Ars Magica

This is the landing page for my Ars Magica resources and links. Below will be a growing list of ideas, changes, and journal of activities for an Ars Magica game.

By far the regularly updated and growing new spells resource (Complete List) which contains over 700 new spells is where many updates occur, however the list below shows many other parts of this blog’s content for Ars Magica.

• Discussions
  • Why is Certamen odd?
  • Why are Redcaps treated as magi?
  • What is unnatural for Creo and Muto spell effects?
  • What happens during a Tremere Gauntlet?
• New Discoveries
  • Target: Container
  • Target: Pair (by Erik Tyrell)
  • Target: Sphere
  • Duration: Seal
  • Duration: Tide
  • Duration: Battle, Siege, War
  • Spell Guideline: Sound using Imagonem 
  • Spell Guideline: Enchanted Arms and Armor
  • Spell Guideline: Magical Encryption, and spells for text transformation
  • Parma Magica Fold: Civil Parma
• New Spells (the Complete List):
  • Physical Combat Enhancers
  • Spells for Controlling People
  • Accelerate Wound Recovery and Group Healing
  • Uses of Mutation Magic
  • Spells for Questioning Ghosts, and then Blessing Ghosts.
  • Spells for Traveling
  • Spells for Maniacal Overlords
  • Trap Spells
  • Poison Spells
  • Ignem: Basic effects
  • Imagonem: Sound spells
  • Speaking to Animals and Inflicting Drunkenness
  • Tricky uses for Imagonem magic in Ars Magica
  • A spell to practice Finesse or Concentration
  • A simple portable non-flammable Light
  • Spells to Bury or Exhume Objects within the Earth
  • Extensions to Conjuring the Wizard’s Tower, then how to destroy the Towers, and spells for a Terram wizard, an Arcane Watchtower, creating underground caverns, and a small wizards building.
  • Spells to change the way a character sees.
  • For Transforming into Gargantuan, Mythical, and Monstrous Creatures (a multi-part set of blog posts; parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  • A spell to fly like an Angel or Icarus, and Fast flight spells
  • Spells to mitigate Warping
  • Spells to heal on mass
  • Various conniving ways to blind somebody in Ars Magica
  • Spells which inflict damage in one way, or another for armies, or individuals
  • Testing for Magic Resistance
  • Transformation into Shadows or Ghosts
  • Spells for hungry wizards
  • Spells for a pyromancer, and heating halls
  • More magically created boats
  • Some suggested guidelines for spell complexity
  • Short range teleportation
  • Making objects immovable
  • A simple standing Illusion
  • Carving towers and vaults using Perdo Terram
  • Several pages of Mentem effects (posts one, two ,three, four)
  • Some basic faerie fire spells
  • More very powerful Mentem effects
  • Several pages of Necromancy spells (parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven), a Graveyard spell,
  • Conjuring Money and Wealth
  • Conjuring animals, and communicating with animals
  • Spells from the movie Frozen (part one, two, three, four), and Spells for a Winter Wizard, then more Ice Spells, and an Avalanche spell
  • Spells to avoid rain (for those redcaps an grogs)
  • Using Imagonem to alter vision impairment, then also using magic to perceive people as sounds.
  • Spells for cold climates
  • Spells from the TV show and books of Game of Thrones (part one),
  • Small vaults and hiding places in trees
  • Spells for Tidal Waves, Sea Witches and Merfolk, to Purify Water and push Boats with small waves, and spells to help save sailors and ships.
  • Stat Boosting Spells (part one, two, three, four, five)
  • Strengthening spells using Muto Vim
  • Other Logical spells from the Muto Vim Guidelines (part one, two, three, four)
  • NaNoWiMo style Writing Challenge for new spells for Ars Magica
  • New spells to Improve a Lab (Part one, two, three, four)
  • Conjuring Magical Creatures from Scratch (a Wolf and a Dragon), and making Dangerous Animals into Bunnys
  • Different tricks for using variations on Opening the Intangible Tunnel
  • Spells involving Lava – which is great for elementalists and combat Magi
• Some new Enchanted Devices (and the landing page for all of them):
  • Amulet of Unburdened Mind
  • Laboratory Protection Devices and How to Improve a Lab
  • The Chiurgeon’s Gewgaw
  • Silence the Heckler’s Dissent
  • A mundane circle
  • A mask for transformation
  • Illusory Texts
  • Shackles for Unfriendly Wizards
  • Items for automatic doors
  • The Crucible of Wonder
  • A linked set of Seven items for Guardsmen
• Familiar Bond Enchantments
  • Imaginary Lab in the Familiar Bond
• New Hermetic Virtues:
  • Symbiotic Invested Devices
• New Creature powers:
  • Resilient Might
• Clarifications / How to:
  • Character Creation – Calculate XP
  • Character Creation – Minimum ability scores
  • Initiative and Combat Alternative Rules, and rules discussion for dual wielding.
  • Longevity Rituals
  • Parma Magica and a Discussion of Tricky Magical Resistence
  • Sigils
  • High end Muto Corpus / Animal effect guideline thoughts, and Muto Complexity for Transformations
  • Examples for Major and Minor Magical Focus
  • Alter a Magi’s lab
  • Suggestions for how to handle Character Wealth
• Sample Characters (and the landing page for all of them)
  • Fray, a Bonisagus focused on self transformation
  • Fidelus, an elder Bonisagus focused on healing
  • Zharkune, a Necromancer
  • Seamus, the Red – a bloodthirsty companion
  • Corbin, a young Merinita magus
  • Constantine, a very experienced Mentem wizard and Quaesitor
  • Lucien, an apprentice
  • Father Augustus, a priest
  • Advice for writing an apprentice
• Lists
  • List of Bjornaer magi and heartbeasts listed in all the source books
  • List of all cannon Major and Minor Magical Focus
• House Rules
  • House Rule Option: Substitute Finesse for Mags in spell design?
  • House Rule: Finesse needed to cast forcelessly
  • House Rule: Reduced Might Stripping
  • House Rules for my retired game: Ascendancy of the Warp
  • House Rule: Shorthand vs Longhand Lab notes for Magi
• Other odd things
  • A list of Medieval Occupations and Careers
  • MetaCreator tip for Affinities
  • Alternative dice rolling method

General Resources

• An introduction to how flexible the Ars Magica magic rules are.
• Advice for players new to ArM, and a guide to Getting Started with the rules and specific mechanics.
• A wonderful Map of Mythic Europe, and some very beautiful character artwork (both on deviant art)
• XP costs for Abilities and Arts
• An Ars Magica podcast
• Atlas Game’s Product page
• Project Redcap, with an ArM introduction
• The Net Wizard’s Grimoire
• Sub Rosa magazine (now found in facebook only)
• Redcap Training Packages, by Jarkman
• What is Ars Magica? Share A Game on RPG Geek
• Virtue and Flaw compiled list
• Form and Effect bonuses, by shape and form, or by bonus phrase.
• A list of Ranges, Durations, and Targets from each sourcebook.
• A list of common spells which every covenant should consider.
• A list of low level spells, very handy little cantrips.
• A campaign running on Obsidian Portal, with MadIrishman.
• Vaults of the Order, a community Ars Magica project inspired from the Met
• Mad Irishman’s Ars Magica resources
• Jarkman’s Ars Magica resources, particularly his Terrae Magi based pages
• A huge list of generators – pubs, islands, swords, etc

Thoughts and ravings, that might be relevant

• House rules that I’m pondering to assess how they might change the game.
  • Tiscali
  • Great Tree
  • a saga on Roleplay Online (particularly for the language chart)
• Stuff I didn’t realise in ArM 5th ed:
  • Warping (which influences twilight) is applied for persistent affects on magi, so that powerful (level 30+) buff spell that makes you as strong as an ox as as swift as a cheetah really has some side affects. It is also applied when affected by a powerful spell. This means that being hit by a powerful spell which is also constant affect can stack Warping quickly. Ouch.
  • An affect cast by a magus on themselves must still overcome their parma magica. This means the creator has to add penetration to the item, or the user must drop their parma magica for a short time so the item can take affect. Wow eh.
  • Here is an explanation of how Parma Magica and Magic Resistance works.
  • If your SG allows, pick your specialisation for Parma Magica when you need one, or if they don’t allow that degree of dynamic play, then you’re insane not to pick it in advance. MR +5 to a Form from a “free” choice is very valuable.

Useful Online Tools

• A Characteristic, Virtue/Flaw, Arts, and Abilities calculator.
• An Online Dice Roller, by Brock Jones