u/Hungry_Help319

Whenever I talk to people about magic system, they mention cost which makes sense since most of the time, magic without cost would become too powerful. But I do not think it is always necessary.

First of all we have to know what a cost does- It set limit.

In Naruto a character cannot spam the most overpowered jutsu because it will cost them chakra which is an exhaustible energy. I think most of us are aware of how this works but I would still elaborate-

Chakra is the energy which they use to cast jutsu. Every jutsu needs chakra. The power of jutsu usually is proportional to the amount of chakra used, so after using a lot of jutsu they will run out of it and it will need time to charge again. This prevents them from spamming the most powerful jutsu everytime.

I think it a perfect example of cost. Cost sets limit.

By why do we even need limit?

Because without limit, it would become too easy for characters to use magic and solve problem with it.

But here is a catch, what if there is some other form of limit which is not cost?

Maybe they needs too much knowledge to use the magic?

Maybe they can only use magic under certain conditions?

But, here is another catch- limit is also not always necessary.

Here I will take example of Arcane: League of Legends (I have not played the game so all I would say will be about show not the game. So please forget about game for a while.) and Harry Potter.

In Arcane, most of the characters cannot use magic, those who can have very little active role in story. The Herald (I am not using his original name since it will be spoiler) is a character who use it and has very major role but we have a basic idea of what he can do what he cannot because of his biology. All the other times, magic is treated as a thing of wonder (not considering hextech), even characters like Jayce do not understand magic fully. There was no need to set a limit on magic because there was no need to explain it at its fullest.

In Harry Potter (I know it is a poor system but all that matters is that it worked), there is no limit at magic (expect 'most of the wizards' need wands) . We do have questions like why do not they spam killing curse all the time- it is usually out of character for good people to use killing curse and most of the times bad guys love to display their power, terror and inflict pain.

So I think the whole concept of cost is overrated. Although it results in very interesting concepts.

So conclusion? Ignore cost? Ignore limit? All your life was a lie? No!

If your story needs a system with cost or limit- go for it. Since magic is a tool for stories, you should be able to use it as your story demands (but please do not contradict the things said earlier without explanation, it sucks whenever it happens.).

All I want to say is that cost is not a thing which walks hand in hand with power, it can be necessary many times, many times story will collapse without it but there are ways to make a system without cost and limits. All you have to do is think how to make it work.

Cost is not bad, it is good, but it is not a necessary ingredient since ingredients depend on what you are cooking.