How to not make a magic user over powered or too weak?:

[dbeirigo]

I'm working on the magic for my series but I'm trying to strike the balance between not too over powered but not weak you know I still want magic to be impressive, for anyone working in a story with magic or that has opnions o magic, what is the best aproach?
I also don't wanna make a complex magical sistem with lot's of rules.

[Todoyama]

Imagine the powering scale like a ladder that your character is climbing, make him climb really slowly, but towards a goal, not only just to climb
I sound like an wise old man, I hope you understand tho.
Make your characters powering up slowly, little by little but only if there is a goal for your character that he wants to achieve.

[NickRowler]

Set a limit to how much or how often they can use their powers. Have the ability of someone getting fatigue or having to recharge.

Also, set a limit to what kind of magic someone can use. Like saying a character can only use fire magic or healing. Then set up a counter, fire users would be weak to water magic. Or, set a limit to what kind of spells someone can cast. Being able to bring back the dead with a spell comes off as OP.

[Rai_Muffin]

I would recommend focusing less on big spells and more on how the magic is used.

Say a character's ability is fire magic and their basic skill is a fireball, start thinking about how that fireball can be used.
Maybe their opponent is a beefy guy in metal armour that they can't do anything to, but they make a small fireball and slip it into their armour during a scuffle, forcing them out of their protection.
Or against a water user, they seemed completely unmatched, but then they use fire to turn their water into steam for a smokescreen.
Or maybe adapt their magic for different situations, creating an arsenal of abilities that can be whipped out when needed.

Guess what I'm saying is, it won't matter how weak the magic system if you use creativity.
Google some real world science too to lend your magic some credibility.

[dbeirigo]

so the charater I'm working mains abilit is to create purple energy things, those energy things can have any shape and hardness the rule I set is that he can only do one a thing per time cause he needs focus and we naturally can't focus on two things, but I'm worried it dosen't look like magic but just like a super power

[Rai_Muffin]

If superpowers are called magic in your story, then it's magic.

Green Lantern can make solid light projections which would be classified as a superpower, but in his story which is science fiction it comes from a device, so it's technically technology.
Now say his ring was in a fantasy setting; with same abilities, limitations etc, but the setting makes that ring a magic item. So the science fiction technology of Green Lanturn becomes magic because of the setting.

I wouldn't sweat something like classification. So long as the in-story source is magical in nature and consistent, your audience probably won't even question it.

[dbeirigo]

my story is science fantasy is set in space but there's magic.
the main diference between magic and tecnology is that tecnology is artificial and can be used by anyone
and magic is natural and only certain people witth training and knoledge can use it, there are diferent types of magic, the energetic is one, but there's others, usually people specialize in one type of magic, the same way is dificult for person to be good at many things at once, it's dificult to be good at every magical type.

[faisalhussein394]

Whenever a magic is made, there are other tools or magic to counter it. Look at Naruto, or Harry Potter and how they manage to counter act with one another through skill, intimidation, deception, and strategy.

If magic is ever used, something has to be spent to let it happen whether the user will feel exhausted or have other negative side effects. And sometimes non magic users find a way to counter act with them, maybe runes to resist magic, or magic they stole from the user and contain on some item either to seal it or use it against their foes.

Go crazy on magic all you want, but viewers/readers will be more invested if there is an established ground. A hard magic system rules like Star Wars (Before Disney bought it).

[dbeirigo]

there is a tecnology that can temporally disable magic within a particular range but you can't aim at anyone in particular everyone in the range will have their magic nullified for a while.

[llobucervallince]

Thank you for remind me to look for reference on this matter, right now, I just have a couple of ideas to deal with this exact problem.

Give them a reason NOT to use their powers:

• To hide, sure, they might be OP but they might not be able to stand against an entire kingdom, better to keep themselves hidden until the right moment.
• Their magic is too consuming. In exchange of power, they might have had to pay a big price, so every spell has to be worth it.
• To protect someone, related to the first point or not, if they're trying to keep someone safe, they should try to keep themselves from going into a rampage. Keep themselves close to whoever they're protecting, alert, and when danger comes, show why they should be feared.

(More points might be added in the future through edits.)

1 Edit: now that I think about it, THIS COULD WORK FOR HOW NOT TO MAKE A TOO WEAK CHARACTER! just make them god in disguise!

[ThunderChicken]

Make ‘em strong in some areas but not so strong in others. Make performing strong magic physically demanding, requiring breaks/rest. Extremely strong magic might even cause pain/physical damage. For example, a fire magic user might burn his fingers if he overdoes it

[Yngvir_The_Writer]

I believe the first thing you could establish is a minimum and maximum limit for magic. Then impose some form of restriction. Simple spells that don't require much, like influencing someone's decisions, as a mild form of mind control, could have a "requirement" of causing a brief headache or discomfort to the user of this magic. The consequences become even more severe or significant as the spells grow stronger.

The concept of "exchange" is an interesting point if you're interested. Typically, "give and take" is widely used in various fantasies. In Fullmetal Alchemist (I know it's not "magic"), there's the concept of equivalent exchange. You need to give up something to become powerful.
Chainsaw Man follows a similar example, where a demon asks for so many years of your life in exchange for a specific power.

Establishing these kinds of limits is a good starting point, in my opinion, of course. There are many famous examples to draw inspiration from.

[dbeirigo]

for my story I think I'll use the thing of phisicall efects of spells, where it's like an excersize
and you can go from sweating to fainting to dying by overdoing it, but the more you train more resistense you gain but there's always a limit

[Yngvir_The_Writer]

In this case, in a scenario where magic causes physical fatigue, you have a very simple way to control the limits. Imagine that mages are like swimmers. As you can hold your breath for a longer time, you can stay underwater for a longer period as well. Another point is that depth makes your body more resistant to water pressure.

But in both cases, without caution, water can squeeze your organs or cause you to lose oxygen in the brain, bringing irreversible consequences. This is a way to limit and set a parameter for the evolution of abilities.

Control of breathing is also crucial for fighters too; it's something that seems obvious but is not widely explored in fantasies. The only place I've seen it is in the anime "Kimetsu no Yaiba."

[thel3tterm]

I heard a good rule of thumb for any magic system involves:

-Something the magic CAN do
-Something the magic CAN'T do
-The COST of using it

(Sadly, I cannot recall who originally coined this.)

So for a basic example, say we're making a story about necromancers.

-The magic CAN allow you to raise a dead body and control it
-The magic CAN'T actually bring the person fully back from the dead
-The COST is some of your blood, more the longer you want to control it

Keeping these rules simple and common sense is usually good practice, and can quickly make a believable and balanced magic system as you build on them.

[BoomerZ]

I'm going to come at this from a different direction. The magic should be as powerful as it needs to be to tell your story. How powerful is Gandalf in lord of the rings? Do we even know? Do we even care? The story is not about his magic. How powerful was the force in the original Star Wars? no clue. It was powerful enough to tell the story. Magic is window dressing to a complete story.

[Tanako]

A Good example is the anime "Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple". we get to see the main character Kenichi from being a weak fragile high school kid to gradually getting strong with the assistance of his friends. Very good anime. one of my favorites. watch it if you have time and I believe it will help you.

[TheLemmaLlama]

but I'm worried it dosen't look like magic but just like a super power

Magic as a character's unique ability is always going to look like superpowers imo Ways to make magic feel less superpowery include:

• having a reasonably large group of other people who can use/develop the exact same magical ability
• making the magical ability something you need to spend decades honing in order to use
• make magical ability not character-dependent at all, but rather tool-dependent (you need technology/ancient artifacts/prayers to the local god/whatever in order to use it)