Cast rituals saftley

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hello everyone,

I'm confused about the ritual casting rules and I just need some clarification.

A group of 5 magi cast a 50 level ritual (10 botch dices) with Wizard's Communion (+5 botch dices), only the leading caster knows the spell and is a true specialist with Mercurian Magic (half pawns of vis needed) and Cautious Sorcerer (-3 botch dices).

In these conditions the casting requires 10/2-3+5=7 botch dices and a caster's mastery ability score of 7 will mean no botch dice involved.

Is the math right? The are more means to lower the number of botch dices?

Thank you in advance and sorry for the poor english

2

Do all the magi have Mercurian Magic? If not, that bonus doesn't work when they combine.

As for other means of lowering the number of botch dice, the main one for nearly everyone is the Familiar's Gold Cord.

3

Note that as long as you have a Mastery score of 1 in the ritual, and it's cast under calm conditions, there are no botch dice (check this out).

4

to get half pawn, all the magi of the group must be mercurians

5

Thanks for the link. That was really useful.

6

Yes, to get half the pawn cost all the magi must have Mercurian Magic, I didn't specified it.

This resolve the problem, thank you very much.

Thanks all for the help

7

Does using Wizards' Communion (well, more likely Wizards' Vigil or the other name for it), which specifically add botch dice mean it is not being cast under calm conditions? I don't mean there is some violence nearby. But it is like someone is messing with what you're doing and that makes it no longer calm?

8

No, I would not rule that Wizards' Communion by itself makes a casting "stressful".
Would you rule that Wizards' Communion turns a non-ritual formulaic spell cast under otherwise calm conditions (so, on a simple die) into a stressful casting?
Would you rule that anything else that adds botch dice automatically changes a simple die into a stress die?

Among other things, I think it would just make Communion even less useful than it already is. At my table, people already take Communion at least as much "because it's the way it's supposed to be" as because there's a strong enough mechanical incentive to take it.