Roland, filius Pralicis

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Et Postestatum Magnam...
1

Roland, filius Pralicis, work in progress

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +5, Pre -1, Com +0, Str -2, Sta +2, Dex -1, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 25 (25)
Decreptitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1(3)
Virtues and Flaws: Hermetic Magus; The Gift; *Comprehend Magic; Cyclic magic (winter and spring), Educated, Great perception (2x), Inventive Genius, Minor Magical Focus (exotic magic), Premonitions, Puissant Comprehend Magic, Puissant Perdo, Puissant Vim, Skilled Parens;

Driven (major: become a quaesitor), *Weak Magic Resistance (against spellcasters not analysed with comprehend magic); Flawed Powers (when bearded), Fragile Constitution, Optimistic (minor), Mentor (parens)

Combat:

Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: ok, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Peanlties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), dead (21+)
Abilities:
French (Poitevin) 5
Athletics (running) 1
Awareness (search) 1
Brawl (dodge) 1
Charm (children) 1
Folk Ken (magi) 1
Stealth (moving silently) 2
Swim (rivers) 1
Latin (hermetic) 4
Artes Liberales (astronomy) 1
Premonitions (threats to himself) 3
Comprehend magic (magical beings) 4+2
Profession: Scribe (careful) 1
Magic Theory (enchanting items) 3
Bargain (magi) 1
Concentration (spellcasting) 1
Leadership (lab) 1
Order of Hermes Lore (Normandy) 1
Guile (magic) 1
Code of Hermes (scrying) 1
Fairie Lore (fairie forests) 1
Magic Lore (magical beings) 1
Parma Magica (Mentem) 1
Penetration (vim) 1

Arts: Cr 0, In 0, Mu 0, Pe,10+3 Re 6, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 6, He 0, Ig 6, Im 6, Me 6 ,Te 0, Vi 10+3
Twilight Scars: supernatural virtues fail when bearded
Equipment: Wizardly Robes
encumbrance: 0
Voting sigil: A giant dragonfly caught in a piece of amber
Spell sigil: Thinness

2

Roland, filius Pralicis, at gauntlet

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +5, Pre -1, Com +0, Str -2, Sta +2, Dex -1, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 25 (25)
Decreptitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1(3)
Virtues: Hermetic Magus; The Gift; *Comprehend Magic; Cyclic magic (winter and spring), Educated, Great perception (2x), Inventive Genius, Minor Magical Focus (exotic magic), Premonitions, Puissant Comprehend Magic, Puissant Perdo, Puissant Vim, Skilled Parens
Flaws: Driven (major: become a quaesitor), *Weak Magic Resistance (against spellcasters not analysed with comprehend magic); Flawed Powers (when bearded), Fragile Constitution, Optimistic (minor), Mentor (parens)

Combat:

Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: ok, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Peanlties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), dead (21+)
Abilities:
French (Poitevin) 5
Athletics (running) 1
Awareness (search) 1
Brawl (dodge) 1
Charm (children) 1
Folk Ken (magi) 1
Stealth (moving silently) 2
Swim (rivers) 1
Latin (hermetic) 4
Artes Liberales (astronomy) 1
Premonitions (threats to himself) 3
Comprehend magic (magical beings) 4+2
Profession: Scribe (careful) 1
Magic Theory (enchanting items) 3
Bargain (magi) 1
Concentration (spellcasting) 1
Leadership (lab) 1
Order of Hermes Lore (Normandy) 1
Guile (magic) 1
Code of Hermes (scrying) 1
Fairie Lore (fairie forests) 1
Magic Lore (magical beings) 1
Parma Magica (Mentem) 1
Penetration (vim) 1

Arts: Cr 0, In 0, Mu 0, Pe,10+3 Re 6, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 6, He 0, Ig 6, Im 6, Me 6 ,Te 0, Vi 10+3
Twilight Scars: supernatural virtues fail when bearded
Equipment: Wizardly Robes
encumbrance: 0
Voting sigil: A giant dragonfly caught in a piece of amber

Early childhood
Roland was abandoned by his mother at birth and found on the doorstep of the churchof Niort (Poitevin). Because of his gift,and because he was a weak and sickly child, neither the villagers nor the priest whose ward he became took a liking to him. He learned to survive on very little food and less love, and learned to run and hide early in his life. He also learned to stoically bear hardship and developed a sixth sense for evading his tormentors (the boys from ther village).

Childhood
His luck changed somewhat when Estienne, a wandering Pralician in search of gifted children, came by and promised the priest an annual stipend in exchange for teaching the boy Latin and feeding him well. After three years, he fetched the boy and traveled with him, but didn't open his Arts yet.

3

more about her

4

spell planning (150lvls): noted if non-standard

Demon's eternal oblivion PeVi5
Fairie's Eternal Oblivion PeVi5 (same for fairies)
Sap the Griffin's strength PeVi30 (same for magic beings, range sight version, I'll use this spell to create an item)

The Flying Roland ReCo20
Roland can fly. He needs to focus to change direction and/or speed. maximum size/weight is +1, so he can carry no more than 50 kg (a child, but not an adult).
Base 5, +2 sun, +1 improved effect
Improved Veil of Invisibility PeIm25 (+1 mag.: affects sight and audio)

Eyes of the cat MuCo(An)5
Personal Aura of Ennobled Presence MuIm5 (like Aura of Ennobled presence, range pers)

Wizard's Icy Stare PeIm15 (Like Wizard's Icy touch, but range sight)
The Sandman ReMe15 (like call to slumber, range sight)

Harness Magic for Dummies PeVi10 (like unravelling the fabric of...)
Can dispell his own spells (PeVim Guideline: effects of a specific type) up to lvl24 + stress die (no botch)
base:5, +1 touch

Parma Downer PeVi15
Can dispell a Parma Magica (PeVim Guideline: effects of a specific type) up to lvl24 + stress die (no botch)
Base: 5, +2 voice

Gather the essence of the beast ReVi15

Cloak of the duck's feathers ReAq5
Cold is the night CrIg5
Warms a piece of clothing or a blanket. No mage should be without this spell and since he casts it daily, he won't risk botching it.
Base 2; +1 touch; +2 sun


Pease review the spells!

5

Please split virtues and flaws.'

I'll review spells in the next few days...although you've got them marked as planning and not as what you have taken.

6

For starters, I'm seeing 185 levels of spells in your list, not the 150 you stated. Not that this is a big deal; you are free to obviously spend your starting XP however you'd like (provided you have enough Later Life Abilities and such). But I wanted to point out that you are over your stated by 35 levels.

The Flying Roland can't be level 20. Wings of the Soaring Wind is level 30, and that requires Finesse to hover in place. Can you provide insight as to how you came up with this spell?

For Parma Downer, I'm seeing in the guidelines that Base 5 is reducing the duration of an Arcane Connection, but I see nothing in the guidelines at any level to dispel anybody's Parma. Where are you getting this guideline from?

Other than this, I think we're ok with the rest of the spells. I'd ask that for the EO spells that are not Demon's you provide a breakdown of the creation so I can fully review those.

7

Winds of Mundane Silence gives the description of how to bring down parma.

Basically a rainbow dispell can dispell parma.

8

I would compare it to this canon spell (the one Adeline has) using the ReCo 15 guideline:

It looks like Pralix is using the much slower movement in any direction guideline, so this is slow flight, slower than the base 15 or Wings of the Soaring Wind, which are both about the same speed. Sun duration has its advantages and disadvantages.

9

There is a canon version of this: Break the Shield (HP p.85).

Pralix, any chance you want to change the name to match the canon spell for simplicity? Maybe also for your version of Dreadful Bane of the Fae?

10

Absolutely. I come back to Ars Magica from a long hiatus, and one of my biggest problem is remembering which spell I have seen before.

By the way, break the shield does not work like winds of mundane silence - there are two vim guidelines, one for kill one specific effect and one kill-them-all guideline.

11

Ah, I'll drop some spells then, mostly canon spells that are easy to get my hand son later. Thanks - I am good at maths but bad at adding numbers. It keeps baffling me.
I suggest I simply use the flying spell callen found.
The Parma spell is canonical. It may be illegal in your game world (or houseruled nonexistent) though because it has a large influence on how mages fight each other. I'm glad callen found its real name.

So I'll write up the spells in a more orderly and corrected way later.

12

Right. You were using the specific effect one. I did forget to double-check on Range to see if yours matched the other one, though. Break the Shield is actually R: Touch. So you don't want to use that name. My bad. But at least it gives you a reference spell for the one you're making.

13

Updated list:

  • Demon's eternal oblivion PeVi5

  • Dreadful Bane of the Bane PeVi5

  • Sap the Griffin's strength PeVi30

  • Wizard's Leap ReCo15 (new weaker spell from Flambeau section of HoH:S)

  • Veil of Invisibility PeIm20

  • Eyes of the cat MuCo(An)5

  • Personal Aura of Ennobled Presence MuIm5 (like Aura of Ennobled presence, range pers)

  • Wizard's Icy Stare PeIm15 (Like Wizard's Icy touch, but range sight)

  • The Sandman ReMe15 (like call to slumber, range sight)

  • Harness Magic for Dummies PeVi10 (like unravelling the fabric of...)
    Can dispell his own spells (PeVim Guideline: effects of a specific type) up to lvl24 + stress die (no botch)
    base:5, +1 touch

  • Parma Downer PeVi15
    Can dispell a Parma Magica (PeVim Guideline: effects of a specific type) up to lvl24 + stress die (no botch)
    Base: 5, +2 voice (like the spell callen found, but at voice range, which reduces level accordingly)

  • Cloak of the duck's feathers ReAq5

  • Cold is the night CrIg5
    Warms a piece of clothing or a blanket. No mage should be without this spell and since he casts it daily, he won't risk botching it.
    Base 2; +1 touch; +2 sun

14

First, it should be 25 + stress die for Parma Downer (or Break the Shield).

And while I think it's rather broken to have a spell that can negate Parma, I am of the firm belief that there is no effect you (or anyone else, for that matter) can have that can't be bested or negated. Parma is no different in this regard. Just don't forget that the spell actually has to Penetrate through Parma in order to bring it down (the canon spell literally spells that out).

I'd also like you to validate your lab total for this spell, please. The canon spell gives lab totals required to invent it, with the lab total being twice the indicated level to create it in one season. I'm sure you're lab total is 30, right?

15

It's 24, not 25 the way I phrased it, because it has to exceed the potection given by the parma (plus penetrate of course, but that's another problem)

Spell level to learn in apprenticeship
ArM5, p. 32
Te 13+ Fo 13+ Int 2+ MT (including specialisation) 4+ 3 gives the highest level of spell learnable, which is 35 in this case.

16

Ghost is right. The guideline says "less than or equal to," so you don't need to exceed it, just match it. This is consistent with Wind of Mundane Silence. The HP spell needs to be corrected. If you look through the errata, you'll see lots of cases where the "or equal to" part got messed up.

17

I believe the "level + dice roll" is only performed if the spell penetrates parma (as normal for every supernatural effect vs a type of MR). The difference with Wind of Mundane Silence is that typically the spells to be swept away do not have a layer of MR which needs to be exceeded before testing the spell level to tear down.

A quick example of Break the Shield (BtS) might be:
Magus Alphar (BtS PeVi15, Pe5, Vi5, Stm3, Pen 0, Parma 2) vs. Magus Betar (BtS PeVi15, Pe10, Vi12, Stm3, Pen 0, Parma 1)

  • Due to the randomness of initiative Alphar casts BtS against his opponent Betar first,
  • Alphar's BtS PeVi15, with CT is 13+roll. He scores CT:20, which is Level 15 with +5 Pen.
  • Betar's MR is equal to Parma (1*5) + Vim 12 = 17. This means the spell fails to penetrate. There is no need to roll the Level + dice to cancel the spell.
  • Betar returns the same BtS PeVi15 spell, with CT is 25+roll. She scores CT:32, which is Level 15 with +17 Pen
  • Alphar's MR is equal to Parma (2*5) + Vim 5 = 15. This means that Betar's spell has penetrated successfully, so now the test of level + roll must be checked.
  • Betar rolls Level 15 +roll, gets a total of 19. This exceeds Alphar's Parama level of 10, so down goes his Parma Magica.
  • the next round might be ugly for Alphar...

This demonstrates why low level PeVi spells are handy against supernatural creatures i might stripping, and also why having several Break the Shield Spells might be useful, or investing in mastery and penetration is important for BtS.

Have I got this wrong?

Questions - Does a magus need to use Per+MT to detect if their PeVi spell actually removed the opponent's parma magica? How does the caster know the Parma was removed?

Aside grumble about Ars - I'd much prefer if the same low level spell cast by an apprentice be far easier to disrupt than the same spell cast by a very powerful specialist. It frustrates me that Penetration does not carry over into the Level + roll. Instead it should be Level + carryover Pen to determine if the spell is dropped. That would make spell combat with parma just like combat advantage carry over into damage.
eg. a CrIg5 candle flame that lasts all day has +2 pen from the apprentice, and +55 from the specialist. The specialist's spell has far more magical oomph behind it and should need a stronger spell to disrupt it.

18

Ah, I apologize. And I won't say no to another 10% chance of success.

19

Anything else I have to adapt before moving on to post gauntlet?

20

I'm kind of expecting you guys to just create your characters all the way through to finish. So go ahead.