non-ritual version of "Watching Ward"?

The durations of While, not and if are available via a mystery path. I think Until is also in Faery magic. No research needed unless you want to incorporate them into Hermetic Theory

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I have finally managed to read this.
I am slightly confused as to who is allowed to use this, and whether spells have to be specifically designed to be Tethered.

HoH:TL p.99 suggests that Tethered Casting is a spell mastery ability available only to the Mutantes bloodline in House Mercere.
HoH:TL p.101 seems to say that spells can be invented to have the special ability to be Tethered, so long as you are of the Mutantes bloodline from House Mercere, or have learned the Minor Hermetic Virtue Tethered Magic.
HoH:TL p.107 seems to say any spell you learn is able to be Tethered , if you have the Minor Hermetic Virtue Tethered Magic.

Apparently the Minor Hermetic Virtue Tethered Magic exists because some Mutantes bloodline magi have left House Mercere and settled in other Houses. But, since House Tremere is a True Lineage House, I suspect this magic hasn't reached House Tremere. It looks unlikely that my Tremere character will be able to Tether spells.

There are multiple ways, not just one, which is why you're seeing multiple ways.

Mutantes: You can design spells that inherently work this way.
Tethered Magic: All of your spells work this way without having to design them to do so.
Tethered Casting: Whatever spell you have this option for works this way without having to design it to do so. Also, this is not limited to Mutantes; anyone can learn it if you can get someone to teach you somehow. Generally that will mean you'd have to convince a Mutantum magus to teach you, though.

True Lineage means they don't take other magi post-gauntlet; Tremere were apprenticed as Tremere. That doesn't mean you can't have some Mercere magus or someone of the same bloodline that gave rise to them as a distant ancestor. So there is nothing stopping you from taking Tethered Magic unless the SG really doesn't want you to.

I am still a little confused as to how Tethered spells are supposed to work.
Could anyone show me an example of how to use a tethered spell to act as a magical booby-trap, ala "Watching Ward" style?

Cast a tethered ArM5 p.162 Suppressing the Wizard's Handiwork on a big, mean fire spell. Then hand the tether over to the dogsbody of your choice - spirit, grog, familiar, apprentice etc. - with instructions when to drop concentration. Beware of underlings with Short Attention Span, Simple-Minded or such. Also avoid such tactics if you have Difficult Underlings.

Cheers

Thanks for reminding me about Grog Flaws.

Still, doesn't the "big, mean fire spell" have to be a non-Momentary spell to begin with, and needs to be lit in the right place.
Which means for a booby-trap, it might be better to tether the suppressed "big, mean fire spell" to a twig that the enemy is likley to step on, breaking the tethered Suppress spell, and resuming the "big, mean fire spell".

Thanks

Is it also possible? Not with just HoH:TL p.107 Mutantum Magic or Tethered Magic - but with ArM5 p.162 Watching Ward and some vis.

Cheers

Here is are some more booby-trap-like versions with Tethered Magic:

Handle of your lab door: ReMe to fall asleep. The first person to touch the lab door will have this spell fired off at them.

A whole bunch of specific tiles (but not a certain few) on the floor in the hall to your sanctum: PeCo to kill. The first person to touch each wrong tile will have this spell fired off at them.

I think you missed the OP.

I didn't.

This is both pretty dangerous, but it works.

Cheers