Hi all, I rescently started playing Ars Magicka, and I love the system. Our group ran through the The Broken Covenant of Calebais. The one thing we found frustrating was the lack of even our more specialized mages ability to affect any of the creatures we encountered (Our dedicated necromancer could only effect ghosts with the most minor of effects).
I was wondering if this was the design intent of the system, of the adventure, or perhaps we were just underpowered for the challenges presented?
Its built into the system. Magic resistance in previous versions was largely negligible for all but the biggest baddest of magic beasties. Now, a respectable magic resistance actually makes a difference.
Combat tends to be a blizzard of low level spells now, the big "kill 'em dead" spells work best against low might beasties and mundanes.
Of course with the sympathetic magic rules (which by the way i love) allow you nice tasty bonuses to get through magic resistance and i have found, promote roleplaying by researching your foe, collecting arcane connections, possessions, doing horoscopes, etc. Not too handy when confronted by a forest clearing full of might 25 Fae. But great against that high powered demon thats been hassling you.
The ghosts living in the broken Covenant is not your run of the mill ghosts either, they have arts and personality and is rather active. However yes, it is buildt into the setting. Ars is rather low fantasy, so supernatrual beings are rare and dificult to overcome when one first meet them They are suposed to be impressive, one is suposed to have the wow! feeling when running into one of them.
Thanks for the replies, I think I got a better handle on how things are supposed to go.
Sympathetic Magic looks very promissing, I believe we missed that when we were playing.
Another option is the often unloved spell Wizard's Communion--it can greatly enhance penetration. Say 3 Magi know Wizard's Communion to level 20. One magus is delivering death with his level 30 spell, which he normally just pulls off with a casting total of 32, or a mere 2 penetration. But when his wizardly friends help, he now has a penetration averaging 22.
-m