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[Hague]

Well, magical doodads that act as a ranged weapons that require the use of a magical skill like Sorcery could be a way to implement direct damage spells. Doodads being things like wands and enchanted books, idols, talismans, etc. Once individual inventories and direct dwarf control are viable they'd be a valuable asset. Mana stored in these objects can then be used to cast spells directly, acting as ammo for ranged or melee attacks. However, when the item runs out, it needs to be refilled with energy. This allows spell-weapons to be made modular and race specific. Goblins could use fetid totems and skin drums and rattles, elves use geometric twig shapes and wands. Humans use tomes and books. Of course, the items would be cross-race. You could end up with goblins that use elvish spell-items and so on.

[Neskiairti]

it seems world genning it like alot of rivers would be more successful.. with lakes and 'erosion' the lakes being concentrations of it.. the erosion being.. 'evil' areas.. which would have less magic..

but people are forgetting the real name for these kinda things.. ley lines
and where two ley lines meet.. is a flux of great power..

also high magic areas should have other effects.. trees coming to life.. animals turning in to monsters.. lava coming to life (lava men/fire men anyone?) veins of stone coming to life creating golems.. lots of fun your dwarves dig in to a rich vein of galena and all of a sudden from one of the rocks.. comes a golem.. and your dwarves run screaming while you send your military down to deal with it..
in 'normal' areas.. you would have no magical beasts generally.. magical lows would have alot of undead and alot of creatures trying to harvest the magic from your civilization..  while magical highs would have the aformentioned magical 'problems'
magic would be neutral btw.. not good nor evil, its only people who decide good or evil.. magic is neutral. however there might be different flavors of magic.. destructive..  growth.. elemental.. and things like that.. but thats even more complex..
could be ley lines of each type spreading across the map.. and where they meet.. you might get interesting effects.. a destructive leyline meeting with a growth ley line.. >.> the environment would be in chaos.

edit:

and i just thought of something else.. along with races having different types of magic... the way a dwarf might use offensive spells would be that he has to prep them before hand.. like.. scrolls.. but a bit more detailed.. a tiny disk of stone or coin or some such enscribed carefully with the spell. . then the caster envokes it and there you go.. as the little coin flings towards the enemy it bursts in to fire.. then incinerates.. fireball! but to cast it.. first you need to get the apropriate stone and carve the token.. then have to prepare the spell with different ingredients.. maybe have to engrave the token with the correct image or inlay it with other stones.. who knows.. just making runes and carefuly crafting it to embue it with the power.. but in the end its a simple consumable item that some one with the caster ability would know how to use.

[ January 24, 2008: Message edited by: Neskiairti ]

[packard]

I think the best magic system I've ever seen is from Ars Magica.  The rule book is freely available to download:

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=AG0204

I think that to be interesting, a magic system has to be more about scholarship than about raising some kind of combat skill.  It also needs to have a great deal of freedom instead of having a set spell list.  Some of Ars Magica's important features:

Wizards in Ars Magica study from and write books in order to raise their magical ability (as well as being able to study from raw sources of magic).  

They have laboratories which can be upgraded (which links up well with the workshop-based craft system in DF).  

Most importantly, an infinite variety of magic is possible because magical effects are divided into Forms (what is being manipulated) and Techniques (how it is being manipulated).  Further variation is possible in duration, range, etc.  So a Creo Ignem spell might toss a fireball, for instance.  

Maybe there could be different systems for different races, but I think having a system like this in the game would be a lot more interesting than run of the mill Angband-like magic.  It would give you more freedom to do interesting things and be creative.  That's what makes Dwarf Fortress so great, in my opinion.