New Spell: **Signare Corpus Foraminis**

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Signare Corpus Foraminis
MuCo 15
R:Voice, D: Diam,T: Ind
Seals a body hole. This can cause a person to lose sight from one eye, hearing from an ear, ability to speak, eat, drink or even to pee or relieve your bowels. Multiple castings can even deprive the target of its ability to breathe. Used properly, this effect can best manage a situation without having to resort to more permanent effects even if it can be quite disturbing to those suffering it and other onlookers. The hole re-opens after the effect expires.
(Base 3: +2 Voice, +1 Diam, +1 Part)

Comments are welcomed

W

2

Hmm. This feels ok as an effect, but its mechanical implementation does not quite convince me.

First of all note that the level 3 MuCo guideline is about utterly changing the appearance or size of a person (or part thereof); I do not think changing a body part in such a way that it's disabled counts.

And here's the real deal. The spell effectively disables one body part - any part, in fact, that can be fuzzily defined as a "hole" (I'm not sure that an eye would count as one). My first reaction would be to say this is Perdo, and the "sealing" is merely a cosmetic effect. Compare to Twist of the Tongue: which does not destroy the tongue but merely twists it, thus destroying the ability to speak of the target. To which you may counter: Curse of the Unruly Tongue achieves something similar (but lesser in effect) through Rego... hmm. What can I say? It just does not feel Muto-ish.

Furthermore, from the examples in the corebook, it's an extremely versatile effect - existing examples of both Perdo and Rego magics target one specific body part/function: a hand, the eyes, the tongue. In fact, for Perdo different body parts/functions have different Base levels!

Hmmm. I'd actually allow the effect as described as a custom Perdo Corpus guideline. Base ... 15 maybe? This would make the final spell PeCo30 (Base 15, +2 Voice, +1 Diam). No research/breakthroughs needed. By comparison, making a person blind or deaf is Base 20, though since it's a "natural" change, D:Inst suffices, for a final Level still 30. You need two castings of this spell to cause serious trouble to the target rather than one, but its flexibility would roughly balance that, I'd say,

Finally, I'm not sure what the spell name is supposed to be. In Latin, it means "to mark/marking the body of the aperture". In Ars Magica, spells typically have English names like ... Sealing the Body's Gate. If you want to say in Latin "To seal/sealing the/a body's aperture" you would say something like "Foramen Corporis Sigillare". If you want to use the first person, present tense of the verb (after all, that's how the Techniques are named) "I seal ..." would be "Foramen Corporis Sigillo".

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3

It seems to me that it is not so much sealing a hole in the body, but rather closing the skin over a gap. Rather than Corpus, what is Latin for skin? (perhaps "dermis"?)

4

Ya... even worse when you remove the Part and it closes all the holes of the body at once. Maybe the effect should require to target a specific body part. Muto I find, fits better than Perdo, as the effect does not break or diminish anything. Maybe a Perdo requisite but I'm not a big fan of adding requisite for the sake of requesites. It just changes it... Maybe the base could be higher but base 3 is already described as wholly changing the appearance. Next useful guideline is 10 where you transform into another creature. PeAu base 3 has a similar effect that typically will affect groups of breathing creatures because it is Auram. CrIg base 4 kills things. MuCo base 3 + 1 part = Base 4 seems reasonable. Hoping the below rehash makes the feel more Muto eske

Mouth of The Mayfly
MuCo 15
R:Voice, D: Diam,T: Ind
This effect seals the mouth of a person. The lips 1st start weaving themselves to one another leaving only a seam in place of the mouth... until the effect ends, where all turns back to normal as if just a nightmare. Roll an Int +stress roll of 3+ to avoid panic. Should the target start panicking or be conducting exerting activities such as combat, spell casting or running, apply air deprivation rules which force a stamina + stress roll of 3+|4+|+5|+6 at 30 second increments or lose a fatigue. All rolls involving physical exertion are done at a penalty of -3. Needless to say that it is impossible to form intelligible sounds during this time.
(Base 3: +2 Voice, +1 Diam, +1 Part)

W

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