A Question

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hello, kind members of the forum.

I'm utterly new to Ars Magica, having never played it whatsoever and only bought the 5e rulebook... yesterday. So, yeah, I'm pretty much ignorant of the way the game works.

Anyway, my (possibly stupid) question.

Can you cast spells/spontaneous magic/whatever that requires an Art you have ranked at 0? It doesn't seem to specifically say anything about it except that an Art at 0 still affects Magic Resistance. Normally I'd assume 0 means No Skill, but the Magic Resistance thing does imply that even having an Art at 0 represents some knowledge of it.

Oh, and some of the examples have characters with spells that use an Art the character has 0 in.

The Tytalus template, for example, has the spell Trust of the Childlike Faith (PeMe), Pe 0 and Me 9.

All of which makes me suspect that a 0 in an Art represents knowledge of the Art, but no particular skill with it (so obviously you'd get +0 to the casting roll using that Art).

If someone could clarify that, (or point out the section of the book that explains) it would be great.

2

Yes, you may cast a spell with an Art you have a 0 in. A magus' arts are 'opened' during apprenticeship, giving every character a rudimentary knowledge of the existence of the different arts. After that, it's up to the character to study a particular art if they want to become more proficient in it.

And welcome to the forums. :slight_smile:

3

Welcome to the forums, Atticus.

Skridragon's answer is correct. I could not find a reference in the rulebook explicitly stating that magi can cast spells with an art they have ranked at 0. However, it's just assumed that they can: once their arts are "opened" during apprenticeship (see the end of page 106 of the 5ed rulebook) they know the basics of hermetic magic and can use all arts.