Constant Effect versus Concentration

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

My character has a large mirror hanging in her laboratory. Invested device, silver, large, 6*4 = 24 vis to open.

It seemed obvious to throw an item version of Eternal Repetition in a Bottomless Pool (Cov 101) into it. +1 level for an additional use per day, in case I want to work late into the night, and we're fine, right? Except that as a Lvl 35 effect, this D:sun spell causes warping to my target book every day that I use it to study a summa. So instead of letting me study from an ancient texts while they're safely stored somewhere else, this spell is actually damaging my book!

Okay, so what if I make the "accept commands" a separate part of the mirror? This would be doubly useful, since I'm cough cough absolutely NOT planning to enchant a bunch of other scrying spells in there later.

"Comprehend the Hidden Command", MRB 99
InMe Base 15: Read Surface Thought, +1 Touch +1 Conc +5L item maintains = InMe 30

And now my version of Eternal Repetition drops 2 magnitudes for "accept commands", and goes from D:Sun to D:Conc/item maintains, and +3L for Linked Trigger. CrIg 28 -- just barely under the threshhold for causing warping.

But what happened to that extra use/day? As a Dur:Sun spell, I needed at least 1 extra use/day to be able to use it all day and night. The description of Concentration effects in MRB 99 says that "item maintains concentration" effects will fade at sunrise/sunset "unless the user maintains concentration," so do I still need an extra use per day? Or can I just require the user to concentrate on retaining the spell at sunset?

If I need the +1level, then doesn't "Comprehend the Hidden Command" need an extra level too? Except that it is book published and there is no errata for it.

Tangent: Instead of Touch, can I use Eye to mean that you have to be looking directly into the mirror to give it a command? That would make it easy to booby-trap later with some "Detect Enemy/Cast Offensive Spell" magic that was also R:Eye.

Also, the "Assassin's Bell" (HProj pg 82) gives an interesting twist. It enchants the bell to actually give it a sense of hearing. Can I use InIm in a similar fashion to allow my mirror to accept verbal commands by giving it a sense of hearing? How would that work?

+2 D:Sun, +3 T: Hearing +4L for constant effect, but what's my base? Base 1, for using 1 sense at a distance?

2

We changed warping so that you are warped by the BASE of the spell, not by all the extras added to it. Affecting a group does not make the spell more powerful, just larger. Base 20 or more is our warp treshold. For some arts it works better than for others, but it is more consistent than a level 25 spell not warping you, but if the same spell is cast for you and your friends at the same time suddenly all of you sprout donkey ears.

Cheers,
Xavi

3

First, level 28 is 6th magnitude, which would normally cause warping. Second, things like Linked Trigger, Effect Frequency, Penetration, etc. do not count toward many other things that check the level/magnitude of the spell (such as MuVi), and I don't see why Warping would be any different.

Chris

4

Warping caused by magic items, I'm fairly certain, is based off the effect level, not the enchantment level. For example, if you made an item that casts The Beast Remade (MuAn 25), but added uses/day, specific user, etcetera, to get the final enchantment level to (say) 35, it would not cause Warping.

The problem with trying to not warp the book on the other end of Eternal Repetition in a Bottomless Pool is that you would either have to drop the Duration to Momentary (since Concentration is still a +1, which would make the Effect Level 30), or reduce the Range to something less than Arcane Connection, which greatly diminishes its utility.

5

You can get away with reducing the range down to touch, which drops the final spell level significantly.

Bottomless Pool becomes CrIm 20 at touch range, so you only need a level 20 Intangible Tunnel effect. Of course, the intangible tunnel effect has other benefits too - you can put further enchantments in your item that make use of the tunnel.

You could make the tunnel of Diameter duration or make it momentary and put a linked trigger in for Bottomless Pool. The Tunnel effect only needs to be open long enough for the Bottomless Pool effect to be activated, it doesn't have to last the full duration.

End result: the final effect still only costs 4p for 1/day. If you change the Bottomless Pool effect to concentration duration and have it as 'item maintains' then the item user only needs to concentrate at sunset/sunrise to preserve the effect and you've overcome the 'at night' problem.

Final vis cost is the same. Intangible Tunnel effect might be useful for other things, too. And furthermore you only need a lab total of 40 to invest each effect in one season (or 30 for two) - rather than 80+ for the one-effect version!

6

This is brilliant. Especially for a mirror that I am cough cough absolutely not going to put additional scrying enchantments on.

7

Totally.