Magic is wonderful because you can use it to create any kind of metaphor you need.
The Wild Mages as most name them, or the Free Magi' as they name themselves, insist that there should be no barriers put upon a Person. Each seeks self-actualization, and frequently a Wild Mage may do some kindness or right some wrong, but according to the Guardians their mere existence is wrong. Wild Mages hate nothing so much as Guardians, and think of them, and their deity, the Horned Lord, as 'barbaric, savage, primitivist, hateful, vicious, unlearned, demonic...'
It is only the Right of the Kings of the Forrests that stop the two sides from going to bloody war. Such a war would be relatively short because there are a lot more Guardians than Wild Mages. But a Guardian believes in certain roles and duties, and laws such that it is not his duty to maintain justice...it is the duty fo the King.
Plus the typical Wild Mage is stronger than the typical Guardian, not that in a war with at least ten Guardian adepts versus one Wild Mage that's going to matter that much.
The Guardians are trying to strengthen the social fabric and stabilize things and promote their vision of the good in the limits they set on themselves.
The Wild Mages see no limits but practicality, and they are more than willing to cause bloody revolution in the Forests if they can convince themselves they are likely to win.
A Wild Mage typically has showy attack powers, and subtle draining powers. He is studying to find spells of long life, and he knows how to shift form from Man to Woman, and from Human to Hawk or Bear or.... He also tends to have spells of long distance transport.
All of these spells are forbidden to a Guardian except for the showy attack powers which they rarely use. Most Guardians enchant objects to 'make them more themselves' so that a wagon is stronger and smoother, or a cornfield is heavy with corn. Most Guardians cast such spells on themselves as well which with their other training makes them very formidable in hand-to-hand combat. A typical Guardian can jump twenty feet, and catch an arrow fired out of the air with his hand. He does not teleport, but he can run for twenty-four hours at twenty miles per hour straight, if he is high enough level...mid-level, that is. They also have considerable defensive spells, and spells which can track weaknesses of all sorts so as to make them stronger.
It is said, 'there is nothing worse, nor better to find than a Guardian sitting on your doorstep in the morning.' This is because your problems will be dragged out, but also because they will be healed unless you truly resist.
One of the problems of the Wild Mages is that they teleport. Each time one ports, he leaves a hole in reality. Enough holes and bye-bye reality. The high level Wild Mages know this, but they think they can rework reality into a better formation when that happens. One where the Freedom to be whatever you want to be is paramount and unchallenged.
One thing about teh Free Mages is they tend to leave destroyed lives behind them. They never force someone to agree to an idea, but they have a good sense for weaknesses themselves,a nd they know how to get people to agree to bad ideas, and then leave th e person to take the consequences while the Wild Mage flits free.
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I've been reading Mercedes Lackey's 'Elemental Masters' series. In it, if you're unsensitive to magic, perhaps lacking poetry in the soul, you're pretty much immune to Elemental Magic. That does not protect you if someone coerces ghosts and such like to come after you.
So...XYZ Elementalist Mag Spell, Only to People with at least a 2@1 Mag Spell themselves. +5 Bonus.
Another thing, you can have wards against such things, but there is a possibility of attacks bouncing off your wards and hitting innocent bystanders.
Now, this could be a bonus if you're truly Chaotic Evil, but most other alignements would dislike or profoundly hate this.
I've just started the first book in Robert Jordan's monumental series. The Aes Sedai may heal others, may relieve the need for sleep for a while from others (at what seems to be a cost to the other's long term stamina possibly unless good rest is gotten), but they cannot do it to themselves.
So you could have Save Life Mag Bias 2@1, but only to others +5 bonus.
And I've watched Legend of the Seeker, the Mord Sith can give life back to someone who has died, mostly recently. They call it the Breath of Life. I'm tempted to make it Save Life Mag Bias 2@1, only if someone has apparently died....even if that's not quite accurate. +10 bonus. Must bend over and breathe into subject's mouth (full body involvement.) +15. Time...thirty seconds.
Another limit is such...
The Fire Servants of Kaldora take two extra damage classes from any weapon which is covered in ice or made of ice. In fact, there is the Tale of the Fire Drake, told in the Northlands which has the hero killing a major dragon god with an icicle. Most people, even among the Glacier Fjords down to the Volcano Sea think this is a 'fish story'.
Darrin, a verser who had learned magic from the Selighe Court of Greater New York, faced off against a mugger with a dagger in a dark alley, and he prepared to call fire, and then to curse the human thug who did not know who he was messing with....waking up covered in roaches every day for the next ten years sounded good to Darrin...and then the thug sliced Darrin's hand just a bit with a wild knife swing. The knife was stolen from a rich man, and it was cold iron. Darrin had not realized that using the High Court's spells made him equally vulnerable to salt, and four-leaf clovers, and cold iron as the Fae, and of course, his teacher, teh Queen had not told him because what Fae mentions everything? And so Darrin fell over, and versed out from a two point damage cut to his hand by an imcompetent thug.
