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[Tawa]

So, I was thinking about how cool it would be to have wizards and magic in DF, and I decided it would be fun to mod in. Catch is, I suck at modding and there's a lot of stuff I'm unsure of. So I'm looking for the assistance of the modding community.

Questions:
-How would one obtain magic? Would it be possible to have wizards be like necromancers, but without zombies? (i.e. live in towers, you'd have to steal the spellbook/slab)
-Would it be possible to have the wizards be hostile to outsiders after becoming wizards, and perhaps lay waste to towns in their path? At the very least, use their magic against prospective adventurers seeking magic?
-Suggestions for magic balance? I was thinking that you'd have to lug around spell components, which would be weird, esoteric stuff (like a specific kind of creature's blood or bones or leaves from some wacky plant or maybe things like specific sorts of gemstones) and sacrificing those when you cast the spell by using them as reaction reagents. Or perhaps a day-long cooldown for spells, in a Vancian manner.
-I know how to copy over fire-jet shooting and throwing balls of frozen steel, but how could I accomplish other sorts of spells? How would I make a spell that could, say, potentially knock a person unconcious, but could be dodged or negated?

[Meph]

In short: Yes to everything you suggested.

On the how and why and what, that would take a bit longer to describe, but syndromes can give people interactions, and interactions are magic. Syndromes could come from finding a specific creatures, eating/drinking potions, "consuming" books (make edible book with syndrome), or by creating boiling rocks with the syndrome in gas form in workshops (for fort mode), AND with dfhack, which makes it a lot easier.

Spells can be anything. For example I have black and white mages, fire, water, earth and air mages, and a rather open spell-learning system for my Warlocks, with ~100 spells. (to be fair, half of those were written by Roses, who allowed me to add them).

But yes, magic is perfectly possible in DF.

[BlackFlyme]

Towers do need minions in order to be built though. Not that what you animate can't be magically turned into something other than an animated corpse though. It could make some sense for familiars, at least. But minions seem to act a little odd at the moment, turning on their master for some reason.

Necromancers are usually reclusive, but you could make sure that they don't take kindly to others by making them crazed or opposed to life. You can also change it so that they cannot take apprentices, if that is what you want. I don't know about them laying waste to towns though. Though they do temporarily reside towns before moving into a tower.

Interactions do not use items. You could just set cool-down times for balancing though. Potions seem a bit better suited for using reagents/reactions. Plus you can be as specific as you want with the reagents of reactions. Requiring a specific leaf or the blood or bones of a specific creature is certainly possible.

Syndromes can be given probabilities, and can be made to be resistable. You could alternatively have a liquid glob which imparts a syndrome on contact, though I don't know how well that would work in giving a syndrome. Clothes and such would probably protect from that.

[StagnantSoul]

Since you can't specifically go "spit at face" or anything of the sorts yet, spits with syndromes are best used on animals. Need to kill a camel for food? Spit it with syndrome inducing spit. Don't waste time chasing it.

[StupidElves]

At one point I had modded in two new secrets during DF 2012. One was a fireball spell and the other was the ability to have a boomstick. So, I suppose it would be possible to do everything you suggested.