Poll: Magic systems in games

[Mr.Squishy]

Seeing as this is a gaming website, I assume most of you have played a game or two involving magic, and as such dealt with the limitations of it so mages won't be too overpowered. Most games use a mana bar that you can refill via potions, but pen and paper tabletop games like D&D use the method of memorizing spells each day or after an extended rest. There's surely some other systems out there I guess, but these two are the ones I've encountered the most. The discussion here is which system do you like better, why, and have you encountered another system, for better or for worse?
To get the snowball rolling I'll say that memorizing spells is okay in Baldur's Gate, but can get tedious in D&D if you're suddenly ambushed by mind flayers from behind and you're a poor defenseless little mage...Although mana bars annoy me too since you're dependent on potions for the most part. A suggestion I have would be to keep the mana bar system, but make the caster slowly regenerate mana over time.

Edit: I'm not sure I said this clearly enough - I would love to hear your suggestions for better systems as well.

Edit 2: Fun quote - "Alas, more mages have been laid to rest by the writings of Jack Vance than any adversary". Didn't want to waste one more post on this.

 

[Cherry Cola]

I like my ol' mana-bars.

But mostly I just want unlimited magic.

Why must Wizard be such pussies? They should be OP!

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Batfred]

Recharging mana bars all the way!

 

[NeutralDrow]

Between Vancian and Mana systems? Anything but Vancian, so I'll go with mana.

 

[Tiny116]

Blood sacrifice that way everyone you dessimate will charge you back up XD

 

[Zacharine]

I really like the Mage:The Awakening system. There is mana, though it isn't exactly easy to replenish ('tass', which has been magically manipulated to be consumed works as 'mana potions' of sorts. A single point of mana in consumable tass on an open market is worth 7k to 12k US dollars if available at all. Hallows are like magical wells (but are rare, usually well guarded by others who want nothing to do with you) but require effort to draw mana from, unless you're focusing on direct mana manipulation skills or somewhat of a master in a few other schools. Whereupon you can draw mana from...say.... a building (which degrades it and causes damage), a ghost (likely killing it and they might succesfully resist it), the corpse of a recently dead (we're talking minutes to hours here, counts as desecrating the dead) or dying person (stinks too much of forbidden arts to be really socially acceptable) or a fully healthy person. This last option however is on the morality scale just short of stealing their soul. Ie. you have to be a mass-murderer to not feel queasy and abhorred by the idea.

Magical self-cannibalization is an option for everyone, but taking temporary ability damage (a few days or so) just for a mana point or two is seen as an act of desperation or an indication the mage is poor and/or inept.

Around 90% of effects you can bring about from your 'native' 'schools' of magic require zero mana to cast (though they usually can be boosted to a limited degree). No memorization needed. No specific spells actually exist as such, rather a skillset with limits and boundaries that expand as your proficiency increases. There are rote spells though, ones where you have memorized more traditional spell components (gestures, visualizations, words etc) to sometimes dramatic increase in spell power of a limited and pre-defined effect such as calling down a bolt of lighting from the sky to hit a target or giving a spirit a command and forcing it to obey. Rote spells can only be learned from rareish grimories (the creation of which is easy but actually removes the inscribed rotes from your head, effectively requiring rememorization and expenditure of exp to re-learn), from a teacher who knows the same rote, or by creating one yourself. That however requires a significant expenditure of time and effort as well as requires you to be a master of that 'school'.

Drawback: every spell cast has a change of backfiring. The better the magical aptitude of the mage, the more impressive the spell and lower the morality of the mage, the greater the backfire and the longer the duration of it. Smallest backfirings simply mean the spell affects an unintented target and like. This then runs the gamut from area effects (spells warp local space-time so that walking three meters takes an entire hour, electricity ceases to function, everything becomes brittle etc), induced insanity in the mage, to magical branding (Hey! I haz lizard scales and horns!) to actually summoning a malevolent demon-like entity....

Not to mention that nonmagicals witnessing a clearly magical effect go instinctively 'hey, that can't be real' and actually cause these magical effects to dispel by themselves from disbelief. So for example flying trough a town while visible is a quick way to get yourself killed when the flight spell disappears from underneath you as you pass the first crowd...

The old D&D system works fairly well, but nMage does take a refreshingly different and working solution to it.