The book has a lot of involved effort for longevity. The shape and material has Gold as a +2 "health". So lets say a Verditius made a Golden Toothbrush of health as a Item of Quality. If used all year round would that add to the aging roll like a longevity potion? Something in the back of my mind makes me think i am looking at it wrong as all the longevity stuff is more involved than that. But it does make me wonder about the concept. Maybe treat it a bit like the potion the user has to be there and the item only works for them?? Just looking to balance the concept with the rest of the rule book. Worse case I could make it a breakthrough..
Given spells to simulate craftsmanship require finesse rolls how would IoQ come in.. As in Tongs of Quality add the bonus to controlling metal, could that bonus be added to a finesse roll as well as crafting? i.e. The Spell of Wrought Iron
The next is drawing a line in a fantasy vs reality with Ignem
10 Melt lead.. So i do not have a issue with a furnace with a CR/IG effect of base 15-20 for working finished metal goods. But I was pondering Smelting.. The Hermetic Projects book has submersion at +60 damage for Lava. That can run up wards of 2000 F and Wrought Iron is closer to 3000 F and smelting can get hotter. If I tried to apply a base vs temp curve it would get silly real fast. I have read thought a bit of the forums on this but I didn't see a head on argument. So the question is for Smelting base Ignem what to do with this from a game mechanic effect? Or would it be easier to make IoQ with spell effects in them.
Regarding the first one the relevant bit of the Item of Quality description is:
"First, select a tool or item that would be appropriately used by a professional in his trade"
A toothbrush doesn't really meet this requirement - but that doesn't mean you can't have items of quality using health related S&M bonuses. For example if you had a personal physician treating you regularly and gave him a "Golden Lancet of Health" you could arguably get a bonus to your health. However, I personally wouldn't apply it as a bonus to ageing rolls as the bonus is to each individual roll the physician would make across the year which is not the same as applying a bonus directly to your ageing rolls. Generally items of quality are best suited to tools with a clear use that you make a die roll when performing.
Again for the second point while the tongs are a tool in the general sense they aren't the tool that a Magus uses to create items when using Rego Craft magic, which doesn't use a tool. So the bonus there is not really suitable. If you were making the items by hand and actually using the tongs as a tool, then it would apply no question.
For the last thing I don't have a strong answer, but I would be wary about trying to apply modern day physics to spell guidelines. there are all sorts of things that could factor into it: did people in the 13th century think lava was hotter than we do now? Is the value given in hermetic projects a bit wonky? In fact, what did people at the time even think lava was? Remember: the physics of Mythic Europe are not the same as the physics of our world.
With a wand as your Talisman or similar, you might be able to get away with a bonus from that. But nothing would necessarily due to the tool of a professional issue.
Yes, good find. Do note that these are still specific to using the item to perform the action, but they show the bonus applies to Finesse when using the item to perform the action. It's not clear this would carry over to a spell instead of an invested effect.
I think the key think with Petalichus' items is that by enchanting the rego craft spells into items he has created tools which are used to perform the rego craft magic, as opposed to performing the magic directly while holding a mundane (item of quality) tool that is not actually used in the magic. It meets the requirements by being a tool he uses in his trade. It's worth noting from the description this seems not to have been something expected, but rather a surprising advantage (enchanted items of quality are probably fairly rare, ones enchanted with rego craft magic even rarer):
"...he took the process further and enchanted the shears with Rego Craft Magic (see below) and found that the quality also aided the spell."
Although that does raise the question of casting tools which are arguably the 'tools' used by a Verditius Magus casting rego craft spells - can you make an item of quality casting tool?
Interestingly, that page has armor that normally provides +3 protection listed as +7 protection with its +4 bonus from being an Item of Quality. That is notable because you only roll Soak about half the time, while the armor's protection applies far more often because it includes Soak in regular combat, which is not rolled.
Good point, the armour one is a little tricky because by the wording of the item of quality rules it seems like it shouldn't be possible (it's not really a 'tool' being actively used by the wearer) but at the same time it feels, to me at least, not to be unreasonable. In particular it ignores this part of the item of quality rules:
"This bonus ... may be added to any simple or stress die roll in which that power would be useful."
I think the armor works as a tool because it's similar to the courtier's clothing that is pointed out as an example of what is meant by "tool" in the context of the Virtue.
But, yes, the die roll. From the description of the Virtue, I would have added it to Soak rolls, but not to Protection.