Item: Brazier of Endless Flames

Type: Lesser Enchantment
Description: A brass brazier that can provide a source of heat to keep a room comfortable, or to do some cooking. Can be the source for the Magical Heating virtue of a laboratory.

Magical Effect: CrIg 10 -- Base 4, +1 Touch, +1 Conc
Enchantment Modifiers: +3 for 6 uses per day, +5 item maintains Concentration
Total Enchantment Level: 18

Triggers: Tapping the brazier twice and the words "da mihi ignis" ("Give me fire" in Latin) activates the item. Tapping it twice and saying "satis ignis" ("enough fire") deactivates the effect, as does tipping the brazier by more than 15 degrees (a safety measure).

S&M Bonuses: +3 Ignem for brass, +7 create fire and heat for brazier (same bonus as a Hearth, ArM5 p.110); capped by Magic Theory.

For pretty obvious magical heating there is a simple, even trivial, spell concept:
CrIg5 Heating
R: Touch, D: Ring, T: Ind
Heats up the object (stone/ceramic tile/metal slab/you name it) within the ring drawn to be hot to the touch, like some modern central heating radiator.
(Base 3 [ArM5 p.140], +1 Touch, +1 Ring)
Several of these effects might be needed to heat a room - but the effect can usually be sponted ceremonially in a non-fatiguing way within a covenant (typically by the local Flambeau or Jerbiton). Occasional recasting needs to be planned for, since the Ring drawn is better easily erasable.

Cheers

Yes, Ring duration heating effects are simple and effective. :slight_smile:

But most magi will eventually find it bothersome to have to go around renewing those spells everytime one of the circles are broken. Or when temperature change and the covenfolk decided to turn some down. Or whatever reason.

When they reach that point, magi may want something more permanent, and that the covenfolk can use by themselves. This item is one such solution. As a side benefit, you can bring it with you as you travel and use it to cook over. :slight_smile:

Also, Covenants (p.122) states that daily or monthly casting of spells can have unpredictable side effects, reflected by either adding one to Warping (or reducing Safety by one) for each such spell. So a magic item is safer for such purposes.

Well, it takes a season or more to create the Brazier, but only 15 minutes to restore a broken Heating spell. And you can cast that spell many times, also on the road - while companions and grogs might prefer a non-magical campfire anyway.

This looks like a real reason, though. And on seeing [url]Covenant: Magic Items, Labs virtues and Expenditures], indeed like the real reason.

I should have guessed that the Brazier was about fleshing out a lab improvement anyway, but didn't connect the threads, despite your earlier hint:

On second thoughts, I was just scared by the idea of heating a lab with an open fire in a brazier. :wink:

Cheers

Indeed, the item is primarily designed for lab improvement. I've been exploring the various rules in Covenants for the Via Experimenta saga, and trying to figure out the various things that my magus would plan on doing to improve his lab and the covenant at large. Considering that his lab will be in the basement, I was looking at ways to counter the Health penalty for a subterranean lab and Magical Heating seemed the most obvious way to do this, while avoiding another increase to the Upkeep.

As for having an open fire heating up the lab, well there are many ways to mitigate the risks. Notice that the item itself has a safety factor built in, through a secondary "off" trigger when tilting the brazier. Used properly, a brazier is not any more dangerous than a fireplace as a way of heating a room.

I also considered enchanting the fireplace itself, but that has its own disadvantages, the main one being that you can't move it.

Can't move a fireplace? What kind of magus are you?! :wink:

Which base level guideline is being used? I can envision something like radiant underfloor heating. A network of brass rods laid beneath a wooden plank floor. Base 4 is also Heat an object enough to boil water...which heats up the wooden planks, and by extension the rest of the room. All without the use of pesky flames/smoke/fuel.

The brazier is using base 4 (create a fire doing +5 damage), which is the equivalent of a wood fire (ArM5 p.181)

Yes, various radiant heat effects can also be quite effective. A large rug (or something to put under the rug) that is warm could be enough to make a big difference if it's always on. That would be Base 2, +2 Sun; Level 4, +1 for 2 uses/day, +3 for environmental trigger. So a level 8 enchantment might be deemed enough, or boost it to Base 3 (hot to the touch) for a level 9 enchantment.

If you'd rather have something that doesn't get worn off with time, have the effect be something that touches the rug to be heated (+1 magnitude for Touch). You're now at level 10.

There's no mention of a requisite needed to heat up an object made of a specific material. That's a bit strange.

Still, I like the idea of a brazier. More difficult to enchant, but also more versatile. And it looks cool. :smiley:

Way to complicated and expensive. Air ducts in a stone floor do the job perfectly. Just put the brazier in the deepest level of your covenant.

His lab is in the basement. The deepest level of his covenant. And if you don't think air ducts are complicated...well, I'll introduce you to a mechanical engineer or three.

The risk of an open fire in the lab is, that something makes that fire jump or blows it where it shouldn't be: onto books, beards, robes, tables, tapestries, the experiment proper, and so on. Any "off" triggers come too late then.

The logical approach to lab heating is the tile stove - not typical in England, but well known on the continent from the 11th century on.
Here's a German thesis on the subject, starting with the remains of ancient stoves from Bernward's early 11th century Hildesheim: http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/diss/1999/henkel/inhalt.htm.
And here's a functional diagram: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Kachwikijpeg1.JPG&filetimestamp=20101206203728.

To create a magical tile stove, just heat up the tiles by magic, using the CrCo level 2 guideline from ArM p. 140.

Cheers

There is one described in Covenants p.51 (The Magical Stove) which is a level 20 enchantment (Guideline 5, +1 Conc; +5 levels to maintain concentration, +5 level for 24 uses per day).

The spell Chamber of Summer Breezes (Covenants p.100) enchanted into an object might also do the trick, if the magus doesn't mind having a permanent breeze agitating the air of his lab. It's CrAu(Ig) 10, D:Sun, so simply adding 2 uses per day (+1 level) and an environment trigger (+3 levels) makes the enchantment only level 14. But I'm not sure the air would be warm enough to qualify for the Magical Heating lab virtue in an underground lab.

I personally favour the Chamber of Summer Breezes - it is largely defined to be enough for magical heating.
Remember that the spell does not output a specific amount of enenrgy - if anything it outputs a specific temperature.

I'm not sure I'd allow the Brazier, as described, to provide the Magical Heating Virtue (which you can allow use as either Superior Heating or Excessive Heating, at your discretion, without adding to the costs). That's because it adds very little capability compared to a normal fireplace or tile stove, possibly augmented by a handful of minor, spontaneous spells.

I'd allow the Virtue to be gained by something that allows you to instantly, precisely (through some sort of "dial") and homogeneously raise the temperature in the whole chamber, and keep it at that level without supervision. Probably an item enchanted with a level 25 CrIg effect:
Base 3 (heat something to be hot to the Touch) +1 Touch, +2 Room, +1 Conc, +1 Variable effect (anything up to hot, but the device allows lower temperatures as well), +5 levels Item Maintains Concentration

No need, I've worked enough construction sites :slight_smile:
I didn't say it was easy, but it certainly is way easier and cheaper than wiring metal through half of the covenant ---if it was thought of during the construction of the building.
And as you probably want some fresh air in your lab, the air-duct-approach solves two problems in one go: fresh air and heating.

For a very simplistic example: have an air-duct end under the brazier (providing fresh air) and a chimney over it.
Same thing as a properly built tile stove, enhanced with a little magic.

You could even upgrade with some ReAu to enhance the flow of air in ways beyond what a skilled heating installer could do.

On the other hand: Why should a Wizard think like a craftsman?

A Brazier of Endless Flame is a must-have for any wizard. Style is more important than heating. I want a dozen!

Well, the discussion has sparked quite a few ideas already for heating the lab, but I've had another one that might also do the job to provide the benefits of the Magical Heating lab virtue.

Instead of creating additional heat, as I've been focusing on, why not concentrate on more efficiently distributing the available heat? The lab already has two fireplaces (it's a fairly large lab). So why not use a Rego Ignem effect to distribute the warmth from the fireplace(s) throughout the lab directly?

Let's see how this could work. Base 3 is "Control a fire in a natural fashion (for example, control its direction of spread)." The guidelines mention that ReIg spells can control heat or light as well as fire, so this is the guideline I'm going to use. Radiating heat throughout a room is natural movement of heat, we're just enhancing it.

A good object that might be enchanted with such an effect at Touch range is an an andiron. I would say that for heat, Touch range means the object doesn't need to touch the fire, just be in contact with the heat of that fire. So a fire screen might be even better -- the closer it is to the fire, the more heat it receives and can distribute. The object itself would become hot, since it is moving the heat away from itself.

Effect: Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun

I don't think there needs to be an additional magnitude to distribute the heat within the room (up to 10 paces), as this is a natural movement of heat.

Enchantment: Effect level 15, +4 for constant use (+1 for 2 uses per day, +3 for environment trigger) for a total level of 19.

Does that seem reasonable?

(The magus is better with Rego than Creo, so this is actually easier for him to enchant.)

Ugh, bad pun!

chamber of summer breezes?

Not even done on purpose. :laughing:

Well, as I've indicated when when I edited the post, the magus is better at Rego than Creo. :smiley:

And I find the idea of constantly having a breeze blowing through the room somewhat annoying, particularly if the magus is working on lab notes or even more delicate materials that could be moved by that breeze, like gold leaf or finely ground chemicals. :astonished:

I've also corrected the level of the effect to 15.

How much of a Shape & Material bonus fwould a firescreen give to control heat? I'd say +3 is reasonable.

I have worked in a lab with a draft of wind (in the summer, when air conditioning broke down, the only resort was to keep the two windows open), and it's a terrible experience. It can be very annoying as light stuff (mainly paper, but the occasional large and light object as well) gets blown around; more importantly, it can be very dangerous.

By RAW, if it's not on a Shape & Material bonus list (either the main one in the core rules or the few additions that have been published in various supplements), you get no bonus for it. The Vulgar Alchemy mystery allows you to gain new Shape & Material bonuses, but you can't just get them "on the fly". This is often subject to house-ruling, however -- or you could just say that in your saga some other magus has recently researched the Shape and Material bonus you are looking for!