Magic system tied to physical materials. Good idea?

[Ace_Sorou]

So my magic system is tied to physical materials. In order to cast spells, you need the materials associated with those spells, and channel Mana through those specific materials. In order to enchant weapons, you have to use the materials with the effects you want and infuse them into the weapons you want to enchant. In order to create potions, you have to mix together the ingredients with the right effects to get the potion you want.
It's simple on the surface, but surprisingly complex when you get into it. Is this a good system to work with?

 

[NotaNuffian]

So my magic system is tied to physical materials. In order to cast spells, you need the materials associated with those spells, and channel Mana through those specific materials. In order to enchant weapons, you have to use the materials with the effects you want and infuse them into the weapons you want to enchant. In order to create potions, you have to mix together the ingredients with the right effects to get the potion you want.
It's simple on the surface, but surprisingly complex when you get into it. Is this a good system to work with?

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Allomancy

 

[Jerynboe]

Short answer is yes it can work. I’d suggest keeping the list of viable materials relatively short and clearly defined (Brandon Sanderson made allomancy work with only about 18 metals that each do exactly two things and mostly only uses about ten of them in his first three books) or extremely thematic such as imparting traits of the thing you are using as a medium onto something else (using a lodestone to make something or someone magnetic, for example)

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Bro is rediscovering the old magics.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Depends on how they're tied in.

Is it a form of wordplay? Then that's how consumable material components tended to work in earlier versions of D&D (now you get a "Focus" - a single item that powers the spell or spells and isn't consumed in casting) - you rubbed fur with a glass rod to generate a lighting bolt, used components from real world gunpowder to create a fireball, etc..

Is the magic based on a single property of the material used (i.e., a piece of metal could be used to create a metal wall, a metal blade, a metal club, or metal bands to entwine the target; a branch from a tree might be used to encase the target in wood, make them sprout leaves, give them a bark-like hide or a club - or could cause rapid plant growth in the area; etc.).

Is the physical object consumed (a "component") or just required but not destroyed during casting (a focus))?

In your sword example, one possible situation would be, for example, you want to give the sword the ability to do electrical damage or maybe even hurl a lightning bolt, so you get a copper wire, wrap it around the sword, and cast the spell. The sword becomes a focus for the spell, and it "absorbs" the wire, gaining an electrical charge in the process.

 

[Ace_Sorou]

Depends on how they're tied in.

Is it a form of wordplay? Then that's how consumable material components tended to work in earlier versions of D&D (now you get a "Focus" - a single item that powers the spell or spells and isn't consumed in casting) - you rubbed fur with a glass rod to generate a lighting bolt, used components from real world gunpowder to create a fireball, etc..

Is the magic based on a single property of the material used (i.e., a piece of metal could be used to create a metal wall, a metal blade, a metal club, or metal bands to entwine the target; a branch from a tree might be used to encase the target in wood, make them sprout leaves, give them a bark-like hide or a club - or could cause rapid plant growth in the area; etc.).

Is the physical object consumed (a "component") or just required but not destroyed during casting (a focus))?

Okay, so there's three basic ways to use magic ingredients in my world. You can use them as an alchemist, as a runesmith, or as a channeler.

Alchemists are the most common spellcasters. They take the ingredients and mix them together in a magic brew. Everyone knows a little bit of alchemy for daily life, a minor potion to dull pain or help clean the floor isn't out of the repertoire of the average farmer. More specialized medicinal potions can be made by apothecaries and specialized healers using alchemy. And if you're a witch, then you're making all kinds of potions because you're doing research into Alchemy. Ingredients are mostly destroyed because you're basically cooking them in a stew. But the stew often becomes beneficial. Just... Don't drink it unless told otherwise.

Then you got runesmiths, which are mostly dwarves. It's a little more involved than Alchemy, and usually involves powdering ingredients. Usually a runesmith uses the powdered ingredients in conjunction with their smithing tools in order to etch the magic into certain items. Specific runes do specific things, and there's an entire alphabet of runes for getting the effects you want. Magic ingredients are usually destroyed in this process, but the items made become foci for specific spells.

And then there's channelers. Channeling takes a long time, a lifetime of commitment, in order to master. It involves you mentally willing the magic of an item to project its effect. Channelers are usually aristocrats or long lived races who have studied the art, because only they would have the time and resources to commit to the craft. Amongst channelers, the ingredients are the foci. And they often embalm or otherwise preserve the most expensive ingredients to have an arsenal of spells at their disposal.