Invisibility enchantment and Second Sight

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I am playing around with the idea that a Verditus mage created an invisible sword, for the purpose of bring an iron (possibly meteoritic iron, or something else stainless steel) weapon into a Faerie regio undetected.

However I am weak in both enchanting, and target numbers for supernatural abilities

I am under the impression that a bare Invisibility veil can be seen through automatically by a Faerie's Second Sight.
However, if the invisibilty effect is, say PeIm 25 (round numbers), and the enchanter can get a PeIm lab total of100, then 50pts of the lab total goes to enchanting the blade in one Season, and the extra 50 pts goes towards the taget number that Second Sight needs to roll against.

Or is is 25 pts for the invisibility, 25 pts for Penetration/Target number, and the other 50 pts means this boosted effect is enchanted in one Season.

2

The other 50 points means it’s enchanted in one season. I can’t help you with Faerie Sight and I don’t think there is a way to make the second sight difficulties harder. Considering second sight does not need to penetrate anything.

3

If the Faerie just has Second Sight, it is not automatic, but a roll with ease factor 6+magnitude. If they have Faerie Sight, it seems to only help them see through glamour. There might be other powers, but I do not think that's something all faerie have.

If you make a PeIm25 effect, the 50 points are wasted (or could be used on a second PeIm25 enchantement). If you spend the 25 pts on Penetration, it is important to note that this means that the effect is PeIm50. You can still enchant it in one season, but the vis cost is 5p instead of 3p.

I would rule that you can make a PeIm50 effect which is more powerful only in that it is harder to see through. Since the second sight ease factor depends on the magnitude this seems uncontroversial and is straight forward to implement.

4

It would cause other issues, but binding a demon would keep it concealed...

5

The solution here is, that (ArM5 p.67):

The Ease factor to see though illusionary concealment is normally equal to <...> 6+ the magnitude of a Hermetic spell.

So make the Invisibility effect bigger (e. g. last longer or get more complex), and it is harder to detect by Second Sight.

2 Likes
6

Throw in smell, taste and sound for senses that are also destroyed.
(destroying touch could be very strange- on the one hand how do you know when you are holding the sword on the other a person doesn't feel the blade cut them?)

7

It certainly would feel strange.
But you would still feel the resistance in that you cannot close your hand, but you cannot sense the surface of the blade against your skin. The narrative still makes sense.

The receiving end is probably less strange. One does not necessarily feel the cutting by a very sharp blade, but still one senses the cut afterwards. A blunt weapon would be stranger ... knocking you back without actually feeling the hit itself ...