That means you do not need realm specific spells to detect the presence of divine, faerie, or infernal vis. A separate spell may be required to determine which is it, but a single spell cans each for all 4 realms, where undifferentiated vis is detected as magic by default.
OK.
Then we have a
- Ring of the Wondrous Smell of Vis. InVi10
Base 1, +1 Conc +2 Smell, +1 Touch, +5L maintain conc - Ring of Ennobled Presence MuIm10
Spell 10 Conc/Maintain Conc
Hmm. 12 levels short.
If you can't fill all of the levels you can invest the remainder as vis, either banking it at Harco or taking it with you to exchange.
What effect would Wind at the Back have on a sailing ship?
Would the breeze actually turn whenever the ship turns, to allow it to sail downwind at all times? There seems to be nothing in the description to say otherwise, but it feels overpowered ...
LEVEL 5
WIND AT THE BACK
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind
An existing breeze follows you until you stop traveling for more than ten minutes. It causes phenomena you pass through (fog, haze) to follow you.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun (closest duration to special effect))
It would turn as the magus turns (the target here is the wind the magus is touching) so as long as the magus (or device) is facing forward it will blow that direction. If the ship is enchanted with the spell it will blow in the direction the ship faces...
So I can go for an enchanted weathercock ... if you turn it by hand you turn the wind with it. And if mounted on the ship, the turned wind affects the whole ship, right? Level 9 for the spell with +4 for permanent (two uses and environmental trigger). Does that work?
Yes, that would work.
Wait a minute. Permanence makes no sense, given that the wind would travel on if one takes a break, or it does not travel in same the direction it is facing, so that one would have to recast on a new wind. Isn't that what would happen?
It should be 12 uses instead of permanent I think. (Reactivating manually at sunset/-rise is not a big deal.)
Based on the original spell, it does not cause the wind to blow harder or gentler, only in a given direction, and this would, on this device, continue to work even when you have stopped.
I was not suggesting that it blows harder or gentler. I was assuming that the wind travels in the direction it blows, so that if the item travels in a different direction from what it is facing, it will end up in a different wind (or no wind at all). After all, there is no Size modifier, so it does not affect a large wind covering the entire area. It can only affect a small wind continuously following the item.
But if you say the wind can follow in a different direction than it is blowing, then we are fine.
The effect of the item is to direct the wind it is touching to blow in the direction it is pointing, which has drifted significantly from the original effect, but even with that there are obvious flaws- the wind/air would not travel at the same speed as the magus, some some of the special effects really would not follow, except as a leading edge effect (if the wind is moving a different direction outside of the area of effect it would cycle back into the area, thus maintaining the same air mass regardless- this same principle would apply if the wind is moving a different direction that the item directing it, within reason.) If you prefer to have the effect be concentration with maintains concentration to account for backwards facing wind drafts however this might have greater functionality.
I rejected concentration because it would add four levels to the effect, but on second thought, that's probably more useful than automatic recasting at sunset/-rise.
Level 10 would allow it to maintain concentration, with an extra use if the user fails to renew concentration at sunset/-rise. I think that's the best option given your interpretation of winds.
This creates one additional problem- you set out on your expedition having made the decision not to have this effect and to take those "effects' in vis instead, and now mid-adventure have changed your mind, asking that we settle the enchantments before we proceed. I was under the impression they had been settled, which established certain plot points of the adventure, and it feels to me like you have changed your mind and decided to reverse your previous decision to get out of trouble- this is not allowed.
No, I have not changed my mind. You suggested vis, but I never wanted that and it was my intention all along to complete the selection. I even made the statement in the story, that he has no vis. I set out on this mission assuming that the character had been approved as written, which obviously was not the case. Sorry that I took long to come up with new ideas.
I agree that it is a problem when the character is completed mid-story.
The problem is that it was my understanding that you decided on vis in order to get started, and that you had decided not to use the wind enchantment effect because it felt to you like it was too "cheap' or too obvious or something- so the story I have is a massive water elemental which is dependent on vis to survive chasing a ship at the mercy of the wind to get the vis it smells, and now you "finish" the character so it has no vis and has control over the wind.
When I was under the impression that the character was already finished.
On the other hand it is starting to look like nothing was truly finished with Castra Pisces, that everyone simply stopped midway feeling like it was done...