Brad's Notes on Major Ars Magica 5 Changes
Brad wanted me to post these for his kind playtesters.
Mostly I'll be running a rules-lite game. When mechanics come up I'll tell you what to roll if you don't know, then what happens.
For those who have played earlier editions of Ars, there are ten eleven fundamental assumptions about what works that are different in 5th edition. Here's the basics on things that might come up in game. I'm ignoring anything that only affects character building/learning/research/etc.
1. Magic resistance actually works. It is effective against nearly everything now, including things propelled with Rego and things improved with Muto. A good parma is very nice. If you have the penetration skill trained, there are ways to multiply its effectiveness with arcane links, horoscopes, true names and similar. It is significantly harder to hurt somebody with a 40 point effect than with a 10 point effect (the size of the effect subtracts from your penetration roll). Magi have uses for their little spells, even at age 150.
2. Most magic just works if it penetrates magic resistance. No targeting rolls, mostly no natural resistance except for things like soak against conjured fire or hurled rocks.
3. The rare indirect magic still needs finesse targeting rolls, and the rolls are high. This is things like opening a pit under somebody, or using air to lift a heavy object, but using gravity's force to make it injure someone by falling on his head. You need both a nonmagical object and no magical force propelling it to achieve a magic-resist-immune effect. Such spells tend to be contrived and difficult to pull off except maybe something you researched for your home ground (ice mage in mountains with "trigger avalanche" spell and a nice snowpack...)
4. Shield grogs can actually protect their bodyguardee until they're incapacitated from any physical threat, including ranged attacks.
5. Skill matters more than talent in combat, but to be really good you need both. Unusually talented companions and grogs are much more likely than in early editions to get longevity rituals, to extend the period where their skills keep going up without physical attributes degrading. Encumbrance doesn't affect combat scores (Adrenalin). A big skill advantage = more damage than just having more strength. Skilled armored knights are dangerous (finally!). Groups of warriors/creatures are more dangerous than their number of individuals. An untrained group fights as well as an equivalent number of its most potent warrior, a trained group gets an effect much like having extra guys Assisting a main warrior in D&D, multiplied by their numbers. How big a group can form is based on leadership of its best member. If threatened by a group that fights in formation, take it seriously.
6. Wounds don't kill you as fast in combat, the "death spiral" is weighted to not having you die from 5 papercuts now, but healing wounds is very difficult and after the fight adrenaline wears off you'll be crippled if you took more than a few scratches. Magical healing is worth the warping and vis. Fatigue by contrast works pretty much like it always did, except non-magi now have fun ways to be tempted to burn off this precious resource too.
7. Spell mastery is a skill bought on a per-spell basis. It does a variety of fun things, one "trick" per rank spent, in addition to lowering botch dice and improving your spell roll. Most magi in the gauntlet+20 range have some mastery on their most commonly used spells, if only to make them immune to botching. Most who cast rituals get a rank of mastery for each ritual, as it turns ritual casting into a simple die - so you don't roll all those extra botch dice for the vis required to make a ritual work.
8. Certamen is completely different. I'll let you know if you are "good" "average" or "bad" at certamen for your age. If it happens we'll walk through the mechanics.
9. Most magi don't die of old age, they go into twilight in 150-200 years old. Warping points can be thought of as reducing the end of your life, kind of like getting too many chest X-rays or having a bad habit like smoking. It'll cause some bad stuff on the way, but to a Gauntlet+20 magus, you are like somebody in your 20s worrying about if you'll get cancer in your 50s. It's too far away to seem like a big threat to most people. Warping is just serious enough that you don't casually do things that cause it unless you're the sort of person who figures that you won't live to die of old age anyway, given the risks you take. But in a difficult situation, most magi seem to hesitate for a second, then just suck it up. Warping in an adventure like this will normally only happen from magical botches or experiencing a spell effect of strength 30+ that you didn't cast yourself or that wasn't researched explicitly for you.
10. Vis is no longer the "I win" button. It is still very important in the lab, but in the field it no longer can be used to do anything to formulaic spells except increase the casting roll (and penetration) by +2/pawn (rather than the old +5). Spont spells raising casting roll also increases the effect, but again, not nearly as much as it used to. Ditto Certamen.
11. Dominion is 3x as annoying as it used to be. Try not to cast spells while in a cathedral unless you are very, very good.
Mostly I'll be running a rules-lite game. When mechanics come up I'll tell you what to roll if you don't know, then what happens.
For those who have played earlier editions of Ars, there are ten eleven fundamental assumptions about what works that are different in 5th edition. Here's the basics on things that might come up in game. I'm ignoring anything that only affects character building/learning/research/etc.
1. Magic resistance actually works. It is effective against nearly everything now, including things propelled with Rego and things improved with Muto. A good parma is very nice. If you have the penetration skill trained, there are ways to multiply its effectiveness with arcane links, horoscopes, true names and similar. It is significantly harder to hurt somebody with a 40 point effect than with a 10 point effect (the size of the effect subtracts from your penetration roll). Magi have uses for their little spells, even at age 150.
2. Most magic just works if it penetrates magic resistance. No targeting rolls, mostly no natural resistance except for things like soak against conjured fire or hurled rocks.
3. The rare indirect magic still needs finesse targeting rolls, and the rolls are high. This is things like opening a pit under somebody, or using air to lift a heavy object, but using gravity's force to make it injure someone by falling on his head. You need both a nonmagical object and no magical force propelling it to achieve a magic-resist-immune effect. Such spells tend to be contrived and difficult to pull off except maybe something you researched for your home ground (ice mage in mountains with "trigger avalanche" spell and a nice snowpack...)
4. Shield grogs can actually protect their bodyguardee until they're incapacitated from any physical threat, including ranged attacks.
5. Skill matters more than talent in combat, but to be really good you need both. Unusually talented companions and grogs are much more likely than in early editions to get longevity rituals, to extend the period where their skills keep going up without physical attributes degrading. Encumbrance doesn't affect combat scores (Adrenalin). A big skill advantage = more damage than just having more strength. Skilled armored knights are dangerous (finally!). Groups of warriors/creatures are more dangerous than their number of individuals. An untrained group fights as well as an equivalent number of its most potent warrior, a trained group gets an effect much like having extra guys Assisting a main warrior in D&D, multiplied by their numbers. How big a group can form is based on leadership of its best member. If threatened by a group that fights in formation, take it seriously.
6. Wounds don't kill you as fast in combat, the "death spiral" is weighted to not having you die from 5 papercuts now, but healing wounds is very difficult and after the fight adrenaline wears off you'll be crippled if you took more than a few scratches. Magical healing is worth the warping and vis. Fatigue by contrast works pretty much like it always did, except non-magi now have fun ways to be tempted to burn off this precious resource too.
7. Spell mastery is a skill bought on a per-spell basis. It does a variety of fun things, one "trick" per rank spent, in addition to lowering botch dice and improving your spell roll. Most magi in the gauntlet+20 range have some mastery on their most commonly used spells, if only to make them immune to botching. Most who cast rituals get a rank of mastery for each ritual, as it turns ritual casting into a simple die - so you don't roll all those extra botch dice for the vis required to make a ritual work.
8. Certamen is completely different. I'll let you know if you are "good" "average" or "bad" at certamen for your age. If it happens we'll walk through the mechanics.
9. Most magi don't die of old age, they go into twilight in 150-200 years old. Warping points can be thought of as reducing the end of your life, kind of like getting too many chest X-rays or having a bad habit like smoking. It'll cause some bad stuff on the way, but to a Gauntlet+20 magus, you are like somebody in your 20s worrying about if you'll get cancer in your 50s. It's too far away to seem like a big threat to most people. Warping is just serious enough that you don't casually do things that cause it unless you're the sort of person who figures that you won't live to die of old age anyway, given the risks you take. But in a difficult situation, most magi seem to hesitate for a second, then just suck it up. Warping in an adventure like this will normally only happen from magical botches or experiencing a spell effect of strength 30+ that you didn't cast yourself or that wasn't researched explicitly for you.
10. Vis is no longer the "I win" button. It is still very important in the lab, but in the field it no longer can be used to do anything to formulaic spells except increase the casting roll (and penetration) by +2/pawn (rather than the old +5). Spont spells raising casting roll also increases the effect, but again, not nearly as much as it used to. Ditto Certamen.
11. Dominion is 3x as annoying as it used to be. Try not to cast spells while in a cathedral unless you are very, very good.