While the Invisible sling of Vilano is an fantastic spell it is somewhat restricting, it demands that there are sling sized stones around and that could be a problem for the average Flambeau magus. I have a few questions and thoughts that I would like to hear your thoughts on.
What happens if the Invisible sling of Vilano throws a small stone for example a pebble? Dose it, increase in speed and thus hurt as much or only slightly irritate the target as the mass of the stone isn’t that great.
If the clever Flambeau invents a variant of the Invisible sling of Vilano that throws metal object, thus adding two magnitudes, how does that affect the spell? Does the damage increases as the metal object in the size of a sling stone is heavier lets say the damage increases by +10 or does it simply fling a metal object at a slower speed thus making the same amount of damage?
If the clever Flambeau does fling metal objects of a smaller size what happens then? See the text above for possible questions.
I thought of this as it could be convenient for any magus fighting with the school of Vilano to not needing to travel with large chunks of stones but rather carrying a pouch of marbles or iron balls and have all the ammunition he need without looking suspicious.
In the medieval paradigm, they've not experienced very small objects at very high velocities, so I don't believe it fits in. So I would not allow high magnitude ReTe spells to propel tiny stones like bullets.
and 3) Such a small object would not be propelled at higher speed than it's apple-sized counterpart, and thus consequently would not deal significant damage.
If by adding 2 magnitudes you only allow the slinging of metal chunks, rather than just stones, I'd say perhaps a slight increase in damage. As modern physics don't apply, this might not be relevant. But the extra power of the spell is to move metal, which is harder than stone, not to give it extra speed. So if the total energy is constant, a heavier object would be propelled at less speed. So it could yield the same result.
However, there is historical precedence for using metal bullets in a sling, lead bullets were used way back by the Assyrians (or something). Most likely because these were better than simple rocks. I'm sure that rocks were used, for practice or in a pinch in the heat of battle. But they knew what was best.
Without getting into precise data or SI-units, a rock has a density of about 2,5-3 times water, iron IIRC 8-9 times and lead even more. So using these metals should be more efficient than rocks. I can't remember how much damage the basic spell deals, but I'd rather not increase damage proportianally by density.
A bag full of marbles might be discreet, but that dog won't bark IMS. If the nasty Flambeau want's to coircumvent Parma, he'd better choose his battleground wisely, og bring along a lot of the right stuff. Otherwise, where is the limit? A grain of sand at nearly the speed of light? Or a handfull of it?
I would say that the spell increases in magnitudes, and the effect suffers 1 of the 2 following changes (or both)
it deals more damage. +5 maximum of Vilano, though.
Otherwise you start getting the same damage level than the equivalent level of Ignem magics, and in the ArM5 system Ignem is the form that does the most direct damage. So your spell should not be able to do the same level of damage than the same magnitude of Ignem; if the ignem spell of 6th mag does +20, for example, you shoulod limit yourself to +15, for example for the same magnitude of spell
It can affect only metal targets, but not stones anymore. Or it can affect both. Up to you. I would go for the former.
Both items (stone or metal) would be projected at the same sopeed, sinc ethe concept of mass and stuff for ballistics was not paradigm at the time. But well, you can always go high fanatasy and have your mage investigate just that in the lab. Small breakthrough and voila
I thought about these questions a little but did not have enough space to write a detailed discussion in the House Flambeau chapter (which was turned out to be quite a long chapter). I'll elaborate a little but I want to make clear this is my personal opinion, and is unofficial.
If you want to invent variations of The Invisible Sling of Vilano, I am sure House Flambeau would approve. In general I think anything that makes a spell more effective should increase its magnitude; that's why we have spell guidelines in the first place.
Since the projectile spells, which bypass magic resistance, work according to the laws of Mythic physics, I do not think they should do more damage than mundane weapons. You might want to consider a "Longbow of Vilano" spell that throws arrows (ReHe). Likewise, for metal objects, look at the range and damage of hand-thrown weapons like axes and javelins.
As to the size of the stones, mundane slings can be effective with stones that are quite small; perhaps a little bigger than a walnut, definitely smaller than a chicken's egg. So it is no problem for a magus to carry a dozen of them in a pouch -- should be plenty of ammunition for one fight. You might want to invent an InTe(Re) spell to help find and/or gather the stones after a battle.
Ouch. Suddenly thinking of the metal bullets as being items with low level effects and a high penetration (touch range) in addition to damage. You'd want them back, but...
Iron against Faeries.
Diameter duration shaking hands, or stutter. Increase the weight of animal/vegetable products (i.e. clothing) for great encumbrance...
Means you are back to penetrating MR, but you still have the physical damage, and potential nasty funk.
I had the same idea for an early version of Ardath
As per your questions:
Yes. I beleive this is even stated in the guidelines for the spell. It does the same damage whatever the size of the item: Lighter ones go faster, heavier ones have more mass.
No change. The magnitudes are just to affect metal. However, I'd maybe increase the damage if using specially-prepared items, like small daggers and stuff.
