The RAW says under Range (p. 111) that "A spell that has a continuing effect remains in effect even if the caster moves out of range." This is pretty straightforward concerning most spell bc they often have an effect here and now and what the spell then does is to keep up the effect (the muto'ed soldier stays a pig untill the end of the duration whether the magus keep looking at him - Sight).
On the other hand, spells that involve an ongoing control require you to be within range to control, though the spell will continue to work even if he moves out of range, and then regain control when back in range.
My question is on two aspects of this. The first a general notion. When going back into range is this only "potential" range or "actual" range. To make an example - if casting a Voice spell, moving away and then retunring later would the caster have to make sounds that reach the target for him to regain control or does this happen automatically once he is as close as before when he casted the spell in the first place? Close enough to "potential" Voice the target.
Secondly, this only speaks of control, but what of ongoing Intellego spells? Here the ongoing effect would be the information recieved by the caster, yet the target might be a specific object rather then extraordinary perception in general. And what if the caster leaves the range at which he casted the spell on the object? The effect should stay in effect, but since the effect is telling the magus something what then?
The case that made me consider this was a magus wanting to know whether the door to his sanctum was ever opened, while he was away. The only information thus sought by the magus was a quite discrete variable - is it open/closed. Would it be possible to touch the door and cast the InHe spell to know this and then move out of range and still know if it was opened? If this is not the case the only alternative would of course be to use the Arcane Connection range.
I couldnt find anything conclusive on ongoing Intellego effects in the rules, so it would be great to hear some interpretations of this.
I'd say that you can in fact cast a "touch" Intelligo spell and then wander across the globe and still have it give you information.
The Arcane range would be approproiate for the ability to cast the spell from far away on the door (say you made it Sun duration and had to cast it twice a day). Or if you found a key to a door you couldn't easily approach (say a postern gate) and wanted to know if THAT door was opened.
If a spell had conditions you had to set, I would say you have to be in the base range to set a new condition, however. Like a Mentem control spell allowing multiple commands, if you start in Voice range and order the target to "run away" you can't change the order to something else until you're back in Voice range.
This is resolved by ArM5 p.112: "The range is established when the spell is cast, and remains the same even if the magus changes the loudness of his voice. Thus, a Voice range spell can allow silent control, but only as long as the target is within the distance that the magus's voice carried when he cast the spell."
The description of InAn 25 'Opening the Tome of the Animal Mind' (ArM5 p.118) appears to imply, that a magus must continue to touch the animal whose mind he is reading - so can be made into an argument, that a magus cannot leave casting range, if the Intellego spell shall further supply infomation to him.
Also InIm 5 'Prying Eyes' (ArM5 p.144f) implies that it works only 'as long as you can touch one of its walls'.
From the description of InMe 20 'Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie' (ArM5 p.149) you can deduce the opposite, however: this spell would be quite useless, if the Quaesitor would have to hold eye contact with the target - as he has to watch its breath for frost at the same time.
I would however use as the most striking example InHe 10 'Intuition of the Forest' (ArM5 p.136), which - as few magi make their boots into their Talismans - makes only sense if it continues to work while the magus ceases to touch the forest.
My conclusions:
Apparently the author did not think about this problem.
But there are R:Touch/Eye Intellego spells in ArM5 which - to be generally useful - require that they continue to work while the magus no longer touches the target or holds eye contact with it.
So the literal interpretation of the ArM5 p.111 rule quoted by Furion Transsanus is the constructive one which causes the least problems: only controlling the effect requires the magus to stay within range of the spell target, not keeping it up. Even if it is an Intellego spell.
Thank you for the very clarifying reference. Even if I used Voice a fitting example I had not thought of looking at the range in particular - and so it goes that it solves the question. I reckon then that this holds true as well for the other ranges - namely Touch, Sight and Eye (Personal and Arc being of little consequence here).
In the light of your work and great examples I would agree that this seems to be something the author(s) didnt think about - at least there seems to be no explicit text on ongoing Intellego effects and Range. I have voiced this out of interest - and not because it is currently actual in my own saga. If I was met with a similar situation with my troupe I would probably allow the continued input of information of an Intellego spell even if out of range, at least when keeping with relatively simple things like whether a door is ever opened - as in the thread inspiring this consideration. But I might also rule that if there were specific details or changes in the spell, the range would have to be reestablished.
Anyone out there with an argument against this or the opinion that this should be interpreted differently?