ELEMENTAL MAGIC Major, Hermetic
You have been trained in the ability to manipulate raw elemental forms (Ignem, Auram, Terram and Aquam), and view them as a connected whole rather than four separate Arts. Whenever you successfully study one of these Arts (that is, gain at least one experience point from study), you gain an additional experience point in each four Arts. At character creation add 10% of all experience points you put in the four Arts to each of them (if you spend 10 experience point, add 1 to each of the four Arts).
You also start with 15 experience points (not affected by the above) in each of the four Arts.
Your elemental magics are also more flexible than those of other magi — there is no disadvantage in adding elemental Form requisites to any elemental spell. If an Aquam, Auram, Ignem, or Terram spell has another element as a requisite, you may ignore the requisite. You must still use the primary Art, even if the requisite is higher.
This has the following effects:
Ramping up the experience bonus a little, to 40% with the current chargen rules. Still less than an Affinity, and more spread out. I'd love to amp it even more, to 50%, but that would complicate calculations.
Giving 60 free experience points. A bit better than most free xp virtues (except Skilled Parens), but less flexible.
The standard 'ignore elemental requisites in elemental spells' bonus.
It still isn't a very strong virtue, because the various effects still don't work well with each other (the first two lessen the impact of the last), but it should be less of a joke.
I can not make a thread in the PbP game. I must wait for Atlas to do that. Once that happens we can do more in that thread. Several people have sent me character concepts so nothing stops you from tossing some out to get a feel. Some things that you might come to study would be the magical hot spring., Dragons or the dark fairies. Or make something else up. It could be a quite place to get other studying done as well.
Is a Bjornaer magpie that rebel against the old ways of its clan ok?
Instead of going away he decided to return to the lands of the humans.
Instead of fight he try to assist the animals that now thrive on the fields of the humans.
Instead of aiming to become a beast of legend he want to become a ageless human via alchemy.
Reason to be in the covenant is because it sound like interesting alchemic materials are close and because (one of) his paren was living there bevore he left for more wild areas.
Did you "2. Send an email to "forum AT atlas-games DOT com" requesting that a new forum be opened up for your game (don't forget the dash in the middle). The email should include your username as GM, the Atlas Games system you're using, the title of your campaign, and a brief description of the campaign (just a sentence or two, which we'll use as your forum's subtitle). Also include any permissions changes you'd like (see below). "
Hey all, I'm coming into the game from the Ruins of Bibracte game that leads into this. Taking a Merinita magus steeped in the darkly goodness of Transylvania. If you are worried about magical confluences or overtsepping, he specializes in Necromancy and Auram primarily, and of course he has some of the Mysteries of the Merinita.
I'm pretty much done with my guy, I need to type him up and send him in. I went for a decent mix of his two specialties (Necromancy and Auram) and also took advantage of his Mysteries (Arcadian Travel and Animae Magic).
The travel can be useful, but looks a little difficult to actually use, depending on how strong the Auras are. I didn't crunch the numbers too much, but I sunk a decent amount of xp into the Ability he uses for it (Craft: Wood carvings, specialty in Charms), so I'm hoping he can use it with some skill.
The other I made a few spells for it, essentially creating/summoning faeries. They're not servants, but likely independent beings that have to be dealt with. So that should be interesting.
I'm about two third done, I'm mainly at the stage of working out how to make all I want fit within the xp I have; mostly, cutting my list of spells down to a manageable size. I'll be playing a Jerbiton, Diotima, mostly known for her translations of classical (and possibly magical) texts (from Greek to Latin or vice-versae). Magically she'll be a generalist, with a good chunk of her spells related to books.
My char will now be a Bonisagus who is focused on 4 Arts namly Creo, Muto, Corpus and Vim. He have have some vis saving when it comes to healing but wont be much of help in combat situations.
I'm looking to try my first forum game, so I'm interested.
However - I've never played ArM before; and I don't have the ArM5 sourcebooks. I do, of course, have the ArM4 free PDF. Your desired posting rate shouldn't be a problem, and I tend to be a quick learner, but obviously I can't expect to get everything right straight away!
If you're happy with that, I'll happily discuss character concepts. The only character I have on hand is an ArM4 just-gauntletted Au/Im mage. What does the covenant need? What, particularly, do I need to know about ArM4/ArM5 chargen differences?
Hmmm. I've played across 3 editions so I sometimes mix up one for the other. 4th edition is the post White Wolf edition. Let me get back to you. It is pretty major. No points for virtues other than 1 for minor and 3 for major.
For what it's worth, you can buy a PDF of the Ars Magica core rules from e23, here, for $18. It is probably well worth it, if you're serious about participating in any forum games, this one or any other.
Having that in hand, we can help you build a character point out some good spells for you that you do not have in just the core book. The characters are supposed to be 30 years post gauntlet (after apprenticeship, hereafter PG), but that can be a lot to handle for someone new to the system.
It's inadvisable to try and make a 30 year PG in 4th edition rules and then convert. There are some pretty major changes between editions. Penetration is a big one, and you could easily end up with a broken character during conversion, if you intend to have a character reliant upon magical combat. The spell ranges are drastically different. As I recall you could create a Boundary spell in 4th Edition that would fry everyone on the English isle. That becomes effectively impossible in 5th edition. And I might be wrong about that interpretation, I skipped from 3rd to 5th, and have only partly read 4th.
The good thing is that the Arts and Houses, and I think, many of the spells do cross over between editions. So if you know what Arts you'd like to be proficient in, the House, and a basic concept, building a character becomes a little bit simpler. But building a magus character in Ars Magica, regardless of the edition, is a complex endeavor.
I have no problem with being a largely non-combatant mage. The character I mentioned (built for a campaign which never started) actually had it as a flaw. I'm leaning towards Au/Im/Aq as Forms, and probably more Creo/Rego/Intellego as Techniques rather than, say, Perdo. However, I'm not fixed in that at all, and I'm happy to tailor those to the covenant's needs; as I am with any non-magical skills - for instance, my other character had Craft - Glassware, and I'm quite happy (keen, even) to flesh out this character with similar mostly-flavour traits.
It's a fairly big problem if you don't have at least the core 5th edition book. Everyone else is working from it. Everyone else has designed characters taking advantage of other books that are from fifth edition, too.
Also, with only the 4th edition book, you have no skin in the game, as it were. People join PbPs and then leave without notice all the time. Having the 5th edition book demonstrates some commitment. Trying to do it with a 4th edition book, and us making conversions to make the character playable is rather difficult, while people could be wondering if he's going to last. I've seen probably a dozen players create a character participate for a bit, and then just disappear. Sometimes they even get me really excited about a well thought out character concept, and I generate story seeds based on what they have and they disappear. It's disheartening, and I think it's fair to say that a reasonable person might think it's rather likely if you aren't on the same edition as the rest of the troupe.
Like I said, I think everyone else can help you pick items from other books in 5th Edition, to help flesh out your character. My character was built largely from the core book's rules, virtues and flaws. I picked up several spells from other books, though, and some I designed myself based on other spells in 5th edition, or the guidelines included in the books.