'Distract a mage so I can stab them with my dagger' spells

Our troupe recently took on a Diedne mage, and as Santiago, my mage, was being strangled to death, I thought it would be a good idea to spont a little CrTe spell: a small amount of dirt in his eyes to distract him enough to let me go.

Santiago is no wuss at CrTe, but even a level 3 spont with a non-botch or crit roll didn't get through the baddie's parma. Shame really, as I thought it was a pretty nifty little spell thought up in the heat of the moment when my mage was dying.

We have a house rule that allows characters to create multiple low level spells in a season, so I'm thinking I'd like to create a few nasty little offensive spells (max level 5) like this in a season. Santiago is a elemental generalist, and as such his forms are all the same score and his four elemental techniques (and his corpus which would be a pre-req in the case of these spells, I know) are all pretty high and roughly even.

Anyone got any nice (by this I mean nasty!) suggestions for 'distract a mage so I can stab them with my dagger' spells for Santiago?

Thanks,

Mark

THis begs a certain question about PRama that's alkways been a bone of contention between myself and most of my gamers. I've always seen arma as something of a shield.. odd that seems to be the definiton of Parma if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, some of my players posit it;s thorough to the user, meaning it extends throughout the body.

The reason I bring this up after reading your situation is. I as a person running the game, would ot have even given the opposing Mag his parma had you laid hands on him. That's the whole "shiled, thing coming into play. It's my opinion. if you make the mistake of putting somethign in your mouth that has magic on it, you just boned yourself out of your Parma by letting something past it. (Of course I suppoose it woulc be STOPPED by parma befor it gets to the mouth. but thats differnt too).

If you laid your hands on the guy, THEN cast a touch spell(minus gestrues) He wouldn;t have a hope in hell of defending against it with Parma.

I have to assume I am mssing the point on Parma somewhere if this thought is wrong though.

A very small Creo Aurum shock should be sufficient though, NOt quite Incantation of lightning of course. but you know. rub your feet on the carpet and zap the hell out of him might work.

Actually mate there was a rather excellent thread a while back for low level spells. I think it was lvl 3 or 5 spells. It'll be quite a way back in the older threads and it may even be the old atlas boards. If anyone has a link that'd be dandy.

Lots of stuff there that you'd like.

Of course it's your game and you can do what you want, but Parma works even against spells that you cast on yourself that have a Touch range. You can't get through the Parma just by touching first and then casting a spell. If you could, Parma wouldn't be very effective with such an easy bypass. As for the magic thing entering your mouth by mistake, it probably wouldn't go in, it all depends on what magic is on the item. Technically if you drink a potion you either have to suppress your Parma and resistance or Penetrate. You wouldn't have to drop your Parma to eat a typical Pawn of Vis though.

For the original topic, low level formulaic spells would be great for this kind of situation because you have the greatest chance of Penetrating without putting any extra 'stank' on it (vis, arcance connection, name, etc). To make multiple spells in a season they have all be of the same Technique and Form. Cr Te and Re Te might be good ones, except that you have to Penetrate (unless you use Re Te to drop something on his head). Go with Cr Im instead, for the most part Illusions can't be protected against if the spell occurs outside of his Parma. The problem is that he can easily see that you're casting an Im spell by your words and gestures and probably won't be completely distracted. So work on Mastering the spell and getting rid of those requirements.

What could be even better is to create a spell or magic item that is ReCo which moves you back as an automatic escape when grappled or tied up. An item is best because you can make the trigger very easy to use, especially when tied up or gagged. If you design it as a spell, then add an extra magnitude or two help you cast it; things like the ability to cast it with a low Concentration difficulty, or to cast it without words and gestures.

There's a document out there called "Tyrrell’s big list of level three spells", and it is incorperated into The Net Wizard's Grimoire at:

http://arsmagica.pbwiki.com/

Lots of good ideas there.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

This has made me think actually, if you are in physical contact with someone, do you get penetration bonuses?
IE: If you are touching someone's bare arm or pulling their hair (etc), does that mean you have an arcane connection to them and bonuses to your penetration? Seems to make sense to me as clutching some hair you've cut off is effectively the same as grabbing a clump that is still on someone's head.

Or am I being a bit of a noob?

Thanks,

Mark

Now thats a good question. I'd say yes, you do get the bonuses for arcane connections. After all, you are right, why would you get the bonus for hold a clump of his hair while its not attached compared to when it IS attached.

However, i might rule that you would have to cast without gestures in order to hang on to the opposing mage while you cast.

In an earlier discussion regarding whether or not a magus recieved these bonuses gagainst himself when trying to penetrate his own parma. The majority of those in the discussion (Including David) believed that the character should have to remove the hair from their head to make it an arcane connection.

If one followed this logic the character would need to remove the hair/blood/sweat/ head from the target in order to get the bonus for an arcane connection.

I could see it working either way so it would come down to a matter of taste.

The list of level three spells is only really archived as a thread on this board. (But you should check out the spells wiki none the less).

https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/level-three-spells-for-you-edification-and-coment/184/1

Fantastic resource! Thanks Eric. :slight_smile:

Mark

Just out of curiosity, did he get the sympathetic bonus for being a relitive of himself?

It was a theretical discussion not tied to a specific game incident. The issue was that theere are several spells of range touch that a magus might wish to cast upon himself in dangerous circumstances where surpressign one's parma is inadvisable.

I'd give the magus the sympathetic bonuses for blood relative (and birthname if they haven't been christened). I'd also allow them to ue any of the rest of the sympathetic bonuses (such as horoscope).

If a character has a Talisman ans a respectible penetration score then in general he wopn't have too great a problem penetrating his own parma.