Fantasy magic systems ranked!

A quick tier list covering some (but not all) authors I've read. What's your fantasy magic system tier list?

#mariemullany #justintimeworlds #tierlist #fantasy #magicsystems

[ArthusRen]

Sometimes magic is better when it’s unexplainable and mysterious. I like hard magic systems too, but don’t knock soft ones. They aren’t intrinsically worse

[Amon-who-loves-monicals]

if you like complex magic systems i believe you would love a webnovel called lord of the mysteries it has a very complex and lore based system

[Colorlightt]

I know manga doesn't count but Nen from the Hunter x Hunter manga is my favorite. Where magic manifests into 6 different types depending on your personality, such as being stoic calm and calculating will manifest objects, or having a sneaky manipulative personality will manifest manipulative magic. Also they can place self imposed restrictions to increase the power of their abilities, such as being able to summon a powerful arsenal of weapons, but the weapon summoned is randomly selected .

[richmanifesto]

Potter and asoiaf should be flipped, westerosi magic is a lot more eldritch than it seems at first

[MalloonTarka]

I'm glad the magic in the Dresden Files is appreciated like this. It's really intricate and flavourful and leads to some great payoffs.

[iResonate]

I feel like people are too obsessed with hard magic systems. Magic imo is meant to be mysterious, unpredictable, wonderment, chaotic; it's magic! Idk, everyone trying to create such rigid and strict magic systems has made magic dull to me.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good hard system too, but EVERYONE trying to create one is stifling, idk.

[thegravityguy]

The magic of Mistborn has to be my favorite. It’s a hard magic system with 3 types of magic.
Allomancy: the simplest system but pretty neat. Allomancers have to fuel their powers with metal, different metals give different powers (pewter gives strength, iron pulls other metals, steel pushes other metals, etc.)
Feruchemy: a person can store aspects of themselves in metal, this means being weak while storing strength but then super strong as you use that stored up strength
Hemalurgy: this magic is evil. You can kill somebody else to take a power from them (but you can only steal one power per person you kill). The power is stored in a metal spike impaled into the person who get the power. You can also kill someone without power to create metal spikes that mutate humans into monsters

It’s one of the coolest sets of magic and my description doesn’t really do it justice

[leolewis]

Eragon/the inheritance cycle is definitely s tier to me. Everyone has a true name, that can change with the person, everything including the magic's own language has a true name. Learning magic and practicing it is like strengthening a muscle, you have to practice, it takes energy, you need rest and food to replenish, and you can even use wordless magic, though it's very dangerous. There's even more dangerous ways to do magic, with spirits and the possibility of shades. Dragons play a big role in the magic system (the series is about dragon riders) and they have their own connection to magic. Every race can practice the magic, elves, dwarves, humans, and others. It's very complex and engaging to read

[briappa]

I've read the entire "song of ice and fire", and i don't remember there being a solid magic system. I read it a long time ago, so i might not remember correctly, but it seemed like "weird things happen because of some weird reasons sometimes" kind of vibe. In that way i actually enjoyed it.

[romko]

The best or at least I love the most is from Avatar - the last airbender. Simple and absolutely beautiful with it's martial arts applied to it ❤

[Atrulion]

In Harry Potter, about the wand loyalty, no rules were changed. Voldemort just thought wands belonged to the one who killed the last owner when it was actually defeat. So when he heard defeat, he probably immediately thought "only killing works".

[marx]

L take on ASOIAF. IMO, the fact that its so soft makes it so much better of a compelling story cuz its directly tied to the narrative, as opposed to "ooh, look, I can summon a goddam meteor"

[Vahapetautus]

I don’t think you paid enough attention to a song of ice and fire. There is evidence first hand of Red God magic, corrupted blood magic and the drowned water magic. It is very intricate and has mountains of lore to support the way it works. I really don’t understand how it’s soft when it’s anything but soft, it’s gritty vengeful, sacrificial but also beautiful and curious. The books are also unfinished, but even with 5 books there’s so much going on, so much more to speculate as well. Truly baffled. Are you sure you read it and not just watched the dragon show?

[supersolomob]

I love hard magic systems that appear soft. It has an underlying logic that you could theorize about, and it adds a lot of mystery and intrigue when they hint at a deeper concept.
It’s not about soft magic or hard magic, all should be hard, just depends if we’re the submarine or the titanic with the iceberg.
Remember kids, hard is a lot more entertaining than soft

[Alexander-tuiv]

I really like asoiaf magic system. It's a really nice contrast to the grounded, gritty and politically complex aspects of the world.

The fact that no one really knows how it works or where it originates really makes it feel well.... magical

[anarchyandempires]

My favorite magic system is the one on college Algebra By Lial Hornsby.

It's a crazy complex system set with iron Plated Rules that haven't changed since the start of the story, it's such a complicated magic system that it can take decades to learn yet it's so powerful that at its highest tiers it can be used to destroy entire cities with a single spell.

For example there was this massive war halfway through the story in Wich basically the entire world was divided in two giant factions that were killing each other and the Master Mage Oppenheimer of the land of freedom Was desperately trying to develop an ultimate Spell before the other side, he feared that the land of darkness with all its Dark Magicians would unlock the ultimate tier spell and use it to destroy either the Kingdom of the Lion's or the Land of the Bear, yet surviving warlocks of the land of Northern Winters carried out an atack against the Dark Alchemist Fortress of the land of darkness that had been built in their fallen land destroying the sacred Water required for the ultimate spell forever keeping it from their evil hands, the land of darkness would ultimately fall to the combined armies of the alliance, the Wizard armies of the kingdom of the Lion, the free paladins of the Fallen Kingdom of lights, the Rune Blades of the Land of freedom and the pyromancers and druids of the Land of the bear, yet it's Allie the Land of the Sun still remained defiant even after years of combating the Arial Mages of the land of freedom and the Leviathan constructs of both the kingdom of lions and the land of freedom.

What finally made them surrender was the use of the ultimate Spell, it was used twice and two cities were completely destroyed because of it, realizing that victory was impossible the God emperor of the empire of the Sun finally surrendered.

Seriously an insane part in the series, highly recommend it.

[dinfarr]

I honestly quite like Goodkind’s magic. It’s actually both soft and hard at the same time. Or at least, a part of it is hinted to be a hard magic system if it makes sense. Everyone in the current world has to spend years to learn to cast the spells that require certain procedures and bounded by known limits and there are power levels as well. Everyone, except Richard, whose magic is so ancient and so powerful that there’s not a single living person who can’t teach him. As a war wizard magic comes naturally to him at the time of war like a reflex rather than a learned skill that requires concentration. It’s kinda similar to HP actually, where kids can do powerful magic unconsciously like Harry getting to the rood of his school while being bullied. I also quite enjoy the idea of a wizard (or at least a high ranking wizard like Zedd) being a person of perception so enhanced that no simple mortal can trick them, but Richard can and so Zedd is like, oh you have the makings of a wizard then.

But I have to give it to asoiaf, everything is so eldritch and mysterious, every act of magic is a bloody sacrifice or a prayer

[GidypiG.]

eragon, stormlight and mistborn are all S-tier

[ottoback]

S tier: Lord Of The Rings
Very divine magic where the magic feels as part of the fabric of the world

[meh]

Agree with another comment HP and IaF need switching since IaF is more eldrich/religious while HP's worst is the black and white stuff, like 'all rituals banned' and 'Albus Dumbledore is unquestionable'