Interesting & Effective Spell Mastery Combinations

Games Discussion Ars Magica
#1

Something that has been bouncing around in my head from the thread on Flawless Magic is interesting combinations of Spell Mastery abilities that others might not have thought of.

By this I am not talking about the Multi-Pen-Resist combination for a combat spell, but a combination that allows the spell to be used in a way unexpected or completely different from how it is would normally be.

Things get even more interesting when the spell itself is modified or created specifically to be used in combination with Mastery abilities (like changing the range from Voice if it will be used with Quiet).

Two on my current Magus (using only RAW Spell Mastery abilities):

  • A sight range Unseen Porter with (Multi, Still, Quiet x2) which allows him to seemingly have telekinesis. Being able to manipulate four things he can see with STR 5, regardless of where he is (casting total is high enough to cast even in high Divine Aura), has become a character trait. Since it normally can not Botch or Fail, the SG just accepts that he uses it almost subconsciously now.

  • Call to Slumber with (Multi, Still, Quiet, Disguised) which lets him be so boring that people around him just fall asleep. Plus he is one of the best "bed time" story tellers you will ever meet.

So does anyone else have some interesting combinations?

7 Likes
#2

I don't know as these are such special little combination, but they're handy and not something I'd seen anyone else doing before I recommended them:

Rebuttal on Aegis of the Hearth. Now your AotH offers much more protection against spells and effects without costing any more vis. This allows you to keep the actual level lower so you can manage enough penetration to keep the warding away of beings with Might effective, too.

Ceremonial Casting for combat spells. This doesn't work with Momentary stuff. But with longer-duration stuff you can set up really good penetration.

3 Likes
#3

The Inoffensive Woof of Petitcreiu
(MuIm Level 2)
(Mastery 3: fast cast, Quietx2)
Briefly changes a human voice into the silent howl of dogs. Animals can still hear the voice, as can any character with a virtue like keen hearing.

Vessy of Jerbiton invented this simple yet elegant spell after listening to the tale of Tristan and Isolde. Petitcreiu was the loyal hound of Tristan whose howls could not be heard by humans. Vessy would fast cast this spell so that she could use Voice range spells, and spoken Latin casting, without attracting undue attention.
(base level 1, +1 touch)

4 Likes
#4

Any spell that allows you to seemingly vanish (e.g. turning into something insubstantial, ReCo transportation, turning into a very small animal etc.) can be quite dramatic if you have fast, quiet, still casting.

You can pull an Obi-Wan style "if you strike me down..." by fast casting it as a reaction.

Even better if coupled with a CrCo Moon duration spell that creates a corpse that looks just like you. Either master that to be fast, quiet, silent as well or prepare the corpse in advance and have it "on ice" (preserved with a simple CrCo spell) and keep an arcane connection to it (in this case the thing to do is use a modified "leap of homecoming" that swaps the position of you and the corpse).

If you can pull off fast casting both spells in order before the fatal blow lands then congrats, you have just very convincingly faked your own death. Make sure you have a good story when you "come back to life". People are bound to have questions.

1 Like
#5

I've had a few characters with Ceremonial Mastery on the Leap of Homecoming. Kinda high level, especially as we insist on casting requisites for it.

#6

I did not even think of using Rebuttel with AotH, even though I am the one who normally cast it.

I currently have Adaptive, Efficient (reduces Vis cost to 1 per 10 levels), Flexible [Size +1] (Each Flexible adds a single change to R/T/D that you can make while casting the spell, it does modify the level), and Penetration. I do believe we have a quality 10 book on AotH Spell Mastery I have not read yet (it would net me 26 XP, enough for Mastery 5) so I will talk to my group about if they feel Rebuttel will work with it.

Which leads into the problem for me in this thread, in which I several of what I consider "cool" combinations which use some of our HR Spell Mastery abilities.

Hummm, another group of spells I have is variants of Maintaining the Demanding Spell (in addition to the normal version, I have a R/C and Sun version) with the non-R/C versions having Fast and Multi (along with Adaptive and Secure, which further reduces Botch dice). They are useful to "tie-off" spells (especially Spont spells), extending their duration. Because they are Fast and Multi, you can convert over many spells very quickly.

"Ceremonial Mastery on the Leap of Homecoming"

For use in getting into places you really shouldn't be?

#7

Since Hermetic Politics are fairly significant in several of our sagas, actually to travel between covenants.

#8

Would it not be easier to have an AC to a spot just outside of their AotH then?

#9

:laughing: Yes - but with magi who would be hard pressed to hit casting totals of 25 (let alone 35) for the ReCo(An,He,Te,??) necessary. :laughing:

#10

Ahhh ok. So for people who can barely manage to learn the spell, never mind being able to cast it.

#11

Casting requisites. You can invent it in the lab with just ReCo.

#12

If you can track down a Mutantes, learning Boosted Spell Mastery on any combat spell or teleportation spell can be very useful.

#13

AotH is something like one of only half a dozen or so canonical spells it will work with. Rebuttal is restrictive enough that it's just not that generally useful. Being so restricted and AotH actually fitting inside those restrictions, I would hope it would be allowed.

#14

Verditius magi can often learn spells easily enough, that they will have essentially no chance of casting.

#15

Oh, this raises an interesting question. What happens when you multi-cast a D:Conc spell? I would be inclined to say that by the RAW every additional spell requires two Concentration rolls (as per ArM5 p.82): one to cast it, and one to avoid "losing" the previously cast spells. This seems pretty harsh, though.

#16

Multiple Casting fires off simultaneous effects, not sequential ones, though rolling sequentially is probably an easier way to handle examining the results. This is necessitated unless you change things significantly, such as allowing unconscious magi to cast spells regardless of their state. But the Concentration roll will be at a big ease factor because of maintaining more than one effect at the same time. That conveniently avoids what you consider overly harsh.

#17

Hmm. Why do you say that Multiple Casting fires off simultaneous spells, not sequential ones?
I re-read the description, and it does not say so. In fact, if and when you fall unconscious (as you roll spell after spell) only "spells that were successful (still) run their course".

EDIT: Hmm. I see. You are inferring that all spells are cast simultaneously because you can fall unconscious and still accumulate more fatigue? Well, that could be due to other reasons: e.g. you are casting a Ritual, or you are Enfeebled. Still, I believe I see your point, even if I am unconvinced. I wonder if this should be clarified in the errata.

RE-EDIT: Well, since there were other unclear issues about the text, I raised them all together on the errata thread :slight_smile:

#18

While we play it as callen suggest (all the spells fire off simultaneously), I can understand the desire to have clarification added to the rules. My Magus has a high total in Concentration (14+die for spells) for the reason that he has lots of Concentration spells.

For people who wish to use lots of Concentration spells, the Imperturbable Mastery ability is very useful. In my case for example it would add another +4 to the rolls.

#19

Yes, the issue is that you can fall unconscious on an earlier spell and you get to keep casting the remainder of them.

There is also a separate logical issue. The only way the option functions properly is if they are 100% parallelizeable. This is because you could have a potentially unlimited score in Mastery, casting a potentially unlimited number of copies. So the unparallelizeable part must be infinitely little or zero. A different way of observing the problem is that without simultaneity you have to be able to cast the spells faster than fast-casting speed while not being able to cast them at fast-casting speed, not being able to cast them at a higher initiative, and not being able to fit more spells in the same round.

#20

Marla of Bonisagus was bored with magic, bored of her generic conjured-ivory-tower-in-a-regio covenant, and most of all, bored of life. She should be so much further ahead by now, instead of churning out vain tractati on Aquam that never earned any house acclaim. Her gauntlet had been promising enough, a solid original spell The Pillum of Bile accompanied by a promising research agenda.

But despite years of effort, she hadn't made a single breakthrough on the use of water as an arcane connection to itself. After reading the latest brilliant text from one of her sodales, Marla switched her magical theory focus from original research into spell tinkering. God, she felt like such a cliche.

She desperately needed a new grant to support her research. Looking through the packet of flyers requested from the local redcap, only one jumped out at her. The Schools of Sebastian were offering two rooks of Aquam vis to whosoever presented the most original mastery of an offensive aquam spell at their next tournament.

Marla had sunk about a year into Pillum of Bile, focusing on assaulting multiple magical foes simultaneously with lashes of corrosive acid under difficult combat circumstances. It was unusual for a lab rat like herself, but nothing special for the swaggering mercenaries of Flambeau. Still, if she spent another...hmmm...nine seasons on it, she could add in some stealth capacities, that might earn her the grant.

Her heart sank when she reread the flyer, and confirmed that the tournament was next year, just four seasons away. She'd never be ready in time.

The Pillum of Bile
CrAq20
R: Voice Duration: Momentary Target: Individual
The caster creates a jet of acid that does +10 damage.
(+10 general, +2 voice)
(Mastery 4; multicast, penetration, stalwart, fast cast)

And then, like the slow leakage of glowing liquid that was her sigil, and idea began to drip and pool in Marla's mind. Instead of going big, she'd go small. "Tidepools rather than tidal waves," as she always said. She spent a season in the lab inventing three trivial spells. Then took the rest of the year to practice them along the seaside while taking a leisurely route to the tournament.

There was a smattering of polite applause from the audience after Marla stood silent and motionless, casting her pillum at four grogs huddled under the shared parma of an impartial magi. But when she explained how she expedited her mastery, the crowd rose in a thunderous ovation. The demonstration earned her two rooks of vis, respect from her tribunal, and a marriage proposal from School of Sebastian's most eligible champion.

Marla has the virtue Flawless Magic. At the upper levels of unusual spells, it's nigh impossible to find written training materials. She had 50exp points invested in mastery already. Adding subtle and quiet(x2) would take another 95exp. Practicing solo would yield only 10exp per season for the next 4 seasons. She would come up short 55exp.

Instead, she spent a season creating three weak spells that followed the same guideline as her pillum. This only required a CrAq lab total of 24!

The Droplet of Bile
CrAq3
R: Voice Duration: Momentary Target: Individual
The caster creates a jet of acid that does +1 damage.
(+1 general, +2 voice)
(Mastery 1; adaptive casting)

The Dribble of Bile
CrAq4
R: Voice Duration: Momentary Target: Individual
The caster creates a jet of acid that does +2 damage.
(+2 general, +2 voice)
(Mastery 1; adaptive casting)

The Drool of Bile
CrAq5
R: Voice Duration: Momentary Target: Individual
The caster creates a jet of acid that does +3 damage.
(+3 general, +2 voice)
(Mastery 1; adaptive casting)

Marla dedicated one season of practice to each of her new spells. This generated sufficient experience (10 each) that raised them from Mastery 1 to Mastery 2. She took subtle for one spell, and quiet for the other two.

Since all the teensy formulaics had adaptive casting and were general spells, she could apply her newfound skills to the Pillum of Bile which follows the same parameters as the micromini spells. Her approach showed a hack for some higher level spell mastery. It also highlights a hidden advantage of Aquam over Ignem despite the lower raw damage numbers.

1 Like