Ars Magica GRIMOIRE

A few spells for enhancing melee combat and gear.

The Resistant Skin
Muto Corpus 20,
R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Individual
The casters body is enhanced and toughened, gaining a +2 bonus to Soak for the duration.
From the Ars Magica muto corpus guidelines p. 132.
(Base 10, +2 Sun)

Blessing of Oreus’s Fortitude
Muto Corpus 35,
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Group
This effect enhances a group of up to 10 soldiers soak scores for two minutes, with a +3 bonus.
(Base 15, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter, +2 Group)

Buoyant Arms and Armor
Muto Terram 30,
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Group
The metal weapons and armor of all members in a group are have their effective weight reduced to zero for combat purposes. The weapons and armor effected are rendered almost weightless.
Optional rule: The weight is reduced by two thirds round down, to reflect movement encumbrance.
(Base 4, +2 metal, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter, +2 Group)

Strength of Titan Steel
Muto Terram 15,
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Individual

The metal weapons and armor carried by the target are made far stronger and more resilient. Reduce the number of botch dice rolled when checking for a breakage by one, even if this means no botch dice are rolled.

Optional rule: If Lords of Men breakage check is used, modify the enhanced weapon’s Weapon Breakage roll by +5, and increase the Damage Levels the weapon has by +1. This is greatly decrease the change that the weapon will be damaged as a result of combat stress, but retains the initial check to see which combatant’s weapon is affected by a breakage check.
(Base 3, +2 metal, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter)

(It's interesting that this effect can be achieved by Muto (to change metal to something that weighs nothing), Rego (to "carry" the weight), or Perdo (to destroy one aspect of the metal - weight. In theory even Creo, to create very unusual metal, tho' that would be a bit high-magnitude.)

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Cruciatus Curse (Perdo Corpus 20)

R: Voice, D: Concentration, T: Individual
This spell causes the target excruciating pain, and he must make a Stamina + Size roll against an Ease Factor of 9 to be able to do anything but writhe in agony. Enduring Constitution adds 3 to the Stamina roll; other Virtues, Flaws, or Abilities that affect the ability to endure pain may also modify the roll as appropriate.

(Base 5, +2 Voice, +1 Concentration)

(three pages of vetting over in the Cruciatus for ArM thread)

Rain of Lightning (Creo Aurum 50)

R: Sight, D: Concentration, T: Group
You call down an incredible number of lightning bolts during the duration of the spell. Each round that you concentrate, you may call down up to 50 lightning bolts. Any target hit by a lightning bolt takes +30 damage. The maximum number of bolts per casting of the spell is 1000. The lightning bolts must come from the sky.

(Base 5, +3 Sight, +1 Concentration, +2 Group, +2 Size, +1 unnatural)

Sun Lance (Creo Ignem 70)

Req: Aurum
R: Sight, D: Diameter, T: Boundary, Ritual
The spell calls down a massive pillar of fire that appears to come from the sun itself. Everyone and everything within the boundary takes +30 damage from the intense heat every round they remain within it. Being within shelter can reduce the damage at the storyguide’s discretion until the shelter is destroyed. Superheated winds blow away from the pillar as Charge of the Angry Winds, dealing +5 damage from the heat to everyone within 100 paces of the pillar.
(Base 25, +3 Sight, +1 Diameter, +4 Boundary, +1 Aurum)

Halt the Surrounding Earth (Rego Terram 15)

R: Special, D: Concentration T: Group
All earth, including dirt, sand, clay, stone, glass, metal, and gemstone, loses all momentum and cannot move as long as it is within 5 paces of you. The only exception is that which the caster is wearing or carrying when he casts the spell. No force, including gravity, can move the objects without a Strength + stress roll with an Ease Factor of 15. Any affected object that enters the area affected immediately stops cold and stays there until the spell ends.
(Base 3, +1 Special, +1 Concentration, +2 Group, +2 metal & gem)

Sorry, double post.

From the thread/discussion: https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/new-spell-ten-thousand-graceful-steps/6621/1

Ten Thousand Graceful Steps

Muto Terram 25 / Rego, R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Part

The earth beneath the target’s feet is changed so that they are always moving upon a stable and solid surface made of stone. The modified surface moves with the target for the duration of the spell. This facilitates excellent traveling conditions, akin to always traveling on well maintained paved roads.

This spell will affect most paths and road surfaces including any rocks or other Terram based materials. It will use the cubic pace allowed in the spell effect to smooth inclines, and improve broken pathways. The effect will not alter any wooden or metal components in the road surfaces, but may allow items to be covered completely by the artificial roadway. The spell does not remove the need for the traveler to pay attention to their footing.

(Base 3 to change earth, +1 moving effect, +1 Rego to smooth the surface, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Part)

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Here is a selection of my own creations.
Thanks to Tellus and Xavi for fixes and feedback.
This post has been edited to keep this tread tidy.

End of the Ride
ReAn: 10 (2 [ReCo], Sight +3, Mom, Ind, Size +1)
You make a horse lose control of one of its legs. The horse must roll Quik+Athletics to keep on its feet. For a standing horse the required roll is 6+, for slow walk 9+, regular ride 12+, and fast ride 15+. If the horse falls the rider should take a ride check of the same difficulty to avoid damage. On a failed roll both the horse and rider suffers a hit of +Dam equal to the amount the difficulty exceeded the roll.

One of the Flock
MuCo(An) 15 (10, Per, Conc +1, Ind, no extra for changing effect due the requirement)
You transform into any land animal no more than two steps from your original size. To use this spell you must be surrounded by at least [3-size] animals of the same type. The spell ends if you leave the flock.

Heartbeast’s Voice
MuAn 10 (5, Per, Diam +1, Ind)
Gives a magus in animal form the ability to speak as a human. The voice will have the beast’s tone and sound, but the mage can speak as clear as he can as a human. This will only work if the animal form already has useful hearing and at least minor vocal skills (like a cat or a bird).

Heartbeast’s Hands
MuAn 5 (3, Per, Diam +1, Ind, +1 two limbs)
Gives the magus in animal form the ability to use two of his limbs agile enough to operate most human objects and even do spell gestures with a -1 penalty. This will only work if the animal form already have paws, toes or similar (like a cat or a bird).

Whispers of the Wizard
CrIm 5 (1, Sight +3, Mom, Ind, +1 eligible speech)
You make an illusion of a few words spoken by you appearing at any point inside the range.

Cool Death
CrAq 25 (4, Voice +2, Con +1, Ini, Re +1, water fit around any object in the area +1)
Fills an area of about 3 times 3 paces, 2 paces high with water, there is no need for confinements. The water will immediately freeze to solid ice.

Mirror Mage
ReIg 5 (4, Per, Con +1, Ind)
This spell makes the mage completely reflective like a mirror. Add requirements for clothing. A similar spell could make the mage appear black as the darkest night.
Note: The effects "stop all light" and "reflect all light" is considered to be unnatural, but doable. You could not change color with an Ignem spell, this is spell logics, not modern physics.

Sticky Shower
CrHe 10 (2, Voice +2, Sun +2, Ind)
You shower a target with a mashed plant material (e.g. crushed poor quality melon). If the target is moving a 6+ Per+Finesse is required to score a decent hit. This will leave a mess and should make the target easy to track.

The Wizard Who Wasn’t There
PeIm(ReIg) 25 (4, Per, Sun +2, Ind, smell, hearing, touch +1, moving image +1, no shadow +1)
The wizard is invisible, leave no shadow, doesn't smell and make no sound. He cannot be touched and leave no mark or sound on ground that can support him. If hit, he still takes damage.

Argumented Armor of the Battle Wizard
ReTe(Co) 20 (3, T +1, Sun +2, Ind, metal +2)
Worn metal armor apply no load and are of no hindrance inside its maximum flexibility. This spell will only work as intended for armor worn by the actual wizard.

Er... technically...

... this thread is mostly for spells that have aleady been discussed in their own thread already.

Eh, should work.

How do you establish eye contact with a snake that doesn't exist yet? Try another range.
The snake (obviously) can be as big as Size +1 if this becomes relevant.

Not exactly D: Conc, is it? That's an example of D: Special I suppose.

Useful. You might instead consider the Voice for the Bjornear though (same spell, D: Sun, level 15, HoH: MC, p. 36)

Not sure what to think of this one.

Very useful at times.

Int?
An example of a spell that appears very popular, even if I personally dislike it.

I would have thought this was MuIm, but I'll grant that it does seem to ward against an aspect of Ignem (light).
I'll leae the species theory explanation for someone else I think.

Doesn't need to be targetted but does need to penetrate. Adds up to CrHe 5 though, doesn't it.

Debated elsewhere.

Excuse me? It looks like you're making a spell the does 2 things (removes the load of an armor AND adds strength).
Break that into 2 spells.

Next, whle Rego seems like the natural choice to make and armor lighter an easier to move about, it is not.
The armour will be under the control or the magus, not the wearer, making it more of a hinderance than an advantage (unless the magus is wearing the armor).
Indeed the idea of having the armor grant extra strength just shows how the armor imposes it's movements over those of the wearer.

Compare Hauberk of Sublime Lightness (HoH: S, p. 38) PeTe 30 which removes the weight of an armor and the various CrCo effects to increase physical attributes.

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Thanks for the feedback, I've made some changes (edited my last post to keep it tidy).

Snakegrip: trashed (for now).
Cool Death: Typo, Ind. And yes, I sort of dislike this kind of spells aswell.
Mirror Mage: The effects "stop all light" and "reflect all light" is considered to be unnatural, but doable. (You could not change color with an Ignem spell, this is spell logics, not modern physics. I'll join a discussion if I see one around, for now I am happy as long as my SG agrees).
Sticky Shower: Cast increased to 5.
Argumented Plate of the Battle Wizard: This spell was always intended for personal use only, I should have mentioned this. It already has an extra agnitude for the added effect.

I like the snake thing. No need to trash it at all.

Make the sticky thing D: Sun. otherwise you will ahve to keep concentrating to follow the steps or the effect disappears.

the extra effect of the plate mail spell does not make much sense, so I would drop it. It is like a fireball that builds a few steps in a ladder. it looks like "what?". Increasing strength for no reason when you get a tougher armor is weird. Besides, plate mail is out of period, so I would not use that one. :slight_smile:

Knowing my group you'd still be making concentration rolls all the time.
Not risking the spell dropped, but failing to have it move with you.

Gift of The Lizard's Tail
MuCo 35
Range: Touch, Target: Part, Duration: Moon
This spell is cast on the wound or scar where a body part has been lost, giving the flesh there the capacity to regrow the lost part. A small body part like a finger or an ear can be regrown in a month, larger parts take longer - a season for a hand or eye, a year for whole limb - so multiple castings would be required. Leaving off before the regrowth is finished will leave an undersized and less than fully functional part. Likewise the patient must have sufficient nutrition and take care not to injure the delicate growing part or she risks having it permanently stunted and malformed.
Base 10 (as unnatural as a full species change) + 1 range, +1 target, +3 duration

Something to research for the Milton Chantry grimoire of non-ritual healing. I eyeballed the base with a view to making it a warping effect. I envisage the inventor trying to invent a T: individual version to give general regeneration but having his test subject go all Akira.

Some of my first spells. Thanks to ezzelino for his help:

[size=150]Borrow the Eyes of the Beast[/size] (Intellego/Animal, Level 20)
Range: Touch, Duration: Concentration, Target: Individual
This spell allows the magus to target an animal that he touches, and as long as he concentrates, he can see through the eyes of the animal wherever it may travel.

(Base 10, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration)

This is a higher level version:

[size=150]Attune to the Eyes of the Beast[/size] (Intellego/Animal 35)
Range: Aracane Connection, Duration: Concentration, Target: Individual
This spell allows the mage to focus on an arcane connection to an animal and see through its eyes. (Holding a bird’s feather, for instance.)
(Base 10, +4 Arcane Connection, +1 Concentration)

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I like them.

Sure, but they should be discussed in their own thread :wink:

Prying Neighbor
InIm 10
R: Touch, D:Con, O: Room
While the spellcaster maintains his ear against the wall or door with his closed eyes (maintain Concentration), he can hear and he can see like he was inside. He could need simple die roll + Perception + Awareness to pick in details very difficult to see normally or sneaked by sombody; but poor or no light, or too much sound can make this attempts almost impossible.
Sigil makes cosmetics changes on what he sees: Green tone on the sight, hearing others laughs and suspicious comments. This spell is illegal to cast over Sanctus and Labs from other Magi.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration, +2 Room)

[Checked/Discussed before to be written up here]

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Bubble of Breathable Air
Re(Cr)Aq(Au) 35
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Part
When the target submerges in water, his head is engulfed by a bubble of continously fresh air, allowing him not only to breathe under water, but also to speak normally (Voice range still doesn't extend past the bubble though).
(Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Part, +2 requisites)

... tried to keep it low, but I guess that's the best I can do. Target: Part is required so you can still swim, and the requisites are required because air is not considered a gas and thus doesn't push the water away on its own.

On the other hand, evidence (bubbles) suggests that air naturally pushes water aside. So I would be in favour of dropping the Aquam requisite, saving you 1 magnitude.

Also, I think a Base 3 might be sufficient and change it from Re(Cr) to Cr(Re). You create fresh air around your head, and keep it there in a bubble. Creating fresh air is Base 1, while controlling it is Base 2. Thus a Base 3 would be reasonable. That would drop the overall level to 20, in line with Lungs of the Fish. Just different flavour of spell.

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IIRC, there's a spell just like that in the Hermanus chapter of LoH.

Serf's parma, you should check it in case I'm sprouting nonsense, but I believe it's a straight CrAu base 01 to create fresh air… But with added magnitudes since this is very unnatural. IIRC, the end result is also on par with IoL. Any attempt create air under water would suffer from the same problem, which is probably why Lungs of the Fish gets around this with Muto.

There another near spell guideline on tSE-TT, for the Dolphin Automata that works like a Submarine.