Costs

In Ars Magica, Costs for Characteristics, Abilities, and Arts are not linear but incremental. That way, increasing an Ability with a low score is much cheaper than improving a value that is already quite high. This reflects the fact that it is easier to learn the basics of any given topic, while only dedicated experts, who are prepared to spend the necessary time and resources, reach a level of true mastership.

The amount of XP (or just "points" for Characteristics) required to raise a score is equal to the new score. The sum of XP required to raise an Ability from 0 to any given score is yielded by summing up the incremental raises:

Score	Increment	In total
1	1	1
2	2	3
3	3	6
4	4	10
5	5	15

Abilities

For Abilities, the amount of XP required to raise a score is multiplied by 5.

However, the xp is not multiplied for an Accelerated Ability (allowing it to be raised as fast as an Art), whereas the cost of Difficult Arts isultiplied (making it rise like an Ability). It is therefore possible to have a hard-to-increase Art or an easy-to-increase Ability.

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:costs