Now you're frightening me. Lucas is the first Ars magica character I've ever made up for a saga. I have a terrible fear that I've made some horrible mistake in his creation and I have a gaping hole that will cause him to get killed the first time he gets into a fight.
We haven't had many fights in this saga, at least since I joined at last year's restart. I think Vocis has been in two fights, and one of those is better characterized as conspiracy to commit murder. 
The other was a big combat in the first adventure that wasn't (or didn't seem to be) particularly dangerous, possibly because more competent combatants than Vocis were there.
As for Lucas, he has Wizard's Sidestep and Leap of Homecoming, which means he (almost) never has to fight. He's much better off than Pere. Pere's used to deal with mundanes all the time, so if he's seriously threatened by something he can sweet-talk or affect with Mentem, well, it's going to go poorly.
I've got to master some of those spells so I can quick cast them. I didn't quite understand the whole spell mastering thing when I made up Lucas, so he currently has zero spells mastered.
Ah well, we live and learn.
Well, Jason, seen here, is not a combat magus, by any stretch. But he has to be able to do something for those seasons where he's doing his Redcap duties. He is eventually going to invent Voice version of Wizard's Leap and throw combatants straight up in the air. At 50 paces, that's 150 feet and +75 damage, gonna be tough to soak that. That Wizard's Leap variant will be his primary combat spell if people need killing.
It is indeed brutal. But your troupe needs to embrace the concept of redshirts. Grogs are there to die. Yes, some are going to be favored grogs, but some aren't. Give 'em names and take them from the templates in the main book or grogs. Shield grogs are just that, shield grogs, they defend a magus and basically take all attacks on themselves. Buff your grogs to improve their soak. Consider altering their virtue package to include Cautious with Single Weapon for some of them so that they don't botch the defense roll and die. Seriously botching on defense is going to kill 9 times out of 10. That 10th time is when the opponent botches the attack.
You have magi who are adept with a certain class of spells like Carmen. I modeled a weather maga on her, she's 6 years past gauntlet and can achieve +20 penetration on IoL. It's hard to deal with +30 damage for almost any creature, do multiple casting and a couple levels of mastery ability and throwing three lightning bolts at a target is overkill, or mows down a lot of opposition. She's kind of scary. I'm playing her as kind of crazy, almost like Leanansidhe from the Dresden files in a love for the violence, she's a Tytalus. She's also a fast caster and invariably has initiative so things die fast, too. 
Then there are magi who focus on finesse based attacks. I don't have a good example of that, but they can be quite effective. Maybe Ophelia, although her combat was about making the grogs around her more effective and counter spelling enemy magi. I would've liked a chance to play her a bit more. She has some finesse based attacks.
And then there are magi like Alexei. He excels at personal combat and can achieve a monster soak of 21 and I seem to remember he had a soak of 26 at one point. He was hard to damage unless with magic.
The big key is to have an idea of how you intend to use your spells in combat, to be dangerous and how mastery can magnify that. Jason isn't a combat magus, but he can make opponents drop their weapons and then make their weapon arm useless, two at a time, or one guy gets the T-Rex treatment on both arms.
As long as they are riding with grogs, magi are pretty safe. The Protector rules awork great here, and make sure your magus is not slaughtered even if they are total combat morons. Been there, played that magus limitation (I even squeaked repeatedly in combat scenes) and survived. No big worries. If you are facing an enemy that will slaughter your grogs, well, you'd better run anyway generally. Invisibility PeIm10, short range teleport ReCo15 and rise of the feathery body ReCo10 (Diameter or Sun duration) are all worthy alternatives for the combat unimpaired.
Cheers,
Xavi
This is the biggest thing to remember. Any combatant can declare that they are defending a specific person and all attacks against the person being defended are taken on by the defender. And above, when I suggested taking Cautious with Single Weapon, I was typing on my phone while on the treadmill, so I didn't make myself clearer. Taking Cautious with Single Weapon is important because if the defender botches the attack has a good chance of bypassing the defender entirely and making it to the defended person, who also has no expectation that he's under attack and/or can't prepare an adequate defense. I typically make this happen on double botches (or more) when being defended. On a single botch, the defender is likely going to be seriously wounded, perhaps even incapacitated, but it gives the defended character time to realize what's going on and take steps to preserve himself, by getting out of Dodge or calling another defender to him.
So, Ars combat is brutal and potentially quite lethal, but this should be borne in large part by the shield grogs.
Real life combat is brutal and potentially lethal in a single moment. And it is possible to suffer horrific injury and survive, both in Ars Magica and real life. Also, keep in mind that as an American storyteller following the footsteps of giants such as Howard, Heilien, Hemmingway, and Stan Lee, action and combat are part and parcel of telling a dramatic story and hardship develops character.
But not every magus needs to be a combatant. It is mainly a Flambeau thing. Other Houses have fighter-magic users and may have their own interest in martial magics. For example, the Tremere like to focus on grand strategy and Tytalus magi like to be confrontational and admire strength, and some Bjornaer magi have combat heartbeasts and there are many-many ways to have a solid defense.
As for Carmen, she is not as fierce as you may imagine. Flambeau trained, couple of good spells, and that Lightning. But she has no personal combbat ability. She can rawl, versus another maga with decent Parma she can offer a good cat-fight but that is about it. In fact, that did happen once, Carmen versus Kallista, hair pulling and dress tearing and the whole bit :mrgreen:
Mastery didn't figure in to the dragon, and I admit that the whole scene went down as a mistake. She has a good Initiative roll, and though multicast, it was the very first bolt that did the trick. Exploder on the damage die. What had happened is that I panicked. Callen, playing Guillaume of Flambeau, was talking doom and dread. I was banking on he and Vulcanus taking the thing down. In fear, I decided to hand control of the dragon over to Peregrine and use Carmen in the fight. It turned out to be overkill 
A duplicate of that dragon, one size level smaller and five might points weaker, was killed fair and square by Arnau, Vibria, and a hand full of grogs. No fatalities, some injury, total victory.
Carmen's lightning bolt is well rooted in backstory too. Her father was an Ignem/Auram expert, she inherited a talent for Auram that exceeded his, and when she matured she took Pietro as a mentor and had further lightning training. This made her father jealous. Stuff happened, previous volume of this saga sort of stuff. Pietro of Flambeau, a background NPC that has not been used much at all lately, is one of the deadliest magi in the Order. Formerly of House Tytalus, he won his way into House Flambeau when he defeated seven champions with his mastered lightning bolts. He is also an Archmagus and leader of their war council (the Antares). His Virtues, and those of his filiae, center around lightning. Affinity with Auram, Puissant Auram, Creo also, Minor Magic Focus in Lightning, Mastered Spells (score of 4 to start), and stuff like that.
Now, as for Roberto, I am humbled that you admire his combat prowess. 
It has been a long hard road to get this far. The trick is, his main gig with PoF, including Mastery, is possible right out of gauntlet. He has since spent his time diversifying and building a well rounded tactical selection. Roberto also fights like a grog (that was his training as an apprentice), and his tactical specialization is more focused on enhancing the physical melee abilities of himself and others at his side.
Now, like I said, you do not at all have to be a combat magus. We have highly skilled soldiers and a few heavy hitting magi to handle all that. There is room to be the healer, the illusionist, the politician, and more. But it is wise to have a few safety spells, teleport out of harms way or throw up a distracting illusion. In the meanwhile, we have soldiers to protect us. Not all soldiers are grogs, some are companions. And no human life is a disposable asset. They may have red shirts, but that is so you can't see them bleed while they keep fighting 
Completely off-topic, but I thought you guys might like to know that "Andorra La Vella" was an answer in the final of a BBC TV quiz last week. The quiz is Only Connect, whose schtick is identifying the link between 4 - usually not obviously connected - things. It's regularly considered one of the hardest on British television (and that is me slightly blowing my own trumpet, because I was a semi-finalist in this series :mrgreen:)
The question in, er, question was: What comes fourth in this sequence? Deploying spoilers because you get more points the earlier you spot the link - the team on the TV got it after two clues, although they were pretty sure after just one 
.
Clue 1: Kabul
Clue 2: [spoiler]Tirana[/spoiler]
Clue 3: [spoiler]Algiers[/spoiler]
???
[spoiler]The sequence is capital cities of the first four countries alphabetically: Kabul in Afghanistan; Tirana in Albania; Algiers in Algeria; so the answer is Andorra La Vella, in Andorra.[/spoiler]
One day I would like to visit this mythical land I keep writing about
On a side not, there appears to be a covenant of squatters living in La Vella, bunch of Jerbiton magi from Provencal. Someone should look into that
[color=red]"Good idea! Perhaps a ring that I could use to cast Eyes of the...Cat..." Vibria's voice trails off as she scowls.
[color=red]"Except I know una merda about Muto...or Animal." She brushes a wayward strand of hair away from her eyes. [color=red]"That would be a good place to start improving my knowledge of the sundry arts, I suppose.
"And the more I think about it, it would be a waste to have a perfectly beautiful ring do only the one thing. Perhaps if someone of exceptional knowledge and skill were to donate his unparalleled talents to that end?"
(tl; dr: I was going to have her make a ring that casts Eyes of the Cat, but realized her scores in Muto and Animal are zero. So, she's going to spend her two seasons studying the Muto and Animal books, and is hinting that Vulcanus will craft something for her to use to enchant stuff into. I know, it's like entering an Aston-Martin in a tractor-pull, but still.)
Andorra is really beautiful. Andorra la vella sucks, though; Modern piece of ugly buildings bunched together. The valleys of andorra are great. If you come to "faerie Barcelona" give a shout. 8)
For anyone interested, I have finally put up pictures for Solomon, Acutus and Seilm on the wiki.
Awesome PoB
And Xavi, Barcelona is indeed on my bucket list. That and Denmark, and Amsterdam
:mrgreen:
First, a general 'thank you!' for the combat advice from our Ars veterans. It's much appreciated.
I may have to steal that idea for Vocis. ReCo is his best non-Imaginem option.
Did you find that prepping grogs was a 'viable' combat strategy? I know it won't be as immediately destructive as multicast + penetration, but I'm wondering if it was useful against both mundane and magical (including non-human) threats. Put another way, can you hunt dragons with prepped grogs?
As for Finesse attacks, Vocis does have Invisible Sling of Vilano. I may try to find a few seasons for Mastery.
This one I get, largely because of my experience with 2nd ed D&D. My most important take-away from that system was 'there's no magic resistance against an @$$-kicking. 
In fact, my magus in my saga is a former Flambeau trained in the School of Ramius. I don't think I've ever gotten his soak above 18, but it hasn't been my sole focus because he also has Greater Immunity to metal edged weapons. Have you encountered many situations where 'chop on it until it dies' wasn't a viable combat option?
I'm pretty good with trivia, but this just insane. I'm very impressed you got anywhere near this show.
Quite welcome, and feel free to steal any ideas I have.
Well, I think you can. I would liked to have a chance to really play her. I also see some design errors in her now that I'd change around. I would go all in on the idea of augmenting her grogs and shutting down enemy magic and not have any combat spells of her own.
Invisible Sling is an OK spell, but it only does +5 damage, which can easily be soaked. And if you multicast it, it's easily soaked twice. I would invent the a higher level version of the spell to be within your casting range that doesn't fatigue you. That looks to be a +10 damage version of 15th level, which can be soaked, but it is a bit harder to soak.
Well, it is hard to chop enemy spell casters (or anyone that is defended, for that matter), because you have to get through their defenders. But chop on it is certainly a situation, but I don't call it a strategy because of the risk of injury, and the chance of botching. I think the next magus I design will probably follow Alexei's model, but I'll take Cautious with Single or Great Weapon to minimize the risks of botching. Botches, especially a defensive botch, are almost always killers.
Arachné smiles, amused (She's an old crone, and vibria is our young maga)
Vibria, dear... If I may give you an advice? There's more than one way to skin a cat, and one of the keys to success for a maga is to play upon her strengths.
Why would you bother, and waste time, with learning Muto and Animal, when you can create a wand that gives people "Vision of Heat's Light"? Or a Creo Ignem one to just create some light? These should be way easier for you.
Oh, great! Thanks!
And if I experiment, I can create two in one season! (Probably, if I roll at least a 3).
Experimentation is often an opportunity for fun and interesting results 