Spell Construction

C-O-N Stop that.

Hooray, you've got phenomenal magical powers! Mastery of the universe is in your hands... at least the parts of the universe that let you throw fireballs or turn princes into frogs. But wait... in order to command the elements or the spirits, you'll need to follow very precise instructions and use just the right ingredients. Casting a spell, it seems, is less like pulling a trigger and more like baking a cake. You might find the recipe in a Spell Book.

There are six different types of component that may be involved, each with associated tropes.


 * Eye of Newt - physical ingredients
 * Equivalent Exchange
 * Geometric Magic - complex diagrams
 * Hermetic Magic
 * Instant Runes
 * Magical Gesture - anything from simply pointing up to ritual dance.
 * Magic Dance
 * Pstandard Psychic Pstance
 * Full-Contact Magic
 * Magical Incantation - the words of the spell
 * Language of Magic
 * I Know Your True Name
 * Magic Music
 * Words Can Break My Bones
 * Magic Prerequisite - external factors that have to be right
 * Mana
 * Magic Wand - reusable tools for doing magic
 * Magitek

A setting's Functional Magic needn't use all of these, but which it uses makes a big difference to how the wizards in that setting work. If all magic needs is the right words, spells can be cast fast but a gagged wizard is powerless. If all magic is requires drawing complex diagrams, it won't be as fast, but even a bound and gagged wizard might be able to draw an explosive sigil with their elbow. If it requires a complex and demanding ritual, then magic will be very hard to cast even unopposed.

Note that the spells do not neccessarily need to be cast as soon as they are created. If the setting allows for the user to hold onto a spell after construction to be used later, then it can have a construction method that takes very long such as Ritual Magic, and still allow for spells that are cast instantly when they are needed, or to be used for fast-paced magical battles. See Vancian Magic for this kind of solution.

This also means that we often make a distinction between preparation and activation. Both still use the above the list of components, but some of them may only have a role in creating a spell, while other will serve as a trigger to make it go off.

The more unusual examples of each component may blur into each other, but they can be distinguished by the way they are handled. if it's kept in a bottle, it is Eye of Newt, even if it's the sound of a child laughing.

Sometimes, if the caster is sufficiently skilled or resourceful, they might be able to forgo some of the usual in-universe requirements to a spell. That is Simplified Spellcasting.

Anime and Manga

 * In Mahou Sensei Negima, most spells are Magical Incantation, although Pactios seem to require Geometric Magic. There are also some Magic Prerequisite spells, which require that the magic of The World Tree is active before they can be used.

Fan Works

 * Hermione Granger becomes the Wizarding World's pre-eminent expert in spell design and innovation in the Harry Potter fanfic The Arithmancer.

Literature

 * In Harry Potter, most magic is cast with magic wands, waved in just the right way, while speaking in psuedo-Latin.
 * The potions, however, are pure Eye of Newt
 * In Ethshar, wizardry combines Eye of Newt, magical gestures, and magical incantations.
 * And magic wands (the Athame, a dagger with part of the wizard's soul in it).
 * In The Dresden Files, minor magic requires magical words that can basically be anything the caster wants them to be so long as the intent is there, moderate magic and potions require Eye of Newt, and very high levels of magic require rituals and a symbolic construction such as a model or magical circle. There are shortcuts around all of these so as long as you believe hard enough and have a large enough source of energy, but it might backfire badly if you try to do it without the spell components.
 * Young Wizards and it's sister series, feline wizards has the True Language thing where spells are just talking to the programming code of the universe itself to re-shape itself. Thus, magic needs to be either written in magical mental runes or spoken in a particular language.
 * In Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series, each of the powerful wizards in Phaze has their own form of Spell Construction; the Blue Adept uses Magic Music, the Yellow Adept uses Eye of Newt, White uses Geometric Magic, Green uses Magical Gesture, etc.
 * Aversion: In Feist's The Riftwar Cycle the most powerful magician's would argue with you (if they'd tend to) since people such as nakor or Pug know rather well magic is just tricks and only idiots need chanting and those weird symbols others keep drawing.

Live-Action TV

 * The British TV show Knightmare featured spellcasting which was literally having to spell a specific word. However the spell first had to be taught by an NPC or found within the dungeon (most often in pieces)

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons and Dragons spells typically use material, somatic, and verbal components. It also has focuses that are reusable but specific to a particular spell, and a few Prestige Classes that use Geometric Magic. Divine magic rarely uses material components, and its gestures are simple enough that they can be performed in armor, but often requires holding a holy symbol.
 * Dungeons and Dragons can use all six depending on the spell and the person casting it, but it is also possible to cast a spell without any construction, typically by taking certain feats. The construction is mostly a helper.
 * Magic in GURPS requires Mana, Magical Gestures and Magical Incantations. Certain spells also need Eye of Newt and complex designs. Energy requirements often necessitate items that provide additional power. Casters can ignore most of these (but never the mana) with sufficiently high skill or by taking penalties when casting.
 * In Mage: The Ascension, every magic wielder pretty much defined his own "foci", as they were called. And while each Tradition had classic types of foci associated with them, you could have your own as long as it made sense within your belief system. For example, a mage who was also an archaeologist might use his bullwhip to affect physical changes, while charging bullets with magic for destructive effects. Later on, however, as the mage became "enlightened", he could begin to use various types of magic WITHOUT his foci, though using them still made it easier.
 * Mage: The Awakening runs the gambit. Improvised magic can be cast without any of the construction methods, buts its pretty unreliable so most mages use rotes which require mudras. To get more benefits mages often also use, High Speechincantations, dedicated magical tools, and less frequently runes and sigils. If they really need to increase the power they can use a ritual with the right sacraments. Also, while they can usually get enough from the ambient magic, but some spell require them to spend mana.
 * Shadowrun has all of the above as entirely optional. By default, no magic requires anything (except the specific combination of hermetic conjuration always requires expensive components and a summoning circle). Otherwise, you can accept any of the above as a limitation to offset the magical power lost because Cybernetics Eat Your Soul (at the cost of not being able to use magic at all when you don't meet the requirements). Alternatively, or even on top of this, you can learn individual spells with such limitations in order to make them even more powerful (but likewise, you can never cast that spell, even a weakened version, if you can't meet your self-imposed restriction).

Web Original

 * In the Whateley Universe, most magic is Magical Gesture or Magical Incantation, but some of Hekate's really dark magic is more Eye of Newt.

Video Games

 * In Academagia, magic spells are cast using special symbols, called "phemes", that are combined to produce spells a bit like phonetic sounds are combined to produce words. Spells are usually inscribed on magical three dimensional space, called a "palette", using a wand. However, it is the phemes that are essential to spell casting, specialized tools like palettes and wand are helpful in a number of ways but not necessary. Theoretically, a skilled mage could draw the phemes in dust or mud with a stick and still cast spells, provided the phemes are made accurately.
 * The Sims 2. All spells require reagents (except for teleportation). Strangely, all the potions only require a cauldron and level 2 magic.
 * Several spells in World of Warcraft require reagents, although they're generally very easy to get. It's also possible to use "Glyphs" to remove the material requirements for some spells.
 * The enchanting profession follows this much more, requiring specific types of magical essences, dust and crystals, as well as special enchanting rods.

Visual Novels

 * Fate/stay night requires Mana and an incantation for magic to be cast—higher rank spells require several verses (one verse is equivalent to 4-6 lines) in order to cast. Caster bypasses this because she has access to the skill "High-Speed Spellcasting", which allows her to use the language of the Gods and significantly reduce casting time, and of course allowing her to use Rank-A spells with ease. In addition, more complex magic rituals require runes (the Servant summoning ritual requires a circle made from blood) and a catalyst for the reaction (the aforementioned ritual requires something possessed by the Heroic Spirit in question).