If I may, a question, because it impact what I'll do with my character.
Something we did "naturally" when we played Ars, is to assume things were specific. So, for example, a spell to affect metal wouldn't affect stone, or gemstones, and vice-versa.
Over in Dusk of the Flame, I realised that Arachné had a ward against metal, but not against stone. So I though "I gotta invent one!" and then I did a double take, and realized that this was, maybe, an untold HR, in that, for some people, the metal ward would protect against stone.
What's the RAW on this? I don't know. I can only tell that there are weird things
The only thing I can tell from memory is that ReTe says things like "metal or gems", which could mean "either", or "and".
I asked Marko, but, to him, since I was the GM in that story, it was for me to decide. But this is a question about what I'll do with the spider! Do I need to spend a season, or not!
Sorry, I sleep too little.
So, I figured I'd ask you people, since it impact the game.
Option 1: Wards protect against anything at its level or below
This means that, with 2 spells (terram, herbam), you can be warded against almost any weapon. 3 spells (+ animal), you're protected vs animals and beasts. 7 spells (+Ignem, auram, aquam, corpus), you're protected against any physical attack.
This makes it easy for mages to be walking tanks
Option 2: Wards protect against a general category, but that's it, depending on delimitations in guidelines
So, to take ReTe, you'd have wards against earth, stone, glass, metal, and gemstones.
With Corpus and Animal, that's one ward
With Aquam, that's water, and acid
With Auram, that's winds and lightning.
This means that only truly dedicated magi (like those flambeau knights) will be tanks, and that mundane assassins and soldiers may be a risk to magi, if using weird blades. It also provides an incentive for combat magi to invent different spells to circumvent wards.
Thinking about it, this would be a playstyle question, between "super mages" and more mortal ones.
But there's one added thing that shifts the balance towards the second option for me. Magical foci.
To take terram, have 2 magi with a similar minor focus, one covering wards vs stone, the other wards vs metal.
- Option 1: The Metal guy will benefit from his focus to invent and cast 1 ward that'll protect against stone and metal. If his lowest art is > 5, this means that his metal wards are better against stone than if he invented "pure" stone wards. This feels wrong to me. And the same goes for his "move metal" spells, "destroy metal" spells... you name it.
Worse: The stone guy can do this, but his focus doesn't help, so it's noticeably more difficult for him. If he wan'ts to benefit from his focus while inventing a spell, it will be a "lesser" spell. This is unfair to me. - Option 2: both mages will have to invent 2 wards. The metal guy benefits from his focus to invent his metal ward, not the stone one. The reverse goes for the stone guy.
Tireeeeeeeeeeeed
And I still need to think up other things for her but my headspace is eaten up by wooork