I've been trying to create an imaginem based magus for the first time and I've been having some difficulties with the spell guidelines. Perhaps the members of the forum can help me reach a better understanding.
My issue is with the granularity required for the spell effects - does the Magus needs to create a different kind of spell for each type of object he would like to create?
let's say our Magus, Parnasus, has invented a level 4 creo Im spell for creating a figment of a small object (base 1 for sight, +2 voice, +1 diameter).
A. can Parnasus use the same spell for creating an image of a coin, a chair, and a mug of ale?
B. let's take the same spell and increase it to target: room. can the same spell be used for creating a stack of coins, several coins on the same table, or a coin in each corner of the room? can the entire room now contain multiple figments of the Magus desires (basically redecorating it), and can those figment shapes be decided upon when the spell is cast?
C. spell increased to target: structure. can it be used to create a figment of a bridge as well as a figment of a small house? a tower?
D. what about a spell for creating a figment of an animal and a person? i know that there are two different spells for this, but couldn't phantasm of the human form (or similar base level spell) also create a figment of an animal? or an object? it seemed a bit odd to me to divide these spells based on forms (i.e, corpus, animal, terram, etc).
i have some other (bigger) confusions about species, but i'll leave that for another thread
Looking at other CrIm spells, I would say you get to "create" one thing per invented spell. The most "dynamic" CrIm spell seems to be Phantasmal Animal, which will allow you to "create an image of any animal or beast up to the size of a pony (+1).". It looks like a legacy, too. So, maybe for your needs, +1 mag for complexity (changeable within a category) and +2 mag (changeable within a size)? Probably Finesse is going to come into play as well, depending on how dynamic you are trying to be......
Indeed. Spells are fairly locked in what they do. Fortunatly, Imaginem effects generally have fairly low base values, so the classical illusionist should work much better with spontaneous magic I think.
I agree with the previous posters: from the examples given, the level of specificity seems one such that:
a single spell can create the illusion of any animal
a single spell can create the illusion of any human
a single spell can create the illusion of any building
a single spell can create the illusion of any tool or weapon
etc.
Obviously all spells are subject to the usual size limitations.
Keep in mind that you cannot use CrIm to create multiple illusions with Room or Structure target -- only Individual or Group (see Targets and Creo, ArM5 p.113). In the case of Group, yes, you can probably choose the exact number of figments, and you can certainly place them where you want with the limitation that they should still fit as a "Group" (see the definition of Group, ArM5 p.113).
Also please not that you could probably make the image of a pile of coins as a single individual, though the one couldn't pick up the "coins" nor otherwise seperate the pile unless T: Group had been used.
