Magic Item Advice

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi all,

I'm drawing up a magic item for laboratories, and am looking for some feedback - with the biggest question - does it break the Limit of Time? The item...

Viewpoint Mirror [Lesser Enchanted Device]
In(Re)Im 34
(Base 1, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 Room, +2 Accept Commands, +1 Extremely Intricate, +1 Rego requisite)
+1 Frequency 2/day, +3 Environmental Trigger (sunrise/sunset)

[Covenants: +3 Spells]

This Mirror allows the magus to view the room (usually their lab) from any angle or direction. It accepts verbal commands to change the viewpoint at will and can focus the view on particular area within the room if desired. It can also retain sequences of images from the last 2 minutes (diameter) which can be shown again.

The base effect of this is based on Prying Eyes RAW 144.

Added to that the ability to retain images of the last 2 minutes in the form of a Rego requisite.

Finally added +2 Accept Commands and +1 Extremely Intricate - based from the effects of the spell Eternal Repetition of a Bottomless Pool Covenants 101

Does that seem right to people - basically a magus is able to cast magic in his lab, then review the process to better understand it. Does it break the Limit of Time - I hope not, as the item is retaining and display an image, very similiar to Eternal Repetition of a Bottomless Pool - or would the Rego requisite need to be +2 - one for retaining images and one for displaying those images?

If the item does seem ok, would a General Quality bonus be more appropirate for the item instead of a Spells bonus?

Any thought or Comments?

Cheers

Kal

2

Retaining an image doesn't violate the limit of time. At least AFAIK.

Since it's storing an image, you're effectively making a way of 'video recording' your work (which is very similar to writing a lab text for it, but less time consuming and probably requiring much less thought to go into it, as you know what assumptions to make, where lab texts force you to think about every action you take.

I don't see why it'd violate the LoT, since portraits and documents from magi long since dead still work fine.

3

I agree with Liger - as long as you can't affect that which is displayed, there isn't any violation of the Limit of Time.

4

Is there an issue here about 'memory'? I don't have books on hand and this might take a little looking into, but shouldn't the 'replay' function require a 'memory' from which to draw the images? I'm assuming that A&A covers something about the interaction of spells and memory.

5

Good point. However, a medieval scholar would argue that a piece of sheet music remembers the notes perfectly well without a mind, and a portrait the memory of an image without a mind, so thus things can have memory without minds (indeed this is the point of ''essential nature'')