Give me body horror in magic.
Give me pyromancy that burns the skin off your hand until your bones are showing. Give me arcane that cooks you inside-out from manaburn. Give me cryomancy that cracks your skin and chips it away. Give me necromancy that causes your teeth to turn necrotic and your eyes to glass over white.
I don’t want cute magic. I want magic to be a raw and dangerous force. I want those who harness it to feel the full effects of what a great and terrible thing it is. I want mages who wear the effects of their magic on their skin and in their bones.
That’s the good stuff.
Give me that light healing that is like being cauterized from the inside out. Give me the agony of feeling your bones being reknit by nature magic. Give me the sensation of feeling like you are drowning when a shaman works their healing magic. Make it -uncomfortable-.
FUCK. YES.
Why on earth should it all be sparkles and giggles? Healing shouldn’t be instantaneous, nor should it be painless.
I mean, RP what you want, but this is my preference by far.
Give me magic that has consequences. Give me healing that does heal better than mundane methods, but at the risk of killing you from shock in the process. Give me a reason people in a world with magic have scars, curses that actually act like curses and have a 90/10 downside/upside ratio, the potential of actually becoming addicted to the endorphin rush that comes after this kind of healing, and the necessity that magical healers still know how the body works or they risk magically re-knitting those parts in the wrong order.