Magical Focus: "Elemental Unity"

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hehe, not sure if you are fed up by now.. please tell me when / if I should make my own Vitruvius thread with all my noob questions :smiley:

I'm still looking at various magical foci, (guess it's because I find the virtue facinating - I really like the way it can make a magus really unique). This time I'm thinking of a virtue to supplement an elementalist.

A major focus should, as we all know by now, be slightly smaller than a single art. However what I've been toying with, is how a magical focus could benefit the four elemental forms equally, without beeing too powerful. Of course this could be done by having a focus that is not related to the elements, but to something that could be done with all of them - like dealing damage or something similiar.

My idea is way cooler, and much more in line with the idea of a true elementalist. What I'm suggesting (and want your oppinions on) is this:

Major Magical Focus: Unity of Elements (or some other name for it)

The Elementalist Virtue gives the magus the ability to ignore casting requisites when casting elemental spells. What I'm suggesting is that the Major Magical Focus: Unity of Elements applies to all elemental spells WITH such a requisite - thus encouraging the magus to focus on creating spells with multiple elemental forms - truly in line with the idea of the Elementalist.

Before you all reply that "OMG LOLZOR!!11!! Vitruvius is a munchkin, go home to your AD&D Players Handbook!!!" consider the limits of this focus:

Because Wizards with the Elementalist Virtue AND this Focus will be truly rare, the character will probably have to invent ALL the spells that can get the focus effect. Compared to a focus that is equivalent to slightly less than a single art, this will be quite a hassle for the Elementalist Magus. For instance a Single Element Magus would be able to apply his focus (for instance Major Focus: Stone) to almost every Terram spell out there.. and apply it to every stone spell ever invented - by anyone.

Im not very familiar with the spontaneous casting rules, but realize that this virtue may be too powerful when it comes to this.. any thoughts regarding this matter? And if you think it's too powerful, what can be done to make it true to the elementalist idea while at the same time beeing in balance?

I am grateful for all your replies!

Vitruvius

2

In fact as a starting character the restriction of only one major hermetic virtue would prevcent a character from having the combination.

What you are looking at is a magical focus in spells that combine more than one elemental form.

I think that it would be a fine major magical focus. Magical foci are (IMHO) most dangerous when they are used with spells that have no requisities and thereby allow characters to double their second largest art. This focus requires that the character invovle at least threee arts in the spell and then double the lowest of three rather than the lowest of two.

3

Erik Tyrell wrote:

Ah, apologies for forgetting that restriction!

Yep, that was a correct interpretation of my norwenglish..

That leaves it up to us to construct an elementalist mystery cult then, with some badass elementalists that can teach this as a inner mystery (replacing a minor magical focus in a single element perhaps..)!

4

Or you can bypass the rule saying only one major hermetic virtue. This is there to prevent abuse, but if you think it will be a cool character concept, go for it. Rules are there to support your game, not the otherway around :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Xavi

5

My next question is concerning a minor magical focus regarding elemental forms (wanting to be an elementalist with some kind of elemental magical focus..):

As we know, a minor magical focus should be slightly smaller than a tech + form combination.

Could it be viable with a minor focus (lets call it: Elemental Mutations for instance..) that applies to all elemental spells with:

a) Muto Technique (or Muto tech requisite)
and
b) more than one elemental form (form + at least one requisite).

Again, the argument of having to invent all the spells dealing with multiple elements should IMHO make this virtue about equal in power to some kind of Muto Terram minor focus. It may be slightly more powerful, but not powerful enough to be a Major focus.. if you disagree, please post an alternative minor magical focus suggestion that suits the Elementalist (major hermetic) virtue :smiley:

Also, this minor magical focus would serve nicely as a virtue that could be replaced by the major magical focus: Unity of Elements presented in the posts above.

6

But without the Rules , there would be no Game. :stuck_out_tongue:

Witness the phenomenal success of the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game

This obviously worked so well , the Game phased itself out of the market.

The suggestion of Initiating a Mystery Virtue would seem to fit the context of the rules better.
Much depends on the Troupe and the ST as well.
If one person is allowed two Major Hermetic Virtues , then perhaps others will want less balanced combinations.
The "i'm only allowing it for this person , this time , because its cool" ,
may cause resentment in other players.

7

And this is why discussion when creating characters is a good thing :slight_smile: If the troupe agrees with it, go for it. If they do not, do not try to force it down their throats. Diminishes the fun for everybody. Sensible troupes tend to come up with metareasons for allowing it in one situation and not in others. At least for what I have seen. As usual, YMMV.

Cheers,

Xavi

8

something to consider: there is no rule against adding as many requisites as you'd like to a spell... So this focus can be made to apply to any spell the character invents on his own (as opposed to using lab texts).

On it's own, it doesn't seem to bad, but combined with elementalist, that can gets out of hand...

9

I agree, and because of that I think (as Ravenscroft argued) that this kind of combo should only be available as one of the final mysteries in an elemental mystery cult. That way the "combined with elementalist" issue will only be for magi with years of initiation behind them.. Making those two virtues available, by "bending" the rules, would most certainly result in too powerful "just-out-of-gauntlet" magi..

Any suggestions on how a minor magical focus could be combined with the elemental forms (and the elementalist major virtue) without being too powerful?

10

What kind of magus do you want? Battle wizard? Politician? Researcher? You should made up a concept and than choosing the focus.
Or simply take your favourite elemental spell and build your focus upon it.
Hey, use your fantasy it is a fantasy game after all!