New player here.
I'm running a magus with Guardian Angel + True Faith, giving me a tasty 25 magic res as a fresh apprentice. All well and good.
Except for all the problems.
I think, Rules as Written, I cannot lower this MR in any way (unless I choose to stop following the way of god which would mean I've wasted 6/10 of my virtues ), which means that if I want a non-personal range friendly effect cast on me, it has to penetrate the 25 MR, which would make most friendly spells Hard and friendly magic items Really Hard. That being said, I don't see anything which says I definitely can't lower this MR. I've read all the other forum posts I've found (notably This one) but the answer feels incomplete to me.
So, Can a hermetic magus with magic resist from non-parma sources (I think divine is the only non-magic realm that can grant MR?) lower that resist to allow for friendly casts? If doing so works similarly to suppressing Parma, can/must one suppress both at the same time, or would they be seperate?
If not, is there a sensible way I could receive friendly enchants? I can think of some options:
The guardian angel, in particular, could be asked to stop protecting me. Since it can't hear my thoughts I'd need to be able to speak and it wouldn't be instant. It also might refuse if it thinks the effect I'm going to be enchanted with isn't "in accordance with God's will," which might be interesting. (Tangentially, if it stops granting me MR, does it Also stop granting me soak, or are those independent?) This wouldn't deal with the true faith MR, but it's something.
Spells that I cast can pierce this MR. My true faith MR, at least, comes from my personal relationship with God per RoP: D, and as a magus one assumes my relationship with god includes being okay with my own magic, so I can cast spells on myself just fine. Would this extend to magic items I made? (Would this extend to magic items opened by someone else but with effects instilled by me, or vis versa?) What about another Magus's spell that I've sorcerer's forked onto myself?
Spells which do not intend to harm me can pierce this MR. This is the most powerful interpretation, and the least Ars; Might open interesting edge cases where Intent comes into question, (especially when my idea of intent comes into conflict with my guardian's) but generally gives me a lot More freedom than a typical parma-protected magus would get. Given that these are two major virts that might be earned?
Spells cast by a practitioner of Holy Magic can penetrate if I want them to. Somewhat of a middle ground, especially because of the restrictiveness of holy magic, while still allowing me some freedom. I think I like this option, but my group isn't currently using holy magic and idk how bad it would be to try to involve it.
Unless someone can point me at rules which clearly define this, it's gonna require houserulling either way, so ultimately it comes down to what my troupe wants to play it as. I just want to hear your guys' thoughts as to what is the most sensible way to approach this.
... and a character full of conflicts - as you described in your post below.
Wouldn't his Guardian Angel and True Faith direct him towards Holy Magic (RoP:TD p.66ff)? If not so, why not?
A Holy Mage might easier convince his Guardian Angel about magic not to protect against, but especially his True Faith might better align to his Magic as well.
At the very least, you should talk Holy Magic for your magus over with your troupe and SG soon, so as not to head him off into the wrong direction.
There are some suggestions that certain creatures can allow spells to be cast upon then - i.e. that they can lower their MR. But there are no clear rules about if and how any MR can be lowered except if you are using Parma Magica.
Lowering Parma Magica also lowers your Form resistance. Without the Parma, an apprentice can't lower his Form resistances - or at least there is nothing telling us how he could do that.
The MR provided by your Guardian Angel can presumably be turned on and off as that angel wants.
This would not affect any other MR though.
As for piercing your MR, that Magic Resistance works just like any other Magic Resistance - meaning it will block all (non-personal) spells, friendly or not, holy or not, cast by yourself or not.
Or, if it can be and is lowered, it will be lowered against all types of spells from anyone.
So if you need house rules, you need to provide people and creatures with non-Parma MR some way to lower their MR.
You can provide an AC (possibly fixed) to mages whom you want to have a better chance to penetrate your MR. You can also give them some penetration multipliers. For example a copy of your natal horoscope signed with your birth name and a drawing of your face on the back combined with a fixed arcane connection is worth a 10x multiplier to penetration. Not exactly the same as lowering your MR but effectively pretty close.
Indeed, which is also why touch spells cast by me aren't really a problem. But that doesn't solve the problem of magic items, which are the most immediate concern.
While not quite relevant to the main question you had, the infernal realm has at least four ways to grant Magic Resistance, not including basic demonic possession. There's a general Incantation/Diablerie guideline to give someone or something MR, and you can gain Might Score using Ablation. You can also make use of a temporarily or indefinitely bound spirits might, using Commanding or Binding Goetic Arts respectively.
Oh dear.
True faith without the Divine supplements is asking for trouble. It leaves too much for troupe and SG discresion.
IMHO, true faith should have a flip-side; it is a power boost, but at a cost, incl. the dependency on the Will of God. It is a feature, not a bug. The significance of the supplement is to elaborate on the feature.
Re enchantments, there is one obvious loophole, using a talisman with personal range effects, which bypass MR (serf's parma, I know it does for Parma, I think it does for MR in general).
It occurs to me that a saint can be petitioned in order to cast spells within a city without suffering the penalty for divine aura, so it should be possible to invoke a saint to cast spells upon a willing subject with True Faith without penalty for their magic resistance.
), which means that if I want a non-personal range friendly effect cast on me, it has to penetrate the 25 MR, which would make most friendly spells Hard and friendly magic items Really Hard. That being said, I don't see anything which says I definitely can't lower this MR. I've read all the other forum posts I've found (notably This one) but the answer feels incomplete to me.