Holding back wealt is a common DM's behavior because it is considered a reward in usual games. Money is not a big deal in Ars Magica. Magi's primary resources are good books.
Maybe if they create many tons of silver.
Wizards can do anything, isn't it? Or people don't know he's a magus?
Why the hell would a magus hire an entire army? His goal and action might break the hermetic law.
It's pointless but old, lunatic magi might have such ideas. The law is the law, it doesn't matter if it has no reason.
I agree.
Money might help them only in mundane conflicts. But magi may advance very quickly and especially having a mentem specialist make mundane stories like cake-walk soon.
Actually I want the mundane stories to stay meaningful for a while, because the struggle between Franks and Saxons is central to the saga. So I decided that in 790 aD there's still a Limit of Free Will, that prevents hermetic magic from directly controlling the thoughts of people and accessing their memories. You can work with emotions and feelings, but you can't mind-control. Also, I'm using the optional rule that gives people inside Dominion 10xAura magic resistance.
Oh, they will! But in this century the Order is more liberal about that... at least until someone screws it
It's actually 5xDivineAura, I checked my notes... and I really don't know where I found it, but I could swear it was in an insert of an official manual or some Sub Rosa... but I could also be crazy, I can't rule that out. At the moment I can't find it.
Nevermind. Thanks. It's a nice rule. Earlier I played the idea giving some MR for religious people based on their 'religious' personality trait. This is easier and a bit different.
Yes, I think it's nice if you want to keep mundanes meaningful for a while. The cities are limited environments where magi have to work a little harder.
And it suits my setting very well, because Saxony is still a very wild and magical place in the VIII century, and this rule reinforces the idea of cities and villages as "safe" havens. Even pagans have to recognize that having a church nearby makes them safer, and this can lure them into a new faith.
In the game I'm running, all the players are new to the system, so its a lot of fun exploring all the options they can do. I'm new myself, so it's equally fun figuring out what I'm doing wrong when they wreck my plot hooks. That said, I gave the Covenant a good selection of vis sources, and limited mundane resources. They immediately looked at using vis to create wealth, I casually warned them that they had to worry a little about inflation and the Jerbiton immediately went on a tirade about not ruining the local economy (he's got the overly-helpful-flaw). They resolved to bolster the local economy of the fishermen to (1) get more food and supplies and (2) build local support and loyalty. They've only created magic money to actually solve immediate problems (lab explosion!) rather than to keep their finances high.
A slightly more productive commentary: If the players have a good, constant supply of Terram Vis, they're turning magical resources into mundane resources. They're doing this instead of, oh, say, making magic armor and swords. If they don't have a supply of Terram vis... then.. uh, yeah. They may run out of money when they run out of vis. They could have Creo vis, but Creo is very important when they need to cast longevity rituals. Letting them explore their game and have fun is important, and if you really want to cause story due to the creation of silver, you can just have a rival covenant bring them to Tribunal to contest their source of Terram vis because they're wasting it on something as base as money.
