Building a slightly different magic system. (I would like your opinions)

[mikkelkp112]

Hello one and all who read this. I would like your opinion on some recent work of mine in creating a slightly different magic system. I will note that this is a Work in progress in the early stages. Prepare for a wall of text.
I am currently also play testing this system.

Magic

A person can first make a pact with a being when reaching the age of 18 years old for humans or your races age of reaching adulthood.
To be granted access to magic in general you need to have made a pact with a spirit of the given element or “aspect” that you want to use. You are the first of a line of mages if you choose this option since magic has just entered the world. There are the following aspects and elements:

Fire
Air
Water
Earth
Death
Life
Celestial (Rare)
Demonic (Rare)
Summoning (Rare)
Illusion (Rare)
Anti Magic (Very Rare)
Spirit (Very Rare)

The Basics of Magic

Magic is a way of manipulating the world around you using the forces of a mysterious creature that you make a pact with. People new to magic can only have a single pact. Currently the world doesn't know a lot about magic or how it works. A Wizard, Sorcerer or Warlock will just have to trust the strange creatures that they strike a pact with. It is not unusual for a spell to consume some kind of material like a floating ball of fire to light your path could consume a jar of oil slowly, dying out when the jar has no more oil. Objects used for consumption by a spell has to be marked by the user, using the creature he has made a pacts with mark. It is possible to have all your stuff put away in a warehouse somewhere. (Mostly it takes awhile to accumulate a good amount of materials usable for spells since some creatures demand high quality materials as a means to cast empowered basic spells.) In some cases though far from all magic can also be heavily tied to a person or creatures emotions.

Once a spell in cast there is rarely any way to stop it unless using its opposing elemental force. The only way to really stop magic are having a pact with an Anti Magic being. Now this doesn't automatically stop all spells but it gives you spells to counter, nullify, redirect or deflect other kinds of magic. While other types of magic can do those things but only against very weak spells, Anti Magic is often used by witch hunters and inquisitors to fight against magic users and demons.

The Categories and Forms of Magic

Magic comes in many shapes and forms throughout the world, most of those forms yet remain mysterious and undiscovered. Each day the races of the world discover more and more about magic. The power of a particular magical energy is categorized by using a simple system with 4 levels.

Level 1:
This level holds the spells that only affect the world in minor ways within each type of magic. It also holds several miniscule artifacts and herbs. It is possible to find some materials that might be useful to craft some kind of magical artifact but they would never come to have very great effects. When almost any mage first starts out this is the only kind of spells they are able to cast.

Level 2:
This level holds spells which moderately affects the world within each type of magic. This also holds the artifacts that so called “Heroes” wield. Herbs in this category tend to be almost as destructive as helpful if used in a different way. It is possible to find rare materials that are able to be used to make decently stronger magical artifacts. A Summoning and Anti Magic mage both start with this level since the monsters conjured are of greater power than their summoner. Anti Magic starts here since they are able to effectively counter most other spellcasters.

Level 3:
This level holds spells which greatly affects the world within each type of magic. This also holds artifacts that were wielded by so called “Hero Kings” leaders with tremendous influence as well as great power. Herbs and materials with a Level 3 classifications are extremely rare to come by.

Level 4:
This level holds spells that can be so catastrophic in nature that if used wrongly they often have the potential to cause apocalyptic events. This also holds artifacts that are only described in legends, myths and fairy tales. Herbs and materials with a Level 4 classification practically ensures death to those who tries to acquire them. Mages able to cast spells of a Level 4 classification are called “Lorewalkers”.


Learning Magic

When a mage gains the ability to use magic there are several ways that they can learn to cast specific spells, some spells can only be learnt certain ways while others can be learned in several ways. Spells can be learned/taught through master and apprentice schooling, scrolls holding the knowledge of a spell in a written form, through the guidance of the creature you made a pact with and through development of own spells.

Developing a spell takes years, far longer than merely learning a spell. To learn how to cast spells perfectly are as well more time consuming. While both of these things have a significant bonus in some ways it also comes with a lot of disadvantages relating to the process of how it is done. This process is still widely shrouded in mystery and it is very rare to find spells created by mages themselves even though some mages have dedicated their entire existences to it.

In general it takes 4 focused hours to learn how to cast a spell classified as lvl 1. 8 hours for a spell classified as lvl 2. 16 hours for a spell classified as lvl 3 and 2-10 weeks for a spell classified as lvl 4.


Using Magic

Using magic is a complicated jumble of incantations and motions. As you get better though you learn to minimize the amount of “effort” in casting spells. Casting a spell also strains your body since masses of volatile magical energies run through your body. There are many ways of getting around this with different catalysts but they might come with their own side effects. In this magic system there will always be a 1% spell failure chance no matter the spell. No person, spell or being is ever truly perfect. Things such as armor and magical catalysts have the possibility to increase the spell failure chance, especially heavy sets of armor increases it quite a bit. Catalysts might allow you to bypass certain spell requirements or some of the strain that your body takes. Intelligence and knowledge of spells increases one's proficiency to cast them safely with minimal strain.

The strain that a spell takes on your body is used to measure how many spells you can cast without harming or potentially killing yourself from it. At any given time you can cast a total of ( (lvl + spell score modifier (INT))*pact lvl ) of any given elemental spell or aspect spell.

Now this means that if your lvl 1 and your int mod is +3, you have a pact of fire and a pact of water. You would be able to cast 4 fire spells and 4 water spells.
If you are lvl 1 and your int mod is +3, you have a lvl 2 pact of fire and a lvl 1 pact of water. You would be able to cast 8 fire spells and 4 water spells.
(Both these examples are technically impossible since at lvl 1 you can only have 1 pact and a lvl 1 would never be able to have a lvl 2 and a lvl 1 pact. But the examples numbers still fit)

A thing many young mages neglect to do incantations and the correct motions, their long their bothersome and they don't often make that much sense. But master mages and other spell casters know that with the incantation and motions comes extra power. The incantations and motions help synchronize the caster and the creature of the pact so they can work in complete unison. This is essentially what your spell failure roll is.

The Pact

When a mage comes of age they have to form a pact with a magical creature of some sort to be allowed to channel that creature's power through their body to manipulate the world around them. This pact is usually formed by using a ritual of summoning. Usually this ritual requires some sort of minor sacrifice. Most mages tend to buy some sort of farm animal or domesticated animal that they then use as a blood sacrifice. This however is not always the most effective way of doing it. Most often magical creatures tend to be drawn more towards items that have a significant emotional connection to their owner. The locket of one's dead parent/s, or something else in that direction. The mage can summon a creature of any school of magic however creatures with the abilities to use spirit magic or anti magic tend to refuse weak mages seeing as their magic puts a lot more strain on the body on the mage than the other forms of magic.

After the creature is summoned the negotiation phase begins. Here the creature will set terms and conditions that has to be followed by the mage. Usually this is just small things such as when the mage dies all the magical energies the mage's body has gathered after the prolonged exposure to the creatures magic are fed to the creature. Along with any extra magic their natural body may have gathered after becoming more attuned to having magic flow through them. This is the most common Pact condition. As a mage reaches enough strength to proceed to the next stage of spells the pact can either be renegotiated or terminated and a new pact can be made with another creature within the same type of magic which the user's body has been attuned to. The new terms of a pact as the mage becomes stronger and require more of the creature's power usually does not change. But in some cases the creature will ask for something more. This is usually if the creature is immensely powerful. They might send the mage on a quest or give them some other conditions they have to follow. This is most oftenly not something that will help the mage in any way. But more of a challenge to see how worthy the mage is of the creature’s power. In some rare cases this task has to be complete before the user gains all the spells from the new pact lvl. So the mage might get the first one or two spells that he then has along with the spells from his previous pact to complete the task. The creature might set conditions for the way the mage has to live. In some cases a sacrifice has to be made to the creature. This could be a strong creature or maybe even a powerful noble.

After the pact has been made and possible tasks or sacrifices has been completed. The mage can go on with his/her life as normal. Spells incantations and movements work to synchronize the movement and energies between the creature and the mage whenever they cast a spell. This is all the creature can really do to manipulate the mage. The creature, even though a part of it rests within you, does not any knowledge of where you are, not because they don't know the place but simply because they can't see, smell, feel or hear it.

[Duff]

Would be easier to form opinions if you gave some more idea of power levels. Examples would be good.

Also, do you see the specific pact as important?
Do players/characters negotiate the deal of is it mostly done "Offscreen"?

Does the pact entity play a role in the life of the character?

[mikkelkp112]

The first pact formed which will mostly be at lvl 1 is mostly offscreen and might help add some backstory to the character. Where as the more powerful pacts that are attained at lvl 5, 10 and 15 are negotiated through rp as they might get set substantial tasks by the creature they form a higher level pact with in trade for the power. The mage might get set certain rules for their life.

I have yet to create any spells stronger than lvl 1.
But here is a few lvl 1 spells:

Firebolt
Incantation: Like red wyrms from the south, while they bake under the desert sun, grant me the power of fire!
Movement and fluff: The user moves his arms in front of him in a wide circle after he has dipped his palms in sulfur, as he moves his right leg out in front of him and makes a quarter circle in the ground in front of him, turning with the motion. You end up facing your target after the quarter turn, you put your hands to your mouth in a cupped shape and breathe into them as a bolt of fire forms in your hands, you then throw it at your target.
Natural Spell Failure Chance: 15%
Components: Sulfur
Effect: This is a ranged attack that deals 2d6 + ( int mod per lvl). If it crits the target is set on fire for 1d3 rounds dealing 1d6+(half int mod per lvl) as well as dealing the double damage as attacks normally do on a crit.

Summon Beast
Incantation: Come to me beast and lend me the power of nature!
Movement and Fluff: First the summoner takes out their ritual dagger and cuts their right palm. The summoner then puts the front of his/her wrists together with the fingertips and hands pointing away from each other with only the index and middle finger fully extended, they then turn and move their hands so the left hand is on top with the palm facing outwards and the front of that wrist touching the back of the right wrist and the fingers pointing to the sky, the right hand has the fingers pointing to the ground with the palm facing towards themselves. They then make a pushing motion forwards after which they pull out a handful of sand or dirt and throws into the air in front of them that then turns into a wild beast of small or medium size.
Natural Spell Failure Chance: 35%
Components: Ritual dagger, handful of sand or dirt, blood
Effect: Beasts only last for 1d6+ int + character lvl rounds. The user rolls a d4 to see what beast they summon. 1: Wolf, 2: Cheetah; 3: Poisonous Snake, 4: Spider.

Soothing Waves
Incantation: Spirits of the stream, lend me your gentle touch to soothe this creature's pain.
Movement and fluff: The user places a solution of water and healing herbs in a bowl in front of themselves while they sit on their knees with their backs straight. They then start gently moving their hands like gentle waves towards their target. The water then snakes its way through the air over to the target. As the water arrives it lays on top of the wounds like a second skin while increasing the potency of the herbs and natural healing rate.
Natural Spell Failure Chance: 15%
Components: Bowl (Reusable), Water, Standard Healing Herbs.
Effect: If this spell is successful you heal your target 1d6 per lvl + your healing skill total. If this spell succeeds on its spell failure check with a roll of 80 to 94 above the healing done also cures any status effects and ability damage. IF the spell succeeds with a 95 to a 100 the healing is doubled and the healing also cures status effects and ability damage.

Fel Orb
Incantation: I shall incinerate the puny mortal being that stands before me!
Movement and Fluff: The user pulls out a handful of sulfur infused with demonic blood and holds it palm and sulfur facing the sky. It then ignites into a big orb of wild green flames which the user hauls at his target. This fire enters the target's body and burns them from the inside out.
Natural Spell Failure Chance: 30%
Components: Sulfur infused with demonic blood.
Effect: This is a ranged attack roll. This has a range of 75ft + 5 ft per lvl. This spell deals 1d10 + (int mod per lvl) damage. On a critical hit this deals double damage and deals your lvl worth of con damage.

I have added the next subchapter of the magic part in the previous post. Its called "The Pact".