I am moving here most elements regarding Muto Corpus granting abilities or disabilities.
[callen]
Since we're starting to see a lot of "major abilities" showing up in MuCo, I'd suggested we try a poll here to see where people would put them. However, I have taken note that an "additional limb" is considered a "major ability" in canon (in contrast to examples of a "minor ability," and we do have a canonical Base for adding a limb (MuCo 5). So we can probably just go with MuCo 5 for consistency there and include a note that troupes might change this.
[Ezechiel3571]
I was not able to find the guideline for Major Ability, can you point me towards a spell that use it or the guidelines ?
My pitch to differentiate between minor and major abilities:
Minor:
Does it help you perform better something that you are naturally able to do ?
Does it grant you a bonus lower or equal to +3 ?
Major:
Everything else.
Obviously, I have not considered all weird transformations, so let's discuss this. If we can get to something relatively simple, with minimal judgment call, that would be swell
Ex: eyes of the cat: improve your eyesight (significantly), still within minor change, but human can see a bit in the dark (not complete darkness)
Breathing under-water: major ability, human cannot "slightly breath" underwater.
Hear of the bat, that will depend on the Medieval paradigm. Modern understanding of echo-sonar clearly put it within Major abilities, but if medieval paradigm set it within superior hearing, human will have superior hearing (but no echo-location).
Characteristics of natural weapons are handled by:
callen
Well, ArM5 already takes much of this into account Claws and Large Claws have weapon statistics. Beings of bigger Size (body mass) have more Strength (even though the scaling should be more than +2 per +1 Size), and Strength (both from Size and baseline differences) adds on to damage. Skill applies through Attack Advantage. ArM5 just doesn't cap damage.
But the guideline regarding what is granted remains mostly unclear.
Should be take the base level for Corpus/Animal transformation with the T:Part ? But it does not work with existing canon spell (Eyes of the Cat for example) ?
Should we way: minor ability (granting up to +3 bonus to some action) is using base line 2, everything else is handled by the type of animal it is borrowing from, with T:Part ?
And the following question, how to we handled disabilities ? Especially when a disabilities is temporary. Mom, disabilities can easily be handled by Perdo Corpus, but if it is possible to shrink somebody arm to make it useless, it should be possible to make him deaf, mute or blind, yet guidelines are rather empty on this topic.
I was sure arm of the infant was Perdo, or at least has a requisite, but no. I thought with spell design, which technique and form to use, the intent was most important, however, arm of the infant disagrees. It does meet the level 3 guideline "utterly change the size or appearance of a person".
A spell that turns eyes to water. Is it muto corpus with an aquam requisite? If so, well, you don't need more than duration ring. After 2 minutes it doesn't matter that the water returns to an eye, it's not in the socket. You've got a level 20 incantation of the milky eye, but harder to heal as there is no eye.
I know it's core rule book, but I consider arm of the infant feels wrong.
No. Incantation of the Milky Eye is PeCo Base 20, +2 voice. Turning someone's eyes to water would be MuCo(Aq) Base 30, +2 voice, +1 part. I'm okay if it's better at the cost of 3 magnitudes and a requisite.
The issue is more for a spell like: Remove the eyes of the target.
The only guideline available would be 5 (add or remove body parts).
So it would be D: Sun (+2), T: Part (+1), R: Voice (+2), for a final MuCo 30.
The outcome is a blind person for the duration of the spell.
Any crippling Muto Corpus not involving any other Form should follow this guideline, and the level will be adjusted for duration and range - most likely Target will remain Part.
There are other guidelines of higher level towards other form, like 30 for Auram, which basically means the spell disintegrate a body part. I have no issue with this since the end level is high to be close to various killing spell (D: Mom (enough to trigger death), T: Part, R: Voice (+2)), MuCo 40 to turn the head of the target to air and have it blown away by the wind... at least if my understanding is correct.
Agreed. I misunderstood that one greatly.
As long as the guidelines don't have "inflict a minor disability" then one can't even do an "eyes of the badger" kind of spell as that would be in perdo.
Kill spells such as creating transform to water or cloak of mist without the maintain cohesion part, are high enough level not to be a problem.
A lot of minor disabilities for a period of time could use PeCo Base 4: Cause a person pain, but do no real damage, along with a Duration. For example, eyes could hurt from light, making it very hard to see well. Etc.
I think a lot of the 'Muto that explicitly hurts people' should definitely be based on Perdo requisites. The 'turn eyes to water' example is good, so is 'transform their head to sand' as a means of killing. Those spells usually involve Part. If the disability is less destructive and more obnoxious, I would say it's Muto just fine.. if it's going to kill or cripple it should inovlve the Perdo requisite (or be primarily perdo?). If you need a more thematic reason, it's because to turn their eyes (only) to water and have them splash out, you need to somehow sever the connection between the eyes and the body.
...it [Muto magic] ... kill her indirectly by turning her into fish on dry land...."
So would it means that turning somebody eyes to water to blind is doable, but turning his head into sand so it naturally flows down and kills him is not (without a Perdo requisit ) ?
I am also struggling with the part (paraphasing) that Muto cannot remove natural properties but can add other properties to mask the natural one.
Does it means that straight Muto Corpus to seal someone mouth shut is not possible, but instead, to make him unable to speak, make his tongue grows ten times is appropriate.
On the other hand it contradicts - I believe - "Add or remove human body parts..." (MoH), which is in a sourcebook, thus complement the core guideline.
Base on this guideline, removing someone tongue to prevent him to speak would be MuCo 25 Curse of the Unruly Student, (D:Diam, R: Voice, T: Part) or 35 for Moon duration, compare to Twist of the Tongue PeCo 30, with Momentary duration, which can be healed.
The importance of ArM5 p.78 Muto (Mu) "I transform" is, that Muto is fundamentally different in the way it achieves its effects. It uses continuous magic to change/add/remove properties by overlaying these to the unchanged natural properties that remain underneath.
Thus, Muto magic must always be maintained, ...
See ArM5 p.79 The Limit of Essential Nature.
The examples on p.78 show, that the world around can interact with the Mutoed being/thing, also damaging, dispersing and even destroying it - but such deleterious effects are more dependent on the context, and can typically be countered by changing the environment.
Otherwise Pe and Mu effects can be equally damaging and destructive.
