Ars magica 5 game - Hiddenhall

As I scraped my previous Companion idea, would a Mercenary Leader together with his mercenaries suitable as Covenant guards?
And if so how many Guards are we willing to pay for? 5-10 + Captain or even 20?

Greater Immunity to affects that Lower Might. That is on my character sheet. She'll still have to put up with low tier wards and the like though.

I'll try

I'm wanting you to start with your labs set up. It'll be a hassle to set them up in game. Don't take time out to do it, though, as I think that'll be a bit of a drag. Just assume they're set up and attuned.

I hadn't actually thought about that. What do people think? Maybe a couple of £ and a few vis other than any Vim that you've used time for?

That's not much of an issue-- low tier wards still have to penetrate our Parma.

Also, PeVi effects lowering Might are uncommon enough I think they should count as a Lesser Immunity.

I've requested a forum. How long do these things take?

Would like this :slight_smile:

I'm really not sure how'd I'd feel about that as an SG. It seems too broad even for a Greater Immunity. It's like the way you can't be "immune to weapons" or "immune to physical injury" but rather have to be "immune to iron" or "immune to fire".

I'd think you'd have to narrow it down to "immune to Hermetic PeVi spells". That'd still cover 99% of the situations, but isn't quite as global. Non-Hermetic traditions, enchanted objects, and so forth would still be a threat.

Definitely not my call in this case though.

Would be great especial as my caracter was in a covenant with the Minor Resources Hook Vis Salary and so haved to spend 1 saison each year working for the covenant because of this.

Sounds like a solid concept to me. As to the number of grogs, I guess we'll need to flesh out the economy a bit more. We may want to consider hiring on a pretty good force though, given that we'll have an entire city around us to deal with. That could spread the manpower pretty thin, and we do have quite a few magi for them to guard.

Immune to fire is far broader than spells of a TeFo combo and similar effects. You're immune to all most all Creo Ig effects, your immune to Rego Ig effects that control fire. You are immune to Muto Ig effects that would hurt you. In addition Greater Immunity to fire protects you from all items AND all similar effects from other traditions or realms. And then you are also immune to mundane fire on top of all that!

Immunity to Might Loss, protects you from a small part of the PeVi and items and similar effects from another realm. You aren't protected from spells that weaken your spell casting, or dispel items or spells. Nor from spells that affect Fae, Infernal, or Divine might. That is narrower than immunity to fire. You might be able to make a point about acclimation, but... I didn't want to unnecessarily complicate things, especially when it is assumed she will automatically fulfill that while at a Covenant.

Point is Immunity to Might loss, when compared to Immunity to Fire is a smaller fraction of a TeFo combo. If anything it should be lesser.

I'd say lesser, considering the way I run adventures.

I've been meaning to ask: what sort of Warping should we be looking at as starting values for our characters? The standard 2 points per year? Or just 1 since we aren't under Longevity rituals at this point?

I thought I'd read something about that already in this thread but I can't find it now. Apologies if I'm asking a redundant question!

You shouldn't be starting with any. Not unless you've been living in an Aura of 6 or more. Just living in a covenant does not qualify for "Constant Mystical Effect". Nor does Parma Magica nor Aegis. Unless there's some other way of reading pp167 - 168 of the basic rulebook.

You make some good points. My view may be getting coloured by the (probably irrelevant, in this case) consideration that one normally attacks demons pretty much exclusively by using PeVi Might-draining effects, as it can be the only way to deal with them in a really permanent fashion. Shielding such a creature with Immunity to Might-Lowering effects would be an extremely huge thing, which is why I considered it too big for even a Major Virtue. The same is true for any creature that can't be truly destroyed without draining their Might.

That's not really pertinent in this discussion though, now that I really analyze it, as even a transformed magus isn't going to be rendered invulnerable by that one virtue. I would still maintain, however, that it would be of much more significant value to a demon or spirit, making them more on a pair with a daimon in terms of difficulty in dealing with, and should be more than a single Major Virtue should allow.

I'm going by Arm5, p32. It mentions "a typical magus also gains an average of 2 Warping Points per year" once out of apprenticeship but it's buried in the first paragraph that starts in the far right column, amid the mention of how many points you get a year and how one might possibly cap Art development. I've assumed that's supposed to represent the effects of the longevity ritual (and the occasional botch) since it doesn't step up at the point when a magus would be getting pinged for the ritual, but it really isn't clear. Maybe younger magi are supposed to take bigger risks and screw up more often or some such. :laughing:

I really wasn't feeling the Mercere, too narrowly focused and not very interesting. The character I ended up building is was transformed into a magic being through an experimental longevity ritual gone wrong (wrong? or gone very very right?). Perdo monkey with focus on ice, has all the low-level Might strippers, and will be coming to the covenant as a published author of a Perdo summa, L10 Q12.

As a complication, though, I took "Bound to Magic" as one of my Magical Inferiorities, so we would need a level 5 aura for the character to work. Is that acceptable?

Sure! Although I would prefer an aura of no higher than five. Our cute little companions and grogs will want to avoid overmuch warping. Plus I like experimentation and therefore am morally opposed to auras. Seriously they give extra botch dice, for a mere +1.

I agree 5 should the absolut upper limit of aura we ever should have in the covenant because of the warping a Aura of 6+ do to humans and creatures without the gift.
Because this extra Aura will give us 2? extra minor hooks and as a fresh covenant we probaby will increase the aura trough our labwork and the presence of magus over the years.
So I'm not that happy to go for this just to allow someone to take this major flaw.
Beside are you realy willing to go trough this flaw?
As it would mean that the Aura of the covenant might drop at some point below 5 for a extended time, or it wouldn't be a flaw.
Story wise this is be covered by the changing regio our covenant is in or close to (beside that this could also a reason that our Aura go up by 1 for some time and so go to 6 if we have 5)

Edit:
What are your thoughts on this 2 virtues I plan to take for my human companion?
Minor Supernatural Lesser Immunity [ArM5 44] no Warping from constant Supernatural/mystic effects (Should be minor as it is a non deadly effect)
Minor Tainted Supernatural Infernal Heirloom [RoP:I 86]

  • A Excellent Quality Claimore (+1 Attack&Defense) that use binding [RoP:I 117] on the first spirit of a slain human or slain spirit, that not belongs to the Divine or Invernal, per day to the wielder

No, that's not what that means. That's like saying "Deficient Perdo isn't a flaw unless you actually put a lot of points into Perdo." Flaws represent your limitations and are what gives our characters flavor.

It is a flaw that poses a drawback because it makes it very difficult for the character to venture out into the world for any amount of time. For a Jerbiton (which the character is) that is a fairly significant drawback.

I chose it because it gives the character a very solid reason for wanting to settle down and is a powerful motivation to improve the covenant.

Remember also that everyone benefits from having a higher aura.

"Lesser Immunity: You are immune to some hazard which is either rare, or not deadly, or both." Warping is very common, and Warping puts a hard limit on your character's magically-extended lifespan, so an immunity to warping should be Major.

Ah, but here he is talking about warping from constant effects, which should be rare. I mean, how often do you enemies stick Year duration spells on you ? He's still open to Warping from botches and powerful mystical effects. Of course with this Virtue he'll be able to walk around with all his wards all of the time, so maybe it is too powerful...