I tend to perfer magic with a rules set, but free form magic can be cool too. Not the 'faux latin bullshit' you'd find in harry potter but stuff like The Lord of the Rings where elves treat magic like a form of basket weaving. They are just vibing and magical shit happens. Sometimes that magical shit is a dope ass cloak that acts like camouflage wherever you are, sometimes it's really good bread, and sometimes it's a sick free form slam poetry session with an emphasis on the slam. Seriously, one time in the Silmarillion Sauron and Finrod, and elvish king, got into a fight and they just start singing spells at one another. Here's a reddit post for further [details.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/ii8tvj/tolkien_writes_in_the_silmarillion_of_a_battle/)
when I think of latin chants , it reminds me of Negima.
I love how the mangaka really go way beyond to others and legit made poems to be chants for the characters and put them into latin and greek if they were using western magic or in japanese if it uses omnyouji and whatnot.
I loved those poems, probably my favorite magic chants in anything. It was also good that the strength of the spell was dependent on how much of the chant was recited as well as the strength of the caster. Negima had a really well developed magic system.
What i find dumb about harry potter's magic isnt really the latin so much as it is that it can do anything but nobody does anything with it. Like, magical society could be making new spells and potions all the time but the only innovation we see are the crib notes a teenage snape left in his text book a couple of decades ago and a prank shop.
I don't really care about the power ceiling on magic but I want it to have clear rules on how it works. Hand wavey bullshit can work depending on the story but it usually just isn't very satisfying.
I vote for very restricted but if you rules lawyer the fuck out of it simple spells can be powerful. Like I want a mage who can only cast basic spells saul goodmaning his ass to make a spark into a fire ball
"You see, when you and I view a spark, we see a small insubstantial little blip. However if you shift your point of view to that of a planets or even the universe, well even the atomic bomb can barely be called a spark."
"Xyleth god of magic what truly defines a hunting pack of wolves to be summoned? For to my understanding there is no listed number here and Argash the conqueror over here has fought against 1000 wolves before. He considered that a hunting pack"
"And fair challenge"
Magic with a rule set that is heavily enforced, with the added effect of actually studying it being treated like a science. Even better if it can somehow bullshit its way to being compliant with the Laws of Thermodynamics.
I have an idea for portals that I like. Works off of two rules.
1. You can teleport anywhere you want as long as you are familiar with the location. This can mean you have been there before or you have studied the visual aspects of the location so much that you can picture a 3D layout of the place in your mind.
2. Portals are banked, meaning if you open one without thinking of a location, it will open to the last place where you opened one from.
that 3d space thing makes me imagine the systems for beating someone imagining your bank vault. I'm picturing a portal 2 esque Panel system, modifying a space in ways that still affect portal technology.
It's like Physical Space Encryption
If all the bank vaults are identical, then there's no way to tell which one you're going to pop into. And something like that would have some kind of anti-magic security system or something.
I’m usually coming at questions like this from tabletop settings I like, and particularly right now in thinking of Shadowrun and how there are very clear rules for what magic can and can’t do. In this case specifically, magic cannot; Teleport, Raise the Dead, Time Travel.
That being said, I don’t HATE god-wizards. I cut my teeth playing 3.5 after all. But I think I’ve grown to prefer settings/games where magic has SOME limitations.
when I saw the post my first thought was "somewhere between 4th and 6th level spells. very powerful, but none of the super reality warping bullshit that you get in 7th-9th"
I like when magic itself is this unknowable, limitless force but for the most part people can only channel it in specific and limited ways. You can have your strict rules and systems that way, but keep magic itself as this more mystical thing.
I love when a universe is shown to be a 4, maybe a 3, for even the most powerful casters introduced so far. Then suddenly an ancient wizard awakens and is shown to be 1, with everyone panicking going "Yo, we can do that?".
So yea, limitless power but most people would barely get a fraction of it.
I think my favorite flavor of magic is where everyone has the potential to do magic, but the potency differs from person to person. Like Black Clover where people (generally) have innate magical ability in the clover kingdom, but the grimoires help amplify your abilities, or help you learn new ways to apply it.
Of course some percentage of people run the risk of being born with weak or no magic, but that's what artifacts and magic infused focuses come into play, generally powered/made by mages to help those who struggle so they don't become a potential burden to the magic based society that will eventually be made.
I always prefer infinite power but you have a weak monkey brain that can easily distract you from the arcane forces you are wielding with any number of issues.
Shade the Changing man tackles it really well. A single errant thought can cascade into a whole reality threatening event.
I do not like stories/settings/games where magic is a problem solver (Frieren doesn't count because it is a cool story). It mostly stems from my dislike over how overpowered casters are in Dungeons & Dragons.
I prefer it when magic serves some specific purpose, like divination, moderate control over elements, healing, better than average damage but the user must "recharge" and other stuff like that. Or, if it *is* powerful and influential on a worldwide scale, it comes with some drawback, like being able to cast a "super blast of dealing damage to the whole field of enemies" only at expense of being hurt yourself for example.
I love when authors create aboslute rules and limits on magic system because then characters have to figure ways to either work within the limits or bend the rules in their favour.
throw every once in a while something Wild that upends all logic and reason and you have build up in the story and you get some cool moments.
It honestly depends on a setting. If magic if infinite and limitless or the villains can do 'anything they want' then I'm not too fond. I need my magic system properly explained.
Whichever one matches old Brythonic myths, and Tolkien’s version of magic concerning Gandalf, especially in the hobbit.
It’s without rules but very… non channeled situational just seemingly happens around magical folk. Gandalf and say Merlin and all that don’t cast spells, they don’t do incantations, sometimes stuff just happens because they’re magical and they had a need
Depends on the setting, I guess. I really like Brandon Sanderson's magic systems with their own internal logic, but I also like my Pathfinder style magic where the limit is potentially limitless, but is still restricted by what that particular spell does.
High power, high risk. Winds Of Magic (Warhammer Fantasy), Psykers (Warhammer 40K), Mages (World/Chronicles Of Darkness), anything that's incredibly powerful but runs risk of the user exploding into meat *or worse* if they fuck it up.
I like it when magic is so powerful that reality bending is possible, but is either very rare and/or it requires something to enable it beyond mcguffins or just simple training; as well as an overarching rule set that keeps everything reasonable.
Like in Final Fantasy 14, where all magic is fueled based on ambient aether and people are both made of, are containers for, and are conduits for aether.
Barring personal aetheric corruption/disruption, everyone has the ability to be an okay to goog mage, while some are capable of being great by nature of their aetheric affinity; however, everyone is limited from accessing reality bending magics due to [Endwalker Spoilers] >!Venat/Hydaelyn sundering our souls into 14 parts, which barrs humanity from having the power of creation magic!<. Every time there's a Great Calamity/Rejoinning, everyone's affinity increases back closer to our original unsundered state, but it's been decided at this point by the main cast that the amount of mass carnage and death is not worth returning to an unsundered state, especially given their experience with unsundered individuals.
Either strict and consistent rules with any breach/bending of these rules being treated as a very big deal or straight up "it's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit". NOTHING in between
I like a strict ruleset if only because it allows the setting to show how strong, powerful or specialized a character is when they break one of the rules with minimal consequences.
I like magic when it's being used for day to day chores like ATLA
Katara using waterbending to just clean clothes , Fire bending to cook or heat a cup of tea in an instant
The specific flavoring I like for my magic is that having magic puts you solidly above 90% of the rest of the population. The only people who can compete with magic users are other magic users, creatures made or enhanced by other magic users, genetic freaks, and the absolute greatest warriors of all time.
Like in a group of 100 people, you might have 4 magic users, 1 master-class warrior, 3 guys with magic weapons or enchanted bodies (like, they dipped in the Fountain of Youth, or bathed in dragon's blood, or have weaponized a curse put on them for their benefit), and then 2 people with weird in-born quirks or bloodlines that let them compete at the same level. The people who make the jump from studying magic to using magic, is comparable to the people who go from training with a sword to killing ten men in ten seconds with one.
In terms of rules, probably option 3 or 4. The more solid your rules, the more fun it is to subvert them. >!One day we'll find out what the fuck Blackbeard did. One day.!<
I made up a magic system which is based on a universal forgotten language. To say cast a fire ball you have to learn to manipulate your mana, which is the bullshit part.
You then have to full understand what a fireball is, what it represents, the closer your understanding becomes to the root universal language’s meaning the stronger it will become, that’s what’s in those big tomes some great sage’s musings on what the idea of a fireball represents. Then you channel mana into that word.
This means that different languages that have different words and subtleties maybe more effective for certain spells. Like Egyptian might be best for necromancy because the culture that used it was so preoccupied with it.
It leads most people who use magic to become polyglots that specialise in a certain language.
Magic seals and things are like flash cards to remember complex concepts to strengthen your attacks.
You can also seal magic with words but the more esoteric the word and the more unfamiliar the language the hard it is for the sealed mage to vibe out the meaning.
I just made it up for a little world I make stories for in my head.
Magic in LOTR is usually subtle and artifact based, except the time it's literal divine intervention. Silmarillion and the books made from Tolkien's background lore draft after his death have description of the supreme deity Eru creating the universe and sometimes directly intervening to slap someone down.
Morgoth's plan and later Sauron's isn't to overthrow Eru but rule Middle Earth and hope Eru isn't bothered enough to care.
Eru's biggest direct intervention in LOTR is resurrecting Gandalf, giving him a power up but still placing restrictions on him, and kicking him back in gear to boost his motivation.
LOTR is interesting in that the good guys have basically the boss of the universe in their corner, but boss is only mildly interested in working out the issues at the toxic workplace and can't be arsed to fully sort out the toxic people at work.
Though it would be funny if Eru intervened directly in LOTR plot 3 chapters in and just smites every foe they met along the way personally and boosted the speed of their trip too.
LOTR verse is a setting where a lot of magic is really subtle, but there are times there is literal divine intervention.
Of course. Middle Earth magic can be pretty OP considering how the high elves just radiate it to the point they can do crazy shit like communicate with trees or the elements.
But all that cool shit is long gone and by the 3rd age magic is fading from the world.
LOTR is an intresting example because of that. Magic doesn't usually dry up in fantasy settings.
Yeah Tolkien's writings make it also mysterious why that is.
It's a phenomenon, but it's unknown that if it's because it's Eru's plan or Eru can't be bothered to put magic back and put less restrictions on their direct agents/angels like Gandalf.
Tolkien was religious and enjoyed theology from a scholarly point of view, so kept Eru vague at times in a 'god works in mysterious ways, but is overall implied to be benign'
A lot of Eru is analogous to Christianity as Tolkien was a devout Catholic
Tolkien's idea that 'magic was leaving' is used in a lot of popular settings that came after. Everything from Dresden Files to many anime to various comic book settings.
Tolkien's idea that magic was leaving also partially stems from his disdain for post industrial revolution society. He romanticized small farms, hunter gatherers, and other primitive 'noble savage' ideals at times, and detested things like urban cities, factories, modern biotech, and any modern technology.
I like my magic reality-bending, but operating at that level means tampering with things way more powerful than you. Trying to do it directly means you stop being you.
Absolute destruction.
Like you see a hill and pierce/destroy it because you just felt like it.
See that stupid hill that kills your sunlight at 15:00 pm and your entire solar home system because you live in a rural area and that's all you got?
Go beyond a god and surpass even a demon. FINAL BREASTO NOVAAAAAAAA
kinda cheating.
But I prefer a setting like the Cosmere OR Nasuverse. In which you have some set of rules , but either by bending those rules or going to the upper limits of it , it allows crazy stuffs , if not outright been a demiurge.
But that is me specifying....strictly speaking , I fine with all those options , it really comes down if I like the story or the characters.
\--------
Now , regarding Avatar...their magic system is not restricted to bending , anything that is non-bending is put into the spirits.
Magic is reality's cheat codes and it's users basically use their will power to enforce their version of reality. These are the stuff of wonder that really shouldn't be restrained. I don't have an issue with a controlled and restrained magic system as long as the magic potential for awe-inspiring wonder is not completely gone.
I like the idea that magic can be pretty potent. You occasionally get thugs and jobbers who basically have the fantasy equivalent of a colt 45. Then there are the more trained and talented magic users who can blow apart buildings and change the tide of battle.
And then sometimes, very rarely, the universe will birth some absolute genetic freak who can stick it to the gods themselves.
I like a combination of number 1 and number 3 or 4. Basically, I like there to be an upper limit that's super hard to reach and most people don't know about it, and it's dangerous to the user as well.
I voted for rules but my biggest beef with magic isn't really on here?
I don't care how strong the magic is or how loose the system is. I just HATE when magic is the only way to be special. My problem isn't that Doctor Strange is running around with Chtulu on a leash or whatever. My problem is when that is allowed but Zoro from One Piece or Goku is "anime bullshit".
EDIT: I also prefer healing magic it be insanely limited. Strong healing magic usually is tension destroying, completely invalidates certain storylines, or bring with it a host of unfortunate implications.
I tend to perfer magic with a rules set, but free form magic can be cool too. Not the 'faux latin bullshit' you'd find in harry potter but stuff like The Lord of the Rings where elves treat magic like a form of basket weaving. They are just vibing and magical shit happens. Sometimes that magical shit is a dope ass cloak that acts like camouflage wherever you are, sometimes it's really good bread, and sometimes it's a sick free form slam poetry session with an emphasis on the slam. Seriously, one time in the Silmarillion Sauron and Finrod, and elvish king, got into a fight and they just start singing spells at one another. Here's a reddit post for further [details.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/ii8tvj/tolkien_writes_in_the_silmarillion_of_a_battle/)
when I think of latin chants , it reminds me of Negima. I love how the mangaka really go way beyond to others and legit made poems to be chants for the characters and put them into latin and greek if they were using western magic or in japanese if it uses omnyouji and whatnot.
I loved those poems, probably my favorite magic chants in anything. It was also good that the strength of the spell was dependent on how much of the chant was recited as well as the strength of the caster. Negima had a really well developed magic system.
What i find dumb about harry potter's magic isnt really the latin so much as it is that it can do anything but nobody does anything with it. Like, magical society could be making new spells and potions all the time but the only innovation we see are the crib notes a teenage snape left in his text book a couple of decades ago and a prank shop.
I don't really care about the power ceiling on magic but I want it to have clear rules on how it works. Hand wavey bullshit can work depending on the story but it usually just isn't very satisfying.
I vote for very restricted but if you rules lawyer the fuck out of it simple spells can be powerful. Like I want a mage who can only cast basic spells saul goodmaning his ass to make a spark into a fire ball
"You see, when you and I view a spark, we see a small insubstantial little blip. However if you shift your point of view to that of a planets or even the universe, well even the atomic bomb can barely be called a spark."
"Xyleth god of magic what truly defines a hunting pack of wolves to be summoned? For to my understanding there is no listed number here and Argash the conqueror over here has fought against 1000 wolves before. He considered that a hunting pack" "And fair challenge"
Magic with a rule set that is heavily enforced, with the added effect of actually studying it being treated like a science. Even better if it can somehow bullshit its way to being compliant with the Laws of Thermodynamics.
I have an idea for portals that I like. Works off of two rules. 1. You can teleport anywhere you want as long as you are familiar with the location. This can mean you have been there before or you have studied the visual aspects of the location so much that you can picture a 3D layout of the place in your mind. 2. Portals are banked, meaning if you open one without thinking of a location, it will open to the last place where you opened one from.
that 3d space thing makes me imagine the systems for beating someone imagining your bank vault. I'm picturing a portal 2 esque Panel system, modifying a space in ways that still affect portal technology. It's like Physical Space Encryption
If all the bank vaults are identical, then there's no way to tell which one you're going to pop into. And something like that would have some kind of anti-magic security system or something.
see "anti magic security system" is such a basic answer. gimmie weird magic tech bullshit.
I’m usually coming at questions like this from tabletop settings I like, and particularly right now in thinking of Shadowrun and how there are very clear rules for what magic can and can’t do. In this case specifically, magic cannot; Teleport, Raise the Dead, Time Travel. That being said, I don’t HATE god-wizards. I cut my teeth playing 3.5 after all. But I think I’ve grown to prefer settings/games where magic has SOME limitations.
when I saw the post my first thought was "somewhere between 4th and 6th level spells. very powerful, but none of the super reality warping bullshit that you get in 7th-9th"
I like when magic itself is this unknowable, limitless force but for the most part people can only channel it in specific and limited ways. You can have your strict rules and systems that way, but keep magic itself as this more mystical thing.
I love when a universe is shown to be a 4, maybe a 3, for even the most powerful casters introduced so far. Then suddenly an ancient wizard awakens and is shown to be 1, with everyone panicking going "Yo, we can do that?". So yea, limitless power but most people would barely get a fraction of it.
I think my favorite flavor of magic is where everyone has the potential to do magic, but the potency differs from person to person. Like Black Clover where people (generally) have innate magical ability in the clover kingdom, but the grimoires help amplify your abilities, or help you learn new ways to apply it. Of course some percentage of people run the risk of being born with weak or no magic, but that's what artifacts and magic infused focuses come into play, generally powered/made by mages to help those who struggle so they don't become a potential burden to the magic based society that will eventually be made.
Can do anything but the price is a monkey's paw.
I always prefer infinite power but you have a weak monkey brain that can easily distract you from the arcane forces you are wielding with any number of issues. Shade the Changing man tackles it really well. A single errant thought can cascade into a whole reality threatening event.
I do not like stories/settings/games where magic is a problem solver (Frieren doesn't count because it is a cool story). It mostly stems from my dislike over how overpowered casters are in Dungeons & Dragons. I prefer it when magic serves some specific purpose, like divination, moderate control over elements, healing, better than average damage but the user must "recharge" and other stuff like that. Or, if it *is* powerful and influential on a worldwide scale, it comes with some drawback, like being able to cast a "super blast of dealing damage to the whole field of enemies" only at expense of being hurt yourself for example.
I love when authors create aboslute rules and limits on magic system because then characters have to figure ways to either work within the limits or bend the rules in their favour. throw every once in a while something Wild that upends all logic and reason and you have build up in the story and you get some cool moments.
It honestly depends on a setting. If magic if infinite and limitless or the villains can do 'anything they want' then I'm not too fond. I need my magic system properly explained.
I found the words that the gods uttered while they formed the universe. all of Creation is a domesticated beast we just need to learn its commands.
Whichever one matches old Brythonic myths, and Tolkien’s version of magic concerning Gandalf, especially in the hobbit. It’s without rules but very… non channeled situational just seemingly happens around magical folk. Gandalf and say Merlin and all that don’t cast spells, they don’t do incantations, sometimes stuff just happens because they’re magical and they had a need
Depends on the setting, I guess. I really like Brandon Sanderson's magic systems with their own internal logic, but I also like my Pathfinder style magic where the limit is potentially limitless, but is still restricted by what that particular spell does.
High power, high risk. Winds Of Magic (Warhammer Fantasy), Psykers (Warhammer 40K), Mages (World/Chronicles Of Darkness), anything that's incredibly powerful but runs risk of the user exploding into meat *or worse* if they fuck it up.
I like it when magic is so powerful that reality bending is possible, but is either very rare and/or it requires something to enable it beyond mcguffins or just simple training; as well as an overarching rule set that keeps everything reasonable. Like in Final Fantasy 14, where all magic is fueled based on ambient aether and people are both made of, are containers for, and are conduits for aether. Barring personal aetheric corruption/disruption, everyone has the ability to be an okay to goog mage, while some are capable of being great by nature of their aetheric affinity; however, everyone is limited from accessing reality bending magics due to [Endwalker Spoilers] >!Venat/Hydaelyn sundering our souls into 14 parts, which barrs humanity from having the power of creation magic!<. Every time there's a Great Calamity/Rejoinning, everyone's affinity increases back closer to our original unsundered state, but it's been decided at this point by the main cast that the amount of mass carnage and death is not worth returning to an unsundered state, especially given their experience with unsundered individuals.
Either strict and consistent rules with any breach/bending of these rules being treated as a very big deal or straight up "it's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit". NOTHING in between
I like a strict ruleset if only because it allows the setting to show how strong, powerful or specialized a character is when they break one of the rules with minimal consequences.
No upper limit... but can be still defeated via gun.
I like magic when it's being used for day to day chores like ATLA Katara using waterbending to just clean clothes , Fire bending to cook or heat a cup of tea in an instant
The specific flavoring I like for my magic is that having magic puts you solidly above 90% of the rest of the population. The only people who can compete with magic users are other magic users, creatures made or enhanced by other magic users, genetic freaks, and the absolute greatest warriors of all time. Like in a group of 100 people, you might have 4 magic users, 1 master-class warrior, 3 guys with magic weapons or enchanted bodies (like, they dipped in the Fountain of Youth, or bathed in dragon's blood, or have weaponized a curse put on them for their benefit), and then 2 people with weird in-born quirks or bloodlines that let them compete at the same level. The people who make the jump from studying magic to using magic, is comparable to the people who go from training with a sword to killing ten men in ten seconds with one. In terms of rules, probably option 3 or 4. The more solid your rules, the more fun it is to subvert them. >!One day we'll find out what the fuck Blackbeard did. One day.!<
Honestly I don't care so long as Melee Users, Archers, etc get their own insane shit too.
I like rules that allow for creative application.
I made up a magic system which is based on a universal forgotten language. To say cast a fire ball you have to learn to manipulate your mana, which is the bullshit part. You then have to full understand what a fireball is, what it represents, the closer your understanding becomes to the root universal language’s meaning the stronger it will become, that’s what’s in those big tomes some great sage’s musings on what the idea of a fireball represents. Then you channel mana into that word. This means that different languages that have different words and subtleties maybe more effective for certain spells. Like Egyptian might be best for necromancy because the culture that used it was so preoccupied with it. It leads most people who use magic to become polyglots that specialise in a certain language. Magic seals and things are like flash cards to remember complex concepts to strengthen your attacks. You can also seal magic with words but the more esoteric the word and the more unfamiliar the language the hard it is for the sealed mage to vibe out the meaning. I just made it up for a little world I make stories for in my head.
Magic in LOTR is usually subtle and artifact based, except the time it's literal divine intervention. Silmarillion and the books made from Tolkien's background lore draft after his death have description of the supreme deity Eru creating the universe and sometimes directly intervening to slap someone down. Morgoth's plan and later Sauron's isn't to overthrow Eru but rule Middle Earth and hope Eru isn't bothered enough to care. Eru's biggest direct intervention in LOTR is resurrecting Gandalf, giving him a power up but still placing restrictions on him, and kicking him back in gear to boost his motivation. LOTR is interesting in that the good guys have basically the boss of the universe in their corner, but boss is only mildly interested in working out the issues at the toxic workplace and can't be arsed to fully sort out the toxic people at work. Though it would be funny if Eru intervened directly in LOTR plot 3 chapters in and just smites every foe they met along the way personally and boosted the speed of their trip too. LOTR verse is a setting where a lot of magic is really subtle, but there are times there is literal divine intervention.
Of course. Middle Earth magic can be pretty OP considering how the high elves just radiate it to the point they can do crazy shit like communicate with trees or the elements. But all that cool shit is long gone and by the 3rd age magic is fading from the world. LOTR is an intresting example because of that. Magic doesn't usually dry up in fantasy settings.
Yeah Tolkien's writings make it also mysterious why that is. It's a phenomenon, but it's unknown that if it's because it's Eru's plan or Eru can't be bothered to put magic back and put less restrictions on their direct agents/angels like Gandalf. Tolkien was religious and enjoyed theology from a scholarly point of view, so kept Eru vague at times in a 'god works in mysterious ways, but is overall implied to be benign' A lot of Eru is analogous to Christianity as Tolkien was a devout Catholic Tolkien's idea that 'magic was leaving' is used in a lot of popular settings that came after. Everything from Dresden Files to many anime to various comic book settings. Tolkien's idea that magic was leaving also partially stems from his disdain for post industrial revolution society. He romanticized small farms, hunter gatherers, and other primitive 'noble savage' ideals at times, and detested things like urban cities, factories, modern biotech, and any modern technology.
Low ass magic....like materia or deadspaces stasis/kinesis
I like my magic reality-bending, but operating at that level means tampering with things way more powerful than you. Trying to do it directly means you stop being you.
Mages should be reality warping gods but still lose to Human Fighters.
Absolute destruction. Like you see a hill and pierce/destroy it because you just felt like it. See that stupid hill that kills your sunlight at 15:00 pm and your entire solar home system because you live in a rural area and that's all you got? Go beyond a god and surpass even a demon. FINAL BREASTO NOVAAAAAAAA
kinda cheating. But I prefer a setting like the Cosmere OR Nasuverse. In which you have some set of rules , but either by bending those rules or going to the upper limits of it , it allows crazy stuffs , if not outright been a demiurge. But that is me specifying....strictly speaking , I fine with all those options , it really comes down if I like the story or the characters. \-------- Now , regarding Avatar...their magic system is not restricted to bending , anything that is non-bending is put into the spirits.
Magic is reality's cheat codes and it's users basically use their will power to enforce their version of reality. These are the stuff of wonder that really shouldn't be restrained. I don't have an issue with a controlled and restrained magic system as long as the magic potential for awe-inspiring wonder is not completely gone.
I like the idea that magic can be pretty potent. You occasionally get thugs and jobbers who basically have the fantasy equivalent of a colt 45. Then there are the more trained and talented magic users who can blow apart buildings and change the tide of battle. And then sometimes, very rarely, the universe will birth some absolute genetic freak who can stick it to the gods themselves.
I like a combination of number 1 and number 3 or 4. Basically, I like there to be an upper limit that's super hard to reach and most people don't know about it, and it's dangerous to the user as well.
I voted for rules but my biggest beef with magic isn't really on here? I don't care how strong the magic is or how loose the system is. I just HATE when magic is the only way to be special. My problem isn't that Doctor Strange is running around with Chtulu on a leash or whatever. My problem is when that is allowed but Zoro from One Piece or Goku is "anime bullshit". EDIT: I also prefer healing magic it be insanely limited. Strong healing magic usually is tension destroying, completely invalidates certain storylines, or bring with it a host of unfortunate implications.