How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

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Sharad9
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How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

Post by Sharad9 »

Magic is drawn from an alternate dimension and used to alter reality in the world around you. It generally involves three steps.

The first is tapping into this other realm and drawing energy from it into your body. This is a slow, arduous process that cannot be rushed. Every spell has its own time frame. The analogy is compared to cooking: too slow and nothing substantial will happen, too fast and there will be a "flaw" in the spell.
The second step involves holding the energy in your body and keeping it stable. This energy tends to leak out of pores or fizzle away, so the more stable and controlled it is, the more effective the spell.
The final part involves directing the energy outside your body to perform the actual spell. You must activate it by performing the incantation and envisioning the spell that you want to perform, such as starting a campfire or speeding up the growth of crops.
All of this requires much concentration and focus, and can be the equivalent of physical activity. Spells can take several minutes to hours to perform, depending on how powerful it is.

While regular magic is almost slow and patient, attack magic is the opposite. It requires aggressively forcing energy from the dimension and imposing your will onto the world. Creating fireballs and throwing lightning are some of the ways this form of magic is used to attack or defend. Although much quicker and more powerful, it is highly dangerous.

Drawing energy this way can be painful. Holding it inside yourself, without the right amount of control, can cause the energy to damage your internal organs, or make you combust, infect you with a disease, age prematurely, etc. Directing it out of your body without the right amount of control can also cause you to hurt yourself, like blowing off your own arm, losing control of the spell and causing collateral damage.

Would these drawbacks be enough to constrain usage of attack magic among people? Is more needed to control the use of this brand of magic?

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Zaarin
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Re: How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

Post by Zaarin »

If misusing magic can cause severe injury or death and learning to properly control it requires arduous study, then it's probably something that's going to be limited to specialists--just like a blast furnace or forge.
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cromulant
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Re: How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

Post by cromulant »

It seems like a needlessly dangerous and time-consuming way to kill people when you could just stab them or shoot them and be done with it.

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mèþru
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Re: How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

Post by mèþru »

The question is it cost effective to practice magic at all? As Zaarin, said the practice would be limited to specialists. But is the cost of hiring a specialist worth not using that money to hire cheaper non-specialists using convential weapons>
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Torco
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Re: How to constrain the use of attack magic among civilians

Post by Torco »

The most obvious limitation entailed by this system is that in order for someone to become a skilled battle magician they'd have to perform, as in mastering any skill, a great deal of practice: practicing throwing fireballs is something your neighbours are bound to notice, I would think, and so they'd realize you're probably up to no good: it's one thing for the king's battlemage regiment to burn down half a hill with volleys of magic missiles, but if the baker's son does it this would attract the attention of the authorities: it'd be like a modern equivalent of a kid in school who uses the arts and crafts shop to make artisanal shotguns... he'd quickly find himself being asked all sorts of questions.

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