I like the flavor text of a lot of the mysteries in The Mysteries Revised Edition, but find the mechanics to often be…. problematic. So - do you find Spell Binding problematic? Do you think the mechanics can be improved?
It’s boring
My biggest problem with spell binding is that it doesn’t use the rich airy spirit provided in Realms of Power: Magic. The spirit’s nature is only reflected in a wizard-sigil-like change in the bound spell.
The text does say the spirit can be bargained with to release it, but this is a throw-away line. I think it should be the opposite - this should be the focus of the virtue!
It’s weak
Spell Binding allows you to sustain a spell indefinitely by imprisoning a spirit in a container. To do this, you need to invent a Ritual spell (of the spell’s level), cast it, invent the Formulaic spell you want to sustain, cast it, find the spirit you want to use, and coerce it to enter the container (probably using yet another spell, which must penetrate its Might).
Compare this to just enahnting a lesser enchanted device. You need to invent the effect, and invest the raw vis. In so-doing, you get to enjoy bonuses to your Lab Total, that you don’t get to your casting total, so the cost of making the effect permanent is probably offset. This is simpler, and takes about the same time as inventing that Ritual spell above. You don’t need to find the spirit, coerce it, or invent the spell you want to sustain.
Now, the benefit of Spell Binding is that once you have invented the Ritual, you are more flexible - able to create those “lesser encahnted devices” on the spot for any spell (of the right Form) you happen to already know. This can have its uses, but it does cost raw vis and 15 minutes per magnitude so it’s costly and you can’t do it in combat.
Ironically, a main use, getting the spirit to maintain Concentration for you, is explicitly nerfed.
I just think it would be a very, very rare ocassion when casting the Ritual to sustain a spell (and finding and coercing the right spirit) would be desirable, yet spending a season to create a lesser enchanted device would not be.
It’s not binding
Compare this with the Goetic Art of Binding (a Major virtue). You can bind a spirit to a person or object. This offers several benefits.
- By touching the object, you gain Magic Resistance.
- After binding an object, you can invest a season to make an object into an intem prepared for enchantment.
- If a spirit is bound to you, you gain Magic Resitance, plus you gain an Affinity with its higher Abilities, and can learn a Superantural Abilitiy more easily, plus you can learn to use its Powers, plus it acts as a longevity ritual.
Now, I’m not suggesting we touch that binding-a-spirit-to-you thing. That’s Infernal stuff. And gaining Magic Resistance is also a no-no.
BUT - spending a season to turn the object into a prepared item is a simple and often-useful benefit (you don’t need to use Vim vis), which is already established as being a big part of what “Binding” is about.
It’s kinda broken
The binding Ritual spell needs to have the spell’s level. It doesn’t need to have the spirit’s Might level, or to penetrate its Magic Resistance.
So you could invent a level 5 imprisoning spell, use it to “sustain” a level 5 cosmetic spell, and then use this container to imprison a Might 50 spirit.
Now, you’ll need to trick that Might 50 spirit into the container. Or to coerce it with magic, which would require penetrating its Magic Resistance.
But still, this is just not how things are supposed to work, IMO. If you build a prison that can hold a Might 50 spirit, it should be correspondingly powerful.
It ignores Hermetic binding
Hermetic magic can already imprison spirits with ReFo 25 formulaic (non-Ritual) Ring-duration spells, like Voices from Hollow Places. This isn’t the same as sustaining a spell, but does set a precedent for binding that the virtue should harken to.
My Suggestion
Use a ReFo formulaic non-Ritual spell [level 25: B5+2 voice +2 as Ring] as the imprisoning spell. This is similar to Hermetic binding, and means the imprisonment spell needs to penetrate Magic Resistance to force the spirit into the container.
Formalize the bargaining: unless the SG decides otherwise, it takes a round to bargain, and then in the next round the container is broken (this is the PC's action in the round) and the spirit activates one of its Powers (once), and then it flees to freedom. This allows the spirit’s nature and Powers to express themselves, bringing in all the richness that RoP:M provides. And sets a clear default to clarify the virtue's benefit and effects.
Limit the number of containers, for game balance and sanity: say he can have as many as Leadership of them. This is quite arbitrary, but I think it's necessary to not let the magus accumualte hundreds of bound spirits.
All of this is really as per Hermetic binding, formalized for ease of use and game balance/sanity. But the virtue should also provide an actual benefit. This could be either to sustain a spell, as above, or to allow non-Vim preparation, as in Binding.
Option A: Sustain a Spell, allows two options:
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The bargain may be to sustain a spell, instead of using a Power. The mystery's magic allows the spirit to expand its Might Pool to sustain a spell. This extends the duration of Momentary or Diameter spells, or maintains Concentration on Concentration-duration spells, for up to 15 minutes per Might magnitude. Then the spirit's power is spent, and it flees to freedom. The spirit's Might must equal or exceed the spell's level.
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The spirit can be coerced to use its Might to sustain a spell idefinitely. This requires expending Might/5 pawns when casting the imprisonment spell on it, and for the spirit's Might to equal or exceed the spell's level. The spirit then sustains the spell idefinitely.
Option B: Item Preparation:
By spending a season in the lab, and investing Might/5 pawns of Form vis, the magus can transmute the filled container. He can treat it as an item prepared to enchantment with a number of pawns equal to the spirit's Might/5. This allows him to effectively prepare items for enchantment (for himself only) using the spirit's Form vis, rather than Vim vis.
I prefer this latter option, item preparation. It evokes the Goetic Art of Binding, creating a nice coherence as to what "binding" means in-setting.