For the discussion, commissioning, and design of enchanted items.
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I'm working up an Enchanting for Dummies primer for myself so I can remind myself how enchanting items works rather than have to re-learn it all every six months when I get time I sit down to think about enchantments. 
Question on Vis Capacity and Vis Limits:
Vis Capacity for an Enchantment = 2 x Vis Limit of the Item
Vis Limit = Material Base x Size Multiplier
e.g. gold (10) x ring (1) = 10 pawns
Does that mean that a gold ring has a vis capacity of 20 pawns and thus could hold up to 200 levels of effects?
Or is it 100 levels of effects?
Does Vis Capacity govern the effects? Or does Vis Limit?
Also, I can see that there are Verditius ways to reduce the cost to open an item (Verditius Runes allow for the reduction of Craft score to minimum of 1).
Is the only way to increase the vis capacity of an item to add other materials to it? For example, a gold ring with a semi precious stone can have both the ring and the stone enchanted?
Thanks for any help to get a better understanding Vis Limit and Vis Capacity and how they govern/constrain enchanting.
Vis Limit is the limit of how much Vis you, the Magi, can spend in one season, and it's equal to 2 x Magic Theory.
Vis Capacity is the amount of Vis the item can hold, and is equal to Material Base x Size Multiplier. But, you can make use of a limited number of Shapes and Materials, up to a total of your Magic Theory.
When opening a device for Enchantment, you can either open it using the Shape and Material of the most Expensive component, or the total of all the Shapes and Materials.
Say, you have a wooden staff with a golden ring on it.
A staff is a large wooden object, and would take 8 pawns to open.
The ring is a small gold object, and would take 10 pawns to open.
You can either open it partially by investing 10 pawns (the most expensive component), or open it completely by spending 18 pawns (if you have Magic Theory of 9+)
In either case, the total levels of enchantments that the item can hold will be 10 x pawns of vis invested.
Verditius have ways to reduce the cost within their Craft. But if you try to enchant something that doesn't fall within your Craft, you do not get a reduction.
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Although this plays slightly less to the strengths of your house, don't underestimate the usefulness of lesser enchantments too!
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Super helpful!
So let me throw out an example.
Example: Gold ring with a semi-precious stone. Ring (1 Tiny) x Gold (10) + Semi-Precious Stone (12) = 22 pawns to open fully. For Argentius specifically, it would cost him 16 (22 - 6 Craft: Jeweler).
Because of his initiation into the Verditius Elder Rune mystery, he would be able to use MT (5) x Philosophiae (3) = 15 pawns of vis per season. So in this case, he could not fully open it (assuming he had the vis). If he used silver instead of gold, it would be 6 + 12 = 18 - 6 (craft) = 12 pawns and thus he could open it fully.
Argentius's Vis Limit = 15
Ring's Vis Capacity = 18 or 12?
Ring's Level of Enchantments = 10 x 12? 10 x 18?
Or is the enchantment level governed by each component: Silver Ring = 60 levels. Stone = 120 levels?
If you can open the silver ring fully, you can enchant it for you to 180 levels. The cost reduction from being a verditius doesn't reduce the capacity.
And each enchantment can get any of the S&M bonuses that apply, up to a max of +5 (your MT)
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Thank you! I think I got it now.
Now the question is how many effects can be enchanted in a season.
For example, if I was building the above silver ring and I wanted it to be able to do cast Mighty Torrent of Water (L20) 6 times a day (+3 levels) with +14 Penetration (+7 levels) I would be investing a level 30 effect into the ring.
To invest that in a season, I would need to hit a lab total of 60. Right?
If I wanted to do more than one effect in a season, the rules of Multiple Lab Activities (ArM 5e p 102) would then apply. So if my lab score was 75, I could also invest it with Footsteps of Slippery Oil (L5 + 1 for 2 uses a day) because it's the same Te&Fo and still within the 75 lab score (36 level of effects x 2 = 72.)
But if I also wanted to invest it with Pilum of Fire with the same effect modifications, I would need to do that in the next (or a future) season.
Just trying to confirm my understanding of the process for instilling multiple effects in a single season.
I believe that's correct
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Your interpretations there seem correct. You also get bonuses to the enchantment for knowing a similar spell, I believe +1 per magnitude.
An additional point which is more thematic than important, technically you are not 'putting a spell into the item', you are 'creating an effect and enchanting it into the item'. You don't need to know the spell already (though its easier to create the enchantment if you have knowledge of a formulaic version). The important part of that is mentally, it reminds me the item is casting the effect - A personal targeted Ward Against Wood is going to protect the item, not the wielder or wearer.
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Thanks again for all the help.
Argentius is open for commissions and suggestions!
I've slotted in a couple of lesser enchantment seasons into Argentius's seasonal plan and am wide open to ideas. The intention is for these to be more about making something for the Covenant than for himself or his own private gain.
Just so we're not wasting your time - Do you know what's the max lab total you're able to achieve for a given TechForm, assuming magical focus applies and optimal S&M?
Here's where I think my lab fundamentals are for enchanting:
Lab Score Foundation: 23
MT 5
Aura 8
Lab Specialization - Enchant 2
Optimal S+M+P 5
Inventive Genius 3
If Jewelry: 29 + Focus
Craft Jewelry 6
Minor Magical Focus (2x lowest art score)
If Verditius Rune(s), see artificer.
Basically, if it's an enchanted item, attuned, or talisman then up to 2 runes, T + F, can be added during opening which allows for doubling of the art score or tripling of the lower score given the minor magical focus and jewelry.
Lab specialization may also apply as follows: Intellego 4, Imaginem 1, Perdo 1.
Current Arts Scores (Autmn 1289):
| Hermetic Arts | Score |
|---|---|
| Creo | 10 |
| Intellego | 5 |
| Muto | 6 |
| Perdo | 5 |
| Rego | 5 |
| Animal | 0 |
| Auram | 0 |
| Aquam | 0 |
| Corpus | 0 |
| Herbam | 3 |
| Ignem | 0 |
| Imaginem | 2 |
| Mentem | 0 |
| Terram | 5 |
| Vim | 3 |
Please let me know if you see something in error or missing. Thanks!
Note that though Verditius Elder Runes is 2xArt, it's effectively 2x-5, because using it increases the effect level by 5. But you can use it on both, as long as it's not one of the missing ones (Muto, Terram, Imaginem). You also get +2 for matching the wood type and you can increase max vis per season to (Magic Theory)x(Philosophiae) [instead of 2xMagic Theory].
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I've been thinking of a less ambitious version of Bartomeus' farming enchantment, here: OOC chat - #578 by Bartomeus
Does this seem legit?
The Bloom Stick
This nondescript almond tree branch, when used to draw a circle or circumscribe an existing one, ensures that the plants within it grow well as long as the circle remains unbroken.
CrHe base 1, R: touch +1, Target: circle, Duration: Ring +2, 50 uses per day for +6 levels = level 10
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Yes, this seems perfectly legit
Would the plants affected provide nourishment if eaten (or their fruits eaten)? I'm unclear, since you are affecting existing plants, rather than creating new plants. If you are effectively just protecting existing plants, then the food would be nutritious, I suppose.
Core p.136
Any food created is nutritious only if the
creation is a ritual
Ahh I know the answer to this one!
In most interpretations I've seen, spells to grow a plant to full maturity and produce fruiting bodies will count as true nutrition, unlike a duration Creo Herbam spell. (I know some people will also say that the growing plant will suck a full years of nutrients out of the soil as part of growing, because it's not creating out of nothing)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure raccoonmask is right. The logic is, I suppose, that food created with creo herbam is not permanent unless ritual. It's permanent if you just give it's growth a boost rather than creating ex nihilo, though.
Using the same logic for Creo Corpus healing spells.
"Heal the wound" spells will not last unless Vis is spent, but spells that give a temporary increase to healing rolls would.
Very nice. I like it! Now the name... Argentius is going to want something with a little more flourish, I think:
The Hoe of the Happy Harvest
The Farming Fork of Fecundity
The Baton of Bountiful Blooming
The Bloom Spade
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