The newest adventure collection for Ars Magica now has its own product page. Check it out!
Welcome to the Ars Forum Cam.
... and a good look at the cover:
Looks awesome !
And Welcome Mr Banks ! 
I looked at the cover and thought "Hmm...no use of Thornberry purple?" and of course when I checked, the cover isn't by Grey Thornberry. Amazing how spending so many hours looking at Ars books means you recognise an artist's style so much.
Like the cover. Most likely not interested in the contents. Unless there's something extremely related to the saga I'm running I have no use for adventure collections - so it's up to the table of contents to catch my interest (which actually managed to turn Hermetic Projects into a must-buy for me).
I'm tied down by the NDA right now, and I wrote my parts of Tales of Power and Antagonists at the same time, so I tend to get them mixed up, but if, when it's out, you can see how to link it in, give us a coveeant hook list, and a list if the story flaws of your magi, and I'll see if I can hook my bit in for you.
I think the artist has rendered the concept very well.
I'm likewise tied by NDA, but I think you'll find the stories, adversaries and concepts within of more use than just a simple collection of adventures.
Regards,
Lachie
I think both of the upcoming books look great. Adventures for higher level characters have been needed for a while.
I will be buying both of these books.
If you could release them sometime in the next week or two I would appreciate it.
I cannot remember if I did that particular playtest. Still, if I didn't, it should be interesting.
I for one, welcome our new mas.... errg... adventures.
Really - I think more adventures are sorely needed, and I really like high-level stuff. So - it sounds very good to me. I'll be looking forward to this one - now forgive me as I go read my new Rival Magic.
Eagerly awaited, much!
And welcome aboard Cam
If I like something about Ars is that since you play a community, you tend to be able to run all levels of power. From the extreme battles for the control of Europe and arch-enemy story arcs to the lowly search for a stray cow by a group of children that will be beaten by their mother if they do not find the missing animal. More adventures are cool even if you do not use them as written: they are a wonderful source of story ideas for me.
Cheers,
Xavi
I read "straw cow" at first glance...and images started flashing in my head - a faerie story most likely.
But yes, there is great stories, drama, and fun at all levels. And once you get sick of the one then switch to the other.
Agreed. At some point the PCs become awesome godlike beings of insane power, able to move mountains, create gargantuan castles with a simple spell, destroy entire mundane armies with a few multi castings... Knowing what some possible challenges could be would be super cool.
Yes... And no.
There's a heavy tendancy of these boards to forget that a spell can be deemed a ritual just because it feels that way.
If, for exemple, you systematically make all spells with either Size +4 or Group +3 rituals (someone suggested a thing like this in the army killer spells, and I think it's rather a good idea, as a rule of thumb), what you describe will still happen, but much less easily: You'll need a ritual to ReTe a mountain, not a formulaic.
Likewise, it is often forgotten that a Group must be "close together in space and separated from other things of the same type", which, if you enforces it, make a lot of the "I multicast my group +2 spell 5 times to destroy and army" bits a little harder.
Magi end up powerful regardless, and I entirely agree about your premise but even such simple things will make huge differences between sagas.
I totally agree. As far as they go, "Army Killer" formulaic spells and similar number crunching munchkinism, is not something for every saga. But I think given enough time magi can and should eventually develop to the point that even armies of mundanes stop being real challenges.
Sure not every Arch Magus is going to have a suite of combat spells to pound an army into powder. But it's not hard to spot the ones that can.
"Let's see you can fly, turn invisible, and multicast sight versions of PotGE BoAF. Do you really want to run this fight, or just say the army is defeated and the ones that didn't route are cremated and/or lying in predug graves."
Sometimes I think SG's, myself included, have a tendency to try to make every thing in a saga a challenge. But characters need their moments to shine too. In high powered gaming it can be as much of a payoff for characters to find out some thing is way too easy, then for a story guide to put a lot of effort complicating a situation to create a challenge. If only to let the player know that the character has "won" and doesn't need to play that particular sort of game anymore.
Yes you can defeat an army, now what?
Your covenant is rich beyond comprehension, now what?
You can spont spells in the Vatican without breaking a sweat?
Your summa is standard reading throughout the order?
Might 50 demons pack up and leave their infernal auras when they hear your in town.
I still bet on the army over the magus, if it's foggy and he can't stay a thousand feet above the ground. 
An invisible character can still be targeted by archers, and anyone can botch a defense roll (especially when making 100 of them at once!).
This brings me to a strange point about combat rules: am I right that RAW has no maximum missile weapon range? I mean, I shouldn't be able to throw a knife at a target 100 yards distance, just hoping they botch their defense roll. But all I see is the gradual penalty to my attack roll from the range increments.... 
LOL. Yes. I thought that as well when I read the rules, but has never come up IMS. As it seems you can actually spend your day throwing knives all day long from Normandy into the Levant to contribute to the crusader effort if you want that. You might even injure someone that is there. Since it is sillier than monty python, I doubt anyone but a tytalus would try to do it, though.
Cheers,
Xavi
Ok first off why is it foggy?
Second I don't think it's a stretch to expect True Sight of the Air in said Arch Mage's repertoire.
Third you need to have a pretty good idea of where an invisible target is to even attempt an attack. (within about half a pace as per HoH:S pg 32)
Fourth. Actually point three just about covers it. But it all kinda goes to my point. You can spend a bunch of energy complicating a situation because you think a character shouldn't be able to do something. Or you can let the character do something impressive and deal with the fallout good and bad.
Yes but your forgetting that a botch only zero's the total. You still have to overcome the total range penalty and get a positive roll. This is doable with high scores or rolls at first. But even to hit a klutz who botched their defense an average archer (stat+ability+weapon=7) would have to roll a 10 or better at around 180 yards. The supposed effective range of the English Longbow. So what's that around a 6.9% chance.
A knife at 100 yards, thats what total of -57 to your roll. As far as hitting someone miles away. Well first you have to see them, or know where they are relative to you within 18 inches. Then you have to roll in the hundreds if not thousands to hit the guy with the defense of zero.