This magus appears on p86 of TCI. He just declared Wizard's War on one of my PCs, who has found himself thrust into the role of Chief of the Hibernian Beast-mages. I have two questions for playtesters who may have had input on the character. Other opinions are of course also welcome.
Igneous has a unique spell which creates a Boundary target wall of fire. According to his text, he uses this spell to trap macgnimartha and other raiders inside the covenant, then kill them. A boundary spell must be ritual and adds +4 magnitudes. Duration Sun adds +2. Since the wall of fire is deadly enough that raiders do not cross it even when pursued, let's call it +20 damage for Base 15. A CrIg 45 ritual takes over two hours to cast. How is this useful when the covenant is raided?
Igneous is 87 years old and has an apparent age of 62. Even with Difficult Longevity Ritual, Igneous is aging very poorly for a Hermetic magus. He's described as powerful in his specialization, so I do not think he was a latecomer to the Order. I was wondering if anyone involved with the book might be able to add more detail. Did Igneous perhaps not get a longevity ritual until he was already old? Is he just really unlucky? Is it a typo?
Watching Ward? The [strike]bridge officers[/strike] magi of the covenant have to convene [strike]in engineering[/strike] at the council room to [strike]authorize the auto-destruct[/strike] activate the Watching Ward, which release the Ritual of Boundary Fire. It is vis, intensive, to be sure.
In addition to the issue that T:Boundary spells must be rituals, T:Boundary (and T:Circle) affect everything within with the designated effect. So, as described the spell actually creates a fire within the entire bounded area. I would instead describe the spell as T:Individual, with size modifications and elaborate shape (for following the Boundary line) to bring it inline with T:Boundary stuff from the text.
This was useful advice. Thank you. I came up with this:
Wall of Entrapping Flame (CrIg 50)
R Sight, D Sun, T Ind
This spell creates a wall of flame three thousand feet long which follows a clear boundary with a diameter of about a thousand feet. The boundary must be visible when the spell is cast. The flame inflicts +20 damage on all who cross it. Igneous uses this spell to trap macgnimartha and other raiders inside the covenant boundary, casting it from atop his tower and then tracking the invaders down and killing them. The length of the wall is calculated on the assumption that a 30 foot length of wall is the base effect (see Circle of Encompassing Flames), with +2 magnitudes for x100 length.
Base 15, +2 Sun, +3 Sight, +2 for size of the wall