With the player, we designed this item:
small gold piercing (hold 10 pawn of vis)
root is 5 (Cr An: create animal stuff). there is also root lvl 3 (Re An: process animal stuff), but as the lvl is below 5, it doesn't count in the total.
So, lvl 5 + range: touch + duration: concentration + target: individual + rego requisite to shape the created stuff + item maintain concentration.
There is also a herbam requisite, so that clothes are not just animal stuffs, but i don't count it in the total, as it's many fashion. Yet, i count the rego requisite, because we want some tailored stuffs. The set of clothes would always look the same.
So, total for now is lvl 25. Have to add few more levels to set the number of use per day. We were thinking that the item could be activated by voice (command word). So, basically, on a command word, the item make a set of clothes to appear around the bearer, and when another command word is spoken, the magic vanish.
Does this item seems ok according to the rules? Anything we forgot?
Do you think it's reasonable to use the "ring" shape bonus (constant effect) for the piercing? (i don't remind about another shape bonus for "piercing" itself)
Whilst I have to agree that changing shape is not an environmental effect, the need for a linked enchantment is still a little daft because "a trigger can involve a command word or phrase, moving the item in a specific way (for example, waving or pointing a wand), a stance to be adopted or anything physical that you can imagine." (ArM5, p98).
Changing shape is trivially equivalent to adopting a stance, changing shape inside an item is equivalent to changing your grasp of it in most cases. Since there's nothing to stop you giving multiple effects the same trigger, you can easily have a talisman which, when you change shape, sucks up your clothing, changes shape to match you and casts a speed-boosting spell on you to aid escape.
The real advantage of a linked enchantment is that you can then give things mental commands via InMe and so have very subtle, form-independent effect activation.
As far as the clothing spell goes, creating a sun-duration cotton shift is a trivial CrHe spell, with the leather clothing and shoes option being significantly harder since creating raw leather is base 5 and processed goods more difficult still. On the other hand, the illusion of clothing ...
I know that we're getting away from the original question.
I guess I don't see why the Bjornaer would bother linking an effect like Form of the Choleric Heartbeast at all. I think he could live with it just being an effect that the he activates normally. Same with one to create clothes. There doesn't seem to be any real urgency that such effects need to be activated simultaneously with the transformation. A few seconds later seems fine. Changing the shape of item does however need to be activated simultaneously... otherwise it will either fall off or cut off his arm.
Sure, I can understand that. I guess I can't imagine too many effects that really, absolutely, must be activated right at the instant he changes form.
Who designed an effect is irrelevant for a constant effect. Constant effects always cause warping even if you designed them yourself. This is why a longevity ritual causes warping.
If it was a high power effect it wouldn't cause additional warping due to its power if it was designed explicitly for the Bjornaer. But it's not a high power effect so that doesn't matter.
I agree it seems awkward (and I might possibly rule otherwise in a saga), but that seems to be what the RAW state.
As (I think) we agree he is the target of a mystical effect. Targets of active mystical effects are resisted. Magic resistance makes no exception for what the effect is. This is why there is a pink dot loophole, for example. This is just another example of that problem.
So, yes, (although I admit I don't like it) I think that someone under the effect of an Inexorable Search should need to penetrate to punch, although only while the Inexorable Search is active.
If the Target of the spell is the village (I guess a Boundary Target), then the village is the Target of a mystical effect. So the standard warping rules apply. That is, if the effect is high power (greater than magnitude 6 = level 30), and not designed specifically for the village, then yes it causes the villagers to gain a warping point when cast. If the effect is continuous it causes the villagers to gain a warping point each year (regardless of level of effect, or who it was designed for). If it is both continuous and high level and not designed for this specific village, the villagers also gain a warping point each season.
On the other hand, if the spell is a Personal Range effect (with a Vision Target) cast on the magus, then the village is not the Target of the effect; the magus is. So, the village doesn't get warped.
Which, thinking about it, seems to suggest that a better version of Perceive the Change would be something like:
Perceive the Change 2
InAn 19
Range: Personal, Duration: Sun, Target: Touch
(Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 Touch; +4 lvl constant effect)
Senses whether the item is being worn by an animal.
This would be better (I think) as the item is the Target --- hence doesn't cause warping to the Bjornaer nor cause him pink dot style problems.
I think it can be built with a lower base effect too. "Am I being worn by an animal" seems like general information (base 3) rather than specific information (base 4), which would make it InAn 14.
Maybe the base 4 guideline would let the item sense whether it was being worn by a particular Bjornaer (in animal form) and the base 3 would just detect whether any animal was wearing it.
If you're going to be that strict, technically the species of the village are the target and so there's still no warping. I think this is one of those times where the SillyBuggers rule has to kick in. A passive effect like this shouldn't cause warping. Reading someone's mind might, but not just looking at them. In much the same way that anyone seriously using the pink-sword argument is, well, playing silly buggers.
The rules should work if they are read strictly. Whether you do or not for a particular saga isn't the issue.
If a magus was in the village would you expect his Parma to resist the effect, so that he couldn't be seen unless the Penetration was sufficient? If his Parma resists something (and fails) he must therefore be the affected by a mystical effect and take warping as appropriate.
No, I wouldn't allow his Parma to resist. A scrying spell targets the species of a thing, and the Parma in the case of a ranged scrying spell prevents them being found magically. It does not stop you seeing the species if you target their lab and look at the room, but of course doing that means that if the magus isn't there, you're buggered.
Likewise, species created by things affected by MuIm are not magical and not resisted by Parma. The easiest way to achieve invisibility to magi is not to make yourself look blue and naked, and change your voice to sound like that of a Smurf with forceless casting.