I'm trying to work out some guidelines. Specifically PeAn Base 4 as found in The Weightless Transportation of Books in Covenants page 100. This guideline destroys (or weakens) the weight of an aspect of an animal product (I suppose).
Yet, the main book on page 119 has Base 40 "Destroy on property of an animal, such as its weight or aggression." From other Animal guidelines I see that animal products are +2 magnitudes from base guidelines (explicitly in CrAn) or -2 magnitudes (implicitly in MuAn).
The PeAn guidelines seem to put the difference between animals and animal products at +1 magnitude (Base 4 Destroy something of animal products vs Base 5 destroy animal corpse or Base 2 Damage something made of animal products vs Base 3 Do superficial damage to a beast).
OK great. None of that gets me from "Base 40 Destroy on property of an animal" to Base 4 on this spell. "PeTe 5 Destroy one aspect of dirt" from HoH:S p37 is close but it seems backwards to import a Terram guideline into Animal rather than modify a current Animal guideline. Also, HoH:S came out after Covenants, I believe, so that shouldn't have gone into the thinking for the base guideline on this spell.
Barring that I'm left with the thought that the Base 40 could be a typo for Base 4. No doubt I'm missing something. Thoughts?
Hmm, let me try this again. How do you explain the fact that The Weightless Transportation of Books in Covenants page 100 is listed as Base 4 where it should be Base 35? I can't find a Base 4 PeAn guideline that supports what this spell does. Is this a typo?
It's more than a typo. If it is Base 35, the level gets pushed to 60, and becomes a ritual, and also warps the books.
I like to go back to the Terram aspect of physical things, which is what the Unseen Arm and Unseen Porter are based on, and they require casting requisites...
So an analog might be...
Base 5: Destroy one aspect of dirt, such as it's weight or cohesiveness
Destroy the Weight of What I Behold PeTe 35
Base 5, R:Touch +1, D:Sun +2, T:Group +2, +1 stone (because it's probably designed to destroy the weight of a stone, originally)
Still don't care for this, as it's 35th level and so each casting inflicts a warping point on the book. Probably needs to increase the duration to Moon to reduce the overall warping inflicted, and raising the level to PeTe 40.
Or go to Muto Animal. Base 4: Change something made of animal products in a minor, unnatural way or Base 5: change something made of animal products in a major unnatural way. Depends on whether you're going to consider weight for animal products to be major or minor. I think it's minor, because the Doublet of Impenetrable Silk gives a +3 Soak and can't be cut or penetrated by weapons. YSMV.
I too was going to suggest that there might be a typo involved and that the Muto/Animal guidelines might be applicable.
In any case, it might be prudent to alert David Chart to the matter since it does appear to constitute an instance of errata... He's contactable via: arsmagica@davidchart.com
I think the base 40 guideline is for living animals. Living things are hard to affect.
PeCo is for living persons, same as PeAn.
PeAq has +1 magnitude to destroy properties.
PeIg has +2 magnitude to destroy properties.
I didn't see any other "destroy properties".
So, the spell base might be higher than mere "destroy product", but adding 7 magnitude is way off.
