A Cantrip for each Form

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

For various reasons I wanted a list of minor useful spells for my own game, and as I was working them through anyway I thought some of you might enjoy them and wish to share your own. :slight_smile:

Do Your Britches Betray You?
ReAn 5
R:Sight, D: Diam, T:Ind
A pair of trousers, or other leg coverings, will spend the next two minutes attempting to remove themselves from their wearer.
(base 1, +3 sight, +1 diam)

An Iced Drink
ReAq 4
R:Touch, D: Mom, T:Ind
At your touch all the liquid in a container freezes instantly. It then proceeds to melt as normal, creating a refreshingly cool drink in hot areas.
(Base 3, +1 touch)

Smell Who Dealt It
InAu 4
R:Per, D:Mom, T:Smell
By taking a deep breath in you can tell who (or what) produced a single scent. This doesn't tell you where the source is, merely what it is.
Fraxis the Malodorous attempted to teach this spell to his sodales, insisting that they should cast it in his presence. None did.
(Base 2, +2 smell)

The Cat Scratch
MuCo(An) 3
R:Per, D:Diam, T:Ind
After flexing your fingers they each extend a small, sharp claw akin to those of a cat.
In Chavin of Tytalus's version of this spell the claws appear serrated when viewed closely.
(Base 2, +1 diameter)

The Well Aimed Turnip
ReHe 3
R:Touch, D:Mom, T:Ind
Commonly used as a practising exercise for the Finesse of young magi, this spell propels an object of Herbam origin from the casters hand.
They may make an attack roll with that object using Perception+Finesse-3 in place of the usual dexterity+weapon skill, in order to direct it at the correct target.
If used with javelins or similar items designed as thrown weapons their attack bonus does apply, as there is no magical guidance beyond the moment of throwing.
(Base 2, +1 Touch)

Light The Candles
CrIg 5
R:Touch, D:Mom, T:Group
Instantly lights a group of up to 10 candles or lanterns. In Callum of Guernicus's version, each flame ignites precisely one second after the previous one.

The Immovable Blindfold
CrIm 5
R: Voice, D: Diam, T: Ind
Creates a visual illusion of a blindfold covering the targets eyes. Unless they have some way to pierce the illusion this effectively renders the target blind.
(base 1, +1 diameter, +2 voice, +1 moves with target)

No Time to Slumber
ReMe 5
R:Per, D:Diam, T:Ind
For the duration of this spell you remain perfectly aware and clearheaded, regardless of your level of tiredness or confusion.
Tacitus of Bonisagus found this spell very useful when dealing with the hostile mental magics of "BLOODY FAIRIES!".
(Base 4, +1 diameter)

The Stonemason's Touch
MuTe 5
R: Touch, D: Conc, T: Ind
Changes an object of stone to clay, allowing you to make fine adjustments to its structure that would be impossible with solid stone.
Popular among young sculptors of House Jerbiton, as it does not perform the art for them but rather enables their artistry to show more accurately.
(base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Conc)

Suppressing the Terrifying Turbulence
PeVi 5
R:Per, D:Mom, T:Ind
Destroys a turbulence of the caster's that has yet to coalesce, as long as it is less than level 25+a stress die. This spell must be fastcast to work rapidly enough.
It is said that Bonisagus taught this spell to his final apprentice, who was possessed of both an extremely potent gift and extremely dangerous turbulences.
(Base 5: I chose to assume that the turbulence could be affected while still raw magic within the person, rather than requiring touch range)

2

I'd like to add these to The Tiro's Book, my spellbook for apprentices in the Alpine Apprentice saga. Can I cite this thread? Or do you have these posted somewhere else?

3

Feel free, and cite this thread. I haven't posted it elsewhere at the moment. :slight_smile:

4

Really good. One minor thing. No tomatoes in Mythic Europe. Excellent though. Sorry for brevity. Pecking out reply on phone.

5

Which Terram example, the effect needs one magnitud more to affect earth, 10 level at the end. But at same time could get made only with rego, same final level.

6

The baseline I used was: "Level 3: Change earth to stone, or vice versa."

Which affects stone at level 3, not requiring an extra magnitude for affecting stone.

And I'll have to think of a new name for the well-aimed tomato to fit mythic europe pondering.

7

Eggs are the most common, but that would require an animal component. Turnips or apples seem to be the most common choice, depending on region.

8

Done! Thanks for both the spells and the chance to use them in my own game.

https://sites.google.com/site/hboarsmagica/home/season-one/cantations?pli=1

9

Cool. I hope you don't mind if I use your list for my game?

10

Not at all. Many of those spells come from other sources; I have tried to cite them whenever possible.

Are you running an apprentice game? How is it working? How fast is the saga?

11

We're actually running quite a slow saga with adult magi, just out of apprenticeship, at the moment.

But we've come to the conclusion that it would make sense (and be fun) for each character to have a few cantrips as remnants of their apprenticeship. We're considering handing out a few extra levels of spells to be spent solely on level 5 and below. Because the base system doesn't really encourage taking low level spells at character gen, unless you're playing through apprenticeship, which is somewhat strange.

12

We're playing through apprenticeship. I give the pcs 1 XP every season to be spent only on spells level 5 or below. I think of it as the apprentice version of the rule in Covenants that gives magi 1 XP a season as long as they are engaged in useful correspondence.

13

Blame Faeries. They brought them over from the new world.

14

A couple of small spells, mostly used as spontaneous spells in my troupe.

Smells like Fresh Earth
MuIm 4
R:Touch, D:Sun, T:Ind
Spell was invented by a fox heartbeast Bjoerner to avoid hunters and their hunting dogs. For a day the maga smells like earth and even the footprints left behind smell like earth.
(Base 1, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)

Whose hair do I have
MuIm 5
R:Arc, D:Mom, T:Ind
For a brief moment a glow surrounds whomever you are holding an arcane connection to. For Astrafto a golden glow surrounds the target.
This glow does not create light or changes how the shadows are aligned.
(Base 1, +4 Arc)

The Tying knot
ReHe 5
R:Touch, D:Mom, T:Ind
Usual problem faced while descending in a cave complex is you simply cannot bring enough ropes for climbing. While descending someone had to untie the knot before climbing down, while ascending someone had to climb up and secure the rope before the group could use is. Gremiles from the Merinita house decided to the rope on it's own should do the work. His version makes the rope hiss while tying or untying.
(Base 4, +1 Touch,)

Drink till you can stand
CrAq 5
R: Touch, D: Conc, T Ind
With this small spell an maga can fill a barrel with regular beer. Until the concentration is broken the beer works as usual and causes temporal drunkenness.
For friendly drinking contest, Cuxio from the House Tremere created spell in his early years and thought this spell to his fellow apprentices.
After creating a barrel of beer the apprentices had to drink a pint and sing a song together. Whoever became fully drunk first and lost the concentration was disrupted regained his sober mind and had to clean the laboratory.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 Conc, +1 Slightly unnatural liquid)

15

Sometimes a cantrip can be used with another spell to make it more effective. For example one member of one of my troupes came up with:

Yew here now
CrHe 3
R: touch D:Diameter Target:individual
This spell summons a walking stick for the magus which lasts for two minutes. It can be used to help negotiate a particularly rough trail, but is more commonly used as a staff for a brawny mage, or can be handed to an unarmed associate. It also makes great ammunition when fast cast in conjunction with Piercing shaft of wood.

16

There is no reason that the drunkenness (or any subsequent hangover) should be temporary. These states are due to perturbation of the humours, which is caused by alcohol. Even if the alcohol subsequently disappears, the humours would take the normal time to settle (magically-created horses still leave footprints, after all).

Further, given the difficulty of concentrating on a spell, I don't imagine the beer would remain long enough to get even mildly merry, let alone drunk enough to sing a song.

Mark

17

This was debated in one of our games a while back, except it was a MuAq. Our Merinita magus took a barrel of water and turned it into beer with duration sun. His goal was to get everyone drunk at night and have them sober up in the morning. Then he decided to turn hard spirits into beer...

18

There was a spell that explicitly stated this was what happened back in the 3rd edition.
However, given how much things have been refined since then, that's not really an indication of anything much.

19

Drunkenness instantly disappearing at the end of the spell is still explicitly an example in core, IIRC