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
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
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
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
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