Does this need a breakthrough?

IIRC (Away from books ATM) the process for enchanting says "First proceed as if you were inventing the spell for level calculations" or something to that effect. If so, I'd say it's basically inventing the spell as an enchantment rather than as a pure spell.

Never occured to me, but i would say you can, yes.

I'm getting ready for my first AM5 saga. I only have the core book. Where are these breakthrough rules/guidelines?

The Bonisagus section of Houses of Hermes: True Lineages

Donøt worry about them for your first saga, they're strictly an optional extra :slight_smile:

They're also the sort of thing that's very easy to bring in later in a campaign.

"How come we haven't been making any breakthroughs before?"
"Because you weren't doing breakthrough research before!"

Original research is the sort of thing that's better suited to more advanced magi anyway :slight_smile:

Original research is also something that takes a very long time -- 10 years of full-time lab work is something to be expected -- so it is unlikely that you will want to go there with players just discovering Ars Magica.