These do the following:
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Simplify the character sheets of magi; this is especially useful for PBeM games. (Were I to run one, I'd adopt these rules or something like them.)
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Give magi more options.
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Everything is now an Ability.
The power level remains similar.
Here goes!
- All Arts are Abilities.
Any virtue that can be taken for an Ability works exactly the same way with an Art. Cautious with Ignem reduces all botch rolls involving Ignem by 2, possibly eliminating the chance for a botch, Puissant Ignem adds 2 to an effective Ignem score, and so on.
Studying or writing books about Arts works like working with any other Ability.
- A magus' Casting Score is calculated as usual for all magics.
Note that Casting Scores tend to be significantly lower than canonically.
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When casting a Formulaic spell, including Rituals, a magus' Casting Total equals twice her Casting Score, plus modifiers to Casting Totals.
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When casting Spontaneous Magic under the canonical "divide by two" rules, a magus' Casting Total instead equals her Casting Score plus modifiers to Casting Totals.
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When casting Spontaneous Magic under the canonical "divide by five" rules, a magus' Casting Total instead equals her Casting Score divided by two, plus modifiers to Casting Totals.
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A magus' Lab Total is calculated differently: Any component of the Lab Total that would also modify a Casting Score (Arts, a Focus, Aura, etc) is doubled, as is Intelligence. All other modifiers to a Lab Total, such as Magic Theory, Inventive Genius and Verditius Runes are added without doubling.
--So far, I've just juggled the numbers; power levels for all magic remains about the same. Some virtues improve a little, some lose a little, nothing big. So why bother with new rules?
- The ability to understand and use the Hermetic Forms for magic provides similar insight and ability to use these Forms in a mundane fashion. Thus, a Form, perhaps with requisites, can substitute for any Ability, except for the following:
- Supernatural Abilities must be bought normally, because these are a different kind of magic and a different understanding of the world.
- Languages must be bought normally, because Hermetic Magic is tied to to a language, and because God has done a number on language.
- Academic and Arcane knowledges must usually be bought normally.
- Area and Organization Lores have aspects that are too particular to be covered by Arts (so a magus might use Intelligence+(Co,Te) to find a blacksmith, and on a good roll might naturally gravitate to where the best blacksmith in town must live, but will not be able to determine that this man is 32 years old and named Thomas.)
- A magus cannot use Arts for Martial Abilities unless he has a virtue that would otherwise allow him to do so.
Corpus and Mentem will show up extremely often, and should usually be requisited.
Examples: Guess tomorow's weather, as a sailor might: Int+Auram. Swim a long distance: Sta+(Co,Aq). Read someone's facial expression to determine if he's lying: Per+(Me, Im). Brawl: Dex+(Co, An). Whittle a stick: Dex+Herbam. Sneak: Dex+(Co,Au or maybe An). Find a needle in a haystack: Per+(Te, He). Lift a large, wooden chest: Str+(Co,He).