Familiar Bond Enchantment Exceptions

Games Discussion Ars Magica
21

OK, how about this:

A maga may, at any time, invest powers in the familiar bond. This is a laboratory activity, and the rules are based on those for investing a power in an invested device, with the following modifications.

There is no limit to the number of powers which may be invested in a familiar.

The maga gets no bonus to the Lab Total from other effects already invested in the familiar. Instead, she gets +5 if the effect matches either the Technique or Form used to bind the familiar, and +10 if it matches both.

Powers are limited to effects which target the maga, the familiar, or both.

The benefits of Verditius Mysteries do not add to the Lab Total. The Mystery has nothing to do with familiars.

If the enchantment affects only the maga, it is activated by and under the control of the familiar. If it affects only the familiar, it is activated by and under the control of the maga. This means that no effects in a familiar bond can use environmental triggers. For the use of effects enchanted into the familiar bond, the maga and familiar are always considered to be touching one another, and the bond touches both of them.

Foci that cover the familiar apply to the investment of all powers, no matter what they do. Foci that cover the power apply as normal.

Every time the magus invests a power in the bond both the magus and the familiar take on some minor characteristic of the other. This is a purely cosmetic effect, but should be stronger the more powerful the effect.

While this process does produce a Laboratory Text, that text only applies to investing the power into the bond of this magus and familiar, and thus is rarely of any use to anyone, including the magus who creates it.

One very important benefit of enchanting a power into the familiar bond is that the power does not cause Warping (page @@) as a constant mystical effect.

All other rules, such as level calculations, effect modifications, and vis costs, are the same as for investing a power in an invested device.

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22

Well, as I said, I'm not positive yet about all these other things that are being reclassified as modifications. I pointed out the one really obvious one. I'd have to check the others.

23

The only one I can see that might be an issue is the reference to foci, and that sentence can be moved down into the final paragraph. That puts it after the statement that everything else is the same, and leaves open whether a Focus in ships applies to investing any power whatever in a ship. Strictly speaking, it leaves it open in the current case as well, because the power is invested in the bond not the familiar, and so the Focus would not apply.

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24

There is that. The other spots I see with Foci besides "ships" are "wooden wands" in HoH:MC, where it's a Focus that is unlikely to be use at all unless this rule applies, and the Living Ghost in TMRE, where it seems to suggest all those example Foci apply regardless of the choice of Arts used.

But I was also looking at the note for Laboratory Texts. Normally when enchanting items the objects must be the same shape and material. This probably still leaves enough wiggle room not to cause problems, since if you have the same sex animal of the same type bound to the same sex human we might be able to say the shapes and materials match. But if we can't say that, then this also would not be a modification.

The really big one was that last paragraph I already mentioned. The other two paragraphs are really Familiar-specific so definitely don't create problems elsewhere.

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Separately, you added:

This means that no effects in a familiar bond can use environmental triggers.

I have two notes about this:

  • This is also a change. You used to be able to use environmental triggers so long as you were instilling an effect that affected both the mage and the familiar together so that it didn't fall under either of these activation rules.
  • This still doesn't rule out Sun or Moon, which is heavily implied among the descriptions of the example powers.
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25

I am not sure that's better. With that much change, some non-obvious problems may sneak in.

There are two different types of "modifications" that probably ought to remain separate.

The first are the actual changes to the regular item enchantment rules - the things where the item enchantment rules say one thing, and the rules for familiar bond enchantment say another.

Then we have some additional rules, which are a mix of things unique to familiar enchantments and clarifications on how some existing rules apply to bond enchantments.

I would suggest the following, which I think avoids both implying that the additional rules are part of the regular rules for enchanting items, while also not implying that they are all exceptions to the regular rules. (Most of the text copied from the standard rulebook, so if there have been any other changes made to the DE text, they are not included here.)

A maga may, at any time, invest powers in
the familiar bond. This is a laboratory activity,
and the rules are in general the same as those for invest-
ing a power in an invested device, with some changes.

  • There is no limit to the number of
    powers which may be invested in a familiar.
  • The maga gets no bonus to the
    Lab Total from other effects already invested in
    the familiar. Instead, she gets +5 if the effect
    matches either the Technique or Form used to
    bind the familiar, and +10 if it matches both.
  • Powers are limited to effects
    which target the maga, the familiar, or both.
  • The benefits of Verditius Mysteries
    do not add to the Lab Total. The Mystery has
    nothing to do with familiars.

Investing a power into the bond costs the
same as investing a power into an enchanted
device: one pawn of vis for every ten levels, or
fraction, of the effect. As usual, this vis must match the
Technique or Form of the effect.

When investing a power into the familiar bond the following also applies:

  • If the enchantment affects only the maga,
    it is under the control of the familiar. If it
    affects only the familiar, it is under the control
    of the maga. For the use of effects enchanted
    into the familiar bond, the maga and familiar
    are always considered to be touching one
    another.
  • Foci that cover the familiar apply to the
    investment of all powers, no matter what they
    do. Foci that cover the power apply as normal.
  • Every time the magus invests a power in
    the bond both the magus and the familiar take
    on some minor characteristic of the other. This
    is a purely cosmetic effect, but should be
    stronger the more powerful the effect.
  • While the process does produce a
    Laboratory Text, that text only applies to
    investing the power into the bond of this
    magus and familiar, and thus is rarely of any use
    to anyone, including the magus who creates it.
26

Apologizing for the nitpicking, I think that the information of who can activate and control powers that affect both the maga and the familiar is missing (as it was in the original ArM5 text) incidentally making the (new) bolded text a non-sequitur.

27

Trying to tidy up and clarify was clearly a mistake, and I should have known that in advance. I'll make the minimum change (delete the actual error and renumber), but everything else will stay as is. It could be clearer, but it isn't wrong.

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28

@David_Chart , just out of curiosity, how did you envisage activation and control of effects affecting both magus and familiar (rather than those affecting only one of the two, which are activated/controlled by the other)?

It seems you had something in mind, since you were ruling out environmental triggers. Perhaps both the magus and the familiar can, individually, choose to activate such powers (and whoever activates the power can then control it)?

And could you also provide the briefest rationale behind this mechanic (and the one "if it affects X, then Y controls it")?

29

My thought on that, not that my thought is anything official, is that is the most consistent with the activation rules for magic items. Normally the wielder must activate the effect on the item. The only things connected to the bond are the Familiar and the mage, so nothing else should be able to activate such an effect. The mage would be the wielder of effects on the Familiar, and the Familiar would be the wielder of effects on the mage.

This seems extremely consistent with the rest of the item rules. It just falls apart with effects on both of them, which should also then not be able to use environmental triggers, and were probably left out for two decades on an oversight.

30

Having enchantments on the familiar Bond be triggered by the environment would surely beg the question: Which environment? The wizard and familiar could be continents apart, where even astronomic triggers may not synch up.

I'm sure one might argue for either the wizard's or the familiar's immediate environment... and neither one of those is actually the thing that's been enchanted. The Bond is enchanted, and it doesn't have an environment since it isn't a physical thing that could be in an environment. It would need a lot more wordsmithing to work out how an environmental trigger would actually function.

31

Yes, and this is already a problem with things like AotH. If one is inside and one is outside, which rules do you consider the effect to have to follow?

32

Other people have covered most of it.

The other point is that the familiar bond is fundamentally a mutual thing, and it is symbolically appropriate have Y activate powers that affect X.

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33

Just doing a survey here would reveal that it is a rule that is very often ignored. May look good on symbology but no one can play the activation of powers of a creatures that is supposed to better understand you than you do yourself. The burden for a PC to always have to think of the familiar and how it would do XYZ to ensure that the one time the power is needed, it gets activated by the other party is too heavy. Better to have it activated by any party as a house rule as otherwise it is too heavy burden.

W

34

the party or the SG, which depending on the animal you are bound to could get amusing. We're all familiar with "I'm cold, put on a coat" from parents, imagine this from an intelligent animal's perspective. Your cat familiar goes into heat (or smells a female cat in heat, depending) and suddenly your reaction boosting effect turns on...

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