I have a doubt about parma magica: When a power attacks the mage hi feels it if the parma magica can block the power. But a mage can feel if his parma magica is active?
Suppose a mage was drinking and fell asleep. When he wakes up he don't remember if he actived his parma. Can he know if the parma is active?
And if a mage is underground and sunset arrives. He don't see the sun so he is not sure when sunset is. Does the mage feels the parma magica fading out? Or he don't feel anything at all and then he will be with no parma magica until he do again the ritual to active it.
I would say a magus must be able to feel (in some sort of way) his Parma Magica. The reason I say this is that the magus can manipulate it to surround others, to lower it, or to raise it. However, this does not imply passive feeling. Perhaps the magus must actively feel it.
Good question, especially about the not knowing when sunset arrives while underground.
I think a maga can probably tell (by concentrating for an instant) whether her Parma Magica is active.
Even if not, it just takes a few seconds to confirm: cast some non-fatiguing spont on yourself forcelessly, and see if you feel the "ping" of a spell being resisted.
This applies for any form of magical resistance, and even without Parma a spell has to manage a penetration of 1 to beat the form resistance of a Hermetic magus. So even if your Parma is not up, the spell would be resisted and you'd get your "ping".
Ok gerg. But suppose the maga is underground. How often should her cast the spell to check the parma? If she does it too often it would be annoying, but if she does it a few times it could be dangerous for her.
Unless she can feel it, like Callen said. I think to "feel it actively" is a good solution. But if anybody has a better idea or information I'm listening.
I'd go with the concentrating to check route. You have to concentrate to extend it, so concentrate as if you were going to extend it, and if you find it's not there, you need to perform the ritual.
And if it is a spontaneous, non-fatiguing spontaneous spell there is no die roll needed to check, and it isn't dangerous to check, unless the danger comes from voice and gestures...
I agree with the concentrating option. But now you gave me a new idea. You don't really need to check your parma. You only need to know when sunrise/sunset is. For do it you only have to cast a sun duration spell. When the spell fails is time to a new parma magica. Unless a jocker dispell your sun duration spell before...
IIRC you only get your 2ping" when resisting an spell if it is the parma magica that resists it, not if your natural MR due to Form bonuses resists it. So a forceless non fatiguing spell would only ping if you have an active parma, even if it would not affect you at all in any case.
IIRC we had a discussion about that around here and we determined that you always knew if your parma was active or not. But nothing about that in the rules so it is a thing for your troupe to determine.
I don't play it that way, separating the parma and the form bonus. They are intrinsically linked, and so if the overall resistance is sufficient, it pings against the Parma. After all, a magus can "lower" his parma, which effectively lowers all of his form resistance.
he was talking about feeling. If it pings it is against Parma, not against MR. If you cast a Perdo Animal spell against a magical wolf and the effect does not penetrate his MR, he does not know he has been attacked. At least from my (rather long time ago) rules on this. So serf's parma here. It is parma that "pings", not magic resistance.
IMO, you can feel that your Parma is in place simply by giving it some attention. It's a bit like having you wallet in your pocket -- most of the time you don't feel it, but as soon as you think about it you feel that it's there.
Actually, as most magi spend most of their time with their Parma on, they probably feel naked when it's not active.
