18 Ways to Write Unique Magic Systems

Here's 18 techniques for creating unique magic systems that make your fantasy novel stand out from the crowd.

⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction
00:19 - Relate to social status
00:41 - Food based
01:43 - Place specific
02:12 - Core emotion
02:47 - Group reliant
03:08 - Seasonal
03:45 - Limits
04:32 - Modern tech
05:55 - Memory manipulation
06:53 - Art based
07:18 - Limited use
07:54 - Backwards from consequence
08:36 - Ancestral
09:26 - Sacrifice
10:02 - Inter personal transfer
10:27 - Natural phenomenon
11:00 - Astronomical alignments
11:27 - Niche interest

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[Jed_Herne]

My next fantasy novel, Kingdom of Dragons, launches on Kickstarter on November 2nd!

[turtleninjatn]

This isn't really 18 methods but more 18 examples.

[shieldgenerator]

in one story im writing, the magic system is unpredictable. when people die, they bestow a certain power onto an item that they cherished in life, and then when their descendants inherit that item, they have a powerful artifact to help them through their troubles. but what power does the artifact have? it depends on the deceased one's wishes and goals, and the circumstances surrounding their death.
for example, one guy died by falling through a frozen river, and now his detached foot freezes water in an AoE, making it safer to cross rivers for the other people who use the artifact.

[captainladybug]

With the magic system in my current story, the characters have to chase after fireflies and use things that glow to do magic. It can't be something like actual fire, but they can take the glow from bioluminescent mushrooms and do little cleaning spells.

[MatrixQ]

I've written a short story once with magic based on music. It was an epic battle between a religious protagonist and a biker gang bad guy. Pretty cliche, yes, but they ended up battling above the city and the bad guy was blasting heavy metal from speakers which powered his magic, until the protagonist lured him close to a nearby church and used the power of the gospel choir inside to overpower him.

[starfish]

I love One Piece's system, it's so original. You can obtain a specific power by eating a devil fruit at the cost of unable to swim. Also, "only" one fruit power for one person.
And the author, for 20+ years, has keep the mystery of the fruit's origin. it intrigues us.

[TheKulu]

You've given me a lot to think about. One magic system, as one could call it, in a steampunk alternate history I'm writing involves psychometry, learning by touching objects. Alas, it's a skill that must be learned, and not easily. And constantly "reading' the wrong items can lead to madness. You've made me realize I must consider other rules, too.

[wqzobfw]

I am truly fascinated by how this absolute unit of a man reveals every writing secret entirely for free.

Hope there will be a lot of great fantasy books this decade.

[marvingray]

These are so useful! The last one especially is really easy to use. I used to be into origami, but I only ever learned the pattern of folds for a lily, so I used that to create a character that gave origami lilies as gifts only to find out that he had the unfortunate and unintentional ability that wove a death-curse into every paper flower, killing every recipient one by one.

[nothing_here.]

1 : in my power system one of adventures a person's social standing is based off of two things bloodline, and adventurer rank.

In a world of adventurers with the ranks going from bronze all the way up to Platinum every rank increase basically means a social standing increase along with that if a person has a certain bloodline that can be scaled between five people.

Poor, commoners, casual, nobility, royalty.

They're all so many individual subtypes of each of these stages but they all remain as the main ones.

-

( Since this is really a type of power I'll just talk about all the abilities that are similar )

2: by utilizing one's configuration skills etc etc a person can gain many abilities similar to a food-based power.

For example one such skill known as *food prism* allows a person to generate a certain type of Aether ( not stronger than elemental aether ) which will allow the user to utilize a more diverse amount of skills and abilities.

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( Also practically ability however in this case I will talk about configurations )

3: configurations are abilities invented created and given by the Advents many of which are place specific types.

There are five types of configurations. Focused, Dominion, enhanced, elemental, soul.

The Dominion sector of configurations focuses on utilizing the environment or maybe creating some sort of zone or dome to activate a person's configuration.

Most of these configurations are also used by people with high energy reserves and the ability to utilize their own celestial terrain multiple times.

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4: The power system itself is based off of the wonders and joy that are supposed to be enjoyed by adventures.

An adventure is supposed to enjoy their journey and go out to find things until they retire and feel as much joy they can while gaining strength to find more things to enjoy.

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5: group reliance abilities also go into the Dominion category however they also go into the enhanced category which is the first fused category I will be mentioning. The support category.

The support category is based off enhancing multiple people at once with either a skill or configuration for example healing multiple people adding an attack boosting effects or maybe even going on to the opposite category known as the decrease category.

For a type of configuration or skill like this to be used there has to be people and targets around the area whether it be monsters humans or some other race.

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6: seasonal based magic goes into the Dominion category or maybe celestial terrains.

Celestial terrains otherwise he has the peak of configurations and skills focuses on the insignia ( Aether core ) inside of a person's body and releases it in a solidified form which takes extreme practice.

Of course it wouldn't be really affected by the surroundings but really it would more be affected by what type of Aether a person has and if a person has seasonal Aether then it would definitely be possible for a person celestial terrain to change.

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7: there are multiple limits through using things like a celestial terrain or configuration.

Some configurations take a large amount of energy or maybe just the entire pool of energy that a person has no matter what and some depending on how powerful they are even take away life force as well.

A person celestial terrain if not mastered could also be potentially dangerous to the user especially life threatening or maybe even crippling.

Aether control inn of itself is pretty hard to master therefore learning skills without some sort of skill book is also pretty hard unless a person has very good talent.

This doesn't even include other things like an incarnation which solidifies a person's Aether while following the shape of their soul to create a sort of stand if you will but even that takes a large amount of practice to manipulate Aether and the fact that it takes a large amount of energy to use anyways.

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8: The modern technology inside of the age of adventurers is very much large.

There are many such ways to cure currently almost incurable diseases like skin cancer or maybe normal cancer unfortunately along with that new diseases arise for example life draining which occurs when a person utilizes their celestial terrain without practice therefore some of their life force would be stolen and they would basically be temporarily crippled.

There are even multiple ways of teleportation although trains and cars still do exist as teleportation and if itself is pretty expensive especially with how rare it is to actually find teleportation configurations or skills let alone someone with a space attribute.

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9: memories a strange concept indeed, memories are said to exist inside of the soul so people who want to work around memories normally work around the soul but the closest a person can get to materializing memories would therefore be an incarnation which is basically just energy revolving in the form of a person's soul and a partial fragment of their Advent so unfortunately there is no actual way to materialize memories however there is a way to send them to other people.

By intruding your own energy into a person's body then you can infiltrate the system and go into their brain do this you can simply just upload a fragment of your incarnation ( which can easily be regenerated ) to give another person your memories while still keeping them basically it would be a duplicate.

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10 : art base stabilities already exist with paint Aether or incarnations which really just *sculp* out of person soul.

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7:26

( Final one before i stop )


11 : The limited use for all of these abilities is that they're practically is none other than configurations. For skills you can only learn a certain number of skills if you have an attribute for them.

However other than that you could even use some sort of relic and learn that skill but can only use it with the relic or maybe you'll find some sort of item which can somehow give you an attribute so it is possible.

For a configuration on the other hand once you upgrade adventure ranks the configuration is evolved in strengthened into a better version however other than that better version you can't just go back to its old one.

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[ShirleyCurryTheOlderGamer]

Enjoyed this so much! I copied every tip you gave us!! Thank you 👍

[IgnumC]

The seasonal One reminds me of Avatar the Last airbender like how during the day, Fire benders are stronger while during the night, water benders are and the moon phase also effects it

[alnahdia]

I cant get over the fact how creative and amazing you are, i was just watching your video with huge smile on my face, you are the joy of writing!!

[MRSOMEAWE]

Point 12 is what I use in my power system because losing your sanity is one of the things that you can rarely regain. Limitations are more interesting than powers so you have to vary them across your story. I also use point 17 because my world has 3 moons that are the cause of the worlds power system, so whenever one of them is full, the magic user becomes twice as powerful. Anyway, thanks for the tips and I hope to see everyones writing improve from them!

[PhoenixCrown]

#7 is so good. Placing limitations on magic is necessary for tension in your story. It's one thing for the reader to not understand exactly what the magic can do--that can inspire awe and wonder--and another to create constant deus ex machinas because now that the MC finds herself in a fiery pit, she just so happens to be able to create water to put it out.

[lazar]

This is the most somebody has stirred my brain EVER in my life. I have so many ideas now! Thank you so much!

[MemphiStig]

I love all the creative ideas for magic I'm seeing these days. I've seen several systems in the last few years that really impress me. And of course yt is filled with great videos like this. No one should ever want for inspiration anymore. Time however is another matter. (i don't think you mentioned that magic system...)

[bennysundance]

I love hearing about ideas for magic systems, Hyped for the turnament!

[hiro]

This finally gave me the breakthrough I needed to develop my magic system that I've been putting off. It gave me an idea that actually ties in perfectly with a key important climatic moment, making it all the more impactful.

[pineforest]

I have an interesting idea for a magic system. In this system, some people have the natural ability to shapeshift into whatever animal they want. This has two limitations. First, the person has to see what an animal looks like in real life or art or descriptions. Second is energy. Holding a form costs energy. While the original form of the shapeshifter has no cost, other forms do. It is tied to hunger. The larger the animal, the quicker it becomes hungry. At that point they will revert back to their normal form. (Still working out the details on this magic system)