Grimoire of the Wolf Pack: Mid-level spells for moderation

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Grimoire of the Wolf Pack: By Avicia of Bjornear

Summon the Woodland Prowler CrAn 30
Creates a wolf, which is normal in every sense except that it is not affected by the Gift.
With Avicia’s sigil, the wolves’ canines are particularly long and vicious looking, though this does not affect damage.
[B: 15, R: Touch +1, D: Sun +2, T: Individual]

Summon the Wolf Pack CrAn 40
This spell creates a pack of up to ten wolves, which are normal in every sense except they are not affected by the Gift.
[B: 15, R: Touch +1, D: Sun +2, T: Group +2]

Toughen the Wolf’s Pelt MuAn 20
The fur and skin of the wolf affected by this spell, thickens so that the animal gains a +3 to its natural armour (and so +3 to its soak). This protection is designed to prevent slashing or puncturing, so the storyguide’s may rule that this bonus does not apply to strictly blunt or crushing weapons.
Note: Despite the name of this version of the spell, the effect will work on any non-magical land animal.
[B: 4, R: Voice +2, D: Sun +2, T: Individual]

Comprehension of the Beast’s Speech InAn 20
This spell allows the caster to understand and converse with any non-magical land animal. The Maga automatically understands the verbal and non-verbal language of the animal, and can communicate basic ideas to the animal. Animals tend to only understand very simple ideas and descriptions that they have common experience of (hunting, trees, water, specific smells, fear, etc).
With Avicia’s sigil the Maga’s canine teeth become slightly elongated and curved like a wolf’s for the duration of the spell.
[B: 10, R: Eye +1, D: Concentration +1, T: Individual]

Assertion of a Wizard’s Dominance PeAn 10
By use of this spell the wizard can cause minor pain to an animal (the equivalent to having an ear bitten or a nip to the flank). This provides the animal with a clear signal (for instance when training it to understand undesired behaviour), and it may yelp in surprise, but leaves no lasting damage other than a small mark on the animal's body.
Avicia notes in this spell description:
“Wolves usually treat other members of the pack with gentleness, but I have noticed that the leader of a wolf pack occasionally has to exert their dominance. This is done by exerting a small amount of physical pain. A nip to the ear, or the flank is usually enough to remind a lower member of the pack who is in charge. Generally, this is sufficient when a spell like ‘Agony of the Beast’ would be unnecessarily harsh treatment.”
[B: 3, R: Sight +3, D: Momentary, T: Individual]

Leader’s Mantle of the Wolf Pack ReAn 35
You can make a group of wolves perform any action which it is capable of. New instructions can only be carried out within Voice range, but the animal will carry out the instructions even if it passes beyond that range.
[B: 15, R: Voice +2, D: Sun +2, T: Group +2, Restriction* -2]
*This spell only works on non-magical wolves (not any other animal) – so I’ve allowed a slight reduction in the spell level. As such it does not specifically accord with standard Hermetic spells.

2

I love these spells. I they're a good example of the sort of suites of spells that I can see a magus developing over time.

That being said I don't have any useful feedback on the spell design. I'll try and be helpful by adding to the list.

Beastial Senses
Int An 30
Range touch Duration sun Target individual
The caster will see, hear, smell, taste, and feel what the target animal is experiencing until the next sunrise or sunset. A magus can typically push these sensations out of their conscious thoughts but any intense sensations that the animal experiences may necessitate concentration checks for the caster. For the duration of the spell the animal will act as an arcane connection to the caster with a +2 penetration multiplier. Those few magi who have recreated this spell from the original lab texts have all designed the spell for use on their familiar to prevent warping.

Base 15 (I judged access to the senses of the animal roughly equivelent to reading the animal's recent memories) +1 touch, + 2 duration

3

Nice! :slight_smile:

I was thinking along the lines of using ReIm (moving the species) - though that would probably render the animal blind!

This seems to work fine.

4

My first though was to use intellego/rego imagonem to move the caster's senses to the animal but this seemed more practical.

I also spent some time considering a non hermetic duration of "whenever I feel like it between now and sunset" but this increased the spell two magnitudes so I thought it to be inpractical.

5

Summon the Alpha Woodland Prowler CrAn(Re) 40
Creates a wolf, which is normal in every sense except that it is not affected by the Gift & will obey your commands. The wolf itself is larger than the typical would as he is the Alpha of the pack (Size 0). He will understand direct command as a mundane wolf would, hence, a communication roll is required unless the summoner has another means of communication with the wolf.

With Avicia’s sigil, the wolves’ canines are particularly long and vicious looking, though this does not affect damage.
[B: 15, R: Touch +1, D: Sun +2, T: Individual, +1 Rego Requisite, +1 size]

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