in mathematic terms, (skin versus [skin. I can stop at a stop sign without touching a stop sign.
Occam is turning in his grave.
At that point, I wonder if it's not better to enchant the circle ward as a invested power in the talisman and just activate the talisman to create the circle rather than enchant the talisman to do the drawing while the magi is casting and go bonkers trying to figure out the Finesse and whether you're drawing the circle faster.
For the record, I do agree that it does touch, but on the other hand felt I needed to offer an answer to the question that was asked.
Which is in its own way very in line with medieval philosophae.
Occam, after all, has not yet been born in setting.
This argument holds, because of ArM5 p.85:
Things moved by magic can cross the resistance, but their motion cannot, unless the spell penetrates the magic resistance.
The talisman as an object is not magical in the sense of p.85f: you can indeed lightly touch another magus with it without having to penetrate magic resistance. That it is moved by magic does not make it magical in that sense.
But there is another big problem here, if that talisman is moved by magic to deliver a Touch Range spell or effect: ArM5 p.111 Ranges.
The range of a spell is the distance to the nearest part of the target of the spell. Thus, if the caster is touching the external wall of the room, he can cast a Target: Room Corpus spell on the peole within at Touch Range.
So the caster must cast the spell, while she is touching the target with the tailsman. Having just touched it at some time during spell casting with the talisman, which then fell off, does not suffice. And pressing the talisman against the target with magic is resisted.
Is it? I mean I could wrap the item around someone and not be resisted, so long as it did not do damage... I can bury someone in magically create clay...
You can't. ArM5 p.85:
... the created thing is unable to affect the maga unless it penetrates her magic resistance.
Arguing The Functioning of Magic Resistance requires, that one has read it completely a few hours before. Yes, it is that complicated.
Also, damage is not the only way to affect a target, which it can resist.
I disagree- if a magical bridge falls on a maga it stops and does no damage, but it is still there, meaning the maga cannot simply walk through it, the same way it will bear their weight if they walk on it. Consequently if instead of a bridge you drop magical wet clay on a magus it will part, it will not get them wet, but it will obstruct their path- in all directions if so required. And like the magical rock which is thrown, it would be touching them.
The magical rock that is thrown will not touch them:
A magical rock thrown at the maga bounces off her resistance, and the maga feels nothing beyond the warning that something has been successfully resisted.
The (p.86) magical bridge example has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.
Silveroak is right here about encasing someone. Take a look at the box on p.30 of HoH:S, which is specifically there to address issues of Magic Resistance, and you'll see numerous cases where a magically created thing can surround and entrap someone.
We discuss here touching someone with a magically controlled flexible talisman long enough for a R: Touch spell to be cast, not encasing her.
While I agree that you have to touch at the right moment, e.g. the exact moment of casting, and that that may make the finesse even more challenging, I fail to see how RAW implies that you need to keep touching for the duration of the process. The quote you give only uses the present continuous in the example, and then only as a sufficient condition. There is no mention of continuous touching being a necessary condition.
At the end of the day though, my narrative sense says that it should be possible, and just awfully difficult. It won't happen often, and when somebody does muster the required finesse, it will be a cool effect. YSMV.
By its privileged position in the chapter Ranges, the text is describing the act of spellcasting with a Range in general, using R: Touch as an example. And it does so with present continuous. Were it not necessary, why use present continuous in that place?
By all means use your narrative sense in your saga!
If necessity was a conscious choice of the authors, why not state that explicitly?
It might just be that the authors did not think that deeply about the distinction, choosing the exact phrasing arbitrarily.
It might also be that they did think it through, and deliberately left it ambiguous to give our narrative senses more wiggle room.
ArM5 core has very little space for so many detailed rules. From the place of the text, we can see, that it describes the functioning of Range in general.
This is also very clear in the following, like in particular:
A spell that has a continuing effect remains in effect even if the caster moves out of range.
In the text's position, it is quite clear, that moving out of range while still casting the spell causes it to fail.
Expecting a reader to always dither, whether an author really means something, would have made ArM5 core half the size again - hence never been printed.
You were just talking about burying someone in clay, were you not?
Back to the OP, I finally found it. This may be the most relevant case for discussing a magus's touch through MR:
One of the weaknesses of invisibility is that an invisible weapon is kept out by Magic Resistance (and an invisible character’s touch is likewise kept out). (HoH:S p.32)
So, if the Talisman is under and effect that will be resisted, like the invisible magus, that should keep the character's touch out.
Now, if it's just the Talisman under no special effect, I personally consider it more like a magical being, which does not need to penetrate to mundanely contact the target.
I did look that up. And I also looked at your post immediately following it. That's why I was able to say silveroak was correct on this point. Come on! Please don't make false claims about what we've each done when it's especially clear you did discuss burying someone in clay:
We are not talking about detail, but clarity. ArM5 core has spent a lot of space on many words which obscure more than they clarify.
To sum up my take on this:
Stuff created temporarily by magic can not touch a being with MR, unless it penetrates this MR. This holds also for oodles of clay created around the being.
Stuff only moved by magic can touch a being with MR lightly without penetrating this MR, but on doing so its magic-induced motion ceases immediately without further affecting the being. This holds also for a magus' shoelace-talisman controlled by magic.
To deliver a R: Touch spell with such a magically controlled shoelace-talisman, the magus needs at least have it touch the target while he is casting the spell. This control interfers with a target's MR: hence the casting process of the R: Touch spell depends on overcoming it.
A strong Penetration of the shoelace-talisman's magical movement is hence critical.
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