you know what would be cool? turn based pvp roguelike wizard battle where each player designs spells
so maybe this could work by you have codespells-style spell orbs that you define behaviour of and these orbs expire to produce effects i guess
the way to sort spells that carves reality at the joins is dnd spell classes, of course
transmutation orbs - so i guess everything on a tile would have to be made out of materials and you'd be able to turn the material on the tile into a different one? and that includes inside creatures, so you'd change your muscles into speedy muscles and that's your buff spells
abjuration orbs - nullify other orbs
conjuration orbs - create creatures
necromancy orbs - repair creatures, including ones that happen to be at 0 HP
enchantment orbs - apply mental status effects i guess
then just like get a bunch of possible effects until the power gamers come up with a hilarious emergent synergy and let it rip
you get interesting effect patterns because orbs can duplicate themselves (to give areas of effect / multiple targets) and be told how to move around
"scry on area near opponent" spell for example would be like
- move around randomly until near enemy wizard
- move to enemy wizard
- duplicate to cover nearby area
- expire with divination effect
at which point your mana is drained (-1 MP per tile or something) and you get the information
evocation orbs - expire to deal damage on the tile. damage type can be picked.
divination orbs - expire to reveal information about the tile they expire on
illusion orbs - expire to make a tile look like another one to the other guy