My magic system hot take (stupid = better)
I personally am a giant fan of magic that reflects somebody mental state, and I’m not talking about magic that requires a a specific mental state, but magic that is a specific reflection of a characters mental state!
For example one of my characters suffers from War PTSD and instead of just making their magic memory related or related to the war, I made the ability a convoluted Mess that is a amalgamation of all the details in their flashbacks and is soo long that it’s entire process doesn’t even show up, what I mean is that the character can create a bullets, that wen shot into a tree makes flies grow out of the plant, who will fly to any tree’s that have given the original tree there DNA 3 generations back, and if the flies manage to touch the trees in less than 24h the touched plants will slowly move towards their offspring till the make contact, after which they will fuse with them and …….! You get what I mean!
At first I thought this was completely bs, but when I put my mind to it I realise that it perfectly reflex the mind of somebody that is lost in the process of something and is made functionally powerless, because of not being able to take any relevant action!
In my Opinion power systems made in a way that is convenient for the goal that the protagonist wants to reach are worse then the once who are actively hindering the main character, because it forces conflict, and stupid magic is better than sound magic, because humans are fundamentally stupid and it’s easier that way to make your magic system line up with your themes, if they are about humans.
Do you agree?
(Everything I said is my Opinion and will not apply in every case)
(I apologise for my English, it’s not my first language and I wrote this down in e rush)