I wouldnt worry about it. Attacking and vanquishing a nasty creature is all very much a D&Dish sort of adventure, so it makes a good intro.
Just make sure that the other players' characters are duly informed of the potential dangers of attacking an infernal creature in its own lair. Perhaps encourage whomever of them is the de facto leader of the covenant (by force of personality if not actual leadership ability score) to call a council and discuss various options for enhancing their chances of swift victory by somehow luring the beastie out of its high aura abode into a more neutral terrain.
Maybe one of them has Im capability and can spont a brief dragon mating call, or perhaps a sight&sound image of a lone cart laden with nice shiny jewels, chests of gold, silver, precious artifacts all clinking and clanging as the illusion passes in front of the beastie's lair to draw it out...
Challenge them to discuss their attack strategy rather than to JUST rely on toys to solve their problems.
And as an SG always remember to keep an ace up your sleeve since we all know that even the best laid plans of mice and men are subject to going wrong somewhere along the line.
Much fun to be had for all even if it comes at some cost!
Well, the player will want to use that season to create some magic item anyway. She's the only player who never played D&D before in that group. Maybe that's why she thinks about preparations
Doesn't an infernal aura reduce an items penetration by it's level? So the 32 points of penetration will become 27 rendering the item inefficient against this dragon.
Just one more reason to draw it out of its cave!
Ah, isn't there a difference between Might Score and Might Points? Powers use Might Points, but the Might Score remains at 30. The Might Score is the same as it's Resistance, not it's current Might Points.
Yes which is why I retracted my post. I dont personally like or agree with that rule since it lets creatures have their cake and eat it too. Might points spent should be treated like fatigue at the very least, with greater expenditures steadily wearing down the creature until it is exhausted and subject to increasing penalties on its powers.
As written it makes some types of creatures absolutely indestructible and that should never be, even if it might require very powerful magi to defeat it. Otherwise it is suggesting that the creature in question in more important than the magi characters, and that should never be the case in Ars.
Magi get to cast spells and use devices all day without harming their parma. Why should Archangels become weaker after using their powers if magi don't?
In my experience even fifth edition magic resistance is fairly easy to penetrate I wouldn't want to see it any weaker. If your opposition is too easily bested you have a significantly harder time telling a moving story.
Because I would argue that unlike magi, whose Parma is not drawn from their being as per the MR of creatures, creatures are self contained microcosms (as it were) of magical energy. To say that energy can be spent to fuel offensive capabilities on the one hand and yet remain constant as regards MR is silly, any fuel source that is spent doing something is diminished in a closed system (the body of the beast). Magi as central characters are not subject to this because their Parma is the result of an ability to draw from the magic energy of the realm itself as is the power to cast spells.
Devices too may be quite easily disenchanted actually or even rendered inert through physical damage.
I fully appreciate that few will agree with me and I certainly don't say that defeating creatures should be a piece of cake. Some would undoubtedly require years upon years upon years of character advancement, joint effort, clever strategy and likely not a few able devices, but I simply believe NO creature should be impervious to defeat by magi. After all it is the magi for whom this whole system exists, not the creatures.
Fairly easy is overstating it quite a bit I would say, especially when suggesting Archangels (or Arch demons, if you will) with Might up the whazoo.
Of course in spirit form I would say, don't bother trying, but if such creatures were to limit themselves (I would say) by assuming material form to work their mischief and intrusion amongst men and magi, then I believe it should not be nigh unto impossible for the characters to kick their butts back to where they belong by acquiring a modicum of power themselves and playing smartly.
I don't see any benefit to the story or the fun of the players to be faced with insurmountable challenges. That just leads to disgruntlement and frustration.
Having expended Might points count against creatures either in a manner similar to fatigue (with resulting negatives to attack and defense rolls) or directly against their MR (to allow those magi who are still standing late in the combat to more easily penetrate and damage, maintains the preeminence of the magi over the creature in the system (and the story), IMO.
Although it isn't spelled out, the latter part (on Penetration) should be correct for magical items too. So the Infernal aura of 5 would effectively lower the penetration by 10 - increasing the dragon's magic resistance by +5 and lowering the wand's penetration by 5.
Regarding the effects of expending Might, I think it would be more pleasing if the expenditure of Might would be tied down to fatigue from an in-world perspective. Right now a creature can use a power repeatedly without any in-game effect except that once its Might Pool is over he can't use any more powers; that's inexplicable, reminds me of the x/day mechanics of D&D. ArM's method of tying spellcasting to fatigue makes much more sense, and sounds much more right. There is no reason Stellatus couldn't Instill Loyalty in a person just because it breathed lots of fire that morning.
However, using the Might Pool is simpler, and using fatigue may be problematic for some creatures (who aren't affected by fatigue, or can resplendish it).
At any rate, I don't believe the creature's MR should be lowered. I see creatures who have expanded their might as tired, but still mighty. Stellatus doesn't become less magical when he breathes fire, he doesn't turn into a big mundane lizard when he runs out of fire in his belly. He's still a magical creature and still just as powerful and impressive. Or should be.
All of this really has little to do with insurmountable challenges, but BoXer's point that expanding fatigue or lowering MR would aid characters overcome the initially too-powerful opponents, and that this makes for more interesting drama, is valid. A very good point.
You're correct I am overstating things a bit. my appologies
I've had a character with no appreciable perdo or vim scores at all DeO the might 50 demon from the core book into nothingness with three years of prep time. If a character can do this, then there isn't too much out there that's going to be too hard
No one was speaking about insurmountable challenges. I would ask you to control your own hyperbole
The question is not whether or not it should be possible. The question is whether or not and the rules allow for this as they stand (and if they don't allow it how they could be changed). It's my experience that the rules do allow for the characters to kick the demon's butts back to where they belong.
