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5:00 A.M Thought's!
while going to sleep I randomly thought of a magic system.
The idea is that whenever you paint a symbol onto someone they then gain that attribute. Basically if you paint a symbol that makes you faster on to someone it does make some faster and vice versa if you remove the symbol then the power gets destroyed.
Has anyone else thought of this idea?
I know runes exist in most games/magic systems but I'm more or less talking about how this only works if it's specifically painted onto a person.
@Mr_NutterButter I would probably go with the paint itself being magical, and temporary. So the magic it gives you from whatever symbol is limited and you have to paint it on again once it runs out or dries up or whatever. Maybe it would be a relatively scarce resource too so you'd have to be very selective with how you use it.
I can imagine it being like a D&D magic item that only has so many charges before it breaks, so you have to be careful how and when you use it. Otherwise it becomes pretty OP.
Alternatively, you can add something like Witcher's toxicity, so if you don't wash off the paint in a certain amount of time you start facing negative effects and that becomes more of a factor with each symbol you have, exponentially.
What I'm trying to get at is that every magic system needs its limits. It will also have the effect of making someone who can use a lot of it seem badass. Maybe they get in a little over their head and it becomes their downfall because they have too much toxicity in their system (sort of like David in the Sandevistan). It becomes a better narrative device that way.