Ars Magica

[Grelna the Blue]

Incredibly fun game--my favorite system, actually--but it's important to note that there is more to the magic system than combining verbs and nouns. Every mage in the Order of Hermes has some skill in every Form (the nouns) and Technique (the verbs) and works unceasingly to try to improve that skill. Easy spells require little skill, hard spells require significantly more. The thing is, just because a mage is the world's best at Creo Ignem, capable of creating firestorms that engulf a city, that doesn't mean he or she automatically knows squat about anything that doesn't relate to fire/light/heat or creation. Because such a mage would be good at the Technique of Creo, he or she would probably be capable of less impressive feats of creation with Forms other than Ignem, but wouldn't be especially noteworthy without putting in the effort to master them as well. And if that mage had not put effort into mastering Intellego, Rego, Muto, and Perdo, then creation is all that mage would be good at, aside from effects that related specifically to the form of Ignem.