Just to be clear, you support the views that experimenting in an aligned aura is
A) More dangerous than experimenting in a "no aura"
B) A regular spell botch in an aligned aura is less dangerous than a botch experiementing in an aligned aura as the spell does not get extra botch dices due to the aura
I would personally prefer that if the Aura is aligned to your magic, it does not add to botches no matter what.
Seems that in both views, an errata is required.
W
Yes - clarifying due to the possible misinterpretations of 'aligned'.
By my reading and interpretation of RAW
The second one is, I suppose, an extrapolation, that is not explicitly stated.
p.108 which details experimentation explicitly states "magic aura". Not "Auras" or "All Auras" or "Supernatual Auras". Just Magic Aura
W
In too many places, Ars Magica uses "magic" when it means "supernatural (of any realm)". This may or may not be one of those places.
Agreed... but in this case it would have been easy to simply omit "magic" if the intent was to have extra botch dices added whenever in an "aura" instead of saying "magic aura" as by definition, an aura is supernatural.
by strict RAW of the core rule book:
1 - p.108 - Experimentating in a magical aura is more dangerous than
a) Merinita experimentating in a fey aura
b) Divine magus in a divine aura
c) Infernal magi in an infernal aura
2 - p.183 - Hermetic spell casting in a magical aura is safer than experiementating in a magic aura as spells do not get extra botch dices in aligned auras
3 - A hermetic magi is safer Experimentating in a "Dry/No-Aura" then in a magic aura (Inferred by p.108)
3 things that makes no sense to me & should be addressed by an errata.
W
I agree an errata would be a good idea. Your points #2 and #3 I have no problems with, that seems both RAW and fine to me. Point #1 needs to be addressed.
By the definition, Experimentation is playing very fast and loose with Hermetic Theory and the design process, so I am okay with the accidental magical result drawing power from the aura. If the errata took that away, I'd be okay with that.
Foreign auras always give you extra botch dice anyway, so no need to write that out?
Your point #1 is a bit problematic and should probably be clarified somehow.
I don't see a problem with #2 or #3. Experimentation is inherently dangerous, so it is reasonable that performing it in a strong aura will increase the chance of botching.
It may be safer to experiment in a "null aura" place than in one with a magical aura, but then you don't get to add the Aura strength to your Lab Total. Since normally the reason for experimenting is to get a higher Lab Total, doing so in a "null" aura would kind of counteract the point of experimenting in the first place.
Experimenting means you are okay with taking extra risks, in return for getting a higher Lab Total.
I agree. Experimentation should always be more dangerous so why leave it "safe" in a null/dry aura?
If anything, experimentation outside of a comforting magic aura should be even riskier no? Magic, experimental or not, should be better in a Magic aura then outside of it. There should be no exceptions... at least for standard hermetic wizards.
W
Being in a Magic Aura never makes things safer. Magic is more powerful there, but in no way any safer than outside an aura.
That's just it, experimenting in an Aura is done for two reasons:
I think the confusion comes from the fact that the experimentation rules explicitly calls out magic auras (Probably Magic auras) as getting extra botch dice. The Realm interaction rules on p183 DO explicitly say that you get modified for all supernatural acts in a foreign aura (totals changed by modified number, botch dice changed by flat aura number) but that is 75 pages afterwards, so people tend to miss that.
I am inclined to agree.
A quick bit of archival research reveals that this wording goes back to ArM3. (We like to embody medieval praxis in the game.) It is a bit confusing now.
How about errata'ing to "You also get one additional botch die for each point in the supernatural aura of the laboratory, even it would not normally grant you extra botch dice (such as a Magic aura for magi)."?
Does this get doubled for Regione?
Looks good.
Looks like a clean fix.
Aspected auras would be treated as double? (To follow up on Itzhak's question.)
My reading is that these are two sources of botch dice, and so the Regio doubling it would apply to the base aura additional botch die if you're in the wrong realm, but not necessarily to the aura botch die from experimentation. Aspected aura will be hard to clarify in the base book which has not yet introduced that concept (which is from RoP:M).
It is explicit. Clarifies that botching while in an aligned aura (such as Magic aura for magi) is much more likely to happen while experimentating then when doing any other magical activity. Might be justified to add some fluff to explain why that is the case. In this thread, some have expressed that it is because experimentation multiplies the strength of the auras but it does not explain why experimentating gives the same bonus in a no/dry/null aura. My best story is: The extra botchs dices steam from straying away from the precise alignment Bonisagus designed in his Magic Theory to best resonate with the magical auras.
W
For what it's worth, I had always read the text as meaning "you get the usual botch dice for foreign auras or regiones if you are crazy enough to experiment there".
The main reason is that experimentation is already rarely worth it in 5th edition, because if you need a few extra Lab Total points you can usually grab a few tractatus to study up, and/or you can easily improve the Lab quality. In 3rd edition, where it was exceedingly hard to push Arts above a certain threshold, it was worth significantly more (in fact, above a certain threshold, experimenting was a better way to raise your Arts than studying from vis, which made a lot of sense). So any rule that makes experimentation more worthwhile in ArM5 is good. Second, it seems strange and definitely unmythical to me that of all places to conduct Original Research, a perfectly mundane spot should be the best; it might certainly be true for a modern scientist, but for a wizard of legend?
Well, some people are okay with losing an occasional lab season if it means they occasionally get 15 xp on top of an exposure season, benefit from inventive genius, and occasionally get spells that have an increase in potency or a side benefit. Exciting experiment can be fun too.