This idea came when I was considering using a Circle ward, but instead of drawing it on a floor or a ceiling, to draw it around a door frame. The effect I am looking to achieve is two folds:
first baring the entry of the appropriate entity
second, trapping the entity that tried to go through, like a fly in a web.
So far, no similar effect is described with these two effects. But wards can keep an entity trapped inside a circle, and wards can prevent an entity to enter an area.
In term of research, it looks like inventing a new parameter. I am not sure it is worth a minor virtue, because wards are already integrated into magic theory. So I would tend to see it as a minor breakthrough.
I would treat this as a "circle" spell. The doorway is as clearly defined as any ring on the ground, if anything more clearly because no one is going to ask how much the spell pokes out of the doorframe as opposed to "how high does the ring/circle extend?"
I am aiming at specifically just the doorway, the act of passing through a well-defined entrance/opening. Since the mage has to draw a full circle, or at least a closed, regular shape.
If all else fails, use two Circles, each spell forbidding passage in one direction. Mark the circle on the outside thresholds of the portal. You can walk in, but you can't walk out.
It might be worth comparing this to the benefits of the Columbae virtue ring/circle magic, which allows for treating any boundary as a circle (among other things).
If folks are looking for the rule reference for this here: Corebook p.114 "Formulaic spells, on the other hand, can be invented with ranges, durations or targets that are not listed here. This is usually slightly more difficult than if the closest category were used, but is largely left to storyguide interpretation."
I find that we don't use this option often enough & it adds charm to the game. There should be a bunch of sub-optimal labtext's that have an extra magnitude but have adapted parameters for the effect. If the effect is appreciated, it is sent to house Bonisagus for optimization and we get a new "optimized" parameter.
Ranges: Near (Voice but without sound), Arms length(Touch without touch), Ear shot (Eye without eye contact)
Durations: Council, Meal, Travelling, Storm, Under the Moonlight, Fasting, Prayer
Targets: Arch, Doorway, Window, Clothes, Boots (Paire), Feet (Paire), Fingers (of an individual), Hall, Tunnel
Some of these are already given as exemples in the rules. I find a few could have already been optimized and available in the order without an extra magnitude. At least as effects in labtexts and once you learn it you can use the new parameter freely.
Maybe true but I would counter argue that most Bonisagus get to be young at some point and their masters might get them to break their teeth on something easy to start with.
A Parens can certainly tell an Apprentice to try and get that Breakthrough going, but that doesn't mean the apprentice will finish it during their apprenticeship, and once they're past their Gauntlet, they don't have to keep at it.
Not only that, but while some parens might let their apprentice use the lab, not all would, since it means the apprentice isn't helping them in the lab...
All true and some campaigns might run that way where all Bonisagi aim for the moon and that is why MT is kinda stuck where it is.
I prefer a paradigm where there are quite a few that just cant stand these low hanging fruits and will just hack through them and show the lesser houses how magic should be done. Also, for the "lesser" houses, these minor Breakthroughs are within their grasps and allows some vain Magi to showcase their own flavors.
There is also the "dark side" of magic research which is funding
i.e the Rich Flambeau sponsors your research but asks to "fix" his favorite spell he forged in a lab accident (experimentation).
There could well be other Magi that have worked on such Breakthroughs, but some of them might not necessarily advertise these Breakthroughs, So they might go from one Magi to their apprentice, since it's already part of their Magic Theory, but it takes time circulate through the entire order.
Remember that only House Bonisagus is 'required' to share their findings. Other Magi don't have to, and even if they try to get it into the Bonisagus Folio, it might not get accepted.
I'm the opinions that there are small such Breakthroughts that might have been achieved, but they're not widespread enough. One could stumble on them in a MT tractatus, or in the Lab Text of specific spell or enchanted item, but it doesn't always happen.
True.. I might even allow as SG that a specific Effect/Parameter/Magi does not require an extra magnitude to be designed (as p.144 of the core book says) as that combo has a very natural twist to it.
Ex.
An Terram specialized Magi with a Mole familiar creating an effect to target Tunnels (and all within @ +2 mag such as Room/Road
An Aquam specialized Magi with a fish familiar creating an effect to target Currents (and all within) @ +0 mag such as Ind/circle
These would be outside core hermetic MT and could not be reproduced until you learned an effect having it or a tract about it. I do agree that these typically do not get widely distributed in the order but most Magi have a concept that would allow them to have such a parameter fit their uniqueness.
That's very much Player Character thinking. PCs tend to reach higher than everyone else. Now that's fair and reasonable, because in essence, an RPG is telling a story about great people. You don't tell stories about boring people. A lot of people in the world are not reaching that high.
If all these Bonisagus lab rats are reaching so high, where are my breakthroughs? Where is my longevity potion that doesn't make the magi sterile? Why hasn't someone integrated all the varied range, duration and targets?
In the game world history, there are very few breakthroughs.
Boni.pdf (589.9 KB)
Actually, that's how HoH:TL describes it, not something I invented. In fact, am playing a Bjornaer who's doing OR to get a new Spell Mastery.
As for where are your Breakthroughs? Most of them probably lie partly-finished in the Durenmar Library. It takes time and lots of effort to make a Major or Hermetic Breakthrough, and one isn't guaranteed of success. Plus, if you do so with spells of level 25+ it's likely you'll accumulate Warping, and end up living less time. Or you might die at the hands of a monster, or a rival magi, or be unlucky enough that you go into Twilight often.
In fact some of the Hermetic Virtues we have could well be the result of OR that's been done over the years, and was successfully integrated into Hermetic Theory. You don't see it, because the start date is 1220, after they were made.
Nobody is stopping you, as a ST, from introducing new Hermetic Virtues, or some such to showcase some Breakthrough that's been achieved.
Another possibility, hinted at in the texts, is what I refer to as the selfish Bonisagus. Just because their oath requires them to make their research widely available doesn't mean they want to. So their lab notes, the original shorthand version, are available to anyone who asks, but they don't talk much about what they are working on. Maybe they don't integrate their breakthroughs, or decide to start their own mystery cult with their discoveries...
Don't use T: Door, use T: Passage or Threshold or Entrance/Exit, because any spell that works on a doorway should work on windows, wells, skylights, etc., and the presence or absence of an actual door has no effect, just a well defined passage through a wall (or other barrier).
Would this function like a container spell (the container being the passage), so that things that enter the doorway are affected then the spell ends when they leave (good for warding or trapping things in the doorway or damaging them once)? Or the other kind of container, where only things in the doorway at the time of casting are affected but it persists if they leave (more useful for a Watching Ward version of a long duration spell, say turning them into a frog for Moon duration).
