A pleasure to share the news (somewhat old now, but new to me) on an Ars Magica magazine called Aegis. It is stunning. Great artwork, a variety of material, and lovingly crafted. Huge congratulations and respect to all the authors and creators.
It may be that some of my Ars Magica material gets translated and added, which is awesome; otherwise please take a bit of time to have a look. An English version would be great too, although translating over 100 pages of material is a huge undertaking.
I’m hoping this spell is evocative of the Lore of Fire, and also worthy of introducing into a Warhammer Fantasy game. I’ve seen a spell like this in dnd and ArM so it’s thematic enough to be in the zeitgeist of fantasy games.
Cloak of Cascading Flames
CN: 5, R: Self, T: Self, D: WP minutes, Fire
The wizard is surrounded in a cloak of fire which affects everyone within melee range but not the wizard them self; inflicting 2 +SL wounds to all creatures and igniting nearby flammable objects. Whilst active the wizard also gains protection from intense effects of cold and exposure.
This is a dangerous spell if used among allies fighting closely.
Alas long ago several play-by-post-form Ars Magica games have died or moved on in ways that mean I can’t continue with them. I had a few plans and spells for those characters so its disappointing.
This is another rather ordinary necromancy spell boosted in effect.
All that was Becomes Dust
Perdo Corpus 25, R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Group
This spell destroys a selection of human corpses, up to 100 size +1 corpses which are not controlled by an independent spirit.
(Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Group, +1 group size)
I never finally got a necromancer in-play, but in planning found that many spells in my spell list were strikingly similar to the spell Create a Dead Turb, in Hermetic Projects, pg.116. I wish my necromancer had seen the light of day; enough that I’d like to find a game for him.
In the design, the limitation of rituals levels came up (which is all rituals must be level 20 or higher). This spell could be made at level 15 for just one human corpse, however the ritual rule makes that at least level 20 anyway. Therefore it becomes better in terms of vis use to create a set of human bodies rather than one. With the RAW version creating ten bodies, I thought it better to create far more.
Every necromancer needs a few spares, and using the soldiers from your own home isn’t viewed well. If my character ever got to invent and cast this spell I’d be tempted to make the corpses all easily identifiable – albino, moor, or some other very obvious physical appearance which will stand apart from a more typical medieval European. Seems a useful expression of a sigil.
Once created my necromancer better pass the roll to create a spontaneous anti-decaying spell, otherwise this is a waste of vis and potentially a stinky outcome. That, or store the corpses in a T:Circle ring to keep them fresh…
Conjure the Remnants of War
Creo Corpus 25, R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Group, Ritual
Creates a set of 100 identical size +1 human corpses, with an appearance subject to the desires of the caster. Optionally matching to a specific individual is possible with a successful Finesse check of 12+, with a familiarity adjustment between +/-3 depending on how well the caster knows the subject.
(Base 5 to create a corpse, +1 Touch, +2 Group, +1 group size)
p.s. I wonder what is the collective noun for a group of corpses is?
These are a few images that I find inspiring. One day there might be a post about a building of my own design for the Old World. For now I want to keep these as a note.
Now that I’ve played a selection of Wizards from a few rpg systems I thought a short observation of the magic style in WFRP might be interesting.
Warhammer treats its characters and indeed also its players different from many other roleplaying games. The high fantasy and/or dungeon crawl games like Dnd-ish / OSG style games encourage the characters to be supernatural in power level, and characters are often projecting themselves as heroes. Advancement is likewise heroic, with more experienced characters far out stripping beginning characters.
By contrast WFRP has characters who are struggling to survive and often are drawn unwillingly into the stories. These are quasi-normal people who don’t know much outside their professions who are trying to cope. That’s a huge draw card theme for many players which repeats throughout other aspects of the game; characters are often incompetent, characters die, progression gets tougher, and heroes are legends who no longer walk the earth.
Wizards in Warhammer Fantasy are not really “magic users”. Firstly they are borderline insane people who try to learn how to control chaos. A Wizard character will usually deliver on at least one other role in a group; such as a scholar, politician, historian, soldier, musician, diplomat, or even healer as much they are like wizards – within the lore and feel of the game setting. I think this is a paramount recommendation for people playing Wizards in Warhammer, because you need something else from the combat skills.
Mechanically speaking (in terms of spending xp) they are often very specialised due to the high cost in xp for magical spells and talents. This means that the wizard characters secondary skills need to also be narrowly focused so they do not fall foul of a classic character design blunder in WFRP – that of being a generalist. Wizards need to avoid distractions, leave their fellow companions to build tangential skills, and focus on magic.
The Iron-Bound Tome 