spell-like supernatural abilities and penetration

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

There are spell-like supernatural abilites, like skinchanger or animal ken. If you're transformed, you're under a constant magical effect, so you have to penetrate magic resistence for touch/attack. But how can I calculate the penetration of spell-like abilities? How much penetration has:

the skinchanger effect, when attacking someone?
animal ken effect, when trying to communicate with a creature with magic might? - Besides I could use animal ken on humans for social interactions also, but since I would have to penetrate magic resistence of other magi, how can I calculate my penetration total then..

IMO for supernatural virtues, which grant an ability, a possibility would be to use the ability-score times 5 as Penetration Bonus. So if I have animal ken 5 = +25 Penetration. Or is that too much? What you guys think?

2

Skinchanger, I believe, is assumed to have a Penetration of 0. Ultimately, however, Penetration is meaningless under most circumstances as the character himself is the target (Personal, not touch). As for touching or attacking others while in beast form, sadly it does require Penetration. Luckily, however, relatively few people in ME possess MR...

As for Animal Ken, I tend to be of the opinion that its magic affects the caster, allowing her to communicate with beasts in the same way that 'Gift of Tongues' or 'Faerie Speech' allows communication with other humans who fail to speak your language.

3

In general, assume zero penetration.

For animal ken I am not sure you need to penetrate at all.

EDIT: gremlin44 already replied with my exact opinion here :slight_smile:

4

well what about enchanting music (no penetration makes it very bad)..

5

Penetration on that would be (casting total-ease facter)+Penetration skill.

You're making a roll to create a mystic effect, standard rules apply.

6

Completely correct. You will only rarely have good penetration with Supernatural Abilities.

7

Also, you only rarely *need * Penetration, as a previous poster remarked very few people in ME have MR.
Yes, Hermetic magi are almost impossible to affect, which is kind of the point. Apart from lessening the effect of the Gift among one another, so they can cooperate, Parma Magica was a revolutionary discovery, and also protects magi from lesser hedge powers etc. helping them become so dominant.

Also, you should note which Realm your Supernatural Ability is affiliated with, as Aura modifies the rolls as per Aura Interaction Chart. Who remembers to do this?
Aura also affects Resistance. So if casting a (magic) spell, while inside a church, targeting an Archbishop with MR due to his Divine Commanding Presence power, you first subtract 3x Aura from your spell and also add 1xAura to his MR.