Could a Familiar deliver Touch spells for his magus?

[EmirikolTheChaotic]

Since there are going to be 2-3 magi with familiars in my new game, I know this is going to come up.

Could a magus devise a MuVi spell that would allow their familiar to deliver Touch range spells for them?

If not, why not? I need some kind of justification to give to my players, and I can't think of any mechanical reasons why this wouldn't work.

If so, would the spell below be appropriate?

Touch of the Familiar
MuVi General
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual

By means of this spell, a magus can deliver Touch range spells through his familiar's contact with a target.
The magus must be able to see both his familiar and the target of the spell he wishes it to deliver.
The spell to be delivered by the familiar must be equal or less than the level of this spell.

I'm not sure if something like this would need to be fast-cast or require special timing involving a stress roll of some kind.

[Andrew_W]

I wouldn't see any major issues buidling an intangible tunnel into the familiar bond.

They already are considered in touch range with each other.

A

[ExarKun]

The bond allows touch range spells.

If you cast an intangible tunnel, the first and actual target (with lower t) will be the familiar.

Spells could affect anything (CrIg big fire... Creo tempest...) but not something the familiar touches... save if you have Mutantum magic, since you can transfer the spell.

In fact, what you want to do is a part of the breakthrough that would consist on integrating mutantum magic in the normal hermetic magic.

[EmirikolTheChaotic]

@Andrew W

I wouldn't see any major issues buidling an intangible tunnel into the familiar bond.

Except you can only put MuVi effects into an enchanted device if the MuVi effect is meant to affect another power in that device.

[Mark_Shirley]

@EmirikolTheChaotic

Since there are going to be 2-3 magi with familiars in my new game, I know this is going to come up.

Could a magus devise a MuVi spell that would allow their familiar to deliver Touch range spells for them?

There may be ways of doing this without MuVi. Chapter 6 of RoP:F gives some interesting RDT for use with faerie effects. Some of these could be suborned for the use of Hermetic Magic (remember, the RDT in ArM5 are not the only ones available).

Firstly there is Range: Prop

Prop (Range): This is the same level as Touch. The caster touches the target with something that she is also touching. If the prop is too large for the caster to carry, the effect must include additional magnitudes for its size. For example, to affect a target through a wall upon which both target and caster stand would likely add two or three magnitudes to the rite.

Since a Familiar and his magus are always considered at Range Touch, you might allow that the two are touching (I know that these are not strictly equivalent), and therefore the familiar acts as a prop. R: Prop might only work for inanimate objects as intermediaries; that would be an SG/Troupe call even if this effect is allowed in the first place.

Next there is Target: Medium

Medium (Target): The effect is held by a medium for the duration of the effect and passed on to an applicable target as soon as it comes within range. When the target is removed from the medium, the effect is interrupted, but as long as the duration continues, the medium can affect another target that comes into range of the effect. For example, a R: Touch rite might target a person, but use an animal as a medium, so that the caster must touch the animal, and when the animal touches another person, the spell is cast on that person. The caster must have an applicable Sympathy Trait for the medium as well as the target, and it must be within range of the caster when the rite is performed. This is the same level as Part.

The requirement for an applicable Sympathy Trait is more of a problem here, since that isn't part of Hermetic magic. However, if you wanted to permit these effects you could hand-wave it away.

I generally bump a variant spell parameter up one magnitude from versions that are granted by a Virtue; and I consider these non-Hermetic parameters equivalent. Thus if I allowed this tactic, Prop would be equivalent to Voice Range (+2 mags) and Medium would be equivalent to Room Target (also +2 mags).

So, if you wanted to deliver your Pilum of Fire through your familiar, you need it to be R: Voice, T: Medium. As soon as someone comes within Voice Range then they are affected by the Pilum. However, you would need Duration on this effect if there wasn't someone already within Voice Range (I would rule that since the spell creates one fire, the Sun Duration would not allow the familiar to keep blasting people until the sun sets). Even without added Duration, the spell would still have a greater range - if your familiar is 15 paces from you, and your enemy is 15 paces from your familiar, all in a nice straight line, then your familiar could be used as a leapfrog to boost the spell a greater distance.

Cheers,

Mark

[dwightemarsh]

I would think Touch of the Familiar should be a ReVi spell rather than a MuVi spell, since you are not changing the spell, you are only changing how it gets there. Opening the Intangable Tunnel is a ReVi spell and this seems merely to be a special case.