Magic

Last night I was playing Mass Effect 2 again (I expect Me3 to arrive tomorrow or saturday, so don't hold your breath for updates next week ) and there were a number of scenes that were pretty much a psion fighting a psychic warrior. And I think it's so much cooler than old men in dresses throwing magic missiles and turning each other into toads.

Now, I've written about the mechanics of magic before, but still have not fully decided what magic actually can and can not do. Fluff comes first and how to represent it in specific rules is a later step. The wizard archetype has already been scrapped in favor of more sorcerer-like mages. Which means mages that are not neccessarily scholars and spend their time with books and scrolls, and in turn are more ordinary people. With magic powers.

I like magic that is quite "physical" and relies extensively on manipulating people and the environment. Avatar also has lots of cool scenes with people basically punching each other with magic. A bit too kung fu for me, but I love the idea much more than people facing each other and basically fighting by reciting poetry at each other. When focusing magic too much on physical strength and combat, there's the threat of magic becoming too common and every warrior wanting to have it, so finding a good balance is important.

What magic can not do:
- Seeing the future (though communing with spirits to learn what's been going on so far and making good guesses about what's happening next still works).
- Manipulate time (but super-speed is possible)
- Bringing back the dead after the spirit has departed the body (which is about a week).
- Teleportation (though you can take shortcuts through the shadow world, where distances are shorter).
- No extradimensional spaces (bag of holding, rope trick, magnificent mansion)
- Create force barriers (which includes such D&D classics like shield and wall of force)
- Create matter (but shaping matter is fine)

What magic can do:
- Create fire and lightning.
- Dampening weapon and elemental damage.
- Improve strength and speed.
- Restore health and drain life energy.
- Shapechanging.
- Crude telekinesis (great weight and size, but poor accuracy)
- Mind control
- Telepathy (talking to both people and spirits)

What do you think? Do you think it would be a good idea to make combat magic basically mages throwing things at each other and pushing each other over ledges. It feels more naturally evolved to me than saying magic words and something pops out of nothing. But there's a risk of magic becoming too mundane at which point warriors would ask themselves why they don't learn to get super strength, leap over buildings, and smash walls with their fist. The Jedi and the Witchers are cool, but I'd like magic to be confined to a small and rather exclusive group.