[Gef]

I present these styles for people to adapt to their own campaigns if they wish, which should work for low-tech, high fantasy dominated by a monotheistic church with a messianic prophet and an adversary figure. In my campaign, the death of this prophet – an archangel in mortal guise – completed a ritual that closed the world to interference by powerful magical creatures. That’s why angels and devils don’t interfere directly in the affairs of men, why dragons and fairies are legends, and why certain spells work poorly including Teleport (short range) and Golem (prohibitive cost).

Air…………........Brethren of the Spark - post 11
Animal……... ....Gentle Brothers of the Lord’s Creatures - post 17
Body……….......Scholars on the Physical Nature of Man - post 19
Commo…….. ....NA - Proscribed
Earth……….. ....Other Styles (The Firm) - post 23
Enhcantment..Castle Chorus - post 12
Fire…………......Brethren of the Spark - post 11
Food………......Other Styles (Monks of the Mess) - post 23
Gate…………....NA – Proscribed
Healng………....Other Styles (Hands of the Lord) - post 23
Illusion……......Ephemera Cast by the Halo (Creation but no Illusion) - post 15
Knowledge…...Seekers After Divine Wisdom - post 20
Light………......Ephemera Cast by the Halo (Light but no Darkness) - post 15
Making……......Friends of Ferrin - post 16
Metamagic…...Holy Calling of Abjuration - post 18 (also Conjunctional Metamagic - post 13)
Mind……….......NA – Proscribed
Movement…....Devotées of the Grand Design - post 14
Necromancy....NA – Proscribed
Plant……….......Other Styles (Friends of Seire) - post 23
Protection…....Stalwart Brothers of the Resistance to Evil - post 21
Sound………. ....Who Whisper to Heaven with the Voice of Thunder - post 22
Tech……….......NA – Not invented yet but Friends of Ferrin have the arcane path
Water………......Other Styles (Mermonks) - post 23
Weather…….....NA – Brethren of the Spark for Lightning, Mermonks for aught else

Background: My starting assumptions are that 4% of the population has Magery, though many lack the intellect and temperament for wizardry, and that half of them have the limitation One College Only, and that it can’t be bought off. That still gives some 3,000 practicing wizards of each college per 10 million population, in addition to 90,000 clergy using book magic, and the Great Powers in my campaign world all exceed that. Some colleges are fairly self-contained, while others have so many OCPs (Out-of-College Prerequisite) that you spend more on spells you can’t use than you save with the limitation. I turned to magic styles mainly for the simple alternate prerequisite system, and when you’ve got thousands of wizards per college over hundreds of years, it’s reasonable to assume they’ve managed to streamline their curriculum.

There are several types of magic in my campaign, each with its own color. I really like the standard system, notwithstanding its flaws, which tend to be down to the level of individual spells anyway. It’s easy to tweak, and I’ve done so, but the basic version has a yellow aura like the sun. Effect-shaping book magic is silver, each book is based on a god (er, archangel), and Religious Rank makes it possible to buy silver magery and gives a bonus to a specific book, so priests have a huge competitive advantage for silver magic. The next most common is arcane magic, what Basic call Ritual Magic but that name’s too confusing around Book Magic rituals, and I use the threshold system for it. I assume spell Magery 0 comes with with Arcane Magery 0 as an alternate ability, balanced by a Flagrant Aura quirk. (On auras, the Per/VH skill Supernatural Awareness works like Vague Detect Supernatural, and anyone with supernatural traits can learn it). Arcane magic is mysterious and hidden because of its power and flexibility, something you wouldn’t trust to someone immature. I bring this up because it explains why I don’t allow Improvised Spells or Spell Variation perks; that’s the dramatic niche for arcane magic. If you adapt these styles to your campaign, you may want to add them.

I also have syntactic magic, psionics, and chaos mutations (super powers) – they’re beyond the scope of this article but lemme know if you wanna discuss magic paradigms.

Spells are formulaic. They can take enhancements and limitations, but that’s built into the formula, not added on the fly. This system allows me to stat advanced spells like long-range fireballs, true, but I mainly use it to define schools of spell design (each encompassing multiple styles). These schools use signature limitations to get bonuses, typically +2 for something like a glowing wand, so IQ12/M3 is the sweet spot for base spell skill 15, and deacons get an even better bonus.