Basic Trope: Magic powers and psychic powers both exist in the same universe, and may or may not be the same thing or otherwise related.
- Played Straight:
- Magic and psychic powers are considered different phenomena.
- Psychic and magic powers are considered to be a subset of the other.
- Exaggerated: Magic and psychic powers are not only completely different, they're mutually exclusive, with people having the potential to use only one or the other, and switching involving a Discard and Draw effect. Close contact between a mage and a psychic may even cause both to explode from their powers reacting badly in close proximity to one another.
- Downplayed: Mages and psychics are different schools of thought about how to most effectively use the same energy source.
- Subverted:
- It's believed that magic and psychic powers are different, but it turns out they're subsets of the same thing.
- It's believed that they're the same at first, but research reveals distinct differences.
- Double Subverted:
- It later turns out that they are indeed different, despite superficial similarities.
- While they are technically different, they come from the same wellspring of power.
- Averted:
- No special attention is taken regarding the differences and/or similarities between magic and psychic powers and their effects on others.
- The setting only has one or the other, but not both.
- Exploited:
- Alice, who is both psychic and a mage, can cast spell incantations telepathically, which comes in handy if she gets hit with a Silence spell that prevents her from chanting vocally. It also gives her more options if something she's fighting is immune to one but not the other of her abilities.
- Since most people think it's impossible for someone to be both, Alice being a dual psychic mage serves as an Outside-Context Problem for those who fight her, as her powers give her the abilities of both while having the weaknesses of neither.
- Defied: Attempts to try to figure out the exact similarities and differences between magic and psychic powers are seen as heretical and/or against nature.
- Deconstructed: Mages and psychics go to war to determine which is the superior system, leading to ruin for all.
- Reconstructed: Learning from their war experiences, both sides combine their talents in order to increase their understanding of both systems.
- Lampshaded: "I wonder, is there any real difference between say, me lifting a boulder with a levitation spell, and you lifting a boulder with telekinesis?"
- Discussed: "Many psychics and mages spend their time arguing about whether or not their powers are completely separate or come from the same source."
- Conversed: "Lots of shows have characters with either magic, psychic powers, or both, what's the difference, if there even is one?"
- Played For Drama: It has been long believed in the Kingdom of Troperia that magic and psychic powers had no relation at all since those who had one could not use the other, but upon the birth of the hybrid psychic mage Alice, entire theories about their relationship are upended as scholars are forced to reevaluate what is the difference between them, if there is any at all. Others try to kill Alice for being, in their eyes, an unholy abomination for her ability to use both.
