How the frick does one figure out Ars Magica? It's clearly an in-depth magic system, and it looks fun once you figure it out but holy hell, it's complicated. Even the cheat sheets are several pages long.
How the frick does one figure out Ars Magica?
How the frick does one figure out Ars Magica? It's clearly an in-depth magic system, and it looks fun once you figure it out but holy hell, it's complicated. Even the cheat sheets are several pages long.
Get good, sodalis.
Reveal your secrets
Stick with the core spells to start, and get used to modifying range/duration/target as baby steps towards making your own spells.
once players get into it you may want to impose some limits on how much spontaneous spellcasting you can do on the fly, keen magi will derail the game for hours working out the most powerful spell they can cast that approximates their need in this moment.
You do need to basically learn off the core formulas for casting total, lab total and so on, but when it comes down to it that's just addition.
The biggest unintuitive element of the magic system is probably the way you work out penetration versus magic resistance. Keep in mind that:
For magi, magic resistance scales much faster than your ability to penetrate MR. Against a wizard of power similar to your own use indirect attacks.
Most of your spell's penetration total will come from your inital casting roll, because raw penetration is just your roll minus the spell level so choose a nice low level spell and you can hit hard with it. The penetration Ability is irrelevant in day-to-day casting, it just adds 1 to 6 points to your penetration total.
The game changes if you can secure an arcane connection to your target, because your ability score is the only part affected by the "penetration multiplier". If you can get +4 or +5 to that then the seasons you spend studying Penetration turn out not to be wasted after all.
As has stated the biggest issue is the intuitive magical resistance and how it skews the universe. For example, the world explicitly doesn't work on Newtonian dynamics, since such dynamics would make magically propelled mundane projectiles still useful against resistant targets. For the same reason, enchanted objects are blocked by magic field instead of just their magic, out of fear that somebody clever enough could exploit the magic blocking via transmutation of large objects into small projectiles against mages. Basically, the world building and system bend over backwards to accommodate the magical resistance as described.
Is magic resistance a "good" mechanic within the framework of the system or is it better off tweaked/tossed out?
I'm going to be real with you, it's what caused me to drop my plans to play it with friends. It works well if you want a world where magically colouring your opponent sword is a perfect way to become impossible to hit with it.
Then there is the very, very obnoxious way authors gimped every other magical tradition to keep them from being stronger than the main one. They have gone far enough to declare that even the hermetics should even be capable of outdoing specialist traditions at their main schitck. They justified it with the argument that allowing other traditions being better at one specialty would cause players to just flock to their favourite specialist traditions. This essentially turns all other mage traditions into one trick gimmick factions to be plundered for research secrets.
Also, arcane research options in official source books are boosted. Studying hyperborean secrets can break the game in half. Same with adamic language.
>Also, arcane research options in official source books are boosted. Studying hyperborean secrets can break the game in half. Same with adamic language.
For the love of god, if anyone reading this is considering starting to play Ars Magica, begin with the core rulebook ONLY and add sourcebooks one at a time with the consent of the full troupe
Roughly how long did it take you to get a hang of the system? Assuming you started with the latest edition that is.
Not those Anons, but it took me about 4 sagas of varying lengths to feel comfortable enough with actually running it. I spent a lot of time after the first very bungled attempt figuring out how to actually construct a spell. Once I figured out how to gage a spell's level and effect, I was much more confident eyeballing spontaneous magic rolls which making an adventure flow much faster with magi. The other, minor factors such as rolling is easy. Rolls are either stressful or simple, and either against a static target (ease) number which is a multiple of three or contested. Number of botch dice for mundane actions is more gut feeling, but my general rule of thumb is one base, plus one for every descriptor I could give to the situation. Hardest from a player point of view is just how fast time passes, and allocating seasons between personal advancement, obligations, and necessities. To support this, I recommend giving very strong incentive for proactive play rather than reactive, and being generous with letting the magi retreat after learning the situation to come up with a solution in the lab.
Frick, finding someone to run this is gonna be difficult as hell, I want to run it myself. Hopefully my players if the decide they want hyper magic autism won't be too picky about my bumpy first runs.
You need to have something like it, and I personally like how the inherent defense bias colors interactions between magi.
My main problem with MR is that it's way too hard to get it if you're not a magus or a magical creature/spirit and most magical effects leave the victim no way to resist or avoid their effects if they don't have inherent resistance to it. The result is that bringing ordinary grogs and companions to a wizard battle is often a liability, when they SHOULD be there to protect a magus so they can get the game-winning spell off.
If I was going to tweak MR I would do it so that it's much less punishing for a magus to extend the parma magica to other characters, or that it's easy for mundane characters to get weak magic resistance by going to church or something.
You may want to consider ignoring the "pink dot" effect, ie the rule that says adding a harmless magical effect to a weapon means it can't harm anyone with magic resistance, but I kind of enjoy that as an unexpected corollary of the magic system. I would suggest you tweak spells that strip away a supernatural creature's Might (like Demon's Eternal Oblivion), just by ruling that you can't cast the same effect repeatedly on the same creature and kill Satan with a level 5 DEO.
At my table I just addressed the pink dot and we all agreed that it's stupid.
Also, on the point of spells and mundane, I can recommend a shield frog or two with an item that makes them the new target, and deck then out in mail and protective gear/effects/items.
Since we're on the "getting ars magica" topic, does anyone have a recommended reading orser for the books?
Not to be a huge spoonfed baby but it's a lot and I feel like there's a right way to go about it
Obviously core rulebook first. From there, the Tribunal book for your saga (if you are wanting to get started asap) ((you may have to track down older editions' copies, but they're generally good enough)), then the Houses of Hermes books. Covenants can be useful for Hooks and Boons, and maybe finances for a poor/starting covenant. The lab rules are okay, but I prefer the simpler version from 4e Wizard's Grimoire Revised. After that, up to you. Realms of Power can be good, though I wouldn't introduce the stuff in there for player use right away. Hedge/Rival Magic is neat, but far from necessary. Adventure books (Hooks, Antagonists, Tales of Power, Trice told Tales, ect) are good for gleaning ideas from, as is the Mysteries to introduce unique twists to Magic once the saga is ongoing. Tailor the cults available though. Ancient Magic falls into this later category, though the contents can serious alter the power level of the saga, so use it only if you really, really want and even then only use one.
What
Said.
Corebook, maybe the tribunal of your are a ST and your house book.
A lack of skill, I presume.
Nah man, just read 5e and it all will come together, read the art guidelines and keep in mind that it's supposed to be a Simulationist game, which explains why a few things work as they do, like illusions.
I hauled in five people who have never played it or even RPGs at all. Four of them get the basics and the fourth one is your typical player who's happy to be there but not much else.
It's absolutely possible to learn, but yea, the book got hands.
For us AM5 works best as a narrative driven game, where combat spells take a backseat to utility options like unskilled labour or mind control and where versatile spells beat specialised.
I think it can work as dungeon crawler/kill the bandits for their loot, type of game. But keep in mind that Hermetic mages are demigods that can RAW achieve 99% of what they want.
I would talk with my players and have companions and grogs to delve the dungeons and the wizards being HQ backup.
>mucking around with spellcasting
>not just wearing a red hat and bopping uppity magicians on the head with a stout wooden club
Step aside, casuals; Red Cap coming through!
>doesn't have to bother tracking vim
>has "real" magi invest their lifeforce into powerful magical tools which cost the user nothing to use
>makes "real" magi do magic for him
>cannot be bothered with chores like washing dishes, cooking food, sweeping floors, mopping floors, or casting spells; too busy doing real things like telling other people what to do
>carries plenty of wax and perfect copies of every signet used by every noteworthy person in & outside of christendom
>routinely forges letters of writ commanding "real" wizards to give him whatever he wants for "gravely serious reasons which must remain secret"
>can easily report "real" magicians to the inquisition with impunity because he has never stooped so much as to cast any spell
>is literally a good boy and will go to heaven because he "le magicke(tm)" is just the devil's tricks lol
>gets "real" magicians to do his bidding and sacrifice their souls to the devil in order to use devil powers on behalf of chad red caps like him
>fricks
When I was a teenager, I thought being Tremere would be based, but now I understand that Red Caps were the real chads of Ars Magicka all along.
I'm playing a magus from house mercere, and the red hat gang has the best life.
Get loans without interest
Trade Vis one for one
Free gateway usage
Free spy network
It's the good life