Hi everyone and nice to meet you
I'm new to the game and I need help with Magic Resistance rules.
The book says: "Hermetic Magi have a base Magic Resistance equal to their score in the Form most applicable to the spell cast. In case of doubt, Vim is a safe default".
Does it mean that Vim score can be used to resist every kind of magic spell, even if the Form most applicable to the spell cast is known? Or it must be used only when the Form most applicable is not sure ("... in case of doubt...")?
For exampe: my Magus is specialized in Vim magic. So he has 25 Vim score and 0 in other forms. An enemy attacks my Magus with an Ignem based spell. I have 0 in Ignem form, so can I use my Vim score of 25 to resist the spell even if I know that it is an Ignem spell?
Really thanks and have a nice day
Nearly every spell and effect in the game has a form, always use that form. Use Vim when the form of the spell that is being resisted is vim or you really can't figure out the appropriate form (in case of doubt).
Some examples of doubt might be, and I say might because a closer look at the text might show me a clear answer - I'm just guessing, use the dowsing supernatural ability to detect a thing held by a magus with their parma up or using the magic of the learned magicians from Hedge Magic Revised to protect a magi against bad luck
Really thanks, everything is clear now
I have another question: may I use a Rego Vim spell to increase Magic Resistance or create a protection against particular Forms?
Thnak you
You could create an alternate magic resistance in previous editions (in fact in first edition rego vim spells were the only way to get magic resistance) but they've never been cumulative with parma magica.
In fifth edition they've introduced the idea of using rego vim to get magic resistance as a possible breakthrough for a Hermetic researcher to discover. From this and the absence of any allowance for pulling it off with standard hermetic magic we can deduce that it wasn't anyone's intention that it should be possible, (also from discussion here). That being said, Parma magica is a common target for house rules I think that you could easily whip up something that wouldn't be too unbalancing. If you do, post it here. I'm sure lots of us would enjoy seeing it and giving feedback.
And to add on to what Eric Tyrrell said: there is (technically) a way to use Rego Vim to stack magic resistance on top of a Magi's innate Magic Resistance + Parma. It's called "Aegis of the Hearth".
The book is clear (as you may have read) that, if magic resistance were to be fully integrated, it would be Rego Vim. However, there's also another type of magical defense that Hermetics have: Perdo Vim anti-magic. Rather than reducing the casting total (which is what Aegis/Parma/Magic Resistance does), Anti-magic simply cancels out all spells up to a given magnitude. So, (for example) if you have 10 levels of Anti-magic, then level 10 spells and below simply don't affect you, regardless of how well they were cast. If you've played D&D at all, this is the Hermetic equivalent of "Globe of Invulnerability".
The issue with Anti-magic is that, as written, it's non-selective: ie, it cancels out EVERYTHING, even your own spells. Personally, I would allow selective wards (which do exist - Aegis is one of them, for example, and the Columbae from HoH:S can set up selective circle/ring wards for free), at a +1 difficulty.
Another possible way of getting around a PeVi antimagic ward would be to have a Creo vim device that automatically added magnitudes to any spell you cast, without affecting the penetration. Normally there would be absolutely no reason to do this, except that doing so would cause the level of the spell to be high enough to get through antimagic. Of course, you'd have to get your GM to buy off on it - there would be what amounts to "which spell goes off first?" questions: the casting spell, the empowerment spell, or the anti-magic spell? Depending on the order, the effect may or may not work.
There is a canon example of using what I believe is a ReVi ward against a certain effect, but I'm not sure where it is. It may be in Through the Aegis. Hopefully someone knows the effect I'm talking about and will add to my comment.
Are you thinking of Impede the Impertinent Interloper on page 109 of Transforming Mythic Europe? That's a Perdo Vim spell which cancels transportation spells up to some level cast within the circle drawn as part of the spell / going to it.
Thank you very much, guys!
PerdoVim could be a very nice defense.
Reading the book guidelines for Vim spells, it says: "As usual, these guidelines refer to a spell with the basic range, duration and target. When changing these parameters the change in level should be taken account of before multiplying or dividing the spell level to get the effect. Thus, a version of Wind of Mundane Silence with Vocal range would dispel a spell cast with a Technique + Form total of less than half (spell level - 10). Ten levels of the spell's power are devoted to increasing the range, and only the remaining power is avaiable for the effect".
Well, I want to create a new spell, following "Wind of Mundane Silence" guide.
I aim to dispel a single spell rather then all magical effects inside a "Room" area.
I have Perdo 9 and Vim 27 = 36 spell level.
Range should be Vocal
Duration: Momentary
Target: Individual
The effect could be: "Dispel target spell if it's level is half of your Vim spell level + dice".
Now: my base level is 36, but, according to the book, the Vocal range reduces it by 10, right?
So, the real level should be 26, is it right?
At the end, I could dispel a spell whose level is half of 26 + dice, if I understood correctly .
.