Ars Magica but it's Dominions

Magic has 13 Arts. It has 5 Techniques and 8 Paths; The Techniques are Creo, Intellego, Muto, Perdo, and Rego. The Paths are Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Astral, Death, Nature, and Blood.

Permanent magic items and summons will require magic gems, pearls, or blood slaves (vis) to make. It also requires higher level magic users to perform the rituals in place, though it is always helps if they have the power of a pretender God on their side.

Magic Spell Guidelines by Path

-Fire-

Creo: Create flames, light, heat, or creatures made of flames such as elemental. Restore or grow the power of a flame or flame-entity. Empower a weapon with fire. Heal a God or prophet of fire.

Intellego: Sense nearby fires or learn the properties of fire. Sense the presence of fire Gods or their prophets. Scry remotely through a fire, or learn when a fire was started or put out.

Muto: Change the color, light, heat, or amount of smoke created by a fire. Change the shape of a fire, give the fire unusual magical properties, or transform a fire into a fire elemental or back.

Perdo: Dim or extinguish a flame. Reduce how much fire can light up an area, or make an object/person hard to warm up via fire. Deal direct damage to a fire god or their prophet.

Rego: Make a fire leap or grow in a specific direction. Make a fire selective of what it burns, or command fire elementals. Frighten or Bolster a force that serves a fire God.

-Water-

Creo: Create water, ice, or coldness. Create a water elemental. Create unnatural fluids or purify a body of water. Heal a God or prophet of water.

Intellego: Allow yourself to see through murky water. Sense nearby water, or water hidden in the ground. Sense a God/prophet of water. See everything inside a body of water or what it reflects.

Muto: Change water to another liquid, such as acid, wine, or (non-sacred) blood. Change the flavor or colors of water. Mutate the shape of a water elemental.

Perdo: Dry wet objects, or evaporate pools and barrels of water. Make safe water unsafe to drink, or curse people with desiccation. Deal direct damage to a water God or their prophet.

Rego: Control where water flows, make it leap, or call it to the surface from far below. Spread a natural body of water for passing. Frighten or Bolster a force that serves a water God.

-Earth-
Creo: Create stone or metal, or create it in motion to throw at enemies. Restore damaged statues, forts, or golems. Toughen up a suit of armor or make a golem. Heal a God or prophet of Earth.

Intellego: See through walls, or sense ore deposits deep in the ground. Scry through the eyes of a carved statue. Sense underground movements and sense a God or prophet of Earth.

Muto: Change stone to sand, sand to dirt, tin to iron, and so on. Make a stone much lighter or change its colors and other natural features. Structurally reconstruct a golem or underground space.

Perdo: Destroy fortifications, make armor brittle or turn it to dust. Damage a golem or creatures closly tied to Earth. Cave-in an underground chamber. Deal direct damage to Earth Gods/prophets.

Rego: Make boulders roll or assemble into formations of your choosing. Launch them through the air as projectiles, or cause an Earthquake. Frighten or Bolster a force that serves an Earth God.

-Air-
Creo: Create gusts of wind, thunder-claps, or vapor-illusions. Create weather; rain, fog, and storm. Create bubbles of air to breath underwater. Throw lightning bolts. Heal a God or prophet of Air.

Intellego: Sense the movements of flying units or the weather long before it happens. Know when a weather event is caused by magic, and sense illusions. Sense a God or prophet of Air.

Muto: Make air in an interior chamber fresh and clean or rancid and toxic. Change the weather in progress to a storm of the same intensity, but different effect. Change an illusion.

Perdo: Still and calm the winds and weather. Destroy illusions. Dampen electricity, or force fliers to land. Harm storm elementals, or deal direct damage to Air Gods/prophets.

Rego: Force a storm to move elsewhere, change the direction of the wind, or force air underground. Disrupt a flier's path or steal illusions. Frighten/Bolster a force that serves an Air God.

-Astral-

Creo: Create or focus natural light, from the stars and moons. Create a false memory. Make someone lucky, or conjure anything with a powerful wish. Heal an astral God/prophet.

Intellego: Scry anywhere via astral projection, or sense manipulations of fate. See the invisible strings of magic to know the paths of another mage. Sense an Astral God or their prophet.

Muto: Change or bend the fate of a person. Manipulate a mind, or link your consciousness with another to commune for power. Manipulate raw vis into other forms.

Perdo: Create a disastrous misfortune for your foes, or make them feebleminded. Break a psychic connection, or an area opaque to scrying. Deal direct damage to an Astral God/Prophet.

Rego: Create a portal or jaunt from one location to another, or directly rip the soul out of someone. Turn an Enchantment wild. Frighten/Bolster a force that serves an Astral God.

-Death-

Creo: Create aging clouds, vile curses, or conjure undead servants. Bolster the forces of undeath and help protect them from banishment. Heal a Death God or prophet of a death God.

Intellego: Make the dead speak, or sense when a person will naturally die. Perceive the invisible strings of control of the dead to their masters. Sense a Death God or their prophet.

Muto: Change the mechanics of aging in a person, but not their actual age. Change the forms of an undead creature. Manipulate corruption and rot.

Perdo: Destroy or damage the undead. End or severely weaken a lich or other undead creature that can resurrect. Stop unnatural aging (not reverse). Deal direct damage to a Death God/Prophet.

Rego: Control the undead or make them follow you instead. Counter a curse or change when a slain undead creature can return. Ward against the dead. Frighten/Bolster a force that serve a Death God.

-Nature-

Creo: Create entangling vines, animals, or heal any living thing; including Nature Gods/Prophets. Create poison clouds, empower creatures, reverse aging. Make plants grow in bad soil, make food.

Intellego: Sense animals, speak to animals, or get the feeling of everything that has passed through a forest in recent months. Get a sense for a creature's emotions. Sense a Nature God and their prophet.

Muto: Shapeshift into different natural animals or large monster forms, or polymorph someone into a harmless animal. Turn twigs and tree-bark into food, or change the size or basic state of an animal.

Perdo: Damage living creatures, deforest woodland areas, or wilt brambles to allow for easy passing. Kill creatures or infect them with diseases. Deal direct damage to a Nature God/Prophet.

Rego: Control the behavior of an animal or beast. Wildly change the emotional state of anybody, like putting a human into an uncontrollable berserk rage. Frighten/Bolster the force of a Nature God.

-Blood-

Creo: Create an abomination; a chimera made of many living things. Creates fields of boiling bloods, or summon a demon or horror from outside reality. Heal a freak, Blood God, or a Blood-God Prophet.

Intellego: Sense blood slaves in the nearby area; which is extremely important to perform any serious blood magic. Sense blood freaks, those controlled by blood magic, and Blood Gods/their Prophets.

Muto: Greatly mutate or change a living thing into an unnatural form. Change the bloodline in a living thing, so all its offspring will be different. Change who a horror is hunting, but not for long.

Perdo: Deal damage to blood, and sicken someone by ruining their blood. Destroy abominations or demons, and deal direct damage to a Blood God or their Prophet.

Rego: Control a person's blood to spurt from their skin or leak from their eyes. Control the mind of a blood slave (with ease). Make a pact with a demon. Frighten or Bolster the forces of a Blood God.

Magic Item Recycling

Recycling magic items sets an interesting problem. If you consider a more mystical or folklore-esque magic system, recycling magic items doesn't usually make too much sense. Items lose power if destroyed, or can't be destroyed to make new items. Things are enchanted just because, melting down a magic cup into a magic sword doesn't have any purpose, as its the cup that's magical. If the magic is based on inhabiting spirits, it also doesn't work very well since the spirits would usually be freed if the item was broken down or 'recycled'. But if the magic in the setting is more based on an energy or enchantment based model, then it works to argue that the magical energy or enchantments can be reused in new physical forms.

In order to do this, we're going to use the Ars Magica magic system. There are 10 Forms representing the most primal aspects of reality; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Plants, Animals, Images, Minds, Bodies (of intelligent beings) and Prime (magic itself or metamagic element).

First, take the items being destroyed or used for recycling and consider the primary aspect of the enchantment; this is its vis charge that we can use to convert into an elemental point. For example, a +1 magic sword or an “unbreakable shield” are both made of metal, and are magically just “better” then other things of the same material. We could consider both of these as a Earth (Terram). If it's a fire sword, then it counts as Fire (Ignem).

The total number of enchantment points will influence how powerful and of what element the new enchanted item has and it's strength. If the total is a tie between elements; just pick whichever makes the most sense or try to combine them. Another idea is to make elements with mostly one element but some of another have the item theme'd after the smaller element. So if you create a magic shield with mostly Earth element but have some Air element in it; you could make the shield somewhat transparent, made of glass, or maybe release a puff of gas or a minor thunderclap when struck.

The physical form of the new object being created determines what “Technique” the “Form” of the object will take place using the Ars Magica as a baseline. The techniques in Ars Magica are Creo, Intellego, Muto, Perdo, and Rego- which we shall call Create, Perceive, Change, Destroy, and Control.

Create: Tools, Healing tools, Containers, Lanterns, some ranged weapons

Perceive: Candles, Scrolls, Spectacles, Sight-Stones, Spyglasses, Maps

Change: Cups, Sheets, Wands, Disguises, Cloaks, Lotions/Potions

Destroy: Weapons, Torture Devices, Poison

Control: Armor, Scepters, Staffs, Tiaras, Rings

Using this ruleset, several magic metal items or earth crystals would grant an item a Terram charge, and if the item being made was a Shield, we could see a result of Rego + Terram. This means the item has the powers to control earth; which fits well with a sheild. Upon being created, a powerful mage might be able to “bend” the enchantment to a specific result under this umbrella. Rego + Terram could mean the shield helps to turn away metal objects, bashing into metal armor of enemies could damage them/make them not function as well, or the shield could be thrown as a weapon or even rid like a flying disc. All of which fits under our Technique + Form. The power of this enchantment would be equal to the charges used to make it; if it was +3 it could act as a +3 improvised flying weapon, or deflect 3 sword blows per combat, or be ridden as fast as a 3 legged horse, etc.

This is a hypothetical ruleset, maybe it helps you figure out what to do when recycling magic items if you can't figure out what it should do on your own.

Freeform Ritual Magic

Freeform magic is one of those things that is both enticing to some people, but extremely difficult if nigh-impossible to actually pull off in a way that is satisfying. Despite everything in the game already going via DM fiat, freeform magic requires just even a little bit more.

Regardless I've still always wanted to try it and think it fits well with high fantasy. If you're playing a Sage, add half your level to the roll if you're casting a beneficial, divination, or “sealing the ancient evil” type of spells.

Freeform Ritual Magic

For this system, all magic or “elements” is divided into 10 forms for ease of use. These are equivalent to the forms from Ars Magica.

Beasts (body and mind), Images (perceivable things), Plants, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Mind, Body (of intelligent creatures), and Prime (magic itself).

To cast a spell, you need a ritual component similar to each form of magic you're using, as well as sympathetic elements to influence them, and finally a fetter to bind your spell to whatever you are casting it upon. Fetters are usually personal effects if cast on a person, a bit of silt or a brick if cast on a location, or an inanimate object itself if cast upon it.

For example, if you wanted to cast a spell on a rival shepards flock to make them stampede and flee you would need a Beast element, a fetter, and something that causes fear (especially to sheep). In this case, something like the wool of one of the sheeps in his flock could work for two categories.

Once your ritual is completed, roll d20 + intelligence mod. Depending on how difficult the effect is, it will be harder and harder to pull off. Ritual spells done this way must be localized and specific, you can't really cast a ritual spell to topple an empire unless you were really high level. Ritual spells often follow the magical path of least resistance, and so there is often a question is the ritual even had an effect at all. In the above example, a wolf might break into the paddock and cause the sheep to flee, which could be caused by the spell or not, nobody knows. Higher level characters could have ritual effects that display vulgar and obvious magic though, such as a ghostly spirit that appears to spook the sheep away instead of a subtle sort of thing.