GOAL: I want to have both good and evil spells available to the PCs, but the evil ones must have a gamist reason to be tempting to the player as much as to the PJ, while their consequences must also be punishing to the character and the player alike, with enough leeway to not mean instant doom. I wanted to have a little more substance to this than to make a "corruption score" which makes their character an evil NPC when topped.
My current system works on a Magic attribute and a spell list. The magic attribute grows as the spell list does, and that happens on level ups. (I have this idea to give them only spell slots, and then make the spells "things to be found", but hasn't happen yet)
Ok so now you have your Magic Attribute, your first spells and you start your adventure. They are probably very useful on the real world, but the Magic Attribute, which also defines the overall strenght of your spells, is not very high yet so you might not feel like a powerful wizard at level 1.
You can artificially put your magic attribute into steroids by going evil. In the fiction, this may not be as easy as saying "I am evil give me power" but, at the table, it can be.
In the fiction, it requires a dark patron to get in contact with you: This can be an evil spirit, a shady old man, an obvious vampire, a floating demon made of eyes or an aboleth that contacted you on a ship travel. At the table, just ask your GM and he will send one to meet you soon. You may even know them from before the game started. Their methods may vary: one might have to bite you. Others will give you a present. They all might have different agendas, but in the end they all want to use you. But in the inmmediate present, your spell list will grow and, subsequently, your Magic Attribute.
In the practice, this will put you one or two levels above a similar wizard: This goes very well with the classic trope of dark magic being a shortcut to power. In addition, certain spells will gain additional effects, such as a little extra damage for psychic attacks, or make charm spells less restricted, or imprint a compelling fear into your suggestion spell.
Instead of corruption increasing per spell used, I will only count failed rolls or partial successes. Even though an increase of the Magic Attribute will make failures more sparse (representing "mastery" of the Dark Arts) having more power and relying on it will make you want to use it more in compensation.
Dark patrons may be overt, but most will present themselves as compassive figures that want to help you, give you a gift, because they see potential in you, so you can get that wish you said you have (vengeance, love, power, riches). They know they will eventually benefit of your downfall, if not also of the trail of chaos and sorrow that will precede it.
Depending on the nature of the patron, and the nature of the player, choose which 2 consequences are most befitting to a given botch. Let your player choose one.
1. Inevitable corruption score. You gain 1d3 "corruption". Once your HP go below that mark, dark powers will control your body like a puppet. The patron might want to use you for fun for a while and allow you to rest later, or maybe want to keep you forever on. Some NPCs may perceive corruption score in you, even if subconsciously, as a small buzzing fear. If you don't abuse corruption, you might level up and gain HP to keep up with it for a long time.
2. One of your attributes is permanently drained; probably charisma but again, whatever befits the patron better. You also suffer a hideous transformation to reflect this; not monster-like at first, but enough to know something is wrong about you. They will become more like jynxes later. Alternativelly, a cleric spell is permanently erased from your list (those that heal, bless or work against evil).
3. The spell has unnecesarily horrific side effects, the GM will tell you which.
4. The veil between our dimension and the patron's wears out, and strange things start to permeate over your house/territory/kingdom, if your character is settled somewhere. Alternativelly, your patron will soon appear to cause chaos nearby, or strange entities will start following you for a time until they crash somewhere.
5. The patron convinces you to do something drastic that tangentially suits your goal, and you think its actually your idea. You can avoid doing it by choosing the other option your GM presented you, but your character still felt the suggestion.
6. Right now, nothing happens. But the patron has decided that the free trial has expired, and reclaims you to be their full time servant, their new body, their food or similar. This is not automatic and you may still present battle. Alternativelly, they may impose a quest on you, which you cannot freely ignore.
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