Excalibur and all?

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Serf's parma, but I just remembered an idea about all those non-hermetic magical swords of power one may want to wave around proudly.

Why not have them as Magical Beings?

In RoP: Magic, IIRC, the idea is not as developped as Magical Creatures, Humans and Spirits, but you can have Awakened Items, too.

  • Whose attacks, being just as natural as those from other magical beings, are not resisted by MR
  • Who have a might, and thus innate MR, granting them some mesure of protection against hermetic magic (and allowing them to cut through wards if these don't have enough penetration^^)
  • Who can have qualities that improve their Initiative, Attack, Defense, or Damage, making them truly awesome. Of course, the first 3 would enhance the swords's stats, meaning it would use the sword's Single Weapon, making it more like Stormbringer. This is not that much of a problem, IMO. And the last would surely work even with the wielder's skill
  • Who can grant various virtues to their owner, or protect them from injury through their powers.

Of course, the downside, if any, is that the sword has it's own counsciousness (although it may have cunning -5 and be dumb as a brick), but that's not so much as a problem, and can in fact be awesome (Again, Stormbringer).

Thoughts? Or has my parma failed me?

2

I... think that's an awesome idea :slight_smile: Now, the question is how to make such items Hermetically... Creo Terram (Vim), Duration-Momentary, Ritual, Base 50 like the Creo Animal guidelines? That sounds rather swift and too easy, compared to the costs of actually making Hermetic magic items.

3

I'd do them as faeries...but that's my general take on most mystical creatures. The advantages are the same, but no acclimation. Also, I just think Excalibur as a faerie weapon makes more sense to me, given the lady of the lake...

Actually, she'd be a Lake Person. That works for magic, too.

4

Faerie, Magic, Infernal, Divine, they'd all be cool.
A Faerie sword that always manages to end up in the hands of humble stable boys destined for greatness.

A Magic blade that is the sharpest, strongest, mightiest weapon ever.

An Infernal Executioner's Axe that arranges for it to taste innocent blood whenever it can.

A divine staff passed from pilgrim to pilgrim on the road to the holy land. Always seeming to end up in the hands of the righteous when they are most in need.

I like the idea and it's easy to pull off with the rules in place and a little imagination. RoP:M already has examples of hermetic magic items becoming Magical Beings.

5

I think this quite makes sense also, given what excalibur has become.
The original sword was "meh" by the standards of modern fantasy, the true power residing in the scabbard.
But the legend has made the sword more and more awesome, until you get to something like Fate/Stay Night (Peregrine, if you read me, I think you'd love this), where it is a small WOD in its own right.

This, IMO, fits well with faeries accruing power from stories.

But I'm wasting a time I don’t have, so...

In Andorra, we had a discussion about magical weapons and MR, and also discussed the problems that items, especially talismans, enchanted with constant effects might have when entering an Aegis:

  • If you don't require Aegis to penetrate, it should be affected.
  • If you require it to penetrate, if the magus MR proves insufficient, it is affected too.

This led me to propose the following HR. It is untested, but solves both “problems”, and, IMO, is balanced in terms of advantages vs disadvantages.
I thought it might interest some people here, so:

  • Constant effect (2 uses per day, environmental trigger) are Natural, and thus aren’t affected by Vim magics or by the Parma.
    (Note that the fact that you can’t dispel the effect with magic doesn’t mean that you can’t destroy the enchantment that creates it through a PeVi “Disenchant” ritual.)

So, a sword that can but itself on fire will be resisted, since the effect is active. But a sword that is constantly on fire won’t, although it’ll require a special scabbard. Likewise, a PeVi spell couldn’t put out the flames, although a PeIg spell would put them out for its duration.
Likewise, you could enchant a sword with permanent Hardness of Adamantine and Edge of the Razor effects.
A flambeau Magus using Ward against Heat and Flames could create a Constant enchantment that puts part of his lab on fire, which, aside from the bonuses it procures for Ignem spells, would also be a welcome defense against those magi who are not skilled in Ignem.

This means that magi would have 2 choices for their grogs:

  • Creating an item that give their swords temporary, but resistible buffs, like giving Edge of the Razor to a group of swords. More cost effective against mundanes, useless against MR
  • Create an enchanted, non-resistible weapon as a gift to a special grog. Not very cost effective in time or vis, but will work against a dragon.