Independent Items

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I'm currently working on new idea for one of my items, but seem to be having trouble working out guidelines for something.

Basically, I want to be able to give the item made of stone the ability to potentially see and hear for itself, as noted in the Target Sight guidelines, that independent items can infact possess their own sight. It suggests using InIm for this.. but there aren't any real guidelines on it.

Currently I'm thinking along the lines of Base 3, Enhancing one of your senses (as in, enhancing it from not being able to see, to being able to)

Which would end up along the lines of

Sight without Eyes
Range: Personal, Duration: Sun, Target: Vision
Base 3, +2 Sun, +4 Vision
+4 Constant Effect

That makes it a level 29 effect, which seems about fair for being able to see when you normally can't. However I dislike having to chuck in extra expensive effects funnily enough, so any idea how you might in theory give an object all 5 senses at once?

Note, one ironic thing I've noticed in Ars, is that in theory, a rock already -does- possess senses.. you can use InTe to talk to rocks, and they'll tell you things. Which tends to lead the question of just what kind of senses inanimate objects -do- possess. While they don't seem to possess sight, many of the examples in Ars seem to prove that ordinary objects do indeed possess the sense of both touch, and hearing, such as rock being able to sense people treading on it etc, and items and such clearly have hearing, as they can -hear- command words or phrases.

Indeed, the InHe examples of speaking to trees suggest they might even be able to see, how else do they know that someone hit them with an axe, or that it was indeed a person?

So, with that in mind, I think enhancing their senses should work fine.. as they seem to already possess senses... but it's their general sense of perception which is what gets enhanced by the effect, as normally they only sense things which directly affect them, such as the aforementioned tree getting cut etc.

(Sorry, I ramble a bit ^^)

Just interested in thoughts and theories really.

Thanks, Fluffy

2

In that case, wouldn't you want CrIm? To give them more perfect senses, rather than the less perfect ones they currently have?

Barring that, I would suggest a one magnitude per additional sense you want to give the object.

-Ben.

3

Well, was just going by the guidelines in the ranges bit really.. and.. can kinda see how it makes sense.. .. CrIm isn't about seeing or sensing things.. it's more about making things that can be seen or sensed, whereas InIm covers the actual sensing.. but yeah, seems a bit weird creating sight without using Creo admittedly ^^

4

InIm is for providing senses that the person (object) doesn't have already, while CrIm would be used to give more perfect sight to the object (since we're working off the idea that the object already has senses, but no good way to express those sensory inputs.)

If you wanted to start at a basis that the object has no senses, then I would agree that InIm would be the way to go. In that case, I'd work off the Base 3, enhance one of your senses in one way, then from the second paragraph in the guidelines, "As in CrIm spells, each additional sense you wish to perceive increases the level of the spell by one magnitude."

So...

InIm25 [Base 3 + 4add'l senses +0 personal + 1 conc + 1 maint conc + 0 taste]
Gift of Senses
This enchantment improves a device's senses such that it can sense the environment about it.

(It's possible that a SG wouldn't allow you to cherrypick taste as the low magnitude sense, and then add the four magnitudes for the other senses, but instead would require you to go fully to vision, and then add the four magnitudes for the other senses. That would kick it up a good deal, closer to 45.

It is interesting to note that pg 114 contradicts the InIm guidelines, saying that "A single spell grants a single magical sense. To gain several magical senses, you must cast several spells."

-Ben.

5

But that isn't so wierd is it, since it's two very different things?

6

Are they? I thought that both were talking about providing magical senses, and one states that each additional sense is another magnitude, and the other states that each additional sense must be a new spell...

-Ben.

7

I dislike wasteful effects in general, it'd be pointless putting in 5 seperate effects just to give something senses.

But hmm.. I think it most likely -would- end up fairer using the higher of the targets, so it would be +4 for Vision.. making a lvl 49 effect.. tricky, but certainly doable.. although an easier option would be to just drop taste and touch, making it level 39.. could probably manage that in 2 seasons.