Wards, Aegis of the Hearth and penetration

Games Discussion Ars Magica
61

Covenants p90
Casting total: Sta + Te + Fo + Aura + Stress Die
(No mention of AL or philosophiae. This might be because this was written with formulaics in mind, though, but this changes little).

Say, you have Sta 2, Re 5, Vi 5, Aura 3, and roll a 5. Total: 20.
You missed the target (lvl 40) by 20.
"Spell Cast, lose 3 fatigue levels".

If you miss by 21-30, spell cast, take 1 warping point, lose 4 fatigue levels.

YMMV, but I don't like this if aegis can ward without penetration, and wouldn't like to see it in my game.

:laughing: Of course, I was being short, but you're right. I did almost the same thing, although I went by +3. And I also allowed one to create a spell with additionnal magnitudes in order to make it harder to resist (again at +3)

I liked how, in previous editions, some spells allowed a natural resistance roll.
We have some legacies of that, but, often, when players create spells, they make them "automatic success", which, IMO, is tasteless

Interestingly enough, you have similar resistance rules for the Amazons :wink:

62

Ah, you allow yourself to cast even if you fail by more than 10 points. We don't allow that. That explains the difference.

I am also actually toying with the idea that you need to be 10 points OVER the spell level to cast it without loss of fatigue. if you do not reach the spell level you would be unable to cast it. Makes small spells much more desirable. I might get lynched by my gaming mates for putting forward this motion, though

Cheers,
Xavi

63

That part is actually in covenant about casting tablets and is raw.

Only if you miss by more than -30 will you miss the spell.

Casting tablets ...

64

...are kind of a problem, yes. We tend not to use them.

65

Yup, I wasn't very clear in my quotation. It's in Covenants, p90.

Even in a pure a RAW game world, with redcaps and all, if aegis doesn't need to penetrate to keep critters at bay, I see absolutely no reason why every covenant doesn't have at least a casting tablet for a lvl 40 Aegis. Just give it to the one with the best CrVi total. Unless he botches, so long as he's got at least 20 in Sta + Te + Fo + Aura + Stress Die, he just loses fatigue and casts it.
Not really difficult.

YMMV, but it doesn't suit my tastes.

Aside from this, I don't see casting tablets as being much of a problem, although I may have missed something.

66

I've house-ruled that rituals are much more dangerous when using casting tablets.

Number of botch dice is doubled, and the table is more severe:

  • 0 or more: 1 long-term Fatigue level
  • -1 to -10: 2 long-term Fatigue levels
  • -11 to -20: 1 Warping Point and 3 long-term Fatigue levels
  • -21 or less: Spell fails, vis is wasted, 1 Warping Point per magnitude (check for Twilight) and 4 long-term Fatigue levels

The increased number of botch dice makes it very likely that a 0 on the casting roll will result in a botch. That, combined with the wasted vis, means that casting tablets will occasionally be considered for a ritual, but not for something that characters do every year. More of an emergency measure.

I've also house-ruled that regular formulaic spells take 1 round per magnitude when using a casting tablet. This makes it less useful for combat situations, while not precluding it in exceptional situations (great drama-builder also).

67

I assume you mean ReVi total?

other than that, price. That's 8 pawns of vis, potentially wasted.

68

It is unclear from RAW whether the vis is wasted or not, as the exact wording is "Spell not cast".

Although it seems logical that the raw vis is spent, some may interpret this wording as the spell not being cast at all and the vis not being wasted.

69

allow me to re-phrase:
Not all covenants can afford to spend 8 pawns of Vis on a level 40 Aegis every year.
Thus not every covenant will posses such an Aegis

70

Perhaps not, but 8 pawns of vis per year is pretty minor. If the covenant consists of 4 magi who each have a Creo Vim Lab Total between 11 and 20, they can extract this amount of vis from their aura by spending a season each on Vis extraction. That's hardly a big stretch for any likely covenant.

Depending on what other uses you have for vis, I guess. And the relative availability of auras in your saga.

71

YSMV, but I've played in sagas where 8 pawns represented most of our annual vis income.
And extracting vis from the Aura 4 times each year? We'd soon have no aura at all - assuming we could get past the internal squabbles over spending that much time on top of other covenant services (books, stories et al).

72

For non-vim sources, yes, but given that magi can extract vim vis from the aura, and are probably living in an aura, 8 pawns of vim vis isn't a big stretch, for a seemingly typical covenant of 3-6 magi. Although of course you might have better things to do than extract vis from the aura.

Why?

73

RoP:M p. 10 ff.
We've used even nastier versions

74

Maybe I misunderstood the rule but it doesn't look so bad. If you managed to roll 15+ and permanently reduced the aura, you get 4 free seasons of vis extraction without having an impact on the aura. And that'd take roughly 20 years to happen.

75

As mentioned we used to use a nastier version back before