Editing Magipunk:Magic (section)

=== Combat ===

Life being what it is, there've been many, many different approaches towards putting magic into the practice of war, murder, or the like. Combat uses of magic can be divided into two basic categories: defensive and offensive. 

Defensive magic is usually either the creation of a stand-alone magical barrier of some kind, or the enhancement of a physical object to be tougher than usual. The stand-alone barrier approach tends to be more effective at repelling energy-based attacks, the enhancement of a physical object approach better for stopping kinetic attacks like a sword-strike (even a magically-enhanced sword-strike). It is possible to enhance someone's skin to be tougher, and that has become the most common defensive-enhancement magic in recent years, as it's basically all-covering and doesn't restrict mobility. 

Offensive magic might be the creation of a blast of pure thaumaturgic energy, a more "mundane" energy like fire or electricity, a necromantic or medical attack directly on the life-force of the target, or simply an enhancement of a physical blow, adding sharpness to a sword or kinetic energy to a mace. 

Weapon enhancement is the most common form of offensive magic – it is relatively easy to obtain a dagger or club that has fixed on it a spell able to enhance its effects. Since combat is a difficult situation for the precise speaking of complex spells, even relatively accomplished sorcerers often like to have their spells be largely pre-cast. Further, if you run out of mana, a sword can still hurt your enemy, even un-empowered. For ranged effects, those who can manage it generally like to use pure spellcasting, as enchanting arrows or bolts for a crossbow is overly expensive, and enchanting the bow or crossbow means that you waste mana if you miss. Spells are generally far more accurate than physical weapons at range.