[ 12/4/96, most recently updated 12/27/96 ]

I wrote, a little over a year ago, a set of notes on changes between
the 2nd and 3rd editions of Ars Magica (you can get it off the WWW at
http://theurgy.digex.net:8000/ars/2nd-to-3rd.txt). Now, with the
advent of the 4th edition, it seems appropriate to do a
3rd-to-4th-edition comparison.

Note that this is not a review; this is a changes list, intended to
concisely list the major changes between the editions, particularly
for those people who are familiar with previous editions and need
a quick-reference to rules differences.

The 4th Edition has a somewhat convoluted history. It was originally
developed by Wizards of the Coast, primarily by Wade Racine; when
Atlas Games purchased Ars Magica from WotC, after WotC discarded its
roleplaying lines in December 1995, Atlas Games embarked on a thorough
revision of the material. WotC's 4th Edition was very similar to the
3rd Edition of the game. Atlas Games took a different approach,
rewriting the text and streamlining the rules; the final result is
the product of many authors.

Ars Magica 4th Edition (we'll call it ArM 4, for convenience) is a
substantially slimmer book than 3rd Edition (ArM 3). The turgid text
that marred ArM 3 has been eliminated, resulting in the same material,
and more, being packed into a much smaller volume. Unfortunately, a
goodly amount of flavor-text got chopped along with it. Artwork is
very sparse, as well. This is a black-and-white book; the layout is
simple, the fonts are readable, and the index is accurate.

Organizationally, the books are quite similar, though. As a result,
again, the rules come before the background (though the introduction
does a decent job of describing the apprenticeship of a magus), and
the lack of good character-creation examples is even more pronounced
in ArM 4 than it was in ArM 3.

Almost all of the Latin has been fixed to be grammatically correct,
at long last.  This particularly affects plurals; for example, it
the plural for "consors" is now "consortes", not "consortis". It
also affects some of the Arts: Corpus, rather than Corporem, and
Imaginem, rather than Imagonem.

The setting has been updated from 1197 to 1220, and True Reason has
been eliminated. White Wolf seems to have unofficially placed its
Vampire: Dark Ages setting in 1197; Atlas Games continues the Wizards
of the Coast attempt to separate Ars Magica from any World of Darkness
associations.

The changes between the two editions are substantial, and many are
fairly subtle. A lot of the changes prevent "rules hacks" that used to
be possible. For example, bonuses from Virtues and the Characteristic
limits have been reworked so they don't overwhelm Ability scores, and
loopholes involving certain spells (particularly Muto Vim) have been
closed. "Game balance" is better overall, at least as far as the
mechanics go; the obvious power differences between Magi and Grogs,
for example, are inherent to Ars Magica and thus remain. The list
below is not comprehensive, though I have tried to point out the most
important changes.

I do think that ArM 4 is a substantially better ruleset, and ought to
be the edition of choice; certainly it should be the edition of choice
if one is starting a new Saga.

I am going to follow the ArM 4 order of chapters in my analysis of
changes, below.

---

INTRODUCTION

Ease Factors: The table that explained what was Easy, Difficult, etc.
seems to have been eliminated; this has the potential to be particularly
problematic for new StoryGuides, who may not know that 6 is supposed to
be an Average difficulty task, etc.  It is worthwhile to note that
most things in ArM 4 are now multiples of 3, in order to fit in with
the idea of Ease Factors stepping up by factors of 3. (This is supposed
to be corrected in the second printing.)

Dice: The "quality die" from ArM 2 has returned. This is like a stress
die, but the 0 counts as a 10, allowing for extraordinary success but
not extraordinary failure. A number of rolls have been chased from
stress to quality, such as the roll for damage incurred by falling.

There is apparently no explanation of what a "pace" is. It's about
equivalent to a yard (three feet).

CHARACTERS

The Gift: The social-interaction penalty has been changed back to the
way it was in ArM 2, with the -3 only applying to rolls that involve
winning the trust and affection of others.

The Houses: Each Hermetic House now comes with base Abilities and
possible required Virtues and Flaws; these packages are called House
Templates, and the most significant are probably the condensation of
the V&Fs for House Bjornaer (resulting in only 1 or 2 Virtue Points
being spent for all the necessary Virtues) and House Mercere (the cost
of Redcap has been reduced to +1 for both Gifted and non-Gifted
Mercere). Certain V&Fs, such as No Sigil, are now House-specific. Also
note that Verditius magi are no longer explicitly prevented from
getting the bonus for using spell foci; the items they need are now
called "casting tools".

Companion Social Class and Grog Status: Companions and Grogs are now
required to purchase a Social Class or Grog Status, respectively.
They're really the same thing under two different names for Companions
and Grogs, and Grog Status also ends up being referenced as Grog
Background; I remain puzzled as to why multiple terms were necessary.
Nonetheless: these V&Fs incorporate a lot of the concepts and some of
the mechanics from the old social-class-related V&Fs, such as Knight
and Greater Leadership; some of them also include bonus starting
Abilities. Background V&Fs have also been improved and clarified; for
example, Further Education grants you an Ability package suitable to a
university graduate.

Vocations: These are basically just character-concept aids that carry
no over game-mechanical connotations. The Vocation descriptions
essentially replace the sample characters given in ArM 3, giving a set
of Abilities that might be useful to that vocation, but not actually
providing any fully-created sample characters.

Characteristics: The range has changed from +5/-5 to a recommended
+3/-3 using the new purchasing method (7 points on a pyramid scheme),
or a +4/-4 using the revised random method. Characteristics outside
that range cost V&F points (to +4, to +5); a modified Mythic
Characteristic that raises a score to +5 and permits one incredible
feat a day, plus its new counterpart, Pathetic
Characteristic. Specialties in Characteristics no longer have a
mechanical influence; they're merely descriptive terms. The text
no longer gives example Specialties.

Virtues and Flaws: Companions and Magi both get 10 points to spend on
V&Fs in ArM 4; Companions only got 7 points in ArM 3. Grogs continue
to get 3 points of V&Fs. There is now an option to allow purchase of
more Flaws than Virtues. The Virtues and Flaws are now broken down by
cost, rather than category, in a way similar to ArM 2, making it much
easier to try to find the description of something. The wording on
many of the V&Fs has tightened substantially, eliminating a lot of
vagaries in interpretation. There is one very important change:
bonuses from V&Fs are NOT CUMULATIVE; the highest bonus is the one
that counts.

Hermetic V&Fs: There have been many changes, particularly with costs
and bonuses/penalties. I'll only describe the really notable
ones. Cyclic magic has been broken into two V&Fs, one for the negative
part of the cycle, one for the positive. Method Caster now gives you
the cost of the Virtue, not half of it, as a bonus to your Formulaic
spell totals. Personal Vis Source is now called Secret Vis
Source. Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic now requires the expenditure of
Body levels, not Fatigue levels.  Continuous Spontaneous Magic, and
Aptitude with Elements, have been eliminated. Elementalists now have
penalties on non-elemental spells equal to their bonuses, and no
initial score in Affinity with Elements. The costs of Magical
Deficiencies have changed. There is a Flaw counterpart to Inventive
Genius, called Creative Block. Magic Addiction has been rewritten.
Non-Spontaneity no longer has a bonus benefit of better Formulaic
magic.

Generic Bonuses: Knacks now give you a +1 to a specific Ability for
each Virtue point spent, with a limit of +3. Aptitudes have been
eliminated. Mastered Ability (Talent/Skill/Knowledge) has been
eliminated, and replaced by the +1 Virtue, Cautious with Ability (thus
allowing you to buy, say, a +3 Knack with the Ability plus the
Cautious with the Ability for the same cost as the old Mastered
Ability).

Other V&Fs: Again, there have been many changes, and I'll only list a
few important ones. The new versions of the old ArM 3 "Exceptional
Talent" Virtues now automatically confer a score of 1 in the
appropriate Ability. The V&Fs that affected size no longer adjust
Characteristic scores, as they did in ArM 3, eliminating Virtues such
as Lithe. Magic Item no longer carries the stipulation that the item
must be StoryGuide-designed. A new Virtue, Skinchanger, allows
shapechanging into an animal. Noncombatant now prevents magi from
learning combat spells (as defined by the StoryGuide). The Werewolf
Flaw has been replaced with Lycanthrope. A goodly number of the more
extreme V&Fs have been eliminated (Leprosy and Immortal, for example).

Passions: These have been removed from the game entirely, and there's
not really anything in the way of equivalents.

Reputations: In ArM 4, the score now reflects the intensity, with a
descriptive phrase explaining who knows of the Reputation; in ArM 3,
the number reflected in how wide a region the Reputation was known.

Confidence: Confidence works as it did in ArM 2 (without special
rules for using Confidence in Personality Trait rolls), with each
point expended adding a +1 bonus to a stress roll.

Fatigue:  Long and Short-Term Fatigue have been collapsed into just
Fatigue.

Encumbrance:  The Encumbrance number is now considered negative, so
it is added to rolls rather than subtracting from them. This lends
itself to a bit of confusion, as Loads are now considered negative
as well, but common sense should prevail.

ABILITIES

This is really part of the section on Characters in the rulebook, but
given the extensive changes to the Ability list, this warrants a
section of its own, in this document.

There are some minor changes. Healer's bonus is now one-third the
score in the Ability, rather than just being additive, as in ArM
3. Medicine and Chirurgery are now interchangeable (it's puzzling why
one wasn't just eliminated, given all the other condensing of
Abilities).

The changes to the list are detailed below. It should be noted that
Combat, and thus Combat Skills, has changed entiretly, and that new 
categories of Academic Abilities reflect medieval scholarship.

Acting:  Now Craft (Acting).
Alertness:  Part of Awareness.
Charisma:  Part of Charm.
Church Knowledge:  Split into Civil & Canon Law, and Theology.
Church Lore:  Now Organization Lore (The Church).
Concentration:  Now a Talent, not a Skill.
Debate:  Renamed to Disputatio.
Diplomacy:  Part of Intrigue.
Dodge:  Part of Brawl.
Drinking:  Renamed to Carouse.
Evaluate:  Part of Bargain (conversion notes suggested Craft).
Fantastic Beast Lore:  Part of Legend Lore.
Guile:  Now a Talent, not a Skill.
Hermes History:  Part of Organization Lore (The Order).
Hermes Lore:  Now Organization Lore (The Order).
Humanities:  Renamed to Artes Liberales.
Intimidation:  Part of Leadership.
Meditation:  Part of Concentration.
Pretend:  Part of Guile.
Scan:  Part of Awareness.
Search:  Part of Awareness.
Subterfuge:  Part of Guile.
Teach:  (Wizard's Grimoire)  Split into Disputatio and Lectio.
Track:  Renamed to Hunt.

HERMETIC MAGIC

Limits of Magic: These have been condensed into a number of specific
Limits, such as the Limit of Divinity; each of these Limits
encompasses a number of the old list of limits. This seems to be
purely a flavor change.

Spontaneous Magic: This has been clarified slightly, to note that if
one does not achieve the attempted Level, there may still be a lesser
effect.

Ritual Magic: The elimination of Long-Term Fatigue levels has resulted
in a (possibly unintentional) change to Ritual Magic: Fatigue lost
here is just like any other Fatigue Loss. Personally, I'd rule that
Fatigue lost through casting Ritual Magic can only be recovered
through sleep.

Concentration rolls: These have changed slightly. Now, if you fail a
Concentration roll, when you roll for the spell to check for a Botch,
you incur an extra Botch die penalty. There is no longer a stipulation
that Encumbrance modifies the roll if you are moving. Furthermore,
the Distraction Table has changed; in particular, the Ease Factor
for being damaged while trying to cast has changed to a flat 15,
rather than being dependent on the amount of damage sustained.

Mastering Spells: The rules now contain the option for the StoryGuide
allow players to assign more than one XP to a spell at a time. There
is no longer a restriction on which spells one may spend the XP on.

Multi-Casting: The target number needed to multi-cast is now declared
to be, "greater than 9". I am not sure whether this was an intentional
change from the old 9+.

Recognizing Spells: The roll is now an Awareness roll, rather than a
Perception roll.

Raw vis: The maximum number of pawns you can use in a single spell or
round of Certamen is now the highest of the two relevant Art scores
(in addition to the old limit of not being able to use more pawns of a
single type than your score in that Art).

Certamen: Fatigue loss is now calculated based on every five full points
of difference in rolls, rather than five points or fraction thereof.

LABORATORY

Scribing Spells: The number of levels of spells that can be scribed,
copied, or obscured in a Season is now based on Scribe Latin, rather
than just being a flat rate. Laboratory texts are handled in a similar
way.

Vis Extraction: This rule from ArM 2 is back, but the rule is now one
pawn for every full 10 points of the total, not one-fifth of the total.

Invested Devices: You can now invest items with a set number of charges;
such items can also be made rechargeable. Lesser Invested Devices seem
to be missing the paragraph that details vis expenditure (one pawn of
Art-specific and one pawn of Vim for every 10 points).

Helpers in the Laboratory: The total number of helpers one can have
in the lab is now limited to your Leadership Ability score (though
you can always have one helper). Lab assistants now explicitly do
not gain anything through the cooperation.

Apprentices: The rules for training apprentices have changed
completely. There are no longer set rules (1 XP of Magic Theory and a
score of 0 in one new Art, per Season; 10 levels of spells per year),
as there were in ArM 3; instead, you are encouraged to look at the
character templates for guidelines. Quick apprentice generation has
thus been effectively eliminated. I am inclined to think that explicit
training of apprentices, particularly given the new teaching rules,
is also quite likely to produce apprentices who become fairly powerful
at a much earlier age.

SPELLS

There are now default ranges, durations, and targets for each of the
Technique-Form combinations at varying levels; Spontaneous spells have
these parameters unless the player chooses otherwise. The R/D/T of
a spell now combines to form its base level. There are also guidelines
for spells below level 5, now.

Ranges: These have changed. Personal has absorbed Self and Body.
Eye-contact range is considered to be level-equivalent with Touch.  A
new range, Far (100 paces) has been inserted between Near and Sight.
A new range, Arcane Connection, governs spells that have Arcane
Connections as their distance limit.

Durations: Momentary has replaced the part of the old Instant duration
that governed immediate effects (Pilum of Fire and a lot of other
combat spells, for instance). A new duration, Diameter, lasts for two
minutes. Ring duration has been clarified, and the caster now has a
choice of the size of the ring. Permanent and Instant are now
level-equivalent, governing only persistent spell effects or permanent
changes.

Target: This is a new spell parameter. It governs exactly what the
spell affects: Individual, Group, Room, Circle, Structure, Boundary,
Sight.

A few spells (like Change the Nature of Vis) have been eliminated.
The descriptions of a lot of spells have changed, and there have
been some level changes. The most immediately-noticeable spell change
is that the BOAF is now a level 35, not a level 30, spell; there are
no level 30 Creo Ignem spells given, thus somewhat lessening the power
of a beginning "classic Ignem-specialized Flambeau" magus (unless the
StoryGuide permits players to make up their own spells at game
start). There are other significant increases in spell levels; for
example, Image from the Wizard Torn is now level 30, not level 20.
The difficulty of PeIm spells, however, has been substantially reduced
(whether or not this will be corrected in the second printing remains
to be seen).

Particularly notable is that rolls against Ease Factors for various
spell effects are now based off multiples of 3, and that damage is
consistently done as multiples of 5. A bit of editorial inconsistency
results in spell guidelines and the spells themselves being
partitioned off differently by section headers.

Many Vim spells have been substantially altered, and deserve special
note here. Meta-magic of the Muto Vim type can no longer be applied to
Spontaneous Spells, and the rules on using meta-magic on other
people's spells have been clarified; in particularly, you must now
beat the Penetration Total of a hostile magus' spell in order to alter
it with meta-magic. Shroud Magic now only suppresses or alters the
sigil. Wizard's Boost is now Form-specific, and it is explicitly
stated that a spell can only be Boosted once. The Aegis of the Hearth
spell has been rewritten.

COMBAT

Combat has been revised substantially. Action and Dueling combat no
longer exist; there is one unified system. There are some optional
rules which really don't do much other than increase or decrease the
number of die rolls which need to be made, but just about everything
is always rolled (no more flat +6 added to Soak for an Action-combat
equivalent, for instance).

Combat skills are now completely different; you buy fighting styles
rather than buying specific weapon and shield skills. For example, if
you fight with a Shield and Weapon Skill, you can use a Mace and Kite
Shield, Longsword and Kite Shield, Shortsword and Buckler, etc.; more
exotically, Two Weapons skill covers everything from the standard two
shortswords to cloak-and-dagger and net-and-trident. Of course, each
weapon combination carries its own base totals, ranges, and so forth.

Combat totals are calculated in a fairly similar way, with a
combatinion of a Characteristic, Skill, Encumbrance, and Weapon Bonus.
The old First Strike total has been subsumed into a more general total
called Initiative.

The combat phases remain similar to their previous incarnation.
Combat ranges are now considerably more important than they used to
be; weapons all have optimum ranges, with penalties applied for
attempting to use them outside that range.  There are rules of
engagement which govern closing with opponents, and so forth.

One very important difference is that the difference between opponents'
Attack and Damage rolls is now applied towards the Damage done, or
towards an advantage bonus in the next round. Thus, one can "save up"
for one really devastating blow, allowing, for example, a character
who is very skilled with a dagger to dance around someone heavily
armored and still be able to penetrate that armor with that one
final blow that goes through a chink. The combat system is thus
rather reminiscent of the Certamen rules.

It should also be noted that Size now adds to Damage and Soak
directly (and still subtracts from Defense Totals, as it did in
previous editions).

You now lose one Body Level per five full points of Damage-Soak
differential, rather than per five points or fraction thereof.

Combat Fatigue rolls (against 6+, but weapon skill is added to the
roll) at the end of each round are now required for everyone engaged
in melee combat, rather than only being required when switching
actions.

There are new rules for dealing with multiple opponents, as well
as modified Brawling rules to deal with the increased importance
of range. The special attacks like Great Blow and Desperate Defense
have simply become All-Out Attack or Defense. The Combat Botch chart
has been eliminated; unfortunately, no examples have been provided
in its place. There's also a basic rule for armor improvement,
more or less trading protection for load on a one-for-one basis.

STORYGUIDE

This section probably represents the meatiest changes in rules,
introducing completely new rules for most of the core long-term
character development mechanics.

Aging: The aging rules have been completely changed (they're more
or less like the rules that I posted to the Ars Magica mailing
list). Penalties are now based on "afflictions", rather than
Characteristics loss; for example, a character might go blind
over the years, resulting in penalties to rolls involving sight,
equal to the affliction score.

Experience: Experience gained outside of adventures now is gained
either through an entirely new set of rules; there is no longer a flat
rate of X number of points per Season. There is Training, Practice,
Exposure, Lectio and Disputatio (formal teaching of Knowledge or Lore
from a text or through the Socratic method, respectively), and
learning from books. Magi can also train each other in spells, and can
practice in order to Master spells. Finally, magi also gain 1 XP in
Magic Theory for each Season spent inventing a spell, enchanting an
item, or making a potion, unless working from his own lab text.

Books: Book rules have been drastically changed. Books now fall into
the categories of summae, libri quaestionum, and tractatus; most books
have both a Level and a Quality. Rules for scribing books and learning
from them are much more detailed than in ArM 3.

Arts: Arts now have both a score and XP in them, in a fashion much
like Abilities; XP for Arts is completely separate from XP for
Abilities.  Purchasing new scores in Arts throughout the Saga is thus
like purchasing them at the outset; for example, you need to gain 25
XP in the Art to go from 24 to 25 in that Art. The change in rules
is fairly smooth; for example, learning an Art from vis is done the
same way, except you add the raw total as XP to that Art, rather than
seeing if you go up 0, 1, 2, or 3 ranks in that Art (but there's still
a limit of 3; extra XP is lost). This means that it is now much easier
to gain high Art scores, since Seasons are never completely wasted
unless you Botch.

COVENANTS

The covenant creation rules have been rewritten again. They share a
lot of base similarities to the rules from the ArM 2 supplement
_Covenants_. This is a purchase-point system, based on eight
characteristics, each with three sub-characteristics called
Traits. Together, they provide a fairly detailed picture of the
covenant; there is no real equivalency between the various previous
version of covenant-generation rules.

---

I am attempting to make this change list fairly comprehensive,
particularly where small modifications were made to existing rules,
which may not be immediately noticed by players transitioning between
the rulesets. Please send me email if you find any more changes of
this type.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Lydia Leong  -  lydia@digex.net  -  http://theurgy.digex.net:8000/