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Improving Characteristics

By Simon Foston

Unlike other games, the rules of Ars Magica do not make any provision for circumstances under which Characteristics might be improved during play, such as by spending experience points gained from study, practice or adventuring. Furthermore, while it is perfectly reasonable for a points-based system to generate characters that are either slightly above average across the board in terms of Characteristics, or strong in some respects and weak in others, there is a very strong chance with the dice-based system that you will generate a character that is just hopeless in every respect. There are no Virtues you can buy to redress the balance, as the ones that deal with Characteristics all require you to have a score of 3 in the one you want to improve (or further reduce), and if the storyguide is feeling particularly mean you will just have to live with the set of truly atrocious scores that you have just had the misfortune to roll. These, I have always felt, are shortcomings of an otherwise peerless system, so here are some ideas to even the score a little.

Generating Characteristics

Purchase Method: This system creates nicely balanced characters and does not really need too much fiddling around with. However, there may be times when the storyguide wants to run a more challenging saga than usual and thinks that the characters might need an extra edge. If so, it is quite easy to add a few extra positive points to the standard 7 that players usually have to spend. The number of extra points to be allocated could be worked out like this:

These changes are likely to have a dramatic effect on the realism of the saga and the way the characters are played; they may lend themselves more to a stereotypically heroic style than to that of Ars Magica. However, if you do not mind characters that are a little too perfect and are ready for the implications this might have for your saga, go right ahead and let the players add those extra points.

Random Generation: If you roll for your Characteristics and do not get a single positive result, or if the combined total of all your results, after the total negative results have been subtracted from the total positive results (for example, if I roll for my Characteristics and get 1, 2, -3 and -5. 1 + 2 - -3 - -5 = -5), is 0 or less, just re-roll the Characteristics, unless you really do not mind playing a character with more inherent weaknesses than strengths. Alternatively, the storyguide may permit the following options:

1. Roll 5 times for Characteristics. Discard the worst score.
2. Discard the worst score and treat it as a result of 1.
3. Roll 4 positive dice and 4 negative dice. Arrange them into 4 pairs in any manner that you choose.
4. Roll and assign the Characteristic pairs as normal. Subtract points from positive scores and then add them to negative scores to improve those Characteristics. Do this as many times as desired. For example, I am lucky enough to be able to assign scores of 3 and 4 to one of my Characteristic pairs, but another one will have to make do with 0 and -1. I decide to reduce my score of 4 by one point, which I then use to get rid of that irritating -1. Then I take another point away from the score of 3, and add it to the 0, leaving me with scores of 2 and 3 in one pair and 0 and 1 in the other.
5. Purchase the Good (Characteristic) Virtue (see below).
6. Spend some of your experience points for starting Abilities on Characteristics instead (see Improving Characteristics During Play, below).
7. Ignore the rolls completely and generate the Characteristics using the Purchase Method instead.

New Virtue: Good (Characteristic) +1: You may raise any negative Characteristic to 1, or any positive Characteristic to 3. Describe what it is about you that causes the increase (such as a keen intellect, muscular build or commanding voice).

Increasing Characteristics During Play

If you do not want to make any changes to the system of assigning Characteristics as it is presented in the rulebook, here are options to allow players to improve their scores through practice and adventuring. If you are the storyguide, you may wish to rule that allowing players to modify their starting Characteristics and then increase them is too unbalancing, and that they will therefore only get one of the options. Do whatever you decide is going to work best for your saga. However, spending experience points on Characteristics is by no means an easy option. It is much more expensive than increasing Abilities, as it should be more time-consuming and difficult. Two basic rules apply:

1. You can only increase one Characteristic a year.
2. You can only increase one Characteristic at a time. For instance, if you have 3 experience points you cannot spend 1 on Intelligence and 2 on Perception.

When you want to improve a Characteristic, it is assumed that in any given season or story you are either using or practicing a range of Abilities related to it. For instance, if you want to dedicate a season to increasing your Strength, you might engage in a strenuous regimen of climbing, swimming, running and wrestling for the next three or four months. You are not doing anything all that new with these Abilities and you are not really concentrating hard enough on any particular one for it to go up, but your overall physical fitness is certainly likely to see an improvement. Or, you might have good grounds for raising your Intelligence if you have spent a story engaged in logical debating, puzzle solving and casting ingenious spontaneous spells. In the case of story experience, however, the storyguide might want to see some spectacular successes for the rolls related to the Characteristic you want to improve: simply using it a few times and failing more often than you succeed may not be enough to help you. At the very least, you should be able to give the storyguide a very good reason why you think your Intelligence should go up.

What really makes increasing Characteristics a challenging business is the point cost involved. "Physical" Characteristics (Strength, Stamina, Dexterity and Quickness) are cheaper to buy than "Mental" Characteristics (Intelligence, Perception, Presence and Communication): it is much easier to change the body than it is to change the heart or the mind. In essence, Physical Characteristics cost a number of experience points equal to the pyramid point value of the desired score if they are already positive, and improving a negative value costs a number of points equal to the pyramid point value of the existing score. For example, if you have Strength �3, it will cost 6 experience points to improve to -2, and it would cost 3 points to increase Strength from 1 to 2. Mental Characteristics are improved in the same way, except that the costs are doubled. All in all, the experience point costs to increase Characteristics are as follows:

This system may look very similar to the purchase method for Abilities, but it differs significantly in the sense that an improved Ability only costs a number of points equal to the desired value. To improve a Characteristic you always have to pay the full pyramid point cost of the higher score. So, if you want to increase your Intelligence from 0 to 3, it will cost a total of 20 experience points.

At the storyguide's discretion, another option for improving Characteristics during the character creation stage is to spend some of your starting experience points for Abilities on them, using the point costs given above. After all, it is also possible to increase them using Virtues. Caution is advised, though: if you spend too many experience points on Characteristics it will have a drastic effect on the Abilities for which they are really supposed to be used. It is recommended, therefore, that you do not spend any more than 6 experience points on Characteristics when you are creating your character.

Text copyright © Simon Foston 2003.

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