When creating your magic system, one thing to consider is how powerful the magic can be. Can magic do literally anything? Are the most skilled spellcasters only able to do minor effects not much better than those of a stage magician? There are pluses and minuses to either of these takes.
An example of a setting with an extremely powerful spell system is the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Those few people who can wield magic are fantastically powerful. The most skilled swordsman in the world, including those who wield magical weapons, have almost no chance against someone who can wield the power of the storm. In the second book, an assassin with the skill to use magic and has a magical sword faces off against three people wielding similarly powerful swords and wearing magical. One is a champion duelist, another is a general and among the most feared fighters in the realm, and the third is a trainee. They are prepared for an attack. The assassin wipes the walls with them. The only reason that they don’t all die is that the protagonist also wields this magic, albeit without nearly the skill, and helps the other three. Other examples include the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, the World of Darkness roleplaying game, and the Star Wars movies.
The advantage of this option is that it is an easy way to differentiate the protagonists and antagonists from everyone else. For writing, this can work very well. Everyone likes watching and reading about characters who can do cool and unique things. The disadvantage of this power level is that the only thing that can possibly challenge a character like this is a character with similar powers. If you are running or creating a game, it will quickly become apparent that there is no reason to play anything except a spellcaster. This can lead to a lot of conformity within the game. Unless the whole point of the game is to deal with other major powers like this, it can become frustrating or boring for people who aren’t interested in that sort of character.
An example of a setting with an extremely weak spell system is the movie Dragonslayer. Throughout the movie, the only things the protagonist can control are minor effects. Most of the time, magic is basically luck or accident. However, the caster does have one or two really powerful spells. In Dragonslayer, the master wizard can cheat death once (and only once) and eventually kills the dragon in a massive explosion (again, only once).
The advantage of this power level is that other types of characters can take center stage. The spellcasting characters are still useful, but they need to have others (perhaps many others) to actually do anything. The disadvantage is that in these settings, the spellcaster is most likely to be a support character. In a book or movie, that’s probably not a problem. In a game, however, you’ll run into the same problem as above. People who like playing spellcasters will be frustrated or bored with the game, which is sort of a problem. The point of any game is to have fun, after all.
Usually, trying to balance the power of magic with other skills is your best solution. This is actually unbelievably difficult, but I believe worth the effort. Many roleplaying games make attempts at doing this (poorly most of the time, in my opinion). Computer games like the Elder Scrolls series, the Diablo series, and World of Warcraft all do a decent job of achieving this balance.
The advantage of having a balanced power level is that every character can shine in their own way. It keeps things interesting and entertaining for everyone involved. The disadvantage is that figuring out how to do this can be a really, really difficult. Getting it wrong can give you some of the disadvantages of the other extremes of the power scale discussed above.
Let me know what you think. If there’s a particularly balanced spell system you like, let me know in the comments. See you next week!
