Hermetic Twinning

Help me out here, ‘cause this doesn’t feel right, although I guess it is.

I want a spell that lets the caster duplicate the appearance of someone he has an arcane connection to.

To transform himself would be a MuCo 5 (Base 3, +2 Sun). To transform someone else would be MuCo 10 (at touch range).

To gather the information he needs to exactly duplicate someone would be an InCo 25 effect (Base 5, +4 Arcane).

So, the Intellego effect is higher, and the rules say that should take preference in what sort of spell it is. But if it’s an Intellego spell, what’s the duration (the intellego only needs a moment)? And is the target of the spell the thing being sensed or the person being transformed?

Is it possible to combine this effect into one spell? Or should it just be two spells cast on top of each other, one informing the other?

Or should I not worry about the Intellego effect at all, and decide that if you have an arcane connection that gives you all the information you need about the transformation?

Any thoughts?

Disguise of the Doppelganger MuCo 25
Requisite: Intellego
Changes the caster's physical appearance to match the individual for whom they possess an Arcane connection. A Perception + Finesse roll of 9+ is required to pass off as the individual concerned to aquaintances. The storyguide may moderate the difficulty for indivduals who know the target especially well.
[B: 3, R: Arcane +4, D: Sun +2, T: Individual]
(The Intellego effect is given free as the caster still needs a Finesse roll)

There you go, a fairly reasonable version of the spell you want. I've been generous with the requisite - some storyguides might make this a lvl 30 spell.

I think that I'd be more generous than badger. I'd give the requisite penalty, I'd raise the spell another magnetude for detail and I'd put a restriction on the spell saying that it doesn't work if the spell doesn't penetrate the "image supplier's" parma. On the other hand I'd lower the range to personal. final level 15.

All fair comment ...

hehe ... very generous indeed! :wink:

RERodger said "I want a spell that lets the caster duplicate the appearance of someone he has an arcane connection to."

It seems a bit overly generous to grant that ability with a personal range spell ... I can't find an example of a spell that works over an arcane connection that doesn't have the Range +4.

Why combine the InCo and the MuCo effect into one spell at all?

A magus could more easily invent and cast two spells:
(1) an InCo spell showing him a mental image of the person related to an arcane connection (like a Co variant of InAn 5 Image of the Beast),
(2) a MuCo spell (like MuCo 5 Disguise of the New Body [R:Pers, D: Sun, T: Ind]) to change the form of a person into another human form chosen by the magus.
Note that both spells also have independent value. And better chances to penetrate Magic Resistance.

Kind regards,

Berengar

I agree with Berengar.

Traditionally I see spells submissions that have high levels and accomplish high level results. Often this is because the developer packs multiple effects into one spell. It is more efficient to break the spell up. Not only will penetration improve, but the casting level is lower and there is less chance of failure, warping, or making them a ritual that requires more time.

What about 7 league stride. The range is personal, because you are moving yourself. You can move yourself to someplace you can see ... or have an arcane connection to.

Here, you are changing yourself to look like somebody else ... range is personal. I think it could be argued that you could change yourself to look like someone you can see or have an arcane connection to.

The standard initial range for ALL spells is Personal.

The Rego Corpus Guidelines establish that at 35 lvl a target can transport instantly to a place which you have a AC.

So guidelines establish that Rego Corpus 35 is capable of such a feat.

These guidelines do not apply Muto Corpus.

Muto Corpus 3 says "utterly change the appearance or size of a person"
This occurs at Range:Personal. From this point one would have to bump the range to AC.

Badger's spell works (maybe +5 for the Intellego or for complexity), and again I like Berengar's as well.

I do not understand your post. First of all 7 league stride is a level 30 spell. Second, the muto corpus spell is affecting yourself ... so the range on the muto corpus affect is personal. The arcane connection comes in because of the intelligo affect you need to gather the information for the spell (at least according to earlier postings). I think an arguement could be made that no intelligo affect is necessary. The arguement would be framed as follows. Consider 7 league stride. Normally you can jump up to 7 leagues away ... to any place you can see. However, if you have an arcane connection ... you can jump to a place that you can't see (if it is within 7 leagues). Now consider this spell. Level 10 muto corpus. You can change yourself to look like anyone you can see. However, if you have an arcane connection to someone you can instead change yourself to look like that person. So, perhaps you don't need the intelligo at all. I believe the original poster mentioned this as a posability. Whether to require the intelligo affect (in my opinion) is a judgement call.

I would use the answer to the following question as a guide.
Can you use 7-league stride to jump to a location that is within range if you have never been there (perhaps I should add safely) ...

Badger asked for an example of a spell that worked through an arcane connection and I gave one.

With good reason, rereading my post I can't even justify what I was thinking. Old man going crazy?

I would still maintain seperate spells. My version of the Muto Corpus spell would be as follows:

Muto Corpus Base 3 R: Per D:Sun +2 T:Ind +1AC
One must have an Arcane Connection to cast the spell, because of this I don't think a Fin roll for accuracy of the impersonation is necessary.
Final Lvl: 10

Not a bad spell.

I think the best way to do it would be in Imaginem.

Mirror image of the Other
MuIm(Co) 10
(Base 3, +0 Per, +2 Sun, +0 Ind, +1 Corpus Rq.)

You take on the looks & voice of someone that you can see & hear. As the species get in contact with your spell, the transformation takes place over a moment. Close investigation will reveal that you are in fact the exact reflextion of the mimicked target.

Should you get close enough to acquire the touch and smell species of the target, you can also intergrate those aspects to your disguise.

To change the carrired equipement and clothes, casting requisites are required (Te,An,He,Aq).

Similar spell :smiley:isguise of the Tansformed Image (P.146)

NB. From the Imaginem guidelines, it says that it has some issues with creating a touch illusion. That is why I used Imaginem for looks, smell & Voice only. The Corpus requisite actually changes physically the caster so that the caster feels (touch) the same way as the mimicked person.

NB2. Should you have another spell to gather those species for you, you could also make use of those. Hence if you had a cristal ball that gathered all the species for you, you could assume the wanted identity from far away.

W

Oh yes! hehe ... no idea how I didn't notice that!

Hmm ... so when should you use R: Arcane Connection +4?

I guess when you are attempting to affect or determine something about the target by virtue of the AC. If the spell only affects the caster (like 7 league stride), then R: Personal is sufficient.

As for the doppelganger spell - this is easier when you split up the spell (as Berengar sensibly suggests) - or using Imaginem (as William suggests) but if you are determined to get the Corpus effect from one spell, then I think my previous suggestion would work. You'd still need the R: AC +4 for the Intellego component of the spell.