Oh no! My magic system has taken my soul! (why you are working too hard on your magic system)

I don't say this a lot, but the ideas around creating magic systems are way too strict. People will go to writing checklists and follow "writing experts" advice. It'll be something like "what is the cost of using magic?" or "who can use it", which are fine. If that helps you, continue doing it.

In my humble opinion—

YOU DO NOT NEED TO FOLLOW A DIFFERENT SET OF RULES FOR THIS PART OF YOUR STORY! Honestly, that's probably going to make it a lot harder.

What type of magic/supernatural occurrence works for the story you are telling?

Do that.

If you need less of a power imbalance, create costs of using magic. If you need limitations, add limitations. If your story works better without them, don't include them.

All you need to do is make sure you are consistent.

DO WHATEVER SERVES YOUR STORY, NOTHING MORE OR LESS IS NEEDED!

To add to this (bc this is what most ppl who’ve asked me are struggling with):

If you want to include a bunch of different types of magic without making a soft magic system while also not making it too complicated/nonsensical, go more basic with the rules. As in laws of nature basic. Treat magic as a force of nature and set very basic rules as laws of physics and chemistry and whatever the fuq else there is.

As an example: the magic system I use for pretty much all of my stories has magical energy as an omnipresent (~°^°)~ flow of energy through the universe that living beings evolved to be able to metabolise and redirect into causing other natural phenomena (physical and chemical reactions). This also means that almost all living beings have basic skills in magic. Shelled and scaly creatures know how to harden their shields when danger approaches ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ, prey know how to hide their presence ＾＾while predators enhance their senses and physical abilities when on the hunt (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾.

In more intelligent species the people of the north inherently know how to redirect the energy in their bodies to spark a flame while the people of the south know how to keep cool even in temperatures that could otherwise be deadly.

The ones who dedicate their lives to studying (๑•ૅㅁ•๑) and practicing magic become capable of using highly complex high magic. And then eventually in the far future, when the laws of magic are discovered and understood in their entirety, they become the basis of magi-tech sci-fi. ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

It sounds much more complicated than it is so to summarise: the rules basically are

1. magic is absofucking everywhere, energy go brrrr ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

2. everything with a soul can metabolise that energy into other forms of energy (thermal, kinetic, electric etc) and redirect it to a certain extent/ whatever makes sense for the species

3. everything after that is just pseudoscience physics and chemistry according to my very basic and tbh almost pathetic knowledge of those things

A system this „scientific“ of course isn’t as mystical and mysterious as others Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) but the thing is, your reader doesn’t need to know all of it. You can show them only the parts they need to know, throw in some fancy language like „the essence of the universe“ ٩( ᐛ )و, invent spells and rituals that the people of your world believe in whether they actually work or not @(・●・)@ (which your reader also doesn’t need to know) and you get a fully functional magic system that allows for all kinds of magic to exist alongside each other without being an amalgamation of random stuff, seemingly thrown together without thought, just because you wanted to have in your story.

You can of course still have all the stuff just because you wanted to have it in the story, but now you can bullshit an explanation in under 5 minutes explain it.

Takes a bit of (not really deep, like 20 minutes per topic maybe) research but it’s so worth it.