Let's say you wanted to take advantage of the rule that if you enchant an entire tree you triple the bonus from that particular kind of wood.
And as the tree gets larger it's really big.
But you would like to take advantage of the Talisman bonuses nonetheless.
Does opening an intangible tunnel count as touching for the purposes of taking advantage of your Talisman bonuses?
My instinct is no, but it seems to be supported by the RAW, so I wanted to get an expert opinion.
Relevant rules:
First, your talisman is considered to be a part of you as long as you are touching it. Personal range spells can affect your talisman, Personal range effects in the talisman can affect you, and you count as touching anything that your talisman is touching, so if your talisman is a staff your reach is significantly extended. This also means that your Magic Resistance covers your talisman completely as long as you are touching it.
Second, you always have an Arcane Connection to your talisman, making it easy to find if it is lost (but also making it a hazard if it falls into enemy hands).
Bonuses from attunements only apply when the magus is touching the talisman
Opening the Intangible Tunnel
R: Arc, D: Conc, T: Ind
You can open a magical channel from yourself to some target, allowing you to cast any spell with a range greater than Personal on that target. The tunnel does not, of itself, grant any sense impressions of the target — you must cast appropriate spells through it if you wish to see. Spells cast through the tunnel cannot be of higher level than that of this spell. You must make standard Concentration rolls to maintain concentration on the Opening spell as you cast other spells.
A magus who magically recognizes the tunnel (through The Invisible Eye Revealed or a similar spell) may cast spells through the tunnel back at you, and he need not concentrate on keeping the tunnel open. If this magus is the target of the tunneling spell, he is considered to be touching you. Otherwise, his effective range to you is his range to the target of the tunneling spell.
If the target of the spell has Magic Resistance, you must Penetrate that resistance to open the tunnel. Spells cast through the tunnel must also penetrate Magic Resistance normally.
(Base effect, +4 Arc, +1 Conc)
My first reaction is that an Intangible Tunnel does not grant you the ability to touch something, it only allows you to cast spells with a range greater than Personal.
Ergo, since your are not touching your talisman, you cannot receive the talisman bonus. The physical touch is important in getting the benefits of the attunement bonuses.
Too easy to get around, since you could easily invent a variant with a different duration.
By definition, you always have an Arcane Connection to your talisman. You are linked (that's part of what makes it a talisman).
There seems to be little benefit to having a very large talisman, but I'm sure someone will find a way to exploit it.
But that is not really the point. If you allow Intangible Tunnel to act as if you are touching your talisman for the attunement bonuses, then the same can be said for another benefit of touching your talisman. It means you can use R:Touch magic on anything your talisman touches. I'll let you figure out how that can be exploited.
It also extends your magic resistance to your talisman.
So, I can enchant my Talisman to cast Intangible Tunnel with Sun duration twice per day (with an environmental trigger), and to maintain concentration of the tunnel -- and, as a result, I am always touching my Talisman?
I am not sure that is supported by RAW; maybe it is intended to be a determined-by-saga thing?
I don't think this holds up. I haven't seen anything logically ruling it out, but there is a lot of stuff that is suggestive it doesn't work.
The guideline says it's a conduit for spells. I doesn't say it allows other things.
We know the caster cannot use their own non-Hermetic effects through the tunnel, even if it's mystical and uses an appropriate Range like Touch. So it's not like this is a mystical conduit for anything.
Any Range greater than Personal works. It doesn't say you can use Personal through it, which would be possible if you would be considered to be touching your Talisman.
They explicitly addressed using Hermetic effects within Talismans through tunnels, so Talismans were definitely considered, and yet no note about being considered touching your Talisman was made.
Is 'Touching an Arcane Connection to an object' the same (with the exception of 'Range', obviously) as 'Touching the object'? It might be that the answer is 'Yes; but we didn't think to write that down'. Callen makes some good points above, but it would be nice to have some clarity on this.
I’d allow a player to do this if they invent an equivalent spell and agree not to abuse it. I’d also have the requirement that the talisman tunnel needs to be higher level than what you cast using the tunnel.
Maybe I’d require a Breakthrough for this spell to be created.
I’m not sure how much I’m concerned about the range touch problem, as you can already use Intangible Tunnel to cast to your Talisman because you always have an AC to it. And, you can make a longer duration IT.
Is the remote chained touch that much of a game breaker? Also, does the chained touch work through Intangible Tunnel anyway for the Talisman?
I have always interpreted "Intangible Tunnel" as being intangible to physical touch. It is just mystically close enough for Touch Range spells to work.
It is not like you can see through an "Intangible Tunnel"?