Well, if you want a magic element, I think you can't go wrong with lightstone dust. can't get any more magical than something you harvested out of the nether world. My idea goes like this; Lightstone is the prime magical element, allowing you to imprint various substances with the properties of others. Paper happens to be the easiest medium to apply it to, allowing spells to be cast. Books allow many uses of the spell and bookshelves happen to be magic crafting tables, representing the study necessary to prepare such spells.
As I see it there is a need for several different kinds of magic;
several attack spells
defensive spells
movement spells
other magic tools
traps
magic armor and weapons
Spells would be cast through spell books which would act as tools and have similar durability. In essence you combine the book, lightstone dust, and a certain amount of whatever material which determines what spell the book will cast. For instance, redstone dust seems to have magnetic and electrical properties. So if you combine it with a book and lightstone dust you have a spellbook that creates an electrical attack. As a bonus you could have it activate anything attached to a redstone wire that you hit with it or do damage to mobs and players along fifteen blocks of the wire. Perhaps you could electrify moving water.
A defensive spell could use obsidian, as aside from it's gate creation properties it's also really hard to break. whenever you are holding the book for this spell all damage you take is transferred to the book, allowing you to take large falls, run through lava, survive long enough to dig yourself out of the sand that fell on your head, or ignore that spider. Note that this is a tool, you can't use it and hold a pick-axe or a sword and while it could get you across that one bit of lava, it will lose a significant portion of it's durability doing so
As for movement spells, I like the idea of featherfall, or adding the flight mod as part of the game. Definitely a spell to breathe underwater and allow you to break blocks in it as fast as you would at the surface.
My favorite spells are transformative spells. The pig spell allows you to turn 1 mob of any type into a pig. in multiplayer you could do this to other players. Players would not lose any abilities, they just look like a pig, or a pigman, to other characters. The player might not notice the change. Several pieces of pork should work as the imprinting substance.
Magic tools other than the spell books might include divining rods that lead you to more of whatever substance you use in it's crafting.
To make traps you could add these properties to some kind of ordinary block like dirt or cobblestone. When someone steps on it they activate the effect on themselves and the area around them, so you could have a trap block that has a one off attack spell. if it was the electrical one I talked about above it could activate a circuit and activate a lava trap. A fire spell imprinted block could ignite the wooden entrance to your house, killing a griefer who keeps filling the place with dirt. An obsidian defensive spell could allow you to fight off some mobs in a prepared position, giving you enough of a breather to heal yourself.
To get Magic armor, you add would lightstone dust and your imprinting substance. For instance using redstone dust will give your armor electrical resistance, guiding any source of electrical damage away from your body. Fire elemental armor will be coveted as it would reduce lava damage an help you against Ghasts. As for obsidian, obsidian would restore durability and possibly increase it past it's maximum.
These are just a few ideas and I will be adding more
I realize that people have already posted things that are very similar to what I am suggesting here but I thought I would go over my own take on it.
Thank You
It's not like there aren't already magical elements to the game. Portals for instance. A lot of people like the idea of magic, hence the large number of posts and topics on the subject and the existence and popularity of the runecraft mod. If you judge it by those terms, it is only a matter of time before magic is implemented. I most certainly think it will be implemented before adventure comes out. The only question is what that system will look like
This system revolves around the use of a relatively hard to obtain substance requiring you to either cheat or spend hours to obtain the ingredients. In my favorite SSP file I have just obtained a small amount of the stuff and I have been playing on it for quite a while. obtaining diamond and obsidian and traversing a portion of the nether as base requirements to using any of what you call cheats is something I think is perfectly reasonable.
Did something happen today that everyone seems to be on a magic kick? There are like half a dozen different threads that all seem to have popped up today proposing some sort of magic system be implemented.
The system I prefer is to enchant gold items. Gold isn't currently doing anything useful and wouldn't need any major new additions to minecraft to be implemented. It also would fill in that gap between iron and diamond tiers.
I don't see the complexity here. you plug in your lightstone and a bucket of lava and you've got fire magic. that's it. you can add it to a few kinds of objects, books let you use the spell (I was thinking a Ghast fireball to make it easy to reuse code but it might be two powerful, just reuse the animation but it just catches the enemy on fire), blocks activate it automatically when stepped on, armor protects you from it. The specifics I put in are just examples of the idea.
As I see it there is a need for several different kinds of magic;
several attack spells
defensive spells
movement spells
other magic tools
traps
magic armor and weapons
Spells would be cast through spell books which would act as tools and have similar durability. In essence you combine the book, lightstone dust, and a certain amount of whatever material which determines what spell the book will cast. For instance, redstone dust seems to have magnetic and electrical properties. So if you combine it with a book and lightstone dust you have a spellbook that creates an electrical attack. As a bonus you could have it activate anything attached to a redstone wire that you hit with it or do damage to mobs and players along fifteen blocks of the wire. Perhaps you could electrify moving water.
A defensive spell could use obsidian, as aside from it's gate creation properties it's also really hard to break. whenever you are holding the book for this spell all damage you take is transferred to the book, allowing you to take large falls, run through lava, survive long enough to dig yourself out of the sand that fell on your head, or ignore that spider. Note that this is a tool, you can't use it and hold a pick-axe or a sword and while it could get you across that one bit of lava, it will lose a significant portion of it's durability doing so
As for movement spells, I like the idea of featherfall, or adding the flight mod as part of the game. Definitely a spell to breathe underwater and allow you to break blocks in it as fast as you would at the surface.
My favorite spells are transformative spells. The pig spell allows you to turn 1 mob of any type into a pig. in multiplayer you could do this to other players. Players would not lose any abilities, they just look like a pig, or a pigman, to other characters. The player might not notice the change. Several pieces of pork should work as the imprinting substance.
Magic tools other than the spell books might include divining rods that lead you to more of whatever substance you use in it's crafting.
To make traps you could add these properties to some kind of ordinary block like dirt or cobblestone. When someone steps on it they activate the effect on themselves and the area around them, so you could have a trap block that has a one off attack spell. if it was the electrical one I talked about above it could activate a circuit and activate a lava trap. A fire spell imprinted block could ignite the wooden entrance to your house, killing a griefer who keeps filling the place with dirt. An obsidian defensive spell could allow you to fight off some mobs in a prepared position, giving you enough of a breather to heal yourself.
To get Magic armor, you add would lightstone dust and your imprinting substance. For instance using redstone dust will give your armor electrical resistance, guiding any source of electrical damage away from your body. Fire elemental armor will be coveted as it would reduce lava damage an help you against Ghasts. As for obsidian, obsidian would restore durability and possibly increase it past it's maximum.
These are just a few ideas and I will be adding more
I realize that people have already posted things that are very similar to what I am suggesting here but I thought I would go over my own take on it.
Thank You
This system revolves around the use of a relatively hard to obtain substance requiring you to either cheat or spend hours to obtain the ingredients. In my favorite SSP file I have just obtained a small amount of the stuff and I have been playing on it for quite a while. obtaining diamond and obsidian and traversing a portion of the nether as base requirements to using any of what you call cheats is something I think is perfectly reasonable.
The system I prefer is to enchant gold items. Gold isn't currently doing anything useful and wouldn't need any major new additions to minecraft to be implemented. It also would fill in that gap between iron and diamond tiers.
PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT:
Sabata & Grey Acumen's "New Nether"
Grey Acumen's Minecraft 2.0 Suggestion Series