don't forget diameter as a duration. Also while I concur with the judgement of +4 magnetudes for unnatural effect, it is a judgement call and you might decide differently in your game.

(Heck, the spell guidelines are really just guidelines)

it does not.

lightnings only come from the sky, thus auram.

Actually,there would be a medieval justification for covering lightning as Ignem. Medieval paradigmn had lightning coming from the Plane (sphere?) of Fire (just below the Lunar Sphere), falling from there through the plane of Air.

It makes sense though for lightning to stay as part of Aurum, from both the justification as a weather phenomenon, and also from the game balance point of not loading up all the big damage effects in Ignem.

Now, what would you think the level of a spell would be to create St. Elmo's fire?

"how about a spell to electrocute deamons?"

Already have one, Incantation of Lightning works just fine on demons.

It looks like you don't have the Fifth Edition rules yet. :) I like the idea of a spell that conjures an electrical elemental in the shape of an animal.

As was pointed out earlier, there is no need for the Animal Art - the thing being summoned is made of electricity and is not really part animal (it only looks like an animal). So I would think the animal shape is a "cosmetic effect" that doesn't require an Animal requisite (ArM5, p. 115).

To me, the Arts of the spell seem like Creo Auram. Creo because it conjures something out of thin air, Auram because the thing conjured is made of electricity (electricity falls under Auram).

There is no need for a spell focus, because Fifth Edition doesn't have them. If you want to make this as a spell for the free Fourth Edition, then your focus looks fine.

You need to decide on a Range, Duration, and Target for your spell. Once that is done we can take a stab at figuring out what Level it should be. I would think it will come out pretty high, maybe in the 30's or so.

No ArM books? Not even the *FREE* PDF download of "Ars Magica 4th Edition" from RPGNow?

go to
http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/index.php
and look in the top-right column for "Free Ars Magica 4th Edition Rulebook PDF at RPG.now" and follow the link...

(yes, really truly free of charge! Atlas Games ran out of real world stock when 5th Ed was on the horizon, and decided to put the 4th Ed out for free as a teaser for the rest fo the game line, rather than print a run of books that would be languishing in the warehouse before they had a chance to recoup costs)

I'll start by saying that the golden rule of Ars Magica discussions holds: "Your Mileage May Vary" or "In Your Saga"... In your saga, feel free to introduce Electricity, but...

Feel free to skip the rest, as in my saga, I follow the canon path and Mythic History, and rule out anything to do with electricity.

I am one of those who likes to stick close to a Mediaeval view within ArM, to simulate a magical mirror or the historical period. As such "electric" or "electricity" does not exist. (So in my own saga, I would take aside a player and explain this, and steer their interest onto another path.)

Historically, in C13 Europe, people have not developed a habit of systematic observations of nature. In Mythic Europe, they have even less reason to, as Magic *is* real, and the four Realms explain "everything"...
Electricity has not been observed or systematized, other than what most people commonly observe as crackles from fur - but dismiss as irrelevant (and which we call Static Electricity).

Lightning bolts - strokes from the cloud - are a weather phenomenon, related mythically to Zeus, and in Mediaeval Christian literature to... uh, escapes me, but there are explanations.
There is no Mediaeval connection between Lightning bolts and the crackles in rubbed fur...
the hermetic spell /Incantation of Lightning/ has an elevated spell level because it invokes a lightning stroke out-of-context, from the magus' hand rather than a cloud; it is not possible within this view to produce "lesser" "electrical" effects (like the DND spells), because... "electrical" does not exist - the lightning bolt is a unitary phenomenon - you create a powerful Bolt, or nothing...

Ghosts - are Mentem spirits. Any hermetic magus can investigate and prove this within the limits of magic; spirits, whether ghosts, elementals, faeries or others have supernatural abilities, described in game terms as Powers, which use the (Realm) Might of the spirit to invoke and power them.

In this view, you cannot "duplicate" a ghost by indirect means. You can use powerful Creo Mentem to create a ghost ab initio, and even use Vis to "make it real". You can summon a ghost (from elsewhere) with Rego Mentem. Vim spells can also affect all knids of spirit, but typically at reduced effectiveness vs a spell of the correct Form.

In the mediaeval view, there is no connection between crackling fur or lightning bolts and ghosts.

Several of "caribet"s points are *REALLY* worth noting;
I'll repeat those here, for emphasis:

> No ArM books? Not even the *FREE* PDF download of
> "Ars Magica 4th Edition" from RPGNow? go to
> http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/index.php
> and look in the top-right column for "Free Ars Magica
> 4th Edition Rulebook PDF at RPG.now" and follow the
> link...

Absolutely! Get it ASAP. Please note that *I* own 2 softcover
copies of these rules, *AND* a hardcover copy... and I *STILL*
got the PDF from RPGNow!

Note that you'll have a *MUCH* better time with the game if you
actually... well... *HAVE* the game. At least, so I suspect.

Also, caribet said:

> the hermetic spell /Incantation of Lightning/ ... invokes
> a lightning stroke out-of-context, from the magus' hand
> rather than a cloud; it is not possible within this view
> to produce "lesser" "electrical" effects (like the DND spells),
> because... "electrical" does not exist - the lightning bolt
> is a unitary phenomenon - you create a powerful Bolt, or
> nothing...

This is a key, and IMHO often under-emphasized, part of the Medieval
Paradigm, which drives Ars Magica: people believed these things
(that there are dragons in the mountains, witches in the forests,
and that the faeries will get pissed if you don't leave out a bit
o' milk for 'em) NOT because they were superstitious, ignorant
dolts, but because these things were TRUE, were part of reality,
independent of whether people believed in them or not.

This is equally true for "electricity" -- it doesn't exist. No such
thing. There's lighning bolts, but they ARE NOT electricity. Cat
fur can shock, sometimes, but *THAT* isn't electricity either. This
isn't mere ignorance on the part of the peasantry, a low level of
technology among the universities and the professors there: the
whole "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" bit wouldn't
happen, because the world of Mythic Europe *IS* *NOT* simply an
earlier snapshot of our own word: in Mythic Europe, the underlying
physics DON'T WORK. Think rather of deCamp's "Compleat Enchanter"
(Harold Shae) series, where he was expecting to impress the local
"primitive" folk with his flashlight, matches, etc. The magicians
were *NOT* impressed by the geek fumbling with gear, and producing
NO effects.

Finally, I'll also reiterate caribet's opening remarks:
> the golden rule of Ars Magica discussions holds:
> "Your Mileage May Vary" or "In Your Saga..."
> In your saga, feel free to introduce Electricity, but...

- Steve S.

"Out Of Paradigm"

been here before...

It would be better to use Demon's Eternal Oblivion (or, if the disease spirits are from a different realm, a spell similar to that geared for the right realm). Otherwise, if you're frying plague demons you might also fry anyone they're infesting.

As was pointed out, though, if you want to electrocute them, Incantation of Lightning would be the spell to do it. You just have to get through the demon's resistance with your penetration.

"here another lightning spell with a terrum requisite
natural glass-you can summon a lighting bolt that creates a hunk of glass at the strike zone(must be done at a sandy place)
tell me what you think of this spell."

Why not simply a Creo Terram? In a case like this the lightning bolt hitting might be the Wizard's Sigil for the effect. It would be a lower level, and if you're trying to make the glass permanent it would take a ritual (and vis expenditure) in either case.

a good reason to use IoL or to use Ignem (heat) effects, is that they can leave lasting secondary effects in the form of heat-fused sand,

As you rightly observe, Creo requires Vis to make permanent.
in 5e it's a change-in-substance and so is Muto (not a natural change the sand would do by iteself, so not Rego), and you can't make Muto endure beyond the end of a spell, and you can't make spells permanent.

Go with (real) lightning, or with heat.

However, the spell as suggested is fundamentally weak: it suggests using Creo to make a fulgurite appear out of nothing, while suggesting that it must take place in a sandy place. This is not so: with Creo there is no need to have any material in advance - but the material will vanish at the end of the spell unless you use a Momentary Ritual with Vis (to make it "real");
the correct solution is plain CrAu Lightning, blasting at the sand...

It could be done with Ignem spells too, possibly at lower levels. Again, it boils down to having only one lightning spell since Aurum really only deals with weather effects.

I am curious, though, how it might handle St Elmo's Fire.

>you can tell the being general health by the aura serroundding him/her/it.

Sounds like InCo (?).

others have answered the direct question about Lightning, but I remain curious about your approach...

Can you say more about yourself, about your background, and why you pose your questions the way you do?

In this and previous posts, you appear to have a long list of "things you are familiar with" (eg spells, or "special abilities") which you wish to repeat in Ars Magica.

You use terms like "sphere" relating to magic, rather than Art or Technique or Form.
For that matter, I am not even sure we are talking about the same thing when we use the word Ability - in Ars Magica, an "Ability" is what in many games is called a Skill; what other games might call "Special Abilities" would be Virtues in Ars Magica.

Have you made progress reading the free Ars Magica 4th Edition PDF? - the background sections, and the overall description of the magical Arts provide quite a broad summary of "what makes Ars Magica magic"...

I'm not sure electricity exists in paradigm.
Lightning is a weather phenomenon, there was no concept of electricity.
So, with no concept of electricity, there would be no such virtue.
Maybe a virtue of invulnerability to damaging weather phenomenon, but that is a little vague...

Ed

As a supernatural immunity to lightning it would be perfectly acceptable. Even in medieval times people knew lightning existed - you would just say lightning instead of electricity. Whether it would be a greater or lesser immunity (I'd make it major, since there's plenty of mages toting Incantation of Lightning :-) )

As was pointed out, it would just be one specific application of a currently existing merit. (I've given my Bonisagus mage a supernatural immunity to explosions to so an incident in his master's lab while he was an apprentice.....it would really apply only to lab explosions, but would still be useful in limited though potentially lethal circumstances). There would be no need to establish it as a totally new merit, though.

I dont think he is an in-joke (at least not intentionally) , but i think he has worn out the patience of the kindly folk who take the time to answer the questions of newcomers.

AbrahamRay should be a bit more up to speed with 4th ed Ars Magica at least by now.
If he is actually playing/running a campaign or trying to get one together he could let us know.

Were the spelling of the abrahamray-posts correct, I would expect behind them the Turing-test of a program fed by a D&D-SRD or such.
(Though a clever software-designer could have the program put the mistakes in to fool the audience even better.)

Kind regards,

Berengar

It would help if you attempted to use the correct game terminology. By sphere's do you mean "arts"?

I think you're talking about the wrong game. You know this is the Ars Magica forum?

But, as a clue to your question, where does lightening come from?

For suggestions for beasts I suggest you try to get hold of:

* Atlas Game "The Medieval Bestiary, revised edition" for Ars Magica - a catalogue of already designed beasts and legends, albeit for 4th Ed, or downlod the 5th Ed web-spullement of mundane beasts from the AG web-site

* a real world "animals of Europe" book. There are many of these, in libraries and bookshops. Real Europe, and hence Mythic Europe, lacks a great many real-world beasts, but does have a good range of creatures itself, some not found outside Europe.
(For example, we have Hedgehogs, but not USA; USA has skunks but we do not.) It is very important fo the "authentic feel" of Ars Magica to confine the real (non-Mythic) beasts to those which really exist in Europe - not foreign counterparts. (It also helps to have a small amount of knwledge of recent wildlife history - to know, for example, that the Grey Squirrel which is now a common pest is an American invader, and the *real* squirrel is the native Red Squirrel. in Mythic Europe you will find no Grey Squirrels at all, but Red Squirrels will be common rather than rare... -- however that level of knowledge is less important than avoiding, say, Skunks or Electric Eels.)

* a translation of a real bestiary - an excellent example is the T.H.White Bestiary - it may not be the most authentic (though I believe it's raeasonable) but it's easy to read and very approachable. You can find ideas for all sorts of "monsters" in the historical bestiaries, without using the Amazon, or DND catalogues.
Using the Bestiary in games, both to qualify and mythify "real" beasts, and as a source of "monsters" is a *great* way to enhance the feel of games!