Favorite Bit of Magic

[keradi01]

Since I'm waiting for approval I thought I should do something a little extra other than going around and saying hi. Since this is a role-playing website, I thought do something based on role-playing games and one of my favorite things from such games is magic.

So in order to better integrate myself I wanted to ask people to share what magic spell or magic item (from any role-playing game) is their favorite and how you'd use it in everyday life?

I for example adore the Alter Self spell from 3.5 edition DnD because it'd pretty much allow me to look however I want. I could look younger and cuter, or older and more beautiful. Heck I could even flip genders if I wanted to and I'd just use it so that whenever I go out of the house, or for the hell of it, I can go out looking like someone new. Not worry about bumping into acquaintances or end up becoming the victim of "Oh hey I think I saw you the other day" people that just want to talk because they've seen you before. 

[Vekseid]

Legend of the Five Rings 1e: Earthquake. "Casting this spell on another clan's territory is considered an act of war." Though Take Name and the Void spell that dissolves people's existence are pretty cool too from a thematic perspective.

D&D: I tend to abuse Invisibility a lot. The 3.0 Greater Invisibility was nicely broken and just plain rude in that regard, especially with Flight active. A friend of mine, in criticizing high-level games, was fond of asking how a town could handle a monster like a beholder. Forget that - a seventh level wizard who knows what he (or she) is doing is crazy dangerous.

Anima: As whacked as it is, I find the Chimera spell awesome - you can ascend as a starting character.

7th Sea: Glamer magic is probably the sort of  thing you'll love if you like alter self. Unlike D&D it doesn't trend for the flashy so much, the illusions are by far the most useful.

Exalted: Imbue Amalgam. "Just lay down here for a bit whilst I turn you into an eldritch abomination." I got a lot of mileage out of Ritual of Elemental Empowerment, though. Full Plate a problem in the heated summer of the South? Just let me look at it for a bit...

[TentacleFan]

Various types of casters and magic users are my favorite type to play in such games as well.

For D&D one of my favorite both as a player and GM in 3rd Edition was Polymorph. I had all sorts of fun with that spell. One of my wizards turned a hill giant into a box turtle, and since the spell left him with the Hit Points of a Hill Giant he had a rather sturdy pet. One of my villains turned the parties mage in another campaign into a black house cat who could still speak thanks to a permanent tongues spell that had been cast upon him. He considered staying that way for a short while before realizing spells with material components proved mighty hard to cast with no opposable thumbs.

I agree with you Vekseid that Greater Invisibility was just plain broken there. Another couple of pretty broken spells were Harm in 3.0 (fixed in 3.5) and Haste in 3.0 (also fixed in 3.5) Harm put anything at 1d4 Hit Points with only spell resistance giving any chance to stop it. I had a very old, very big red dragon fight turn into a one shot thanks to a druid with a prepped harm spell and the hasted action to stab it once with her dagger before it could even go. I used that combo as an evil cleric to one shot a paladin in another game as well. Haste was extra nasty because it let you cast 2 spells in 1 round before they tweaked it. Add a quickened spell and you could get 3 spells off in a single round at higher levels.

[Mr Self Destruct]

Polymorph by far!  Every wizard I've made has always had one on hand, and usually ended up turning into a giant red dragon or some such large nasty in order to devestate his foes!  ;D

Good times. lol

[OrchidofDarkness]

My favorite spell from D&D is clone self. Makes great for when you have to be in two places at once and when you get into a fight with orcs or drow or something to that nature.

[Lilias]

MtA nut here, so this comes as no surprise:

Iron Avatar (●●● Life, ●●● Matter, ●● Mind, ●● Prime)
By attuning herself to the essence of Kali, a Chakravat assumes the guise of her goddess. (Male Euthanatoi channel Shiva the Destroyer, instead.) As sharp blades grow from her nimble hands, she spins into a dance of blood and madness that ends when her enemies have been reduced to severed limbs.

[This infamous battle-guise, now identified with the archmage Voormas, resembles the Akashic Brotherhood rote Avatar Form. The spectacle of six-armed Akashics battling eight-armed Chakravanti found its way into Vedic folklore, which in turn influenced others to adopt the Iron Avatar technique.

[Vulgar Life magick shifts the mage into a 10-foot, eight-armed monstrosity; Matter creates the swords in the mystick’s hands and Prime keeps the whole thing going while Mind allows the mage to concentrate. The player gains six extra dice for her Dexterity + Melee pool, and adds one Health Level per success to her Health total. Clothing and/or gear does not grow with the mage, and may burst or tear away. Damage suffered in this form does not disappear when the Effect wears off; unless she heals her injuries, the mage may die when Kali’s favor departs.

[The essence of destruction incarnate drives the mage into a killing frenzy; until the Effect ends, she rages across the area, killing everyone in her path. The massive amount of energy the Avatar consumes limits the spell’s duration to two turns per success. After it ends, the Euthanatos collapses into a deep sleep for at least a day.]

I've never had the chance to actually cast it, but it's just too awesome. Most of the times I depended on mind tricks - either the scrambling or the enhancing kind.

[RecklessRapscallion]

MtA nut here, so this comes as no surprise:

I've never had the chance to actually cast it, but it's just too awesome. Most of the times I depended on mind tricks - either the scrambling or the enhancing kind.

I LOVE MTA!

Though I think my favorite magic system by far has to be the one in Unknown Armies, everything has a cost and depending on your school of magic you enact a payment for your power. To sum it up it is guided by three laws.

The Law of Symbolic Tension: Your magic is based on a paradox.

((Example: if you are a Entropomancer (Chaos Mage) you master and control chaos by surrendering yourself to it completely.))

The Law of Transaction: You got out of it only what you put into it.

((Example: Billy Bob needs a bit of luck, but he is all out of charges, but luckily he is in a casino. He has fifty dollars left in his wallet and decides to bet it at a whim, not knowing the outcome. Unfortunately the number her called was not the right number on the roulette table, but luckily since he put himself in a minor unpredictable situation he generated a minor charge and has enough juice to pull off some magical mojo.))

Charges are like mana but instead of using a universal mana point they come in three levels.

Minor: You engaged in an act that matches your Paradox and obsession in the most basic and simplistic form and for putting in a little work you get a little mojo.

Significant Charge: You put in a lot of work into your Paradox and Obsession and you git a powerful chunk of mojo back.

Major Charge: You did something on the massive scale that matches your Paradox and Obsession and you get a massive chunk of Mojo Back. ((These are really hard to get in game and when you get one you can do some crazy stuff, typically a campaign objective is receiving  a Major Charge.))

((For instance Billy Bob want's a bit more power then a Minor Charge, so instead he does the next best thing he pulls out a gun and begins robbing the Casino. Sure he is only one man and Casino's tend to have a lot of armed guards, but if he survives this Chaos will repay him in kind and he will get a significant charge.))

Law of Obedience: Your magic is the only magic for you.


((Example: Each magic is personal since magic is powered by an Obsession and a Paradox, Entropomancer's are obsessed with magic, Bibliomancers are obsessed with books and knowledge, and Cliomancers are obsessed with history. No one Adept is alike, there may be three Cliomancer's in a room but they all have different world views and their magic is heavily personalized.))

I hope I am not making it confusing it is actually a pretty simple system. >.<

[Callie Del Noire]

Oh yeah. Good old MTA. I loved that. Had one NPC the players HATED. John (stolen from Hellblazer) who used magic to do the scene from Books of magic (Keeping in mind that he'd done NOTHING more impressive than the Jedi Mind trick at the point. )

John Constantine: The boy’s mine. And in thirty seconds, me, and him, and the witch, are going to walk out of here. You know who I am. Or you ought to. You know my reputation. Now… does anyone here really want to start something?

John set the players up. Sent one player character to Prison so that they could be awakened. Left them to swing in a Tecnomancer gulag. (one week the game ended with DOZENS of hitMARKS coming over the hill. The next week began "You've been in the prison camp 8months....")

Mind magic, with a touch of spirit and Prime are LOTS of fun.

Last game I played before I enlisted ended with a bang.  Can you say.. Paradox Storm?


In other games like d&d it depends on the PC I'm playing. In 2nd edition I had one guy who liked to start trouble with cantrips. Things like spicy on someone's ale, unravel or pinch on the barmaid.