Advice for a first time GM running a Rhine Tribunal game

Games Discussion Ars Magica
41

It's still a magically created object. It's resisted exactly the same way Pilum of Fire is.

It appears you own Houses of Hermes: Societates. Try turning to p. 38. If he wants to avoid Magic Resistance, these (the Rego ones) are the sort of spells he should have a look at.
The tired sigh as you show him is optional.

Again, my best advice would be Societates, p. 38 - The proposed spell is essentially Omnious Levitation of the Mighty Stone, except it uses Creo and needs to penetrate.

This is largely correct. Or, to be a little more precise:
If something is Created via a ritual, it becomes a real, factual thing. Not resisted. But it doesn't do things that aren't natural for it. [sub]1[/sub]
If something is Created without a ritual, it is unnatural and is resisted.

[sub]1[/sub] There are fun borderlines, like very high level Creo Animal rituals to create magical creatures. These would use the full rules for magical beings, in particular resistance to their powers. But they can touch you.

42

If the master has a legitimate basis for his quarrel - "legitimate" likely being decided by Tribunal. Which, as you said, is corrupt, but masters likely have enemies, and an all-journeyman covenant that has to fight something like this might do well to find allies.

Alternately, if the journeymen are collectively strong enough to defeat the master in question, they can respond to the master's claim by Wizard's War, which overrides master's right.

An all-journeymen covenant in the Rhine is disadvantaged, but its position isn't utterly hopeless. They'd have to accept that Tribunal looks much more like the Camarilla than other Tribunals, and accordingly any domain they claim is likely to be a lot more tenuous and need to be defended much more forcefully, but that's part of the theme of a Rhine saga.

43

Yes. Legitimacy in general terms is decided by the Peripheral Code in vigor, and by specific decision of the Tribunal if brought before it, accepted and decided there.
And Rhine Peripheral Code wrt vis ownership is quite saga-specific.

They need these allies among their sodales verrry much, and will continue to do so for a looong time - but all the covenants of the Rhine did approve the foundation of their covenant in the first place: so they indeed should have some allies, unless they alienated them all in the meantime.

Cheers

44

Concerning the vis sources, I don't think that the claims of our magi are nearly as ironclad as they think, since they don't have a covenant yet. :slight_smile:

. . .

We had a really nice session last week, although downtime took some time to handle. We tried to get it out of the way via email, but some of it was left for the beginning of the session. The jew studied Kabbalah and designed a longevity ritual, the Trianoma studied Herbam, the Verditius studied Cult Lore and got initiated into the mysteries of Items of Quality and the Ex Miscellanea maga studied Medicine. Note to self: Do not allow downtime initiations in the future if possible. This should have been an adventure.

The magi decided to accept a gentle gifted magus from House Jerbiton to their project. He's an NPC who is fleeing the destruction of Constantinople. They also decided to pay the Island a visit again, but decided to base their covenant in the Forest with the City as a backup chapterhouse thing. The Ex Miscellanea maga also got interested in producing children. (One of the other players had to quit the fertility club, because he made his longevity ritual and I guess that that got the other interested.) She also got wind of Petruses special talents, but was unable to seduce him after two tries.

The magi embarked on a river journey and were joined by the companion knight. It was already established during a previous session that he was from Bacharach and this time we consulted the book on who actually rules there. It turned out that it's a powerful duke. So I asked the player whether the knight is a son of the castellan or the duke or... and the player chose the duke. The duke has several sons, but this will complicate things later.

This time the bastard lord of the castle made an appearance and charmed the knight to attend him. Meanwhile the magi collected some vis and scouted a bit. The knight spilled the beans and was told not to speak of what they talked about and go forth and report on the lords good progress on restoring the castle. He told the magi to follow him and some of the magi felt that he should not tell them what to do. Still, the fiction they had established required them to leave the island with the knight. Afterwards they tried to convince the knight that he had been messed with. No such luck. I also pointed out to them that this is no mere grog, but a son of one of the most powerful nobles in the land.

Anyway, the Ex Miscellanea maga resolved to try to copulate with this charming chap with the green eyes. His faerie bearing won her over and she is convinced that gifted children are more likely be born. I tend to agree for story reasons.

Then they headed out for the Forest - the Oakdell site that is. The peons they met last time where miffed that the players had harvested vis sources in their village. Apparently they had upset the wife of the woodland ranger, because they had not been able to give the chestnuts the PCs stole to her as a gift this Christmas. No pie. The wife of the woods was clearly upset, because the plants hadn't recovered from the winter... The outlandish tale made the players think about faeries.

In the meantime the magi found a new vis source deeper in the woods. It was this beautiful glade which had this wonderful fragrance in the morning air. In the spring, it's the smell of spring rain that contains vis, in the summer it's the shafts of light piercing the leafy veil overhead and during the Autumn it's contained in the leaves. Anyway imagimen vis. Some of it is hard to collect though. AND it's in an area that the Court of Bright Winter considers their own.

So here is the thing. The wife of the woodsman was a Holzfrau and the ranger of the woods was a faerie knight from the RoP:F reskinned as a woodsman. He also had a few winter flavoured hounds as a courtesy from the Court of Bright Winter. These faeries weren't members of the court, but basically peons. The villagers had legends about how the ranger protected them from the untameable beast of the woods and were worried that they had upset him and his wife. I had given stats for the beast (a gigantic boar with a deafening squeal) as well, but the players were pretty diplomatic about the whole deal.

The Trianoma magus improvised some Creo Animal spells based on his 6 month studies done last year and created a bunch of food for the villagers and then they waited. The meeting with the Ranger went well and he told the PCs how his wife was sad. The magi got to meet the wife too. I was going for a subtle Tom Bombadil / Goldberry vibe here. The woodswife was worried that the villagers didn't care about them anymore. She was also lonely, because the couple could not have kids, you see. :wink: Anyway, the PCs promised to arrange a party in the village in their honor and keep doing that as a yearly tradition. They also promised to bring her news of the faraway places that they visit and sent young girls to entertain her with tea parties. The PCs also got some hints about the affairs of the faerie courts.

Situation resolved, although it now seems that all of the vis resources are contested somehow. The magi could banish the villagers, and the hedge wizard, who uses one of the sources for his own uses, but have decided against that.

Next time it's Irencillia!

45

There have been some rules questions too. After reviewing some spells from internet resources that one of the players had given his character I ruled that during character creation we should stick to spells from the book. If they want to use spells found from the internet, they can use them for inspiration, but the spells have to be invented and we'll try to create them by the book. The Jew is interested in summoning and binding spells, but I feel that I have a firm grasp of those. The player was a bit put off by the wards must penetrate thing, but I responded by agreeing with him within the fiction by telling him that several other magi have been historically disappointed by this apparent flaw in hermetic theory. So the player thought that it is a bug in the rules that demons are easier to blast away than ward against, but I took the stand that this was a feature.

I noticed that there is this Societates Flambonis: The Cult of Mercury thing that is shared with House Mercere. I love HoH:S BTW. Overall, the Houses of Hermes series of books is awesome. Anyway, won't they suck at Dimicatio, which is this cool Flambeau duel thing? I'm assuming that if you are restricted to ceremonially casting your spontaneus spells, you won't be able to use fast cast defence.

Another thing, why are ability summas really easy to copy compared to art summas?

Are the combat rules from Lords of Men worth checking out?

46

Re - dimicatio - you can still fast cast defence if you get fast cast mastery for your formulaic spells, and then either develop enough types to cover the different forms attacking you, or just fast-cast Winds of Mundane Silence so powerfully it blows the other spell away. It's extremely difficult (as Mercurian Magi are unlikely to have Flawless magic as a virtue), but possible.

Why are ability summae really easy to copy? It could be that no-one bothered to add in the (level x 5) that the writing requirements have, or it might be that it never matters for mundane abilities, as you pay any mundane scribe you like to do it and wait for the copies to be delivered. If your magi are wondering whether to copy an ability summa, it had better be either the best Magic Theory/Parma Magica book in existence or otherwise they're better off paying someone else money to make the copy.

Are the combat rules from Lords of Men worth checking out? I find them fun, but it depends how many mundane warriors you have in the troupe and whether extra focus on this part of the game will make it better.

47

Thanks again, I like hearing about your Rhine saga, it's always fun when you play one yourself. Especially since we're talking the exact same place in and around the Rhine Gorge.

As for the downtime I've often heard - on the forum and at Grand Tribunal UK - that many people find lab work and study a time-consuming and tedious activity. I don't think I've ever played in a group that had problems with it. Often enough there have been enough rules-savvy folks to cover helping the novices. It doesn't feel like it takes much time, but it may actually - however as long as it's fun it's a part of the game, the way we play it anyway.

As for core book spells versus internet sources (or homebrew designs) I think the main issue is whether those non-core book spells are correctly designed. We're generally ok with home made designs, even starting spells for a starting magus. If the parens had a non-standard spell it is plausible the filii have it as well.
However concerning avalilability of lab texts - like from Durenmar's library - we generally rule that spells in core book (and perhaps select other sourcebooks) are treated as "standard spells" easily and cheaply available from Durenmar.

48

So I was thinking about houseruling melee combat. I want combat to be faster, because even though we've had only a few rounds of it, it seemed to take a long time, thus giving it too much focus. I've played a lot of HeroQuest and HeroQuest 2 and that game has a system for simple contests and extended contests. This essentially enables the players to give some conflicts more focus and time in the game. This is perhaps why I wanted a more detailed system to then give focus to those altercations what the troupe is really interested in.

Grog combat sequence (simple combat sequence)

  1. Roll initiative and calculate initiative order.
  2. Party with highest initiative acts first and if he attacks:
    a. The defender gets to decide if he want to Defend Actively. If he does, he can't initiate actions again this turn or roll for an Attack Total.
    b. Both parties generate an Attack Total. If the defender does not defend actively, he wont get a die roll added to his Attack Total.
    c. Calculate Attack Advantage: Attack Total – Attack Total. Note who got the higher attack total.
    d. The party who got smaller Attack Total is hit. In case of a tie, both parties are hit.
    e. Calculate damage taken by the party who got hit. When using the Grog combat sequence Soak Total is the characters Sta + Armor Bonus - Attack + Defence.
  3. Repeat attack sequence (2. a. – e.) for party with next highest initiative who can still act. Once all parties have acted once, return to step 2. Note that initiative is not re-rolled.

The alternative Soak Total should be calculated in advance. So for example "Soak: +10 + 0."

This alternative combat sequence reduces the number of rolls. Note that a skilled combatant can hurt several opponents in a turn, even though he can only initiate one attack or active defence, especially if his opponents roll poorly or botches.

Companion combat sequence (detailed combat sequence)

  1. Roll initiative and calculate initiative order.
  2. The combatants each pick how the their stance in secret out of the following options: Aggressive Attack, Cautious Attack and Full Defence. The combat round is resolved based on the interactions of the stances after they are revealed.
    a. Aggressive Attack vs. Aggressive Attack: Both combatant get to hit each other. Attack Totals are calculated as in ArM5. Defence Totals are calculated without the die roll. Resolve the attack of the combatant with higher initiative first.
    b. Aggressive Attack vs. Cautious Attack: Only the combatant with Aggressive Attack gets to attack. This is resolved as in ArM5.
    c. Aggressive Attack vs. Full Defence: Only the combatant with Aggressive Attack gets to attack. His Attack Total is resolved without the die roll. The defender generates his Defence Total as in ArM5. The defender moves ahead of his opponent in the initiative order.
    d. Cautious Attack vs. Cautious attack: Both combatants attack in the normal initiative order as in ArM5.
    e. Cautious Attack vs. Full Defence: Only the combatant with Cautious Attack gets to attack. This is resolved as in ArM5.
    f. Full Defence vs. Full Defence: Both combatants spend the turn looking for an opening and/or circling each other. Rerolll initiative.
  3. Next turn. Go back to 2.

Perhaps you could have two simultaneous detailed combats going on, but that may become too cumbersome. Even though I named this Companion combat sequence, I don't intend to resolve all combats that the companions engage in with this system. This is intended for dramatic duels and such.

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Just a quick message to say that I'm preparing a Rhine saga at the moment and this thread has been tremendously useful. Thanks to all contributors!

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Advice is the title of the thread.
we played a session last week wit hfocus on grogs.
Since we are building a covenant from nothing a million things will be happening over the years. Much of which the magi will not care about. Rivalry among the kitchenstaff, establishing an internal hierarchy among grogs. The daily runnings, the annoying ghost in the basement ets.
In order to get the feel of the Covenatn being a living place with people and not faceless grogs we play a grog adventure once a year.
The last session featured the Autocrat (a former prostitute who somehow managed to become de facto leader by charming the only magi with any interest in the daily runnings), the head chef( a former crursader and past lover of the autocrat), a young ink-maker and a ghost hunter companion.
They all noticed severeal covenant members acting increasingly on their personality flaws that matched sins.
They discovered that seven others were increasingly acting on the 7 cardinal sins, and they were all influenced by their dreams.
In the end they discovered that a long dead magus from the original Treverorum haunted the covenenant as an infernal ghost. They stopped her efter researching the past records wrtiiten by a long dead autocrat. THe final battle saw the using pepper to drive the ghost out of a magus she had posessed and banishing it to hell.

I find this sort of scenario quit good at fleshing out the many grogs that surround the magi, giving them character. Also it gives the covenant a background feel that is hard to obtain otherwise.

51

I had a lot of exams. That cramped up my style. ; - ) After this hiatus, we are now finally back on track.

So next time we are going to head to Irencilia, which is going to be a challenge GMing-wise. Basicly the PCs have to navigate the politics of the Domus Magna and find out what the different parties are demanding for their support and decide which favour they are going to perform. Any tips on running Irencilia?

We are also going to have an encounter in which I'm going to foreshadow the conflict between the courts of Bright Winter and Dark Summer. Because the PCs have settled on the lands of Bright Winter, the Court of Dark Summer is going to challenge them. Specifically, a Green Knight is going to challenge them in a duel for the right of way. This meant that I encountered the pink dot problem. I'm sorry if I'm opening a can of worms here. I don't want to be a bore. Still, I'm a bit surprised how such a central game design element has been left hanging.

It seems counterintuitive to me that if the PCs cast a spell to enchant a grogs weapon for a while, they end up opening the grog up to this strange forcefield or ward.
I'm leaning towards the troupe pledging to not to exploit the pink dot thing, but I'm not entirely happy with the results that I'm left with.

Right now I'm leaning towards having the realm that the magic resistance is from determining how it works. Faeries are going to resist magic when it's working against their story. Infernal might is working to pervert the effects of magic. Perhaps divine might is going to cause the source to recoil. I'm not sure how magic might or Parma should work, but I would like to come up with a way to make this make sense fiction-wise.

Tl;Dr The Green Knight isn't likely to resist many kinds of spells, because a casus belli in the form of unfair dueling practices is just what the court ordered.

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Prepare the caricatures in time, and have a blast with them while navigating the politics of the House and the Faerie Courts.

Cheers

53

I am looking forward to news on how the Irencilia story went.
In our saga Irencilia's gift to the newly established covenant was an invitation to a celebratory party to welcome the new cocenant into the Tribunal.
I am planning this session now so I am eager for advice.

54

We had a nice session in Irencilia. First we went through some rules issues, however.

The player of the Terram magus wanted to change his Inventive Genius to a Minor Magical Focus: Steel. We'll have to ponder this a bit. Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults has a magical focus for swords as a minor focus. The player wants a focus that covers not just swords, but all weapons, shields and armor too. That's a bit too much, IMO. Especially since a focus on steel could conceivably include Creo Terram spells to fire steel shafts at his opponents, Perdo Terram to destroy arms and armor etc. Well, at first he wanted a focus on iron and argued that this would include both cast iron and steel.

I warned the player that if he picks a magical focus for staffs or oak for example, then enchanting an oak staff to fire pilums of fire would not be covered by the focus.

I think that having a magical focus in swords could cover a lot of effects that target swords. That is making a sword fly, sharpening them, destroying swords etc. If swords is a minor focus, then it feels to me that arms and armor should be a major focus. At face value steel would cover A LOT more ground. It would sound to me more like a major magical focus. Perhaps it should be limited by a verb or something? "Enhancing steel"? I don't know? Any pointers here?

Then there was the issue of the spell that blocks things that hit me.

So it seems to me that this spell targets the magus and gives him the telekinetic ability to deflect stone or metal weapons.

Compare this to a canonical example:

(BTW, Magi of Hermes is awesome! It really helped me understand Ars Magica. Thanks for all the authors.)

Now here we have the target being the thing that is covered by Terram. This makes sense to me. Another way to construct this effect could be to make it into a ward. So a "Ward against metal or gemstone (Touch, Ring, Circle)" is LVL 30. Target is the thing protected and range is the range to the target. Based on that range: personal, target: individual and duration diameter would do. I'm betting that you have to specify metal weapons or at least metal for the spell design. Anyway that's two magnitudes down making this personal ward a LVL 20 spell. Based on this guideline, the item that I lifted from Semita Errabunda in the first page if this thread seems to be erroneus.

...

Then there was this spell that briefly flickers the ground under someone air or perhaps liquid with the intention that this would bury an opponent in dirt. This is also from the internets. Essentially the thing here seems to be that a lot of Perdo effects could be achieved by momentary Muto. Why use Perdo Corpus, when you can change them into water for a second during which their body would splash all over the place? I take it that when the target changes back, it changes back into how it was.

Changing metal into water is an LVL5 MuTe(Aq). I guess changing it into fine soil would have the same level, but without the requisite. Why would one want to cast a Perdo Terram effect to destroy metal armor when one could just cause it to flicker into being fine soil and thus deform it? It seems to me that there should be some implicit thing with muto effects about how they change back into what they were. What do you think?

...

Lastly we pondered through how would a Wizard's Boost (Vim) spell work on wards and spells like Demon's Eternal Oblivion. This was the result of me noticing that wards have to penetrate. I felt that this should raise level without dropping penetration. The player then switched his spells around so that he has lower level spells and a metamagic spell to boost them by 10 levels. We did miss the not affecting spontaneus spells thing.

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I'm glad to hear that you are interested! ^^

Too bad that the player of the most politically savvy magus didn't make it. He had a bad case of the coryza. Instead the Trianoma magus told the rest that he had done such briliant groundwork that the rest of the them could not botch the thing up. He explained that based on his long correspondence the political situation is difficult in the covenant, because of the two prima, but that he had identified three angles of attack. Firstly, either the current prima or the old, could be persuaded to give his consent without the other one daring to contradict the other. Secondly there was this young magus called Ionnes Acer who was heavily into knightly romance and not very bright and if he could be tricked into giving his word, he would stand by it regardless of the political consequences. The point here being that even if the Merinita covenant would be pretty much pleased with the PCs putting up their covenant in the forest location and with them being friends of elves etc., everyone knows that this is an opportunity to milk the PCs for favours.

Our Ex Miscellanea maga tried to find hedge wizards on the way and she did find such a woman in the village of Badenbögeln. We have to do a adventure on this kind of thing some day. The Jewish magus entertained the others by by telling them about his own research involving the preservation of his own semen for a construction of future homonculi and he tried to find mandragora roots.

I asked the players what they thought Irencilia was like. First I had them roll some knowledge checks though. The Verditius magus knew what he was getting into, but still could not help expecting something.

Before they got to Irencilia. they encountered a Green Knight guarding a bridge. He was actually an emissary of the Court of Dark Summer and he challenged the player characters into a duel. They tried to explain that they were a woman, a dwarf and a Jewish cripple and as such, not a very sporting opponents. The knight offered them the option of trekking through the forest up north or the marsh in the south. In the end they agreed that a grog should fight him and the Jewish Criamon cast a ward against faeries on him. The penetration was too weak. We then got to test the dueling rules and they worked out pretty well. The grog did win. I didn't remember to have to knight get angry because of the ward and decide to take it further than first blood.

Then we got to see Irencilia. For the Jewish magus Irencilia was three gigantic towering trees that had bridges and several encircling platforms with brownies populating them. The Verditius magus expected the place to be somehow similar to the Hall of the Mountain King that he was familiar with, but in a forested environment. The Ex Miscellanea maga expected glittering crystal towers and found out that all the elven guards wore Skyrim style glass armor.

After the PCs got in, a human forester who introduced himself as Thomas came in and welcomed them in a well rehearsed, but a bit broken Latin. Then he gave the Verditius magus an aegis token, because he was in the Elder Gild. The party asked for some refreshments after hearing that they'd get to see everyone in the evening and Thomas guided them to a nearby mess hall to eat. Curiously the table and the dinnerware weren't experienced differently. Neither was Thomas. To the PCs surprise, the utensils and the furniture started talking to them! We had this disneyesque scene where the objects told them their tale and urged them to find out where their leader, the Mirror, was. Apparently there had been some disputes regarding just dues and such, but even the Candle Holder could not remember very far back. The Mirror could, you bet!

The PCs hashed out their plans. The dwarf wanted to visit his gild leader and the follower of Pralix wanted to examine the magic of this place, and perhaps seek out the Mirror. The Mirror was apparently in a locked room and she did not want to try to force the door. She also met this man, a criminal no doubt, who had been shackled to a rock with vines and who was desperately trying to plead her to free him. He was willing to pledge anything if he was freed "before the bird comes again." She did not want to upset things and a eagle flew down and began to dine on his liver.

The Verditius dwarf found out that the political situation was a bit difficult. Iacob was glad that they had begun building their covenant with faerie relations in mind and he also praised that the PCs had chosen to live far from civilization. Iacob thought that it was a good idea to visit both "prima" when he was asked, but didn't want to commit to anything. The Criamon paid a visit to the local Bonisagus researcher and learned about the caricatures.

In the evening there was a formal dinner planned. It was this Hogwarts kind of thing with the magi and local dignitaries dining in the upper table and grogs of all sorts dining in long They chatted up with the locals, essentially learning that the higher up Merinitas were all tied up in some high level intrigue and secrecy, that the knightly wizard Acer wasn't interested in direct/forward female advances rather preferring to trade glances with the little sister of the Pralix maga and that this exiled young Flambeau was angry with her old master and that she had imprisoned the thief a few weeks ago and had apparently forgotten when it seemed that he didn't have anything to do with her old master.

Next morning the PCs visited Vinaria who was the previous Primus. She had a sensible sort of proposition. She was interested in the cohesion of the Tribunal and saw that the PCs covenant could bring Elder and Hawthorn gilds closer together, because something having to do with the Guardians of the Forests -ruling was bound to come up. She promised her support if the PCs promised to do a favour for the Archmage Urgen in the name of House Merinita. The Verditius magus readily agreed and only afterwards the PCs started thinking what kind of service would Urgen have in mind.

Next up was meeting with Handri, the current Primus. His face was like a mask and he talked about a lot of things while hinting about stuff. The players pretty much messed their intrigue rolls etc. and didn't understand what all this was about. Afterwards they managed to come up with a theory that the Prima would support them if they dealt with a problem threatening their forest or their covenant. The trouble had something to do with axes and wolves. Infuriated by this, the PCs sought other ways to resolve things.

They stayed for a week enjoying the local hospitality. Meanwhile the Ex Miscellanea maga talked her sister into employing all the courtly training available to her in order to attract the attention of the mage knight. The sister demanded that she be made the steward for the covenant so she could prepare for her future life. The children are so ungrateful! She succeeded in doing so and in no time Acer came to our Ex Miscellanea maga for advice. She hinted that he should give her a present and compose a poem to see if she wanted a a favour from him.

Next morning the Merinita knight had disappeared and the PCs heard that he had gone to the forest to hunt for a giant whose head he was going to bring back as a trophy. It had been previously established that the giant was a master of his forest and so the PCs ran in pursuit to save the young and rash Merinita. Thomas the Forester left with them. This giant business was just what the hedge wizard lady had warned about.

I left a bunch of details out of course.

56

Great summary. I will be stealing loads of it for when I run a visit to Irencilia in January.

Comments on your spell questions.
I would think that "Wizard's Infallible Parry" requires the caster to be aware of the attack she is blocking. Otherwise looks fine.

Wizard's Parry looks fine as well. The item on first page also seems fine based on this guideline. There is an increase of two magnitudes. One for Herbam requisite and one for 24 uses a day. The bracelet seems fine based on this guideline. Here we see that the bracelet moves something you are aware of. It is not a ward so to speak even though this word is in the description.
Also note that both spells and item target the thing affected. The bracelet would have to touch the sword it protects from.

If you want a true ward base level becomes 5.
So the spell would be
Ward against the annoying knight. level 20
Completly wards the caster against damage from metal of any kind.
R: Per, T: Ind, Dur; diameter
(Base 5, +2m affect metal, +1m diameter)

The item you mention is flawed not because it is designed against the rules but because it is poorly designed. It requires the wearer to activate the moment he is attacked and it must then touch the metal object you want to protect against. I would assume this requires you to have a higher inititative than the attacker?
Alternatively the designer might have wanted it to be a true ward in which case base level must increase to 5.

A better item would be.
Bracelet of warding against the annoying knight.
Completly wards the caster against damage from metal of any kind.
R: Touch, T: Ind, Dur; diameter
(Base 5, +2m affect metal, +1m diameter, +1m Touch, +5 levels 24 uses/day, +5 levels Fast trigger; final level 35)

While we are discussing flawed items. The Trumpet of ghostly summoning on page 132 in Guardians of the Forest casts Vision of the Haunting Spirit with zero penetration. Effectivley useless.

57

And to supplement your Muto thoughts. Yes Muto is perfectly viable as a combat technique.
You can transform most items into something harmless, or harmful.
Imagine transforming clothes into acid, the ground beneath your feet into acid and such stuff. Minor magical focus: acid?
It is IMHO unlike Perdo, not that useful in defending against magic attacks. Perdo can dispel, Muto cannot.
In a faceoff between a Muto combat mage (if such a person exists) and a Perdo combat mage, I would put money on the Perdo specialist.

58

We'll see in next session if some hidden gems will come through. : - )

I'm not sure I agree. The way I've understood hermetic magic to work is that you have an effect, for a duration, based on a guideline, that targets the target, which is of the form specified. So a Rego Terram should control, for a duration, based on a ReTe guideline, a target which is of the Terram form. Do correct me if I'm off base here.

Also I would not like the consequences of deciding that you can grant spell-like abilities with spells. I mean, why bother with casting a Pilum of Fire, when you could grant yourself an ability to cast bolts of fire every turn? So instead of having the effect be move metal, you'd just substitute that with Creo Ignem dealing fire damage and leave the rest be (R: Voice, D: Concentration, T: Individual)... I'm not sure you would even have to penetrate magic resistance, since you would be the target instead of the people that you'd be blasting every round.

I don't mind Muto being useful in a fight! Don't get me wrong. I just don't know what to think about Muto with momentary duration.

59

The target of Wizard's infallible parry is the object you are parrying.
It does not grant the caster the ability to parry. It is a "telekenisis" type thing.
The range voice allows you to move objects with voice range. THus target a weapon within voice range.

But since you are once a turn moving one object so it does not hit it's intended target, I would think it requires you to be aware if the object/attack.
Imagine you cast the spell. You, your Verditius friend and 10 grogs are in combat with 12 bandits.
You can then automatically deflect one attack per round from a stone or metal weapon.
I would argue that this requires you to be aware of the attack in order to choose which of the 20+ attacks each round you choose to deflect.

60

Interesting. So based on this interpretation you don't need the target of your spell to be known or even present when you cast a spell. You could cast your fire spell in a a powerful aura for a Sun/Moon duration and later start blasting out bolts of fire in a less favourable aura. This would be a good strategy, because it's not just the favourable aura that you're getting the advantage of, but you would also only need to roll once. You could fire tens or hundreds of bolts of fire and only check for a botch once.