Magic... What's Going on?

[KissMeDarkly]

Just curious as to what's going on with the Magic (spells/ items/ types/ whatever) that'll be blessing the GameMastery world of the Pathfinder series.

I've never really played a spellcaster before so perhaps I'm not the best person to ask these questions. BUT after those delightful/ disgusting (you chose which) Harry Potter books and several of Tamora Pierce's novels, I've discovered that I want more out of my Magics, even if I don't use them.

I want SILLY MAGICS that I'd expect an apprentice to cast which could eventually be useful if only for one encounter.

I want HEXES. Yes Bestow Curse is a good spell, but it doesn't give the flavor of apprentices casting spells to cause pimples or make someone's ugly face "disappear". J.K.Rowling's Bat Bogey hex is the perfect example of the kind of spell I want.

I want AMBIENT MAGIC. Tamora Pierce's books, Circle of Magic quartet, The Circle Opens quartet, and Will of the Empress, are about mages who use ambient magic. Ambient magic is an elementalistic style of magic. Each main character has a different type of ambient magic (Sandry=Weaving/Thread, Briar=Plants, Daja=Metal/Smithing, Tris=Weather/Tides/Volcanoes) I'd LOVE to play such a mage, without having to do any work. I can dream dammit!

I want ESSENCE. I want spells that are trigger by someone's very essence (life force) like those in Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, allowing spy type characters ways to get around various magic locks/spells/traps with just a little bit of someone's "essense". For those not in the know, Essence is kinda like magical sweat. You leave your essence on everything you touch. The more you touch something the more residual essence there is. Essence does eventually fade away.

I'd love ARTICLES ABOUT GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE SPELLS I'VE GOT. Cause maybe I'm just not using magic to the best of it's abilities.

Comments? Suggestions? Anything I missed? Just add it here!

[KissMeDarkly]

Found a descriptions of how ambient magic works from the author herself. In Shatterglass Book #4 of Tamora Pierce's The Circle Opens quartet.

Here the character, Niko Goldeye, famed for his Visions and powers of magical Sight, explains to Kethlun Warder, who has come seeking a teacher for his magic.

"I see why those who tested you were confused," he told Keth. "You have ambient glass magic which means that you draw power not from inside yourself, as academic glss mageso, but from glass and the things that go into making it, including earth, air, water, and fire. The thing that has transformed it is lightning. That lightning gives your power strength and predictability. Your power flickers, jumping from element to element within you."
(pg. 73-74, Paperback Edition)

Again Niko Goldeye explains to Kethlun Warder, now an apprentice ambient lightning mage about weather magics.

"Any kind of weather magic is hard to regulate," Niko said mildly. "Academic mages have trouble building their strength up, because it all comes from within them. Ambient magics suffer the opposite problem, struggling to manage a great deal of power that is drawn to them without their knowledge. Lightning, of course, only increases the levels of power that run through you."
(pg. 317, Paperback Edition)

Looking at this and thinking about it a little more, I think that Ambient Magics might require domains without requiring that the magic have a divine relationship.