If we are to peradventure that, in this story, the laws of thermodynamics are active, then one would have to expend MORE energy to make a fire than however much energy the fire has. Therefore, if one were to cast a, say, "warmth" spell to keep the body warming, it would make one colder at a greater rate than it would make him warmer, thus preventing this perpetual energy loop. What we want, I think, is consistency. No one ever asks where the energy for the Power Ranger's morphers comes from or how it works. If one attempts to explain that magic draws heat from the body, I think it should go into a satisfactory extent of detail and remain consistent with whatever explanation it gives, even if that explanation is, "Gee, no one knows why it does that." Moreover, it is much more fun for me to explain many details and create an exact structure for magic, rather than shrug my shoulders and say that it works because it is magic. (Although, as I have stated, this is perfectly acceptable to do: My siblings often do it this way when writing or creating stories.)
If that's the case, then, the most powerful thing the user could is raise the temperature of a volume equivalent to his by 15 degrees C or less.
I'm planning on making it so that the staff or wand multiplies (possibly exponentially) the body heat based on how skilled the mage is, and possibly the material construction of the staff or wand.
One thing I think you guys are missing is that fire is not the only magic in my world. All magics are possible, it's just that body heat is the power source
But if one magic is going to follow the laws of physics then all should follow the laws of physics otherwise it is not convincing or consistent.
Yeah, either way, any spell you do has to be equivalent (in energy) to the heat used. If your wand can magnify your input, one would think the output could consist of some powerful spell minus a small portion to restore heat to the user. I'd make a rule that the a barrier is created while the caster projects, prohibiting him from absorbing heat from his surroundings.
And again, such a barrier should be fueled by something and since the fuel for magic is body heat the user would suffer hypothermia in seconds.
Well, no, not really. Things levitated will drop when the spell expires of is broken. That's the law of gravity. But the mass that can be levitated need not be matched by a proportional expenditure of energy. Yoda can levitate an X-wing without breaking a sweat. That's a law of magic in that universe. You just need to be consistent within your own system.
I believe I have all I need to go off of. Thank you all for contributing! Please feel free to keep posting if you wish.
I like the idea of magic having a physical cost on the caster. If you want to go with the idea that the mage needs a wand or staff in order to cast magic then you could incorporate a form of increasing severity of coldness, emanating from the wand/staff. For example for small, insignificant spells that don't need much physical energy to be cast, it will only cause a slight coldness in the hands of the mage where he/she is touching the wand/staff. For magic that requires more energy the coldness would increase to the point of possible physical harm through frostbite in the fingers and hand. Then possible death during large spells where the entire body becomes too cold and the mage dies as a result of hypothermia, or maybe actually instantly frozen. You would definitely need to address just how much energy is created, possibly as heat if casting fire magic, versus how much energy is consumed in the form of heat drawn away from the mage's body. It would make more sense if there is slightly more energy consumed than created, that way a perpetual fire magic spell could not be cast that warms the mage's own hands from the effects of the magic. Once you get across the rules of your magic, then you'll want to establish limits. Just how much magic is too much and will result in frostbite? How much is fatal? Could a group of mages work together to transfer heat to a single mage performing a normally fatal spell, thus saving the mage using a fatal amount of magic?
I had thought I had posted this, but I can not find it. For a real "you better be sure" type reaction, use dopamine or adrenaline. lack of either can be deadly or excruciatingly painful overabundance is also fatal.
Not necessarily, what if casting a minor spell only reduces your body temperature by .005 degrees. There are a number of reasons why the characters wouldn't get hypothermia in seconds. Hah! Drugs like MDMA [ecstasy] dump your serotonin into your brain - that would be pretty funny. After casting a spell the wizard is wandering around staring at pretty lights and chewing his face off. I might just write that.
For some reason I was reminded of this guy. Make sure he also thinks he's an orange and starts to peel himself.
This made me think of a blood donor. A little bit of blood, a liter or pint, might not really be noticed by most, though a few might feel woozy afterward. But, if you lose a lot of blood, you will feel weak for a period and lacking in strength and energy. But, if you lose too much, well ... you've cast your last spell, so to speak. And, yeah, it is energy that generates the heat so it would have to be an energy exchange rather than heat per se.
A question though. If you use a spell that prevents any heat from affecting an object, wouldn't that just snap-freeze the object as effectively as dumping it in liquid nitrogen or something? A person who can't get any heat from their surroundings would die almost instantly, wouldn't he?
he has a point, cold is the absence of heat. would work well if he had a fever! assuming that the temp drop only lasts for the duration of the spell. technically the spell would have to stop the heart to do this because the heart uses calories to keep moving therefore producing body heat. the only way to stop that production is to take ALL UNUSED calories from the body therefore practically starving the heart. even small rapid changes in body temp could easily result in cardiac arrest. you could conversely add body heat from a spell resulting in the need to constantly be eating or risk hypoglycemia and dehydration. You could even add radiation like effects on the caster temporarily. All this assumes you want to play by the mostly established rules of magic (in literature) where there must be equal sacrifice on the part of the caster. If not, go nuts and do what you want.
Maybe instead of heat it takes blood\water from the body? It's a necessary thing that has a lot of symbolism connected to it. Maybe one drop of whatever is needed for each spell, but if you over do it you'll pass out. Might be neat, even if the spell isn't water related. Gives a new meaning to 'magic runs in your veins blah blah' *EDIT* Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see the other pages on this thread and just realized this was already suggested. Ignore me!
Coming in pretty late to this discussion, but there's a couple things that make me scratch my head. First, while I understand that "Magic" is "Magic" and thus, not necessarily explainable, it also has to be within the realm of plausibility. How can heat generate a spell? I'm wracking my brain to explain that one, and can't find any answers. However, I think what you can do, is make it an unintended result of casting a spell. Say, if the person has a magical core, then the core is a Thermally Isolated System (Thermodynamics), but the spells that are produced from the system lacks the adiabatic boundary. Thus, while not having any heat in them, it absorbs heat as it transfers through the body. The body of any magician has adjusted for it by creating a thermal barrier of heat around each spell, doing so by taking heat from the body and encapsulating the spell as soon as it leaves the magical core (to avoid damage to the internal body) with it until it leaves the body. The result is that every spell is surrounded by a bubble of heat that is carried out of the body. The more spells that are cast, the more heat that is pulled from the body to surround the spells so that they don't freeze the internal parts of the body. This would cause the feeling of coldness to originate in the chest, rather than in the hand or arm, and spread radially throughout the body. The danger would not be frostbite, but the person going into hypothermia whenever they started casting spells.
