i made 25 particle effects rendered with blender cycles volumetrics. (see first preview image), blend files for particle effects and compositing included

size is 128x128

(volumetrics does not work on the gpu yet, so you don't have to worry about when you don't have a good gpu)

i have 5 different kinds of effects:

flame, explosion, "flattened effect", ring effect and shockwave-effect

i rendered 3 versions (second preview) of each effect and then i used the compositor to get some better effects, i mixed these 3 versions for this.

for each i have 5 different looks (fire, fire and smoke, blueish flame, blueish smoke and magic fire)

the third preview image shows all effects (magic fire look only)

all in all there are 40 effects (25 composited and 15 directly rendered)