General Types of Specialist Magi

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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I have seen a large range of Art specialist in play, many of which have to be developed into during play. While I know most of the long time players with have experience with many of these, some might be new and overall it would be useful for beginners. I have tried to keep to the broad categories rather than the narrow focuses. Please add any I miss and any discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of each type.

The Single Form Specialist
These have one of the narrowest range of capabilities and will often develop into one of the more rounded types. Generally only found in new Magi who want to have a variety of spells using different techniques and a single form. They can start with a single Form at 15 without virtues. Also the narrow range means that Virtue selection is fairly easy, often along the lines of Major Magical Focus, Affinity with Art, and Puissant with Art. Thus they have free Virtues to spend on other areas that interest them.

The Single Technique Specialist
These have a slightly wider range of abilities compared to the single Form specialist, thanks to there being twice as many Forms which gives them a wider range of spells to choose from. They have much the same range of possible choices for Virtues.

Single TeFo Specialist
Probably the most common starter specialist, they can start with a pair of Technique and Form each at 10 without virtues. Within their combination they can actually start with higher level spells than the single Art specialist, along with having slightly weaker coverage of the spells of each type. For Virtues it is possible for them to go with a Minor Magical Focus if they wish to be extremely narrowly focused.

The Pre-Generalist
Due to the way character creation vs in-game XP works, players who wish to develop into Generalist are advantaged to start with their initial Art XP in ether a single Art or a TeFo combination. With a decent starter library they can get their other Arts up to 5 or 6 in less than four years.

The Three Art Specialist
Focus on a TeTeFo or TeFoFo group, I have mostly seen these form from a single Art specialist. This group is made of of Magi with a single high Art of one type and two moderately high Arts of the other type. Virtues for a new Magi of this type are often closer to the selection from a Single Art specialist compared to a TeFo Specialist.

The Double TeFo Specialist
Commonly I have seen these with a single high TeFo combination and a second combination that supports it. The second set often cannot be easily supported by Virtues.

The Form and Techniques Specialist
A growth from a single Form Specialist, this style has a single very high form and tries to raise all of their Techniques. In their specialist Form they are powerful across the full range and they tend to eventually have a decent ability with all other combinations. They do suffer from weak Magic Resistance outside of their chosen Form.

The Technique Specialist
A five Art specialist focused on the Techniques. There is not many Virtues that are useful across the range and they in general have weak Magic Resistance. However this is the cheapest path to having a decent score in any combination. They are not however a true Generalist since they are limiting the Arts they are putting points into to a third of the total. Magi who stay on this path and reach old age will normally develop into a Technique Generalist.

The Craft Specialist
While similar to the first three in Art selection and Virtues, this type normally focuses on Rego and spends a portion of their Virtues on ensuring that they can develop a high Finesse Ability. Because of their high Rego and Finesse they can be surprisingly effective in many situations beyond building/crafting things.

The Creation Specialist
This is similar to the Craft Specialist. However they focus on Creo rather than Rego. A high Finesse is still important for them and what separates them from a Magi who just focuses on Creo. While creating permanent items requires Vis, this Specialist can also create complex objects with a shorter duration.

The Magical Focus Specialist
This is a type built around a Magical Focus. Depending on what that Focus is, their Arts development might range from a single Form or TeFo combination to a group of five or six.

The Spont Caster
This type is defined more by their Virtues than their Arts. Virtues like Diedne Magic, Life Linked Spontaneous Magic, Spell Improvisation, Withstand Casting, etc.

The Elementalist
This type received a nice boost with the rewrite of their Virtue. This is a four Form specialist which receives a good boost in XP across each other.

And a type of Generalist...

The Technique Generalist
Since I mentioned them in the Technique Specialist I thought I would include them on the list. This is a Generalist who spends 1/2 to 2/3 of their time studying the Techniques. This sacrifices some Magic Resistance for the ability to build up higher castings totals across all the TeFo combinations early on. Effectively a Generalist who tries to take a slight advantage in developing their abilities from a Specialist mindset.

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Not a good idea. They can also start with 11 in a form and 5 in a number of techniques. That's more versatile.
Forms should start at 6 or 11 mostly, because of the resistance bonus and because starting spells for a standard Int +2 magus require: TeFo mod 5 = 1,

because magic theory (spells) 4 + 3 + Int 2 = 9.

What good is a focus if you do not have a decent technique. Doubling a zero helps zero.

You can take Puissant Art twice and Art Affinity twice each.

If you rely on Finesse, you need cautious with Finesse. Or you'll get an extra chance to botch every spell.

Creo draws on Platonic form and doesn't usually require finesse. If you build a character with lots of rituals, you'll need Flawless Magic to master them or you'll botch the character to twilight. Using vis to create things is wasteful.

All in all, I love your scholarly way of writing things, but I just don't see how what you write could be useful even to a rookie like me.

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I'd Add the Lab Verditius specialist that focus on Magic theory, philosophy, inventivie genius, and other virtues that help for the lab total. With this, no need to have huge arts (you can do a bit of all your specialties depending of what you want to create).

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Seconded. This is the character I'm currently playing. More XPs in Magic Theory than in Arts (total).
Craft and Philosophiae. Lab specialized in item creation. Very effective, if I have a bit of time to prepare.

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Depends on the starting library and campaign length. Getting to 5 or 6 is a 1 season task unless you have a rubbish library, however, getting 15 - 21 XP in a high stat is challenging. There's something to be said about spending starting XP on a few high stats. I would advise against more than one or two arts at 5.

Within the first few sessions, unless the campaign is slow, the one who spent all their Xp on 1 big art now has the smattering of 5s and 6s, and the person who put 5s in arts at the start hasn't caught up to the big art.

For min-max munchkin grognard nirvana, when you are given the same amount of XP to put anywhere, it goes on the highest skills you have.

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I feel this discussion needs a narrowing of scope.

  • Do we discuss starting characters? Or character development?
  • Do we discuss munchkin PCs? Or plausible characters for a good story?
  • If we discuss munchkin PCs, what saga length do we optimise for?

I find that a reasonable starting character has to me fairly, if not optimally, specialised in a TeFo, just to get access to a few flashy spells for the first stories. That does not make the magus a specialist. To be fun playing in the next couple of stories, he needs a broader repertoire. But then, in the really long-term game, anything can happen.

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Good point.
A 1 art specialist will be probably 2 magnitudes of spell behind the TeFo specialist at the start. There's a fair argument to be more effective early campaign, a one art magi should get another art to 5 to get starting spells 1 magnitude higher.

One can be a low end munchkin and also have a plausible story, but the mega munchkin is cross referencing 7 books+, and that gets old fast. That's for a different thread though.

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I strongly agree with this. Even characters who want to be generalist often come out of character creation with Arts that look a lot like a specialist.

...

I was attempting to provide the range of Specialist I have seen in play. The categories I have seen (used effectively) rather than going into details of how to build them. While some of them can be built from character creation, many of them are something that must be developed into over play. For example the One Art Specialist is weaker than a TeFo Specialist in their narrow area at character creation, but after 5 or 10 years of play things can be very different.

In general a just created Magi optimized for maximum starting power is a poor example of most types of Specialist. When built to take advantage of the way XP is gained in play, they will often be weaker than a Magi built for maximum power right after character creation. However you give them a decade or two of development and they will be more powerful.

There are a few I missed, such as the Ritual Specialist (Mercurian Magic is the most common Major) and the Spell Specialist (Flawless Magic is the go to, attempt to gain things like Flexible Formulaic Magic).

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What you've also missed is the attribute specialist:

Com+5 and good teacher
Per +5 and some supernatural ability like Pralician magic or second sight
Pre + 5 to initiate mystery virtues
Some combination of high str and Sta to get a monster soak (armor, tough, spells, size)

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The types of Specialist I was talking about are ones that limit the total Arts/Abilities you have to put XP into while also getting the most bang for your buck from them through things that amplify the total. An Attribute Specialist does not provide much advantage after character creation to advancement.

Please do not take this as me knocking it as a character concept. It just does not provide a long term development framework.

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While it doesn't require active progression to reach its goal, I feel like the Attribute Specialist approach does influence the direction one develops themselves.

Some aspects may come easier as others, some synergies open up. And I think that would make a reasonable expansion of this list, especially as it may function as a secondary layer of focus that synergises with the specialists you already have, for example:

The Stamina-Focussed Life-Linked Spontaneus Caster.

The Com-Focussed, Labs&Generalism lord of masterful apprentices.

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The specialism archetypes seem more useful as a «don't take this without that» advice, than as «here you can save all those XP drains».

There is the good teacher stereotype. You never take good teacher without maxing out Com. This is really the only concept which really makes sense with a single-art specialisation; if they want to write the next branch.

Every other single-art specialisation will find, at some point, that they need more xp to increase their primary art than they would need to increase all the forms/techniques they are likely to use with it.

There is the ritual casters, where you want Mercurian Magic. It is only really useful if you take a lot of Creo and probably Corpus.

There are the Craft magic casters, who need Rego and Finesse. One form is quickly boring, so they would probably do both Herbam and Terram, and maybe AnimĂ l.

There are the investigators who focus in Intellego and a range of forms. And they need Perception too.

There are the original researchers who need Magic Theory, all they can get. They don't need very high arts at all. Surprisingly, inventive genius is not even that useful. Affinity and Puissant MT is what they need.

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You don't take good teacher without maxing out Com, but others might. If you and your friends around the table are creating a writing circle, then everyone having Book Learner and Good Teacher virtues so everyone writes at +3 and reads at +3 works really well. Sure, it's even better if someone maxes out Com, but you can do without it, or support each other in the lab so someone can develop CrMe rituals to boost the covenant up.

This brings me to the point that many of these specialists work better if they can find a covenant they work well in, and the magi cover each other's weak points. Likewise, if everyone learns some Mu and Vi and a decent level of wizard's communion you can achieve much bigger spells. If magi are happy to share credit, then one with Leadership can lead a big team to research much bigger spells than individually. Teamwork is often the difference between a successful covenant and a struggling one.