Questions tagged [ars-magica-5]

Ars Magica 5th edition (2004) by Atlas Games is the most recent incarnation of the game and the second edition after its return to its original publisher.

Ars Magica 5th edition (2004) by Atlas Games is the most recent incarnation of the game and the second edition after its return to its original publisher. Set in Mythic Europe — a medieval Europe where what was believed about the world then is actually true — players take on the roles of members of a Covenant of wizards, with multiple characters per player being typical. Session involve a subset of player characters according to the current focus of play, an arrangement called "troupe play" that Ars Magica originated.

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Using MuCo to add two extra arms

I'm playing a wizard in an ArM5 campaign who focuses on Muto Corpus; his magic mostly involves changing bits of his body - changing arms into bear arms for fighting, legs into gazelle-legs for running, etc. It's fun. I was thinking of using magic to…
lisardggY
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How can I arrange for the long-term containment of magical animals?

One of my players is building a Hermetic Menagerie. There was some discussion during the game about how to enchant the Menagerie to securely contain the animals stored inside. The requirements are straightforward: What setup can contain might 35…
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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Is there a way to play Ars Magica but without the troupe/companion/grog mechanics?

I've owned the sourcebook for AM5 for years, and finally found a group that likes the creativity of the magic system as much as I do... but they (and I, personally) really dislike the 'multi character' aspect of the system (i.e. having magi locked…
IronWaffleMan
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What are the "roots" of the Arts that a standard covenant library would have?

Covenants states: For nine of the Arts, there is a basic text that, over time, has come to be accepted as the preferred primer for a magus seeking the competence necessary to train an apprentice. These texts, called the Roots of the Arts,…
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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Is there a way to quickly generate a library for Ars Magica covenants?

Do there exist any tools or techniques that can quickly populate a library for an Ars Magica covenant? Whenever they visit a covenant, the player seek out the library and I know of no good way to generate one quickly.
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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How do summa of sound quality achieve a quality of 28-level?

In Ars Magica, Covenants, they claim that most "standard" summa as distributed through the Order of Hermes have a quality of 28-level. Despite spending 6 hours trying to understand the math (with errata), I was not able to achieve 28-level for Arts…
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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Are there any guidelines as to the nature of fast-cast spontaneous spells needed to counter a magi's spells?

In Ars Magica, a magi may counter incoming spells and effects: In order to create a fast-cast defense against magic, a maga must know the Hermetic Form that governs that magic. If the caster is a Hermetic maga and is using words and gestures …
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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How can I make a magic, subtle, universal translator?

My players are journeying to many different lands in mythic europe. Their magi, and covenant, speaks Latin and various dialects of Italian. However, the middle of eastern europe has many more languages then that. In order to blend in and acquire…
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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How does the flaw limited magic resistance work?

Limited Magic Resistance states: You are less able to resist magic than other magi. You gain no bonus from one of your Form scores to Magic Resistance rolls, though if you are caught without your Parma Magica, you retain a Magic Resistance…
Brian Ballsun-Stanton
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Can Faerie characters learn Faerie Magic?

Realm Of Power:Faerie describes two new magic methods. Faerie rites and Faerie bargaining. Are these magic methods exclusive to magi or can they be used by faerie PCs through the usage of Focus Power virtue?
Maiko Chikyu
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Creating elder magi

I'm going to need to stat up a few elder magi for my saga, but the sourcebooks are drastically short of guidelines for magi of the 100-150 years / archmage level. I'm happy to wave my hands a bit for people outside the covenant, but the senior magi…
Senji
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Granting the Gentle Gift through original research

As everyone knows The Gift is a major part of Ars Magica and dealing with it provides much of the conflict between mundanes and magi. The Gentle Gift Major Virtue is available at character creation to remove that problem. Some background: My…
oushend
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How to handle aging for animals?

I'm sure I remember conversion factors for handling aging for animals but I can't seem to find them any more. How should aging of (significant) animals be handled. RAW preferably.
Senji
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Does raw vis provided from vis sources have to be extracted by magi?

The basic rules indicate that the area around a covenant can provide some amount of raw vis per year (p 72). Does that raw vis need to be extracted as per the vis extraction rules in the laboratory section (p 94)?
GcL
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What if I have no Confidence (the mechanic) in Ars Magica 5th Edition?

I'm newly running an Ars Magica 5th edition game, and I'm finding the Confidence mechanic feels a little out of place so far. As far as I can find, it is only mentioned in any detail on Page 19-20. If played straight it allows players to give a…
IgneusJotunn
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