[Burrytar]

Magic feels magical not when it is rare or low key, but when it is diverse and invasive. Low key magic is often insidious (which is one way to be invasive) and represented as highly individual knacks or charms (which is one way to be diverse). But the obvious and overwhelming aura of fear surrounding Myrdraal or Nazghul also feels magical so long as it actually does threaten to overwhelm; it isn't low key, but it is invasive. If a little bit goes a long ways, then naturally a lot of it will get noticed. Rareness is also a red herring, however. If you have a world with only one magic user with only one magic spell -- throwing fireballs -- well, how dull is that? You might as well give him a flamethrower and a loose grip and eschew magic altogether. Diversity, on the other hand, pays compound interest. A world where half the people can start large fires and the other half can trigger explosions -- that's barely any more diversity than the one-fireball-wizard world, but it's dramatically more interesting. Good magic feels rare only because it is so diverse that you never encounter two characters using it the same way for the same purpose.

Of course, most muds pay lip service to the diversity and power of magic. The problem is that after brainstorming all these cool ideas, they throw them into a few pots called classes, skill trees, races, or whatever, or else the players throw them into a few pots called optimum tactics. As awful, the very few spells with good invasive quality (e.g., sleep/lullaby) tend to be time-out support for casting spells that are really just swords and spells by another name (or else support for spells that support such spells). If you're going to put me to sleep, then have the common decency of using me to lure would-be rescuers; and in the meantime, let me roleplay as one of them. There's nothing mechanically difficult about that. And spells like "shapeshifting" are reduced to commands for "equip me with armor, daggers, and d100s." Whatever happened to turning people into toads and mice as a form of duress? Whatever happened to shapeshifting as a means of terrorizing the land with your monstrous spawn? Ah, hell. End rant.