So you've landed in a fantasy universe...

That's a bit generous, I think.

Kinda like saying the Conan books are technically historical fiction.

You're right.
Star Wars falls in between, it's sci-fi/fantasy. Fantasy being purely made up (not really believable), while sci-fi is about space travel, technology and aliens which borders on the believable (like Star Trek).Thus, Star Wars can be seen as both. If Star Wars didn't have The Force as a dominant part of its stories and movies it would be pure sci-fi.

NEW QUESTION:

What is your epic quest, how did you receive it, and who would your fellow questers be?

And for Pete's sake, be more creative than Olivia WIlde, Emma Stone, Amber Heard and Rosario Dawson.

You guys aren't thinking big enough!

Clearly there is only one be-all, do-everything, ultimate weapon to take into this new fantasy world... The one blade that will allow you to conquer an empire, save the beautiful princess (or prince, depending on your gender, etc), and play a winning game of pinochle... Yes friends, I think it's time that we all admit that the best weapon to have would be...

The Trapped Oni Soul Katana!!!

I'm bringing a few basic chemistry, physics, material sciences books, an encyclopedia and the anarchist cookbook and a few other things of that ilk. Knowledge is power.

Oh! how impressive, you have a flaming sword, here let me just break this flask of Greek fire on you. Toasty!

Or, gee I bet you wish you were wearing glass armor now that I threw a glass flask of hydrochloric acid on you.

Wait wait who said we couldn't cast fire balls and do magic in real life? I thought that's what Kabbalism was for you know, lol. All that tree of knowledge stuff. Hehe, I got my ren faire outfit and Del Tin Great sword I'm set!



I don't find either one very believable to be honest. I always thought Babylon 5 was the most believable scifi series with the most believable film being 2001 and it's successor 2010.

I have to disagree with this. The Force is really just psychic powers that happen to have a religion built around them, psychics being a staple of science fiction.



Really? I've found it a more common opinion that HP magic is underpowered, or at least very specilized most of the time.



So you are basically going to be an alchemist?

I suspect the biggest problem will be getting a hold of equipment and ingredients. Say you want do make hydrochloric acid. Even if you have a decent amount of local money - which is a pretty big if - you can't exactly go the local marketplace and pick up some hydrogen chloride. You'd have to make it yourself by electrolyzing salt and water, which requires an electrical current, meaning you have to design some kind of generator or battery. Alternatively, you can use salt and sulfuric acid, but then you have to make sulfuric acid first, which is a hassle in and of itself.

And even if you pull all that off, what you get is a colorless acidic gas that you have to somehow collect and dissolve in water in order to get the actual acid. You're going to have to do all of this in a lab you built yourself, with equipment you constructed yourself, under presumably medieval conditions.

Basically, you're going to have to be MacGyver.

And then you find out that the local magicians can do basically the same thing by snapping their fingers.

Inheritance (Book 4 of the Inheritance Cycle) was published November 8, 2011 and was a major disappointment; I know because I have the thing on my bookshelf.

As for the magic in HP, it seems to be directly related to willpower as evidenced by the Fake Moody's comments regarding Avada Kedavra (paraphrased): "I bet you could all get out your wands right now and cast that spell at me, but I doubt I'd get so much as a bloody nose." Also, Bellatrix Lestrange (again, paraphrased): "That's the thing about Unforgivable Curses! You've got to mean them!" I always felt that it was heavily implied that magical duels are a contest of wills between the participating magicians, otherwise duels would come down to quick draw competitions like in the Old West, so the best duelist wouldn't be the most skilled, but the best Legillimens or the quickest wand. This would explain why Harry's shield charms fail pretty regularly in the beginning; he doesn't have the confidence to cast them forcefully enough. Similarly, the Patronus spell, as shown in book 3: after a lifetime of abuse and virtual torture, Harry has few happy memories and those he doesn't have aren't powerful enough to form a corporeal Patronus. Conversely, that'd be why people like Dumbledore, Snape, and Voldemort were always so powerful; they had titanic forces of will.

As to the pronunciation of Wingardium Leviosa (but more importantly, the wand motion), I believe the exact explanation was looked at in the first book, but I can't remember exactly. But, when you think of it, it's really no different than Paolini's language based system of magic. Case in point: before he knew jack-semprini about the Ancient Language's grammar, he used "Skolir fra ratha", meaning "a shield from harm", creating Elva. This was addressed in Eldest and subsequently forced him to learn everything he could about the language to prevent such a thing from happening again.

Eragon's magic was a direct ripoff of the magic of Valdemar. And the trilogy was less than half as well written.
There we go, I'll be a mercenary mage-warrior, Adept-class in the Valdemar manner, armed and armoured as described above. None of this "Massively powerful spells but they dioe if you cough at them."

Or a sorceror in the style of the Belgariad. The Will and the Word.