I agree with Tellus here, and for more than his CyberPunk 2020 reference (good looking out, that is one of my fav games).
I want much of the inconsistency that is in Ars Magica. It leaves elements of the unknown and surprise in. It gives the SG options. It avoids much of the "play it the RIGHT way!" issues that might crop up.
If I wanted to play something with hard locked rules, I would play a board or miniature game. Nothing against them, I like and play both. However if I am playing a tabletop RPG, I do not want to feel like I am playing one of the others. This is part of the reason I dislike that other game after TSR.
I an convinced, that a better structure of the defenses of the AotH - like that they can't be resisted, don't warp, and resist any supernatural activity directed towards the area and people it protects - is a big boon.
But it has still to differentiate between activities directed to that area and people, and powers and properties just working on and among the non-natives - like LRs, cords, Heartbeast shape, most familiar bond properties, demonic possession, and so on.
That makes restructuring the Aegis more difficult: e. g. on what do illusions and disguises work? But AFAICS it is its only chance.
Now...
What happens to Supernatural entities already inside the boundary, but no longer welcome? E.g.
A magus was invited but has now been uninvited after being caught in the restricted library. He has an LR, so would've been denied entry if he had not been invited inside in the first place.
A faerie(/demon/whatever) was hiding inside the covenant. The magi of the covenant notice that something fishy is going on, and cast a stronger Aegis - is the faerie expelled or does it stay?
Actually, come to think of it, wouldn't thins exclude almost anyone with a supernatural Virtue or Flaw from entering a non-native Aegis without invitation? Lesser Immunity to Cat Scratches doesn't have penetration either.
There are a lot of potential implications. But one of them might be that younger magi become the catspawsmessengers of their elders. Potentially useful for explaining why this Autumn covenant accepts newly-Gauntleted magi in.
Even younger Magi would not want to visit other Covenants. Having it strip their Parma Magica greatly reduces their personal defense and makes them subject to the negative social effects of the Gift. Of course it is actually understandable to dislike someone who stripped your Parma even without the additional dislike that their Gift causes.
True. So... the Aegis covers only the private areas of the magi, rather than the entire covenant then? Probably eliminates much of the need for Size modifiers right there.
And things like the Great Library at Durenmar would have to be outside of their Aegis to meet their requirement to share their discoveries. Having it hiding behind their Aegis removes the ability to tell people "it is at the Great Library, go read it there".
Lesser, I think. Since it's not the Aegis (itself) that kills you ...
That's ... actually a good question. It's a supernatural power without penetration, so that should keep you out of the Aegis. But then you are affected by the very thing you are explicitly immune to...
Nice!
Yeah, the blocking of magi who have an LR or familiar seems a problem. I’m also not a fan of those disinvited getting expelled. Also makes a number of covenant site concepts harder to wrap my head around including haunted covenants, those with infestations of creatures, etc.
I can see a way around the issue for a LR- after all it is a ritual and hence a spell, all you would have to do is record a penetration score for it when cast.
The rest however make this into an interesting spell to have as an alternative to an aegis, where the question is whether the downsides are worth the benefits for a given covenant.
The LR and familiar bond (not the effects in the familiar bond) could use a penetration of their level/lab total. Still means certain folks are blocked from entering but most Aegises will be in the 30-40 range or thereabout and many familiar bond lab totals and LRs are stronger effects than that. It still means some folks will be blocked.
Personally I prefer a carve out of the Aegis not affecting those things but…
When Notatus created the Aegis, he had to take into account his sodales, who did not appreciate an Aegis that kept them from visiting each other safely.
So he sat together with Turnis of Verditius and designed the Ring of Allegiance. This is a minor enchanted device put onto a finger of each apprentice once he swears the Oath and thereby becomes a magus.
It is inscribed with the beginning of the 4th paragraph of the Oath: "I will not endanger the Order" - "Ordinem non periclitabor", and typically very hard to remove from the finger afterwards. The device ceases to function if taken off the finger, and is coded to work only with its first wearer ever.
These rings interact with Notatus' Aegides and make sure, that the Aegides do not resist supernatural effects on the person of the ring's wearer or his familiar - thereby protecting their privacy, their LRs, bond cords, bond powers, even personal boosting spells and effects like Heartbeast.
It took some time to get the Aegides accepted as general protections of covenants - but this could only be achieved by allowing all Hermetic magi to keep their Rings of Allegiance when visiting covenants.
This story and the Ring of Allegiance might still need some fiddling with - but it also could give the new type of Aegis a chance.
As far as I can tell, nothing changes for Nightwalkers crossing into an Aegis.
You have to distinguish between Nightwalkers straying, and Nightwalkers walking mundanely.
For nightwalkers walking, that which is written in HMRE p.118, "Nightwalkers have no Might, so
they are not held at bay by the Aegis of the Hearth." continues to hold.
Nightwalkers straying are/were subject to the general rules in HMRE, p.7, that are not explicitly contradicted anywhere in the Nightwalker text. AotH stops all hedge wizard powers that cannot penetrate it, including transportation effects. Because straying has no penetration, it fails against both versions of the Aegis.
It is a fallacy held by many that the rules as written before allowed Nightwalkers to stray through an Aegis, regardless of what was intended/what works in sagas. If anyone wants this to happen, it should be clarified in the text about Nightwalkers, regardless of the Aegis' text. Personally, I strongly dislike the Aegis not working for Nightwalkers, except as a plot device; in which case, I'd very much rather have a specific Virtue granting Immunity to the Aegis.
If you are Immune to the Aegis (a very Minor Immunity, since in the big scheme of things AotH is both rare and certainly not lethal), then the Aegis simply cannot affect you, so it can't keep you out.
It seems a fallacy to assume that the Aegis can act on you while you are outside of it, to keep you out, but that you need to be inside it to be immune to its effects (so while you are still out, you are affected by the Aegis "repulsion", but not protected by your Immunity).
It's not just LR and Familiar bond, though. Talisman bond? Second Sight? Etc. A great many people will just get stopped with something they cannot turn off.
