That's a fair point, but Andreva at this point isn't going to enchant with that motivation in mind.
Jason 72 sent me some ideas a while back regarding what items to have Andreva include in a talisman. I certainly referenced it while deciding on a form for the talisman. I included several gems because she likes gems and now after using the prospecting fish for over a decade has a fair supply. But also I went through the list of available shape and material bonuses and asked what might she want as an attunement? Does everyone do this, or is there a call for working out of pure aesthetics and then taking what you get, or at least a bit more than I did?
Andreva's Talisman is a an excellent sword (as described above) it has a handle made from a lightning struck walnut tree its cross-guard incorporates a bronze cross. Inlaid into the base of the blade are a piece of rock crystal on one side and a piece of jade on the other, on the tips of the cross-guard are a star ruby, and a sapphire, on the pommel is a piece of amber.
I wanted to include mercury for its +5 to muto as well, but something had to go as she only has magic theory 8.
Andreva opens the item by filling its highest capacity component, a precious gem with a capacity of 15 pawns.
She then spends a second season to attune it as a talisman.
I figured that priceless gems had to be flawless examples of the type. I presumed that she could find gems of less than perfect quality that would fit into the precious category. I was specifically shooting for the 15 pawn capacity.
Andreva spends a season investing an InMe effect to link her linked triggers to. The core book says "An effect to allow mental activation needs to be able to read surface thoughts continually, with at least Touch Range. This is a base level of 15, +1 magnitude for Touch Range, +1 magnitude for Concentration Duration, +5 levels to have the device maintain concentration, for a final level of 30."
This is her talisman so she can use range personal. While her art scores allow her to do the range touch version in one season it would need to penetrate parma and if she has more than one activation per day it would take more capacity.
She went to level 30 to get the most value out of her 3 pawns of capacity, why not ? It's at least possible that she might one day need all 24 activations even if it's unlikely.
It isn't a constant effect enchantment. If she doesn't turn it on. she'll get no use out of any linked trigger enchantments that she has tied to it, but this way it won't constantly warp her.
She'll open up the +3 terram attunement from bronze.
Well, that answers the question I never got around to asking: What then is 'priceless'?
Medieval lords could and did have jewelry insert with diamonds, rubies, emeralds plus whatever else is a 'true' gem and not 'just' a semi-precious stone. Priceless variants could be perfect, flawless stones or stones of significant size (although still 'tiny' in the very road size categories of ArM). So magi needing and wanting high-capacity devices need to find these very rare stones rather than merely normal precious stones.
This makes sense for me.
Yup. I start with listing the attunements I want and feel I need the talisman to provide. Then I find some plausible combination of these shapes and materials, with a number of components within the magus in question's capabilities, plus a vis cost to prepare which the magus can handle. I decide whether to open the most expensive component or do it as a compound device.
The final check is whether the shape and size makes sense to the magus: Do I really want to lug around a staff if I want to be inconspicuous? Is a tiny ring not 'manly' enough for a close-combat magus? etc.
And then I prioritize the attunements and start to work out which enchantments I want to put in the Talisman in order to open these attunements.
Typically this list is so long I never get it more than just started before the saga dies, the magus gets other plans etc.
Andreva is going to enchant her talisman with a Rego Corpus effect. Her rego corpus lab total for the talisman is
Int 3
Magic theory 8
Rego 14
Corpus 8
aura 3
lab general quality 2
lab rego 6
Grace's intelligence 3
Grace's Magic Theory 10
Talisman bonus 5
Superior Item bonus 4
Amber corpus material bonus 3
For a total of 69
The effect she was really wanting comes as a result of the personality changes caused by her familiar bond but it doesn't come close to using her 34 available levels
Two questions on this one; First, does it need the fast trigger modification from HoH: Socitates page 33, Second, the description in the core book for a device that reads surface thought to use for a linked trigger specifically speaks of a mental command. In this case I have the device not waiting for a mental command but instead the thought "AHHH! I'm falling!!!". Is that OK?
Andreva has the lab total to add a second Rego Corpus effect to her talisman so why not?
for an attunement she'll open up +4 for minds from her walnut handle
Sure, if your device is continually monitoring your thoughts (which does seem to be the idea behind the 'mental command' effect).
Ofcourse, this puts you under a continuous magical effect, eaming it causes Warping.
I had already considered the warping issue. The intellego mentem linked trigger is duration concentration with item maintains. I imagine that she has it up nearly all of the time when she's on the road, but only rarely when she's at home.
It's overkill - the ReTe guideline for a 50 pace instant transport is level 5 as per the upper left corner box on page 92 of MoH. (Level 15 is a league.)
Also, I'd consider allowing for Finesse placement rather than just putting the weapons in a pile. How else can one develop a reputation as a mistress of Finesse if one can't show off one's skill in a tasteful (and possibly intimidating) manner?
It should be OK? It's basically looking for specific thoughts triggered by the interpretation of data from the (minor) senses of proprioception and/or balance (mentioned in HoH:S), no? Although if the senses are fooled and you don't think you're falling, well, you might have a problem...
This also changes Packing for a Journey back on page 8ish. I went back and edited it. I previously wanted to add a magnitude for complexity but the spell felt too high already. I think that targeting just the weapons does warrant the extra levels now that the overall effect doesn't seem unbalanced.
Thanks for pointing out the guideline. I also added the finesse roll because it made the spell more cool.
Whoa, step back!
The horse has a better Magic Theory score than Janus, the covenant's resident specialist in this field? I hope this includes a relevant specialty...
Anyway I think Janus needs to hit the books! Granted he has Puissance so his effective Magic Theory is 9+2, but still.
Yeah, I saw that one as well, but a magus typically has a lot more different projects going on than grinding Magic Theory, there are so many point sinks for experience: Arts, other abilities and other things that take time. A Familiar however? Don't they train their innate abilities as well: Awareness, Athletics, Brawl? Or social abilities if they can communicate with humans (or even just among their own kind?). Is it because those normal abilities fairly quickly reach a plateau where further increase is not useful? But Magic Theory is always better at higher levels for labwork?
