Does a character with the Magic Sensitivity virtue/ability notice when he/she is the target of a spell, even though that spell may not have any visible effect?
For example, someone establishing an Intangible Tunnel to you, or trying to locate you with The Inexorable Search. Would Magic Sensitivity allow the target to know he is being targeted, regardless of it that effect penetrates his/her magic resistance or not?
At a bare minimum, I'd certainly let them roll!
Depends. Is Magic Sensitivity always active, or does the character need to consciously try to detect magic? If the former, he might well have a chance to notice any and all spell effects near him.
Someone with Magic Resistance will usually notice when a spell targets him and fails to penetrate his MR. He won't automatically know any details at all about the spell, just that his MR blocked something.
Well, the penalty to the character's magic resistance is always on, so I am of the opinion that this ability is probably always on.
And I have just noticed that it uses a simple die on the roll to sense the magic nature of an place or object. That would make sense if the ability is always on -- you cannot botch it because it is more of a passive ability.
I like this. Magic sensitivity sucks anyway, IMO, especially compared to Second Sight. This might make it more useful.
So I guess, if Comprehend Magic is "a more comprehensive version of Magic Sensitivity, and can do everything that Virtue can, and more.", would it also be always active? Just by touch, or by mere eyeglance on something?
That's a tricky question, because Societates specifically mentions that the Comprehend Total uses a stress die (as opposed to the simple die from Magic Sensitivity), so there is always a risk of botching and thus a risk of accruing Twilight Points. Which means if it is always on, the character would quickly accumulate those, which would be an undesirable result.
One way around this still make Comprehend Magic always on would be to state that there are actually 2 rolls. The first would be the initial roll to detect the presence of magic in an object, person or place. Societates already states that this takes "but a moment of observation." Then, if the character wants to learn more, by concentrating for one to three full rounds, then he makes a stress roll to see if he can learn more.
I would be careful with the stress dice with these. For example, there is an issue with Second Sight if you always use stress dice. It's that, essentially, going anywhere, especially somewhere like a Magic or Faerie Regio, is pretty much a death sentence. That's because of the sheer number of dice you should be rolling to see all the various spirits, glamours, etc. And the canonical texts do show this happens whether you're trying or not. Now, Magic Sensitivity is clear about the simple die, except when you specifically push like when trying to pass through Regio levels. I would use a simple die for the Magic-Sensitivity equivalent part of Comprehend Magic and I would use stress dice if you push for more information. Similarly, I would follow precedent from Second Sight, having them happen automatically.
Agreed. This may be worth clarifying in the rulebooks. Too bad that too late for ArM5 Definitive.
Edit: Even then, Cautious with (Ability) is worth taking if the virtue is central to your character and you expect to use it a lot.
Ooh, Learn (Ability) from Mistakes! A thousand spirits around. Lots of magical effects. Etc. (Depending on the particular Ability.) That's basically guaranteeing 5xp per session until you're so good there is no chance of failing.