What is a way to make magic mysterious and dangerous?

What is a way to make magic mysterious and dangerous?

In my new campaign there is a Evil Wizard destroying the kingdom, not much people have access to magic, i want the players to have it but i dont know how they will learn it, i have been thinking in:

Orbs in a temple that when you touch them it gives you a relevant elemental power

Books with locks, that only a few have read and understood how to use magic, they decide to teach the players to defend their kingdom

They are just born with it, like one in a million people have chance to have magic

More like how can they acquire magic and it steel feeling mysterious and dangerous to use

Making a pact with an entity.

As in, they need to TALK with their not!Mephistofeles, for starters.

Make it so it has a chance to backfire on them. They'll learn how to use it in battle and outside it in order to master their powers.

mmm i kinda like this idea, maybe the kingdom haves the not!Mephistofeles and gives them to the players, i was planning on giving them one element each, but what if there is more people with this elements? maybe they didnt trap those demons

No, no, no. Absolutely not.

Make them WANT the pact and fight off to have it. (for the first sessions)

Anyway, not necessarily a demon. Hell, not necessarily "evil". But a pact is still a pact, and if you want X you need to pay Y.

Maybe the fire demon wants you to burn things first before making a pact

Or you could make that in order to use the magic the pact has rules you have to follow.

how?

...
By making clear rules that the demon/entitiy want you to respect if you want to have magic? It's not hard, user.

To use earth magic have to have a high CON stat and have to Fruits and vegetables. To use fire magic you have set things on fire in the morning and have a high WIS at. Wind makes you dance during a fight.

Would this be ok?

I forgot add eat to Fruits and vegetables

I do like the pacts, but maybe instead of a deal you have to beat the demon/spirit/fae/whatever in some kind of challenge to gain the magic in the first place? Or they need to everyonce in a while to keep them in check and use the magic? Losing could mean as severe of a downside as you want, or as appropriate for the magic/degree they lost by.

Just not sure how to have this be done in a way that doesnt take forever aside for dice or something, which doesn't sound as fun.

Yeah, don't let player play mages.

You can be a magic user and not be a magic

I mean a mage.

mmm maybe i will make players tell me with which thing they made a pact so they start with their pact done first

Going around and doing the pacts for the first few sessions could be fun. Tracking down where the patrons are and going whatever dungeons they have holed themselves up in.

or not if one player gets the pact done and the others dont or who knows

All magic is blood magic.
Your cognitive function scales inversely with your attunement to magic; the magical forces literally rot brains. That's why most mages are bat shit crazy.
Magic also has a large variety o miscast effects. Some spells even specifically inflict miscast effects on targets.
>butt naked mage rushes into a crowd and emits some sort of eldritch scream while striking his member with one hand and clutching at his throat with the other
>many people start frothing in the mouth, some because straight paralyzed, many start convulsing and writhing on the ground; and for a few, those very same eldritch horrors now channel themselves through the throat of that target, and they too join in the accursed scream

Or more low key:
>It's dark
>Use the spell "Burn my eyes"
>Your eyes are on fire
>magical fire
>but you can see as if the entire world is bathed in light
>you also stand out like a beacon

The first example sounds like auto-erotic asphyxia

I don't see the issue.

I guess they would have to end up doing it one at a time. Fuck

> All magic is dark rituals, Houses of the Blooded style
> All magic is messing with evil energies, Warhammer style
> All magic has its price and is chaotic and against nature, Barbarians of Lemuria style
This is some inspirations to make your magic rare, restricted, and hard to learn.

Magic is always granted by a patron, and requires a sacrifice or flesh of soul.
You may pay the price yourself or let others.

Thus there's the deadened liches that bargain vitality, the warlocks that wander with a percentiel ownership of their souls or the abominations that allowed the outsiders to sculpt them, and all manners of hybrids.

Not to speak of the cult leaders that let their congregation pay the price, small prices divided among many or the warlords whose shamans offer everything their captives have, body and soul.

I dislike the "dangerous" part. You should certainly make it mysterious.

In order to cast any spells you need to fashion a magic wand or staff. It recharges every dawn and dusk, and you must speak words of power to bring change on the world.

mmm it can help limit magic casting and players can hunt down those magic words

Rituals, divine intervention, arcane wild magic, and shamanism