So, if someone were, for unspecified reasons, trying to rationalise the rules for craft magic without contradicting anything already written in the rules, they might, hypothetically, come up with something like the following. Is there anything wrong with this? "Asking for a friend…"
Hermetic magic can create a wide range of things. Natural objects, such as boulders, plants, or animals, can be created with Creo magic. Unless the caster botches the spell, the result is always a good example of that sort of thing. The caster may make an Intelligence + Finesse roll to add or control details, such as the shape of a tree’s branches or the color of an animal’s fur, within the normal range for such things. A failure on the Finesse roll just means that the caster does not get the desired details; the created thing is still a good example of the sort of thing it is. Even a botch on the Finesse roll does not make the creation a bad example of what it is, but it does create something as far from the caster’s desire as possible. If she was trying to create a tree to block a hole in a wall, for example, a botched Finesse roll might mean that the tree makes more of the wall collapse, making the hole even larger and easier to get through. The tree, however, is still a perfectly good tree.
Artificial items, such as tables, robes, and buildings, are a bit more complex. They can be created from nothing, using Creo magic, or from raw materials, using Rego magic. The advantage of working with natural raw materials is that a Momentary spell creates a lasting item: the changes are made in a moment, but the raw materials do not change back when the spell expires. An item made with Creo only lasts for the duration of the spell, unless the spell was a Momentary Ritual.
Rego magic is the most straightforward. The spell rearranges the target materials in the same way as a craftsman, making a new item. Nothing is created or destroyed (without appropriate requisites), and the final product must be stable by itself. A single spell has a single effect, such as turning iron ore into finished iron ingots and slag, and does not need any tools that are not incorporated into the final product. The target of the spell is the raw materials, which means that it normally has to be Group; there are exceptions, such as a spell to create a sculpture from a block of stone. The caster must adapt the spell to the materials on hand in every case, which requires a Perception + Finesse roll. The base Ease Factor for this roll is 3 greater than the Ease Factor for a mundane craftsman carrying out the same task. If the spell covers more than one mundane task, use the highest mundane Ease Factor to calculate the base. This is also modified by the length of time the task would normally take. The base Ease Factor covers up to one day’s work for one craftsman, but longer periods of work increase the Ease Factor. This can represent one craftsman working for longer, or many craftsmen working at the same time.
Rego Craft Magic Roll: Perception + Finesse
Base Ease Factor: Highest Ease Factor for a Mundane Craftsman + 3
One day’s work for one craftsman: +0
One month’s work for one craftsman: +3
One season’s work for one craftsman: +6
One year’s work for one craftsman: +9
One month’s work for one craftsman is equivalent to thirty craftsmen all working for a single day, or two working for about two weeks, and so on. It is possible to create a spell that turns iron ore that is still in the ground into finished swords, but that would be at least a season’s worth of work by various craftsmen, and thus would have a high Ease Factor.
If the Finesse roll fails, the materials are still rearranged, but not into anything useful. The remaining pieces may well be too small to repeat the spell, but that is up to the troupe to decide. On a botch, the result normally looks right, but has a hidden and fatal flaw.
Creo craft magic is a little more involved. A spell creates a functioning version of whatever is intended, just as for natural objects. This is equivalent to a work of craft with an Ease Factor of 6. However, if the caster relies on this and does not make a Finesse roll, they have no control over the details. A Spontaneous spell creates a random instance of the sort of thing, which means that clothes, for example, may well not fit the intended target. A Formulaic or Ritual spell creates exactly the same thing every time.
When casting a Spontaneous spell, the caster may choose to make an Intelligence + Finesse roll to define the details. The most basic details have an Ease Factor of 0, for example to fix the approximate size of clothes. Fixing two or three basic details, or making more specific changes, has an Ease Factor of 3. If the specification is quite elaborate, use the same Ease Factors as for Rego craft magic.
A Formulaic or Ritual spell can be designed to allow the caster to make certain changes to the product, although this normally adds magnitudes to the spell level to account for the complexity. For example, Conjuring the Mystic Tower allows the caster to determine the layout of chambers within the tower. Simple decisions have an Ease Factor of 0, while more complex ones have higher Ease Factors. Splitting each floor of the mystic tower in two would have an Ease Factor of 0, but creating elaborate mazes would have a much higher Ease Factor, possibly 12. The caster can only change the elements that the spell design allows for; the caster cannot change the height or diameter of the mystic tower, for example.
A Finesse roll also allows the caster to create higher quality items, using the same Ease Factors as for Rego craft magic. A Formulaic or Ritual spell may be designed to allow for this, but this should add at least three magnitudes to the base level, as it creates a lot of flexibility.
Creo Craft Magic Roll: Intelligence + Finesse
Fix a Single Property: Ease Factor 0
Fix Two or Three Properties, or Fix One Precisely: Ease Factor 3
Elaborate Modifications: Same Ease Factor as Rego Craft Magic
Botching the Finesse roll for Creo craft magic creates something that hinders the caster, and it might be so badly designed that most people would have trouble saying what it was supposed to be.
No matter how much flexibility is added to a Formulaic or Ritual spell, it can still only create one type of thing, such as a sword or a stone tower.
Note that Rego craft magic uses Perception + Finesse, while Creo craft magic uses Intelligence + Finesse. This is because Rego craft magic must work with existing materials, which means that the caster must be sensitive to their properties. Creo craft magic, in contrast, creates its own materials, which means that the caster must understand how the materials need to be to achieve the desired result.