As Quite Possibly a Cat wrote explicitly and I implied, the "warded things cannot act across" part is specifically written for circular wards. You really don't run into the same game-balance issue with a circular ward against humans. You cannot just cast such a ward instantaneously. You can't leave the circular ward while enjoying its protection. You may have trouble getting out anyway if you penetrated against yourself. If you want to fight humans in melee, they can just stay away from you. If you want to fight them at range, you could be flying or have any of another bunch of defenses.
I take it to mean that you're talking about spontaneous events in response to something, not as a spontaneous spell. If one has the Arts to do it, one can cast a ward spontaneously. It's not going to be a big circle, and in the middle of combat it's conceivable that the circle can be breached prior to finishing the casting, whether it is a spontaneous spell or formulaic spell.
Thinking about magic and acting across the boundary, I have to say that magic should work across the boundary. Tellus brought up the issue of Mentem. The act of working Magic might be mental, the gestures would be corpus, but they happen outside of the circle, and thinking more about it, the Voice is Imaginem, and it would carry to the target. Earlier I had said something about communicating across the boundary being inhibited, but this view only holds if you accept that the ReCo ward stops any and all action across the boundary, even actions that have nothing to do with Corpus.
I don't necessarily hold that working magic is entirely Mentem, but it is certainly not Corpus, or it's not entirely Corpus. Perhaps gestures can't be used, because that's the act of Corpus trying to move or act across the boundary.
Casting a Pilum of Fire on the outside of a circle ReCo ward is not strictly Corpus acting across the boundary. The act happens on the outside, the item created is on the inside, and it is not the Form of what is warded against. The voice used to carry the spell to the target is Imaginem, and also not of the Form of what is warded against.
I can see that some person (who is, of course, Form of Corpus) can't make his body work correctly when faced with an action that would allow him to act across the boundary or damage the circle, or both. If the ward penetrates a magus outside of a ReCo circle ward, I can accept that he can't work a spell with gestures, and has to take the -5 penalty, because that's the Form of Corpus attempting to act against/across the circle. I have no issue with that. The idea that a Rego Corpus ward stops any and all action that is outside the Form for any person from acting in any manner across or on the boundary is very powerful.
Yes, I goofed. I meant to say instantaneously (no fast casting of Circle/Ring spells). I fixed it.
So, what if I ask the question in the other direction. In your view of stopping Corpus acting across the boundary, what constitutes a person warded against acting across a circle that is not covered by stopping the person's body from crossing the circle? If my only Corpus way to act across a boundary is via reaching across it, doesn't the whole statement about action become redundant or essentially become negated?
I'm trying to follow what you're asking and failing.
If it's a ReCo ward, you can't reach across it. Should you be able to throw something across it? IMO, yes. Wards should be narrow and strong across the Form, but they shouldn't be completely immune to any action taken by a person, unless that action is physically crossing the boundary OR trying to break the circle.
Where does that come from? Taught it was only for creatures with might?
W
What about the Virtue Invisible to Magic from HoH:TL, page 106? It's Major and Heroic, granted, but could a familiar acquire it somehow, through bond empowerment, RoP:M rules or something? Even if it is otherwise doable, would it cause issues with the magus/familiar bond or the use of bond powers?
It's a Rego Corpus guideline to ward something against humans. Normal penetration rules apply. For the average person in Mythic Europe, they wouldn't be able to cross the boundary. We are discussing, most recently, starting with Richard Love's comments about cases where the ward penetrates, and what action is allowed across the boundary.
Totally serf's parma here, but that requires a very particular kind of individual AND, invisible to magic requires that the user concentrate to become invisible. Both are nontrivial issues, and I'm going to sidestep the whole put into the bond thing as something pretty far out...
I'm asking where your cut-off is. It sounds like you have no cut-off. So a person could use a stick to push something on the other side of the circle. But at that point, the meaning of the other sentence in the rule has been entirely eliminated.
I don't know.
How does the ward prevent someone from grabbing a stick and keep the stick from moving it through? Clearly the stick isn't warded, and the person doesn't ever interact with the Ward until the point his hand touches the edge of the ward, but then the Ward would stop it. The only way something couldn't be pushed across the boundary is if doing so would damage it indirectly. Note, indirect action isn't forbidden, unless it affects the boundary. The Ward acts on the person outside of the boundary, but really only at the boundary. If I'm 15 feet away, why can't I throw a rock through a Rego Corpus Ward? Because the act of throwing is impossible for the person on the outside 15 feet away is my acting across the boundary? The stone is acting across the boundary, my act happened on the outside of the boundary, but has a consequence on the inside of the circle.
Clearly a ReHe ward would stop someone from throwing a stick across it. A ReTe ward would stop a stone or metal thing. ReIg would prevent fire, if those wards penetrated a magus, he wouldn't be able to fling those forms against a target warded within. And yet, a ReCo ward stops all those things and more, because a human initiates and acts outside the circle, with a cause happening outside the circle and an effect happening within.
Major isn't a big problem, but Heroic could very well be a problem.
This is why I have trouble with this interpretation. I can totally understand it, and I'd be fine with circular wards acting that way. But it does require ignoring that once sentence from the rules. I also don't like the idea of absolutely nothing from the person getting through. I prefer to find a way to interpret that sentence and yet still not have a ReCo ward against people be a near cure all. I think it also promotes creativity in breaching such wards. Thus my more Parma-like interpretation. I interpret it as needing to act on something outside so that something goes inside if you want to breach the ward. So, for me, PoF doesn't work since you're directly creating fire inside the circle. But arrows, dropping rocks, and anything else done outside that proceeds for other reasons (not immediately by the person's direction like pushing a stick) through the ward is fine.
For the stick and sword swinging through the ward interpretation, how about the item becoming stuck, like it goes in a bit, enough to get stuck, and then it's impossible to move it or pull it back out? That's blocking acting across the barrier.
Not going to agree on the PoF, though, that's not even related to Corpus. I can envision that the ward is acting on him in such a way that his gestures are unpredictable and adds botch dice, and he still has the -5 penalty because they aren't the gestures he intends to work. That's a bit more palatable. Not being able to work magic across the boundary because one is a human makes it an anti-magic ward. Wards should be narrow and restrict the form warded against.
Maybe it's related to motive force.
ReTe10 Invisible Sling of Vilano is unaffected by Parma Magica because "air" is the motive force. When you hold something in your hand, Corpus is the motive force. Remember that momentum does not exist in ME.
But we also have the example of an animated corpse picking up a mundane weapon and hitting something protected against magic IIRC.
What about the Casting Requisites section on page 115 of the Core Rules? Would having this kind of requisite available to the spell allow it to stop held/touched objects of the extra Forms from crossing/affecting the circle? If so, I'd say Animal, Herbam, Terram and possibly Aquam (for ice?) should be the options available.
Doesn't that still work? The spell is moving the body, not the sword. The motive force is from the hand, not the spell.
It explicitly does, according to RoP: M, but how is this different from the ReCo ward?
It was stated as a problem. I'm asking why it's a problem, why things don't work fine with that.
For the ReCo ward the motive force for the sword is from the hand (Corpus) still. Parma Magica asks if the motive force is magic. ReCo ward asks if the motive force is Corpus (or probably more specifically human or giant or something else).
If you are breaking out the virtues you might as well just do "Immune to might stripping" which is arguably about as rare as lightning, and definitely less common and IMO narrower than poison; examples of minor and major immunities respectively.
Inspired by the above post:
Feed your familiar enough vis to undergo transformation (add two major qualities), take Ritual Power twice and then you have "Grant: Immunity to Might Stripping"
Now everyone has an immune familiar!
Edit: Note that this is possible with as little as 30 xp, assuming you don't mind two new major inferiorities. 60 xp if you want everything with no drawback.