Non-fatiguing spontaneous magic for the thrifty covenant

Games Discussion Ars Magica
42

Here is an idea for a spell somewhat in line with the content of the thread.

The spell is more about maintaining the face of the magus than about saving money.

The invisible Groom
ReCo 3
Range: Pers, Duration: Mom, Target: Ind.
Base 3

This spell instantly grooms the magus. It makes it so that the magus' hair is untangled, like it had been brushed, tidies up any beard, if the magus has one. The spell also makes the magus' nails look tidy and well trimmed. In addition the spell can cause signs of fatigue to disappear, such as removing pouches under the eyes, reducing wrinkles and fatigue induced ticks. With a Finesse+Ability roll it is also possible to get the magus' hair into a specific hairstyle (this is essentially craft magic that replaces the function of a hairdresser) though the hairstyle needs to either be self-upholding or the magus must secure it afterwards to prevent the hair from unraveling.

This spell is based on a guideline I extrapolated. I assumed that making the magus look unburdened by fatigue is at least easier than the MuCo equivalent of changing someones appearance entirely. Though this application falls under Rego since bodies can naturally have a groomed appearance and can naturally look well rested.

What are the applications of this spell:
I see this as a spell that magi would use on themselves if they are interrupted during an intense bout of study/lab work and need to make themselves presentable as you can cast this spell so quickly that even if you are surprised by a knock on your sanctum door you still have time to tidy up. It can also be useful to impress mundanes as a magus could come home from a quest completely exhausted and not appear that way.

Magi that care to can also use the following variation to have impossible and/or outrageous hairstyles:

The invisible Groom
ReCo 5
Range: Pers, Duration: Conc, Target: Part.
Base 3 +1 Conc +1 Part

This spell causes the magus hair/beard to assume any shape and form limited by 1) the actual volume of hair (i.e. it is not possible to shape the hair into a 2 meter tall tower on top of the magus' head unless the magus hair is already 2 meters long.) and 2) the magus' imagination (Finesse ability).
Since the spell is maintained the hairstyle does not naturally unravel until the magus loses concentration (or their maintaining the demanding spell runs out).

Applications:
Unless the magus in question had previously employed a barber/hairdresser this spell is unlikely to save a lot of money. It does however help in shaping the image of the magus. Which can be useful in many situations.

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43

I would suggest a perdo component to eliminate potential arcane connections from the grooming.

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44

Thats actually a really good idea. I hadn't thought of that. Either add it as a requisite if casting totals allow it or as a separate spell if not.

45

Hmm, at R:Touch, D:Mom, T:Circle (still only level 4) this would actually be a pretty effective way to keep grogs ... well, clean and groomed. How could one represent the mechanical effect of casting this spell on the whole turb once every day?

I think that a Living Conditions modifier of +1 is probably a bit too much (though if it could be combined with another 2-4 "health" effects of similar impact, it would probably warrant it). I'd say it's certainly worth a Loyalty bonus, at least +1 but probably more -- this should be disregarded if the effect actively contributes to Living Conditions since each +1 to the latter is worth 10 Loyalty points. And if you are paying your grogs a salary, you can save money instead of increasing the loyalty of grogs by simply paying them less; this provides a good formula to translate The Invisible Groom into Mythic Pounds saved.

An alternative would be to compute the savings as for "a Healthy Hole" above.
Any other ideas?

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46

covenant reputation. The grogs themselves may not care so much but it presents the covenant in a better light that they are so well taken care of.

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47

This is a really interesting way to simulate savings from casting spells on the covenfolk. The possiblity of a trade-off between cost savings and loyalty increases is a good one. I am going to use that in my own saga.

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