House Rules - any pitfalls i've missed?

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

A big hi to all. :smiley:
A long time ago, i ran an Ars campaign (3rd edition, with some 4th edition stuff thrown in), it didn't really last long. Now i'm gonna try and pick it up again using 5th, and i've been working on some house rules to try to keep things in check (last time i let someone take the healing virtue from Faeries, and it caused problems).
I expect the sessions will see more combat than most Ars stories, not on a DnD scale, but more than normal, which may have biased my view.
So, these are the house rules i've developed so far (from a munchkin's point of view). Any real problems? Any better ways of handling stuff? Did i just not understand the purpose of what i was changing?

The Mastered Spell special abilities from True Lingeages are available to anyone.
I like them, if it weakens a small group of mercere to let everyone have access, so be it. Otherwise, they'd never be used.

The Mastered Spell special ability of Multiple Casting has a penalty to the Casting Total equal to the sum of the spell levels already cast in the round using the special ability.
Being able to cast up to the limit of the spells mastery without penalty scares me. Casting Conjuration of the Indubitable Cold 5 times would make things too easy. And a version with a larger area could stop an army. Other spells could be abused in a similar fashion

A maximum of 5 experience points gained from a story can be spent on Arts
A minor change really. I want to ensure mages don't benefit more from casting a few spells durin the story than they do from a season of study.

Confidence Points give a +2 bonus. All used Confidence points are regained at the end of the story.
Mostly so i don't have to worry about giving players confidence points. Kinda lazy of me, but i don't think it'll hurt anything much.

Ranged attacks from bows and crossbows use Perception for the attack bonus.
It used to be perception. I'd guess it was changed to Dexterity to keep the rules cleaner. I'm changing it back.

Reload time for crossbows is turns, not minutes.
I've never reloaded a medieval crossbow. I've no idea how long it would take. But minutes renders them almost useless in the game. So i'm going to fudge that a bit.

Spending a round aiming a shot gives a bonus to attack equal to the attacker's skill when using ranged weapons.
Similar to how those in melee can use a Fatigue level to get a bonus to attack or defense.

The Group Combat rules are not going to be used.
I just don't like them. A role-playing situation where the player doesn't player a role, just acts as a damage sponge.

A character's Defense Score is reduced by 1 for each opponent attacking him.
If a charcter is fighting multiple enemies who have trained together, he suffers an attack penalty equal to the number of additional opponents, limited by the highest Leadership score of the opponents involved.
Some rules for fighting when outnumbered, but i kept the leadership bit from group combat rules.

Abilities do not have specialities.
I like the idea, and I should be using this, but i think it would slow down the game more than it's worth.

No infernal vis
I'm FAR to lazy to keep track of each individual pawn of vis, and whether the players used any that was tainted.

Shapechanging due to a virtue/flaw. Always add together the characteristics
I liked it like that in 3rd edition, i think i'll keep it.

Fastcasting can only be done in response to an enemies action
To avoid situations like
Grog A - I'll attack the guy with the spear.
Mage - I'll help by casting a spell on the spear guy.
Grog B - I'll attack the guy with the axe.
Mage - I'll cast a spell on the axe guy.
Grog C - I'll attack the guy with the sword.
Mage - I'll cast a spell on the sword guy.
SG - how are you making all the fastcast checks?
Mage - I told Grog A to carry a goat, Grog B a collection of musical instruments, and Grog C is carrying me.
Silly, but i suspect it's rules right

Tower Shield - Dfn +5, Str +2, Load 3, Cost Exp
Someone from my last saga had one, so i made up the stats.

Attacker and defender can both use Confidence to alter the attack roll.
Defense gets a +6 bonus, and no roll. It is still affected by wound and fatigue penalties.
Damage always gets a roll. Attacker and defender can both use Confidence to alter it. It isn't affected by wound or fatigue penalties.
Soak ISN'T deducted from damage.
The wound range at all stages gets a bonus equal to soak +6.
Thats quite a few changes, mixing in rules from earlier editions. Damage which ignores armour, such as Curse of the Desert would get a damage bonus equal to the armour's protection. Other cases, such as damage from Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic, seem too rare to be a large concern.

New Martial Abilities. Single Weapon & Shield, Crossbow, and Two Weapon.
Crossbow seems obvious. Single Weapon & Shield was probably taken out to simplify character creation, i think the game would be better with it back in. Two Weapon for the next rule.

When using 2 weapons, use the ability for the weapon in your main-hand, limited by your Two Weapon ability.
My attempt at creating rules for using 2 weapons at once.

When using 2 weapons, add the off-hand weapons bonus to your combat totals, from this table. Strength requirements are met seperatley.
Dagger Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +0, Str -1
Knife Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +0, Str -4
Axe Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +3, Str +2
Club Init +0, Atk +0, Dfn +2, Dam +1, Str +0
Hatchet Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +2, Str +0
Lance Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +3, Str +2
Mace Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +4, Str +2
M+chain Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +4, Str +2
S, spear Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +2, Str +1
S, sword Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +2, Dam +2, Str +1
L, sword Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +2, Dam +3, Str +2
Um, yeh. I hope that made sense.

New Minor, General Virtue :- Ambidextrous. No -3 penalty for perform an action with you off-hand. +2 Attack Bonus when wielding 2 weapons
Can't have rules for using 2 weapons without mentioning ambidextrous.

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard
MuIm Lv4
Base 2, +1 Diameter, +1 not constantly in effect.
Someone had it, so i tried to make a 5th edition version of it. Seems low for it's usefulness.

Thats it. Lost most of the typing when it logged me out, and had to redo it, but it's done. Suggestions? Comments? Flames?

2

Hi, and welcome. :slight_smile:

This is all off the cuff, and without the rulebooks. Here goes.

The Mastered Spell special abilities from True Lingeages are available to anyone.
Fine.

The Mastered Spell special ability of Multiple Casting has a penalty to the Casting Total equal to the sum of the spell levels already cast in the round using the special ability.
Surely you mean "... the sum of the number of spells" or "spell magnitudes"? Otherwise, fine. Multicasting is indeed too powerful.

A maximum of 5 experience points gained from a story can be spent on Arts
IIRC, there is already a limit of 5 XP in any single Ability or Art, so this house rule isn't needed. All it will do is prevent the magi from gaining 5 XP in one Art and 2 XP in another or so, unless you give REALLY a lot of XP. Not meaningful.

Perhaps you'd want to consider a house rule that says you can only invest Adventure XP in Abilities, not Arts. Another possible idea is to limit the Adventure activity to be at most one per season - further consecutive adventures may increase the XP total slightly, but the whole season is but one larger adventure XP-wise; this way you'll get, say, 8 instead of 10 (5x2) XP for completing two related adventures within a season.

I'll just stick to the core on this, though. I don't think adventure XP will overshadow normal XP unless you really intend to have a very hectic saga.

Confidence Points give a +2 bonus. All used Confidence points are regained at the end of the story.
Fine. Probably even better.

Ranged attacks from bows and crossbows use Perception for the attack bonus.
Fine.

Reload time for crossbows is turns, not minutes.
Perfectly fine. A reload time of minutes is absurd, I agree.

Spending a round aiming a shot gives a bonus to attack equal to the attacker's skill when using ranged weapons.
Hmm, I don't like this rule. It gives too much of an advantage to archers, I think - they lose but a shot, not a fatigue level, to gain +Ability to their attack roll. But this isn't a game breaker.
Perhaps allow the waste of a Confidence point instead?

The Group Combat rules are not going to be used.
Alright, they're optional. I kinda like them, myself - they simplify things, and reward Leadership and joint training.

A character's Defense Score is reduced by 1 for each opponent attacking him.
"beyond 1", I take it?
The problem here is that you'll have to use miniatures or something like that with these kind of rules. I like that ArM5 allows for freeform, descriptive combat - without worrying precisely who is standing where and doing what.
But yeah, the rule is fine.
If a charcter is fighting multiple enemies who have trained together, he suffers an attack penalty equal to the number of additional opponents, limited by the highest Leadership score of the opponents involved.
I'd give them an attack bonus and/or give him a defense penalty.
This again requires you to monitor precisely who is attacking who this round, who is engaged with whom, and so on. To simplify things, I'll simply have all members of the Group benefit from a bonus to their Defense equal to the size of the group up to the leader's Leadership score, as long as they are working together under his leadership. Add this to Attack too and you've got yourself a simple rule covering both the above rules.

Abilities do not have specialities.
I don't find specialties hinder or slow down gameplay at all. I recommend keeping them, they add color and are neat IMO.

No infernal vis
You're giving out so much infernally tainted vis that keeping track of it is a problem?!!! I'd certainly keep tainted vis around. Why are you keeping track of tainted vis anyways? The PLAYERS should be keeping track of vis they collect from demons or infernal auras (if they're stupid enough to do it), and any unknown-source that turns out to be infernal is unique enough that keeping track shouldn't be a problem.

Shapechanging due to a virtue/flaw. Always add together the characteristics
Have you read the rules in Mystery Cults? I think they are superior. Adding together characteristics is too powerful, although it does makes some kind of sense.

Fastcasting can only be done in response to an enemies action
How about 'fast casting costs Fatigue'? That limits it sufficiently, IMO. A magus foolish enough to fast-cast himself into exhaustion in a round, well, the opposition are gonna exploit his foolishness.

Tower Shield - Dfn +5, Str +2, Load 3, Cost Exp
No stats at hand, can't compare. I'd impose Atk -1 or something like that, to show that it's cumbersome, heavy, and so on.

I take it the following are not related, even though they are grouped together.
Attacker and defender can both use Confidence to alter the attack roll.
Alright.
Defense gets a +6 bonus, and no roll. It is still affected by wound and fatigue penalties.
Yep, fine. I'd allow both options for the PCs, and use a fixed Defense for the NPCs.
Damage always gets a roll. Attacker and defender can both use Confidence to alter it. It isn't affected by wound or fatigue penalties.
Huh? Attack always gets a roll, fine. Attacker and defender can use Confidence to alter it, as above - fine. But not affected by wound or fatigue penalties?!! No, I don't see how that benefits the combat. When you're wounded, you find it difficult to attack - that makes sense, that's what wounds are about, I don't see why to abolish it.
Soak ISN'T deducted from damage. The wound range at all stages gets a bonus equal to soak +6.
(Of course with the additional rule that damage that ignores armor gets a damage bonus equal to soak, as you said.) I'm not sure if that's more or less clumsy, but alright. The +6 makes people more resilient, which I don't think is needed and will tend to elongate and trivialize combat more; I recommend against it.

New Martial Abilities. Single Weapon & Shield, Crossbow, and Two Weapon.
Hmm. I can see Crossbow - in fact I can see Crossbow improving as fast as an Art, to simulate how easy it is to use. I don't like Single Weapon & Shield - it's the old problem of having an expert swordsman be useless when wearing a shield, or an expert shield-user be useless when his shield is sundered... I much prefer the ArM5 way of just encouraging everyone to use shields along with their swords - it's the middle ages, warriors are trained to use shields AND to wield a weapon. I don't really like having a seperate skill for two-weapon use, but I can live with that.

When using 2 weapons, use the ability for the weapon in your main-hand, limited by your Two Weapon ability.
So a master swordmaster becomes a buffoon when he also holds a dagger in his off-hand?

When using 2 weapons, add the off-hand weapons bonus to your combat totals, from this table. Strength requirements are met seperatley.
Dagger Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +0, Str -1
Knife Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +0, Str -4
Axe Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +3, Str +2
Club Init +0, Atk +0, Dfn +2, Dam +1, Str +0
Hatchet Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +2, Str +0
Lance Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +3, Str +2
Mace Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +4, Str +2
M+chain Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +0, Dam +4, Str +2
S, spear Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +1, Dam +2, Str +1
S, sword Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +2, Dam +2, Str +1
L, sword Init +0, Atk +1, Dfn +2, Dam +3, Str +2
So it's be best to use a Longsword, or maybe a mace in my off-hand? Not, say, a dagger? Just the thought of someone using a LANCE in his off-hand...

A different suggestion for two-weapons rules: I would personally allow someone to train in a specific Two-Weapons (Combination) ability. When fighting with this combination, he uses his Single Weapon ability (specialty only applies if it's with the combination) but also gains a benefit depending on the style. Typically, I'd say he gains a bonus to either his Attack or Defense (perhaps he can distribute it?), equal to the Two-Weapons ability (sans speciality?) but up to a certain limit (say, +3). This allows someone to learn a style and master it, with some effort, while keeping the rules minimal and allowing for him to rely on his Single Weapon expertiese. By mastering the style he gains an advatage over using a shield, while without training in the style he isn't worse off for holding a dagger in his off-hand.

New Minor, General Virtue :- Ambidextrous. No -3 penalty for perform an action with you off-hand. +2 Attack Bonus when wielding 2 weapons
Alright. I think a +1 bonus when wielding two weapons is enough.

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard
MuIm Lv4
Base 2, +1 Diameter, +1 not constantly in effect.
No books on me, but I don't see the need for the last modifier (making it a level 3 spell).

All IMO, YMMV, and so on.

Yair

3

Some comments for you:

Basicly you're removing the ability then... Spell mastery is pretty expensive, and limiting multiple casting is probably better done by simply limiting it to a number of spells equal to the mastery level, rather than mastery level + 1 as the book has it. That way one has to spend at least 15 xp to get any effect at all...

Remember that story xp are a season of study in itself... I can't recall any time I've gotten more xp from a story than studying a book...

I'd keep the normal bonus for confidence, but other than that - this seems perfectly fine...

Why are you changing it back? Just because a clumsy guy has good eyes, it shouldn't make him able to hit something better with his bow...

Your choice - I'd keep it with minuttes - that makes crossbows a one-shot per combat weapon.

Seeing as you're holding a bow taut for a round, shouldn't you be spending a fatigue level in any event? I'd just use the same rules as melee... Keeps things simpler in any event.

I love them - mostly because they allow more people to fight without using the entire night on a single combat... But if you're not using grogs, and not using minor opponents, then there wouldn't be a reason to form groups.

Specialities don't affect game speed at all. Why should they? Unless you recalculate the combat statistics every round, or something like that...

It removes a part of the storytellers fun, but then, that is your choice... You could simply let the players know it was tainted, and remind them that if they use it, they add 1 botch dice per pawn (in addition to the normale extra botch dice...)

Armour just became insanly powerful - and now protects very well from spells previously ignoring armour... I really can't imagine why you're doing these changes... Seems you feel combat is too quick and simple... This will result in VERY long and time consuming battles where the luck of the dice will matter a lot... (sooner or later someone will start rolling 1s...)

Shield doesn't really require a skill now. (Which is as it should be - shield use can be a speciality, but shouldn't require a skill on it's own). This relates a lot to the reduction in the number of weapon skills - we haven't got seperate skills for the many different onehanded weapons either.

Same could go for crossbows, but I can see a more natural seperation there.

4

I'm bookless at the moment but why isn't this rego instead of muto.

It is a spell that lets the character gesture while their image stays still correct?

5

Tricky. ReIm makes things "appear to be somewhere other than where they actually are", arguably what the spell is doing with the wizard's hands or whatnot. So it would be:

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard
ReIm 4
Base 2, +1 changing images, +1 Diameter
(Possibly Base 3 is needed, for 5 paces rather than 1 of change, but I think 1 pace should suffice)

However, MuIm can change images, which can also work. It's like a poor man's disguise of the transformed image. I think this would be:

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard
MuIm 2
Base 1, +1 Diameter

Both spells create the illusion that the caster is not waving his hands, that his hands remain at their position at the end of the spell's casting.

6

Thanks for the replies.
Multiple Casting - basically removed it? yes, that was what i first thought to do. And yes, i did mean levels, thats how it was in 3rd edition. But the idea of magnitudes sounds better. A casting penalty equal to all the spell magnitudes cast so far that round.

Limit on experience - never gained more experience from a story than from a book? hmm, that may be the problem. After converting the 3rd edition library to 5th edition, i think they have an average quality of 4. Probably better to leave the xp system, and fix the library. Maybe +5 to quality on most of the books.

Aiming gives an attack bonus - i don't like the idea of using fatigue, it makes no sense with crossbows (crossbows again, i'm beginning to see why they aren't in the main book). I can see the idea of using confidence working quite well.

No infernal vis - i would expect the mages to take any vis they collect during a story back to the covenant. There they would transfer it into another vessel, something easy to identify (red square chips for ignem, blue circular chips for aquam). They then become impossible to tell apart. Simpler just to veto infernal vis right from the start.

No specialities - You seemed to think skipping this was a big no. I guess I can try it, but I think it's probably a mistake.

Single Wepon and Shield - Yeh, i see where i went wrong there. If all warriors a trained to use a shield, it becomes pointless having a seperate skill for the few who don't know how to fight without one.

Two Weapons - Wow, I can't believe i tried to make a rule that turned a swordsman into a buffoon. But i do think that a longsword or mace would be a better weapon to use off-hand than a knife. How about,

You can only use a an off-hand weapon if you have the strength to use it (as shown on the table). Each point in the ability gives a +1 bonus to attack, defense and damage, limited by the weapons capabilities, as shown on the table.

Ambidextrous - +1 attack instead of +2, I wasn't sure which would be better, i'll go for +1

Tower Shield -1 attack. That sounds very reasonable, given it's size.

Fast-Casting Fast-casting costing a fatigue to do it. That sounds like it would work. Still usable, but restricted.

Shapechanging I've read the rules in mystery cults, and i prefer the 3rd edition version. Makes more sense to me, and it's simpler.

Alterations to combat - seems i didnt explain it very clearly. Normally, there isn't a roll for damage or soak. I included one for damage, and a +6 bonus to soak to compensate.
I didn't abolish the wound/fatigue penalties for damage, since there isn't normally a roll, there isn't normally a penalty, i was saying i wasn't adding a penalty even though i was adding a roll.
Then, instead of a 2 step process. (deduct soak, check wound table), i decided to combine the soak into the wound table, making it a single step process (check wound table)
This wouldn't work if I used the group combat rules, but since I don't intend to, I think it'll balance out.

Attack/defense when outnumbered. - this would be hard to do without miniatures, something i don't want to do. I'll give it some more thought.

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard - you were close with your guesses as to what it did. It masked the caster's voice, as well as his arm motions. Rego/Muto. Lvl 3/ Lvl 4. I went for muto, because thats what the original was, though it probably could be either. Lvl 3 is probably more realistic, it just seems way too good for it's level.

Thanks for the suggestions/comments. I hope you don't think i'm trying to rewrite the system, it's the best i've seen. Just trying to tweak it a little :slight_smile:

7

No problem. :slight_smile:

:wow: In ArM5, books are assumed to generally have a HIGH quality. Covenants recommends a quality of (28-level) to (31-level) for summae, and about 11 for tractatus.

:shrug: I think you're letting great stories get lost, for a fairly small benefit (the accounting of tainted vis isn't that drastic for a player). But it's your choice.

It won't be a tremendous loss if you abolish them, it's just that it is an unnecessary loss IMO.

Why would you think that? Historically, people fought with small, manueverable weapons in their off hands - small swords, really. Fighting with a mace in your off-hand is more akin to high-fantasy.

Sounds much better.
You might want to increase all the Strength requirements by, say, +2, to signify the immense difficulty of wielding a weapon effectively in your off hand effectively without straining your main weapon's performance.

I see. I take it that the amount by which you exceed your opponent's Defense is still added to the Damage? If so, alright then. I prefer to have no damage roll, but besides adding another roll I don't see anything wrong with it.
(If the excess in attack no longer adds to damage - well that's somewhat of a loss, but still playable enough.)

Hey, the only thing that's important is for you to have fun. It's your game. :slight_smile:

Yair

8

Spells that destroy the sound and sight of the magus make it harder for him to cast spells, as if he cast the spell without his voice or gestures. Shouldn't a spell that changes his words and gestures into something else have the same effect? I imagine that's why the spell was removed from Fifth Edition; I'd suggest giving the character something like The Wizard's Sidestep instead.

9

D'oh. Of course, you're right. Silly me. :blush:

10

I take it that the amount by which you exceed your opponent's Defense is still added to the Damage? Yes, I'd be keeping the attack difference rolling over onto damage.

Multiple opponents - By each factor by which the outnumbered side is outnubered by, they get a -1 defense penalty, limited to -3. The Outnumbering side gets a +1 defense bonus, limited by leadership.
Meaning, 3 grogs outnumbered by 4-5 faeries suffer no penalties. By 6-8 faeries they have -1 defense, the faeries get +1 (if they have leadership). By 9-12, -2 penalty for grogs, +2 for faeries, etc. Since it applies to all members in the combat, miniatures shouldn't be needed.

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard This made me look more closely at the rules. Seems all Voice range spells cast while affected by this could only target the caster. But since it doesn't stop him from using his voice, or gestures (only hides them) i'm not sure I would apply a casting penalty while under it's effects. If it did, you could create a lvl 5 version, with range voice. It's low level would allow for high penetration totals, making it extremely useful against other mages (though using it in such a way would be against the code).
It seems it's either a very useful spell for casting spells unnoticed, or very useful against other mages.

11

Alright. :slight_smile: I would suggest adding +x to the outnumbering's side's Attack rather than Defnse, to make combat go faster and be more dangerous.

You're very right. Now you're left to decide which you prefer - a saga where magi can easily be subjected to casting penalties, or a saga where magi can easily disguise their spell-casting.

12

There are 3 basic options to go about this: You can remove it (Pe), you can move it (Re), or you can disguise it (Mu):

The first type would give a negative adjustment to spellcasting, and is useful to counter other mages. ("SILENCE OF THE SMOTHERED SOUND")
The second type would confuse your foes - since it appears someone else is casting spells (let your shield grog be a magus). ("THE CAPTIVE VOICE")
The third type is more equal to the original type of spell.("THE PIOUS MAGA" MuIm , R: P, D:S, T:Part, Makes all spellcasting performed by a maga look and sound like prayers. How good the prayers sound depends on the maga's knowledge of prayers) - note that it doesn't remove the sounds or movement, but it does alter them. Could result in an additional botch dice due to the maga not hearing what she's actually saying.

13

An interesting categorization.

OK, I looked at the book. Seems like you're right.

PeIm distrupts using voice in spellcasting (Silence of the Smothered Sound), but not movement (Veil of Invisibility).

ReIm does not seem to affect spell spellcasting (Wizard's Sidestep, The Captive Voice).

It may be that MuIm does not affect spellcasting at all (Disguise of the Transformed Image).

I'm assuming here that a spell that affects spellcasting would note so (as Silence of the Smothered Sound does).

PeIm and ReIm seem fairly shut and dry. MuIm is questionable. I'd argue that if a spell modifies the caster's voice into something different from a human's voice it is the same as destroying the words of power - full "no words" penalties apply. But, based on the same reasoning, changing one's gestures to innocent ones should be doable without incurring no-gestures penalties.

The Voice range is based on the natural distance the voice would carry without the magic, except that PeIm cast on the caster reduces the range. CrIm cannot increase it, nor can MuIm, but can ReIm throw it from a different place, changing the locus from it the range is measured? Can MuIm change the words while maitaining the range?

14

I might try Multiple opponents - By each factor by which the outnumbering side is outnumbering by, they get a +1 attack bonus, limited to +3. Also, the outnumbering side gets a +1 bonus, limited by leadership, for each factor. This extra bonus can be applied to attack or defense, decided by the leader.
This should give untrained fighters a bonus, though not a big bonus, and a larger bonus if they're trained. There is potentially a very large attack boost possible, but anyone that outnumbered and outplanned, would be in serious trouble.

I think my take on MuIm (and i hope it never comes up in play), would be that you cast as your new voice. If it's an animal, -10 penalty to cast, same as bjornaer get when in heartbeast form. If its quiet, reduced casting range for voice spells.
I don't think i'd impose a penalty for gestures.
So, perhaps a variation on Silence of the Smothered Sound, with a Mu requistite for gestures, and a Touch range to indicate that it affects sight/sound images after it leaves the caster, leaving him free to cast without penalty (except reduced range)

Passivity of the Spell Casting Wizard
PeIm (Mu) Lv15
For the 2 minutes after casting, the caster appears to quietly stand idle whenever he casts a spell. This reduces Voice range spells to Self.
Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Diameter, +1 changing image, +1 requisite

it also begs for

Curse of the Mages Murmur
MuIm Lv5
For the 2 minutes after casting, the target squeeks like a mouse instead of talking. This imposes penalties for casting silently (-10), and Voice range spells are reduced to self.
Base 1, +2 Voice, +1 Diameter, +1 changing image

perhaps it should also have an animal requisite, but there are few imagonem spells in the book which have requisites to use as a guide.

15

I'm happy with the house rules now :slight_smile:. everything seems like it would play smoothly. Thanks to everyone who help iron out the wrinkles, and pointing out where i'd made blunders