The heart of this system is a set of thirteen words, usable as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs for describing spell effects. In general, the part of speech of the word can be changed, if you can think of a way. The words are * create * destroy * sense (this is also the word ususally used to affect images) * command * material (simple materials, includes simples energies) * body * mind * animal * plant (both the noun, as in trees, and the verb, as to bind or set in place) * protect * move * magic * spirit (might be 'summon' instead, and spirits are 'summonables') To cast a spell, the mage descibes the desired effect, and creates a sentence using the words above (an dpossibly a preposition?), and determines Range, Targets, and Duration. The mage then rolls his effective skill against the target's defense to determine effect, and against the drain of the spell to determine how much fatigue he takes. Conjury is a little special, because each tradition has different spirits: watchers can generally be made with simply "create spirit" but nature spirits need "animal spirit," elementals require "material spirit," and ghosts and loa require "body mind spirit." Magery limits how much ooph can be put into a spell. Rolling at an effective skill higher than 12 + magery indicates that the spell cost is in HP rather than fatigue. Magery also limits the complexity of the spell--the spell sentence may have no more words than your magery. Specifics to follow--mostly that using more words make things harder, and how parameters affect the difficulty and drain resistance rolls. --- Possible ranges for intuitive mages are Self Only, Touch, or LoS. Sometimes spells will instead use the long-range table (mostly divination spells, but also spells cast through a ritual connection often have this). Possible targets are One, Multiple (like casting the spell a number of times at once), Group (resisted by the best in the group, with a bonus for each additional individual), Area (affects all people within a certain area equally), and Explosive (affects a number of targets with decreasing effects). Possible durations are instant, concentration (as long as the mage is concentrating), presence (as long as the mage is present), ritual (as long as the ritual materials are intact and the spell's end conditions are not fullfilled). A duration can also lag for some relatively small amount of time after its duration expires--for example, a cloud of smoke that lasts a few second (instant with lag), a pool of acid that evaporates a few minutes after the mage leaves (presence with lag), or a spell that must be renewed every few minutes or hours (concentration with lag). --jesse cox.
I'd make watchers require "Create Magical Spirit". Create Spirit is very very hard, and gets you a dead namegiver. Oops. What I've come to realize is one of the excellent features of the Ars Magica system is the list of base difficulties for various spells. http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/ArsMagica/guides.ps is the cheatsheet from when I ran it (well, ...../guidelines.ps has the other cheatsheet, named as confusingly as possible). You may wish to further distinguish Instant, Permenant, and Momentary. A cloud of smoke is Instant: it is created, then exists (and dissipates) as a mundane thing. A flying castle is (hopefully) Permenant: it exists forever as a magical effect. A fireball is Momentary, but its consequences continue. The Instant/Momentary distinction is a kluge to make Momentary fireballs easier than day-long fireballs, but day-long healing spells which then open up the wound again easier than Instant healing spells. Got a fix? --bts
Right...create magic spirit is probably better. Whether it's Create Body Mind Spirit or Summon (spirit) Body Mind Spirit or either is another question. As for Instant, Perminant, and Momentary...Perminant doesn't really seem to exist in this universe. Saying you've got a 'Perminant' effect mostly means you've found something inanimate to maintain the spell, or somehow hooked it into the dumb fabric of some living thing. That's what the "ritual" duration is supposed to be--it allows you to set up wards and summon elementals (who are then maintained by the ritual materials you put into their summoning, and stick around until the spell is fulfilled by their services or their materials are shattered with damage). As for Instant and Momentary...ooh, I think I see the problem. If healing is "create body" hen you need to either stay there until the natural healing comes in under it, or it needs to have ritual durationm which requires ritual casting time and ritual materials. This is OK in some cases--make a pendant (or potion) of healing (how much healing? 1 hp/day? 1 hp/hr? per minute?) with a ritual duration. The weaker 1 hp/day will of course be simpler, and less costly, than the fast regeneration one. Both, of course, have the issue that if someone breaks the pendant, all those hitpoints evaporate pretty rapidly. Really, healing should be "command body creation"--forcing the body to heal itself naturally, but faster, and (hopefully) drawing some energy from astral space. That's going to be fatiguing for the mage and the subject, and probably result in a mean case of the munchies. Slower healing allows the subject to actually eat to make up the mass & energy better--and is a less powerful, reality-changing command, and thus easier. You still need to maintain it, though while it lasts--either with a ritual or by staying nearby and tending to the subject--but a dispell will only stop the healing, it won't revert any of the damage. Fireballs, however, burn themselves out in the process of doing damage. Fire still acts like fire, after all..to make a fireball that actually lasted all day, you'd need either fuel (in which case you're just lighting a fire) or once the fire's there, you need to "protect fire (material)" from the natural course of things. This probably also lessens its damage potential. Most of the SR combat spells were damage with a special effect (Melt guns to slag! Fry computers! Stun the target, too!) and are really just instant "create destroying material." whether the material was fire, cold, electricity, or acid. "destroy body" is simpler, but that's direct targetting, which can be a pain. Throwing destruction at an artificial substance is a lot easier that destroying it directly. --jesse cox