I am brand spanking new to Ars Magica and I'm trying to make a spell, but I'm a bit confused about when to use a requisite. Could anyone review this spell for me?
[size=150]Borrow the Eyes of the Beast[/size] (Intellego/Animal, Level 15, Req: Imaginem)
Range: Touch, Duration: Concentration, Target: Individual, Requisite: Imaginem
This spell allows the magus to target an animal that he touches, and as long as he concentrates, he can see through the eyes of the animal wherever it may travel.
I figured the base on "Learn a specific fact about its body." It was a lesser choice compared to "Read an Animal's Surface Thoughts" which would give more information that just one sense. Do I need to add +4 Vision? I thought the requisite of Imaginem would cover it since it is just one sense. Do I need the requisite?
This is a higher level version:
[size=150]Attune to the Eyes of the Beast[/size] (Intellego/Animal 30, Req: Imaginem)
Range: Aracane Connection, Duration: Concentration, Target: Individual, Requisite: Imaginem
This spell allows the mage to focus on an arcane connection to an animal and see through its eyes. (Holding a bird’s feather, for instance.)
(Base 4, +4 Arcane Connection, +1 Concentration, +1 Requisite)
No Imaginem requisite is needed -- one is apprehending directly from the animal's mind. For the same reason, no Vision Target is needed.
The correct Base is probably 10, rather than 4. I agree that reading an animal's surface thoughts is a little more than what you want to do, but doing less -- disentagling a single sense from the rest of the surface thoughts -- is not necessarily easier. There's some fair evidence that this is the right choice. On p.105 there's a power that a magus can give its familiar, Shared Senses. The Base to allow the familiar to perceive through a sense of the magus is given as Intellego Mentem 15; this is given explicitly "by analogy from the guidelines". If you check out the Intellego Mentem guidelines, you'll see that the closest level 15 guideline to perceiving through someone's senses is reading one's surface thoughts. So it seems reasonable that to do the same with a mundane animal would be the same level as reading that animal's surface thoughts (Intellego Animal 10). Note that to see through an intelligent animal's eyes (e.g. those of a bound familiar, that gains intelligence when bound if it lacked it) you still need the Intellego Mentem 15 guideline.
A little while ago, I created a similar spell, but I also wanted to be able to directly control the beast.
So : Commanding the innocuous slave assassin, Re(In)An 30.
Allows you to control the targeted animal and share its senses as long as you concentrate.
Base 15 : completely control an animal.
+1 Intellego requisite
+1 Touch
+1 Concetration
Would you allow this spell, considering that the animal is going to move away from you ? Or would you require the Range to be Arcane ? (Making the final level 45.)
According Arts & Acadame hacking into a single sense for another human is equivalent to Intellego Mentem Base 10. There's no real equivalent for Animal, but I'd humbly recommend using the same guideline for the sake of consistency.
Sharing a single sense with an animal is Base 15 according to the ArM5 core rulebook (see Shared Senses sample power for familiars on p.105).
Given how it states that this by analogy from the Mentem guidelines, I'm surprised that Art & Academe should give the base as 10. Does this call for an errata?