As the title suggests, which race do you think produces the most powerful magic users from any & every fantasy race ever created.

I would assume for the most part the average response might be a particular race of Elves, as in nearly every fantasy world they usually produce kick ass magic users.

However, I my nomination goes to the toad like Slann of the Lizardmen in the Warhammer fantasy universe. They are masters of geo magic, able to shift continents and weather according to pre-destined conditions (They were the Old Ones most beloved creations and were left in charge of defending and shaping the world as the Old Ones had depicted.) It was the Slann whom caused the earthquakes that rocked the empire of Dwarfs and pretty much started them down the road towards extinction. It was the Slann who rocked the massive war fleet of Cathay with cyclones when they were trying to secure spice routes to the Southlands. (And to other fleets as well :wink:) They also possess unrivaled telepathy.

In game terms, a 2nd generation Slann Mage is extremely feared, able to outclass enemy mages with ease, add in a few skink mages so the Slann can use its telepathy and its deadliness increases even more so. They also come with a bodyguard unit of Saurus warriors, meaning trying to remove the Slann, head on is not an easy task. I've known players to stack their hero choices with all mages at the prospect of facing a 2nd generation slann in the hopes of nullfying/competing in the magic phase.

The downside is the 2nd generation Slann costs ALOT of points, so if you're not careful and you lose it, your pretty much screwed. There's nothing funnier than watching the look on a Lizardman player's face when their opponent is a Skaven player… who has a hero that casts skitterleap teleporting them near the Slann in the first turn, throwing a magical object affectionately known as the Slann popper and killing it.

"Any and every fantasy race" is rather broad. You have to limit the scope somewhere, otherwise I could just write a short story about a new race with more potent magic than the best example you just came up with. On average, across the majority of fantasy literature, I'd say it's a toss-up between Elves and Faeries. If you're discussing magnitude, then Human probably wins. I can think of quite a few stories involving human magic users of unrivaled and often unimaginable powers.

Just off the top of my head I might pick the Valheru from those Feist books. I think they were a 'race' of sorts, and their powers were basically universe-bending.

Now that I think of it, the Amberites from the Zelazny books, too – they were a kind of augmented humans who could shift reality around.

Do we even get to call, say, the Gods of ancient myth 'fantasy races'? If so, all bets are off, ;D

I think we might have to stipulate that gods are excluded. :grinning:

Edit: Which on a technicality, would moot my nomination, as Slann are pretty much worshipped like gods. :sad:

Many fictional works have their own magically powerful races - the Slaan from Warhammer, the Valheru from Feist's novels, the K'Chain Che'Malle from the Malazan series, the Melniboneans from the Elric series, etc.

But if you're talking magically powerful races which aren't specific to any one setting, I'd probably vote for dragons, or perhaps demons. Elves are often depicted as powerful magic users, but they usually come a distant third to dragons and demons.

Humans, because in many books and series, humans can access any magical class. Personal favorites include wizards and witches from The Sword of Truth series as well as Confessors and Seekers.

Diversity does not always make one the most powerful magic user.

I have to toss my hat in with KaVir. Dragons, in many Fantasy circles, are the embodiment of magic, and therefore, can produce the most powerful spells with little effort.

Dragons in the Sword of Truth series are innately magical creatures, and according to Kahlan, red dragons (as a race, not any specific individual) come close to matching Darken Rahl - who is probably the most powerful wizard of the modern age (unless you count Richard). That would make dragons in general far more magically powerful than human spellcasters.

I forgot about the dragons in SOT, i guess i will have to agree with your position that dragons are generally across the board are an inherently superior magical race.

I'd completely discounted dragons. I'm liable to agree that dragons are inherently a superior magical race; hell in some fantasy universes, Dragon blood is thought to be pure magic, in others, the dragon's blood contains magical properties and so forth.

The Elder Races are usually the most advanced and powerful beings in any setting, be it a fantasy one or a sci-fi one. For example, the Old Ones in Warhammer. Dragons are the elder race in many fantasy settings, but in quite a few others dragons are just descendants of or products of the elder race. Not sure if "elder race" is too broad, but if not I'd toss my vote in for them.

In LotR, there are plenty of "elder races" with extremely powerful magic, older than the elves even.

Still, I'm not sure how it's really meaningful to compare magic ability from one universe to another when those universes have completely different "rules of magic" to begin with. :wink:

Without doubt the Saiyans are the most powerful race of all, their magical power actually requires a 64 bit integer to be represented correctly in their super saiyan form.

Surely you jest.



Perhaps its not meaningful; it is interesting though. :biggrin:



I personally await the return of the old ones to wipe out the Hordes of Chaos. Oh how I do so loathe the Chaos Gods and their minions. I'm nearly ashamed to admit I wrote an article on the Old ones and the distinct possibility that Grugni and Valaya (2 of 3 Dwarven Gods) were likely Old ones. :lol:

Gnomes.

Only the gnomes could have conjured up the interweb, enslaving all sentient beings via their magic boxen.

The Time Lords from Doctor Who. (Well, it seems like magic to those of us with one heart.)

WELL! If we're going to allow syfy, I vote for the Q continuum.

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net

OK, I lol'd.



All of the beings older than the elves are godlike beings, which I thought were ruled out. Eru Iluvatar (the supreme being in LOTR's fantasy) created the Ainur (the angelic beings, therefor also therefor deific). The only beings created before the First Children (the Elves) are the Valar and Maiar (the two ranks of Ainur). The ancient powerful beings like Gandalf, Sauron, Saruman, and so on are all Maiar, hence why Gandalf could come back to life. Sauron become so powerful because he was granted a large portion of the power by Melkor, the Satan-like fallen Valar that wanted to undo Creation out of jealousy of the Children. Even beings like the Ents were created after the Elves by one of the Valar, in response to the creation of the Dwarves by another of the Valar.

If you haven't yet, read the Silmarillion. It is a very, very beautiful piece of literary art.

Just got done reading the silmarillion. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Now reading through lotr again since I know the background.

Raistlin > all…though I suppose he's not the average Dragonlance mortal so hmm, yeah Dragons.

EDIT: Wai does Fizban count as a god or a human? If human Fizban > Raistlin ;) (ie. Fizban is the human avatar of Paladine.)