Elemental Magic System Help

[jamesbondsmith]

One of the projects I'm working on has a magic system based on metaphorical aspects of elements (water, fire, air, earth, wood and metal). Basically, I'm worried I might have made some of them too OP.

Wood's associated aspect is Growth, and if you can imagine your desired effect in terms of Growth you can do whatever you want. I've imagined it being used for healing and resource regeneration among other things, but I'm worried it's too powerful.

I've put the following limits into the magic system as a whole:

• Any effect requires great detail in the visualisation and intent of what you want to do (e.g. healing requires anatomical knowledge of what to grow, resource regeneration requires you to understand the structures of what you want to reproduce).
• The element you are using must be present (because wood is about growth, you need to be around living plants).
• The magic system at the beginning of the series does not allow any creation or control of the particular element in question. For example, Earth magic can't create or control earth or rock, but wood can grow it and air can move it. Later events remove this restriction, but that will also be the cause of some of the major conflict in the series.
• Very few people are able to naturally perform this magic, and while objects can be enchanted to allow non-magic users to use it, those objects can only pass on the specific effect that was enchanted (e.g. if something allows blue dye to be multiplied, it only works for the specific shade of blue that was visualised when it was created. Broader effects require much more complicated enchanting).

Is this enough to not completely break the magic system? Alternatively, what other metaphorical aspects of wood can you suggest?

Edited March 11, 2021 by jamesbondsmith
Clarified point 3

[Ixthos]

2 hours ago, jamesbondsmith said:

One of the projects I'm working on has a magic system based on metaphorical aspects of elements (water, fire, air, earth, wood and metal). Basically, I'm worried I might have made some of them too OP.

Wood's associated aspect is Growth, and if you can imagine your desired effect in terms of Growth you can do whatever you want. I've imagined it being used for healing and resource regeneration among other things, but I'm worried it's too powerful.

I've put the following limits into the magic system as a whole:

• Any effect requires great detail in the visualisation and intent of what you want to do (e.g. healing requires anatomical knowledge of what to grow, resource regeneration requires you to understand the structures of what you want to reproduce).
• The element you are using must be present (because wood is about growth, you need to be around living plants).
• The magic system at the beginning of the series does not allow any creation or control of the particular element in question. For example, Earth magic can't create or control earth or rock, but wood can grow it and air can move it. Later events remove this restriction, but that will also be the cause of some of the major conflict in the series.
• Very few people are able to naturally perform this magic, and while objects can be enchanted to allow non-magic users to use it, those objects can only pass on the specific effect that was enchanted (e.g. if something allows blue dye to be multiplied, it only works for the specific shade of blue that was visualised when it was created. Broader effects require much more complicated enchanting).

Is this enough to not completely break the magic system? Alternatively, what other metaphorical aspects of wood can you suggest?

That might be enough. An alternative could be:

• Those who originally had access to Growth somehow ensured that no-one else could access it as deeply as they could, so only a small group has access to the more powerful applications
• A group with access to Fire, and its ability to consume plants, were able to apply their power to curtail the strength of Growth, so they saw the danger or envied it and used their power to prevent further use of it

In both cases it could be a question in the setting about why Growth, despite it being theoretically stronger than any other power, is somehow restricted.

[+Invocation]

Maybe some extreme expressions of Growth need the willing participation of other elementalists as a fuel source or it ends up strictly limited in power and drawing on the body heat or water content of the caster to replicate those things in what the magic is growing. Cuts and stuff Wood elementalists can heal readily, broken bones and deep gashes take lots of effort, but things like regrowing a limb take the presence of Fire to make the limb live and mesh with the body heat of the patient, Water to replicate the blood, and enough Wood to fuel it in general. That kind of thing.

[Frustration]

What elements would the human body be made of?

[Truthwatcher Artifabrian]

Maybe you could do something like, the more realistic the growth, the easier it is to do. Healing is the easiest because it is natural for living flesh to grow. Growing organic materials like food is next because it has once been alive. But growing stone is very difficult because stone doesn’t naturally grow at all.

As a side note, I’d love to hear about the other elements if you’re willing to share.