On p. 6 of the the Nigrasaxa adventure (4e), it says "Morlen notices immediately when they enter the faerie forest, and the others will notice soon thereafter." (Morlen is a Merinita character.)
My question is: Do you automatically detect faerie auras when you're inside them (in 4e or 5e)?
Some supernatural abilities let you sense auras:
Per + Magic sensitivity against an Ease Factor equal to 12 – aura level lets you detect a Magic aura.
A Perception + Sense Holiness and Unholiness roll against an Ease Factor of 9 lets you sense holiness or unholiness in a general area (I interpret that to mean sensing a Divine or Infernal aura). Interestingly, the ease factor is independent of the aura level.
Second Sight lets you see regio boundaries, but not auras.
There is no Virtue that lets you sense Faerie auras, is there?
The Core rulebook says:
"Magical areas are intense. Colors are more striking, sounds more piercing, the day brighter, the night deeper." (p. 184)
"Infernal areas are among the most vile places in the world. Growth of natural plants is stunted and warped. Decay and the stench of ill humors abound." (p. 186)
"Sites of Faerie aura take as many forms as their inhabitants. They might contain talking trees and owls, strange lights at night, and unearthly eyes peering out of the darkness." (p. 187)
"Entering a strong Divine aura has a definite sensory association. Non-magical people often experience anticipatory nerves and unconscious reverence. Those who are pious feel quiet peace; others feel dread and guilt. Magi and others with magical talents instantly sense a powerful presence, their Gift flickering as a flame exposed to wind." (p. 188)
The description of faerie auras seems to be the most subtle here, but the description suggests that you can detect the presence of an aura when you know what to look for.
How can we reconcile that? I think you could
A) Ignore the description in the Realms section and only allow supernatural abilities to detect auras
B) Let anyone roll e.g. Per + Awareness vs. 12 - aura level when they enter an aura to see whether they notice.
C) Do something like allowing a roll of Per + (Realm) lore vs. 12 - aura level when a char enters an aura to see whether they notice.
D) Allow anyone affiliated to a Realm to automatically detect auras of that Realm.
A) Only supernatural abilities can detect auras.
B) Anyone can can detect an aura (based on Awareness).
C) Anyone with the appropriate (Realm) lore can detect an aura.
D) Anyone affiliated to a Realm can detect auras of that Realm.
In our saga, something like option C is always possible. The difficulty scales with the level, higher levels are easier to “identify you are in a # aura”. This is identification by the signs, rather than actual detection of the aura.
I clicked on D, but in our saga it is dependent on actual using Realm affiliated effects. A creature of virtue is instant on entering, since they “feed” on the aura. Someone with a virtue needs to use that virtue. A Magus needs to produce a hermetic effect. Generally something that requires a roll and thus is aura modified. Identification is only Affiliated or “different”. Using an virtue or effect in something other than Affiliated just tells you that it is more difficult or “weird”.
identifying whether you are in an aura or not is a spell parameter under InVi.
Ergo a magus should not be able to automatically detect whether they are in an aura or not just by virtue of being a magus.
likewise identifying the power of an aura (presumably the aura score). is also an InVi spell parameter.
That said identifying if you are in an aura of a specific realm is a level 2 InVi spell so it is extremely likely that most magi will be able to cast that spell using non-fatiguing spontaneous magic. In principle you need a seperate spell for each realm. i.e. one spell to identify whether you are in a magic aura or not etc. so it is 3 rounds worth of casting (excluding infernal which is kinda meaningless to try to identify).
You’re right, that option was missing from the list. I guess the Parma Magica does not count? Your MR is modified by the aura, but you won’t notice when the Parma is dispelled.
Yes, it would make the one spell "Sense of Magical Power" pointless, because it's Touch range. The variants for other Realms would still be necessary, and Hearing/Vision range variants for Magical auras would also still be helpful. There’s also a difference between having to actively cast a spell and passive perception.
To be clear, personally I agree that automatic aura detection is not intended. I'm just wondering why it's described like that in the adventure. Of course, even if a Merinita mage would automatically detect the Faerie aura, it's still not clear to me why all the other mages "will notice soon thereafter".
You can probably just assume it to be a property of that specific Faerie Aura, where those who enter can realize it is a faerie forest without needing supernatural means. (And possibly suspecting that realization to be an Infernal trick depending on their own paranoia.)
There's some canonical support for this view, but with a caveat for magic (and possibly faerie) affiliated individuals. From RoP: tI pg. 12-13:
Creatures who belong to the Magic realm (that is, have a Magic Might) usually recognize Infernal auras for what they are — the illusion of false promises — and tend to avoid these places. However, those affiliated to the Magic realm are perhaps most at risk from Infernal auras. Whereas Magical Powers are actually inhibited by an Infernal aura, the nature of Hell is to deceive, and a practitioner of magic within such an aura may well feel a false surge in power, and believe that her magic was more powerful than it actually was. A magus successfully casting a formulaic spell but incurring fatigue loss due to the aura penalty does not notice this loss immediately unless he makes a Perception + Magic Theory roll against an Ease Factor of (9 + aura strength). Instead, the fatigue becomes apparent at a later time when a physical action is attempted.
I don't think this particular deception is covered by the Limit of the Infernal unless there's a power like Shroud the Stench of the Pit active. So Sense of Magical Power would still be relevant.
Do you (normally) automatically detect an aura when you’re in one?
No, not even if you have an appropriate background or sense, but you often can, and a sufficiently perceptive and knowledgeable person may be able to determine that they are in an aura from the environment, without using a spell or supernatural ability.
unnamed versions of this spell exist for divine and faerie auras. Presumably the variant for infernal auras is valid in terms of hermetic theory but useless in practise.
I didnt notice the second part of your question at first, but yeah someone with sufficient knowledge of a specific realm should absolutely be able to a least come up with a good guess as to the nature of a specific aura, including its realm affiliation, based on observations of what is within the aura. You can choose to simulate this with a realm lore roll.
Personally i would prefer my players to investigate the aura, i would then deliberately insert clues that hint at the nature of the aura, and allow players rolls to verify what realm these phenomena typically belong to, leaving at best mostly convinced at the nature of the aura. Depeding on the group i was playing with.
Regarding the Nigrasaxa adventure there is a distinct possibility that Morlen spontaneously casts a spell to verify that he is in a faerie aura or has a supernatural Ability (or ability) that allows him to know that he is in a faerie aura.
The adventure does say ‘Morlen knows a bit about this forest’, so it could simply be that he already knows how to tell where the mundane forest stops and this particular faerie forest starts (so if he was in a different faerie forest, he wouldn’t be able to automatically tell).
These powers ease factors are so high, I feel they set up a false level of complexity. These powers should just work on everything, except know unholiness occasionally. If the SG decides the story needs it, the demon always can deceive. Cultists are always found out, though.
Look at the definition of auras. Any magic aura getting past 3, mundane people should be thinking something is a little weird, and magi will be clearly noticing the difference. Fairy auras past a certain number it should start being obvious again. Fairies are creature of story. Too many story tropes pop up, fairy aura. Infernal, again, too much decay, seems obvious. Divine is probably the most subtle, but if anything, because of how Divine auras manifest, the cathedral, the devout village folk, whatever, it should be obvious.
Once a magi casts it should be a lock. How can one not notice the aura pull on the spell. In the real world, nearly any activity you do, a subtle difference is noted. Have someone quietly add or take off a few kilos when lifting weight, it’s noticed. Ask someone playing a computer game, if a bit of load is added, do they notice the frame rate drop. Headwinds and drafting in cycling. I could go on.
Anyone with realm lore should get an easyish target role. 9 - the aura level.
Anyone aligned, immediate.
Anyone else. Perception awareness at 12- and can reroll every 3 hours. Basically what magic sensitivity is set at.
Eh? The Limit of the Infernal talks about demons, not Auras, being the source of the deception. Offhand everything I can think of about Intellego magic failing is in reference to demons also.
That's a fairly definitive determination. I got -6 to my casting roll and the place looks rotten/like a normal village. From there the mage knows if it is divine/infernal.
That’s a good idea, but it’s still not clear why “the others will notice soon thereafter."
Those are the abilities' rules (which you can change, of course, but that's the reference point). The ease factor doesn't seem so high; if you have Per + Ability of 6, you only need to roll a 3 to detect magic aura of 3 or any divine aura.
Thanks for the discussion! Let me sum up what I've learned:
There seems to be a broad consensus that (Realm) Lore lets you detect auras.
Performing an act that suffers a modifier from an aura lets you gauge the strength of the modifier, but you need additional clues to determine the nature of the aura.
Infernal auras can be deceptive (per RoP: tI p. 12-13, as pointed out by Arkhaic)