Your welcome. It's just a matter of actually reading the words your quoting.
It appears to be more about taking them out of context and giving them meaning that I never intended.
Rereading that section, there isn't any movement here, it's holding something steady. And yes, the buttress is holding up something else, but it is also using a +3 size modifier, which would be 1000 cubic paces of stone. Would it work better if the device was R:Touch? In any event it is using the exact same guideline as The Unseen Porter increasing the magnitude for size. Can a 1 cubic pace stone be crushed by the compressing forces of 1000 cubic paces of stone?
Skipping this, because I haven't read through it.
I don't know how many cubic paces of stone exists in a medieval castle. Maybe more than 1,000? if that's a concern then add a size modifier. It certainly seems to contradict the size modifier used in Conjuring the Mystic Tower. My greater concern is that the spell appears to apply a speed which is unsupported by anything else in RAW and directly contradicts the speed indicated in The Unseen Porter. At best it would require additional magnitudes for speed.
Well, if I find an inconsistency the first thing I do is figure out if I'm reading it correctly or not.
I'd suggest Rereading the OP also, holding something steady is defiantly among the cannon effects he asked to be discussed.
See that's the problem. Unseen Porter defiantly doesn't use standard hermetic size guidelines. Or are you suggesting that Unseen Porter is perfectly capable of lifting and moving all standard Terram targets. I would have trouble letting a +5 strength individual carry 2+ tons of granite (about what a cubic pace of granite weighs) let alone almost 15 tons of clay (10 cu pace). How does a spell based on the physical capabilities of a person not TeFo target guidelines scale up with a size modifier. 1000 people can't hold aloft 2000 tons can they.
I had assumed the +3 size modifier was only supposed to cover the 300 pace stone disk. Doing the math though the disk would be about 70,686 cu paces. So maybe it's just a math error and the size modifier was supposed to take the weight the disk carries into account. But that wasn't what I felt the greater part of the chapter insinuated. It seemed to me that the effect was designed, written, playtested, and published so that weight carried on the disk is free. Which complicates the discussion of cannon effects the OP asked for.
Again it's clear that plenty of cannon ReFo spells don't relies on the physical capabilities of a +5 strongman for what they can lift. Why should you use the speed from Unseen Porter as well. While general ReTe telekinesis effects have many benifits over other ReFo spells they also come with limitiations. So it should be expected that other ReFo spells regularly exceed Unseen Porter's capabilities.
Wow that almost seems like biting sarcasm. I might feel chagrined if I hadn't already pointed out that you failed to notice the full scope of effects the OP was discussing.
Oy. I'm done here.
To me it comes to this- start with the most familiar example. If you use ReAn to move an ox, you should be able to pull an ox cart (especially if it is moving under its own power) but not lift an ox cart. A basket moved with ReHe should be able to carry the things inside it, because this is the nature of what a basket is. On the other hand a rope alone should not be able to lift things... it comes down to how objects 'normally' behave rather than a calculation of forces.
I totally agree. What an enchanted object can affect should have more to do with the object's nature then the enchantment's effect.
Swords attack warriors, battering rams batter down doors. If they are both base individuals (A 1.5 ft thick 12 ft long pole is easily a base herbam target.) a ReTe dancing sword spell and a ReHe charging ram spell should look mechanically similar. Same level Base effect, Target ,Size, and Range. But, a battering ram would be able to exert far more mechanical force then the sword. Because that's what battering Rams do.