questions about Monica Ierne's talisman

[Berengar]

@mjprogue

@Arthur

Not quite.

A wooden staff is only a single component. You don't separate the shape and the material into different components. Even having several kinds of wood might not by itself qualify the item as having additional components, depending on what the item you are preparing for enchantment.

It is only when you add different things to your item that you add components. Physical things, not engravements done on the item. So a staff with a circular engravement or mark (by lightining or done by the craftsman) still has only a single component. And the circular engravement does not provide Shape bonuses to the staff either. An engravement or a mark is not a component.

For example, let's say the staff is made of oak. This is the first component. Adding a band (ring) of silver around your staff would add a second component. Mounting an iron ball on top of the staff would add a third component. Preparing that staff for enchantment would be possible for a magus with a Magic Theory of at least 4, since the staff is a "large wood" item and thus requires 8 pawns to prepared. The number of components would not hinder the enchanter there. Alternatively, the enchanter with a very high Magic Theory score could decide to open the staff as a coumpound item to give it more space for effects, adding the number of pawns for each component together (8 for the wood staff, 6 for the tiny silver ring and 5 for the tiny base metal ball). That would be a total of 19 pawns, thus requiring a Magic Theory of 10.* This would allow him to enchant many more effects into the staff, up to 19 pawns' worth of effects instead of a measly 8 pawns. This decision must be taken when you first prepare the item for enchantment and cannot be changed later for that item.

That staff would benefit from all of the following S&M bonuses:

• Wand/Staff: +2 repel things, +3 project bolt or other missile, +4 control things at a distance, +4 destroy things at a distance
• Oak: +7 protection from storms
• Ring: +2 constant effect
• Silver: +10 harm lycanthropes
• Iron: +7 harm or repel faeries

All of these bonuses could be used to provide bonuses to effects enchanted into the staff.

If the staff becomes a talisman, then each of those bonuses can be selected individually to become attunements after a season of work (i.e. providing "+2 repel things", not the whole list for Wand/Staff at one time). Talismans can have as many attunements as their S&M bonuses provide, but each must be added during a separate season when you enchant effects into the talisman.

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• A Verditius magus would be able to do this with a lower Magic Theory score, since his Craft score would reduce the number of pawns needed to prepare the item. So a Verditius with a Craft score of 6 would only need a Magic Theory score of 7.

Except that failure to "open" a part of the compound item results in an inability to make use of material bonus from those parts not opened...so in this case no silver OR iron effect bonus. This is clearly laid out in AM5...and if allowed, would totally negate the primary advantage to the Great Talisman Mystery...which allows you to add extra components to an existing Talisman....every magus would just make the most complicated item they felt like making...never knowing which bonus they might want in the future.

Check point 1D of caribet's elaboration, my statement in this thread, or just

@"ArM5 p.97 [i

Preparation for Enchantment[/i] (underscores mine)"]It is also possible to prepare a compound item for enchantment, so that you get the shape and material bonuses from all the components for all effects. For example, you might want to enchant a wooden staff, shod in iron, with a quartz crystal bound on the top. There are two ways to do this, but you must select one when the item is first prepared, and the choice cannot be changed later. Work out how many pawns of vis it would take to prepare each component for enchantment. You may then either prepare it with a number of pawns equal to the sum of the pawns for each component, or with a number of pawns equal to the highest required by a single component.

You will see that your objection to Arthur's post does not hold up.

Cheers