As a counterbalance to the smoke is exclusively auram idea there is a level 10 muto ignem spell in the book that makes a target fire produce oddly colored smoke and it has no auram requisite. If odd colors don't require and auram requisite should exceptionally dense smoke?
Cutting and pasting what I just wrote in another thread:
I'm really enjoying hearing about Ranulf's motivations, likes/dislikes, and weaknesses ... just from this thread alone he's more fleshed out to me than lots of characters I've played with!
So how's this for a rewrite? Change a fire so that it is slightly unnatural is Muto Ignem base 3 rather than rego's control a fire in a slightly unnatural fashion at base 4 and I figured that the requisite was mandatory so the final spell dropped by a magnitude as still fit in Ranulf's non-fatiguing spont range (but Artisano can no longer cast it).
Well, there's the matter that many situations don't permit the application of a really big hole. It's oftentimes a pain to entomb lots of stuff in the ground. But this is a small concern. Even considering the possible quantities of collateral damage taking down a fire resistant creature who is attacking you is too important to be stopped concerns about what else you're destroying.
The big issue I see is that spells as a rule need to at least either penetrate or be targeted. Now if you're talking about a hole 15 paces in radius it's pretty clear that neither targeting nor magic resistance should really apply. I think that your suggested spell would work but it's a sort of game mechanic scab that I don't wish to pick at in this thread.
Stealing inspiration from the Rego Corpus guidelines Ranulf spends a season inventing this spell, to allow him to move his fires quickly
Flames that Leap Leagues
ReIg 40
R: Touch, D: Mom., T: Part
A fire or portion of a fire targeted by this spell is transported to a location up to seven leagues distant that the caster can either see or has an arcane connection to. Fuel that is being burnt by the fire can be transported with the fire by use of an appropriate casting requisite (typically herbam). if there is no fuel for the fire to burn at its destination or if the fire's destination is not amenable to a fire (such as a snow drift or a lake) the fire will be extinguished almost immediately. Ranulf uses this spell to split a fire into multiple fires at distant locations that are arcane connections to one another. Ranulf typically casts the spell with an herbam requisite to include some fuel for the fire at its new location but when it is important thatthe fire not be extinguished he also been known to both spontaneously cast a MuIg spell to allow the fire to burn without fuel and cast Enduring Flame on the original fire. Ranulf is hindered in his use of this spell by his poor eyesight and would very much like to acquire an item that would cast eyes of the eagle on him but he has not yet done this. Ranulf can use this spell in conjunction with not only unified flame and discourse of glowing tongues but also with transformation of fire or Transformation of Fiery Steel to send objects far away. Ranulf can also use this spell on Artisano when he is under the affects of Assumption of the fiery mantle.
(Base 30, +1 Touch, +1 Part)
He spends two seasons on the next spell because not being able to target metal with transformation of fire is a big drawback.
Transformation of Fiery Steel
Mu Te (He,Ig) Level 45
R: Voice, D: Diam, T: Part
This spell transmutes an object of stone, wood, soil, metal, or plant derived cloth or part of some such object into a fire. The fire is still essentially the original object and will not be extinguished for lack of fuel but it can be doused or extinguished in other ways. The transmuted fire is no larger than 2 paces in size and it is hot enough to do +5 damage. Objects smaller than 2 paces in size will turn into fires of their own size when they are subjected to this spell.
(Base 5, + 2 Voice, +1 Diameter, +1 Part, +2 to affect stone metal and gems, +1 herbam requisite)
Ranulf then cooperates with a fellow Milites magus and together they create two of the following item. Certainly the quick advancement rules make no allowance for cooperating with other magi and the flavor text says that it is rare for social reasons. Yet Ranulf can't make this item on his own and I'd wager that school of Flambeau magi with level 20 vim are rare as hen's teeth. Furthermore this isn't the sort of device that either Ranulf or the magus who cooperates with him would want any others to know about, it's incredibly useful to school of Flambeau magi and the trust garnered by decades of fellowship in the societies Milites has got to be worth something.
Ranulf spends five seasons: two seasons opening the rings for enchantment, two seasons instilling unraveling the fabric of ignem in the first ring, and one instilling Unraveling the Fabric of Ignem in the second ring from laboratory notes. The cooperating magus spends four seasons: two instilling Anticipation of Incineration into each of the rings and two seasons acting as Ranulf's laboratory assistant during the enchantment of Unraveling the Fabric of Ignem into the first ring.
I've gone beyond the printed rules with a timing trick here. Tell me if you think that it's justified.
School of The Founder's Advocate
This invested device takes the form of a silver ring inlaid with a ring of polished hornbeam. It was opened with seven pawns of vis and the enchantment capacity of the item has been filled by the two effects Anticipation of Incineration and Unraveling the Fabric of Ignem.
This device was created by a Ranulf and a fellow school of the Founder flambeau socitates Milites. Because it was well known that both of magi favored ignem magic, they worried that anyone who had advance warning of them might very well protect themselves with rego ignem wards against fire spells.
As is usually the case with such devices, the wearer must suppress their parma magica as they place the ring on their finger in order to allow the Anticipation of Incineration to target them. The ring functions only while the wearer keeps it on his or her finger. Anticipation of incineration only functions once per day, so if the wearer takes the ring off, it will not work again until the next sunrise or sunset.
Anticipation of Incineration
InMe Level 30
R: Touch, D: Concentration, T: Ind
This effect reads the mind of the target (the wearer) and determines when they are starting to cast a creo ignem attack spell on a target. Anticipation of Incineration then triggers unraveling the fabric of ignem. Anticipation of incineration was specifically designed so as not to warp Ranulf as a powerful effect (the item can still cause warping to him as a long term effect if he were the sort of fellow who wore it most of the time, which he isn't).
(Base 15, +1 touch, +1 concentration modifications: +5 levels item maintains concentration)
Unraveling the Fabric of Ignem
PeVi Level 40
Pen 40, 3 uses per day
R: Voice, D: Momentary, T: Ind
This effect has a linked trigger. It is set off when the anticipation of incineration enchantment detects that the wearer is about to attack a target with a creo ignem spell.
This effect is intended to remove ignem wards such as Ward Against Heat and Flames (ArM5 p. 143) that might otherwise protect the target from the deleterious results of getting hit with multicast pillum of fire spells. The effect functions as Unraveling the Fabric of [Form] (ArM5 p. 161), dispelling all hermetic ignem effects of level 25 + stress die (no botch) and lower. It functions three times per day and it has a penetration of 40.
A caster who spends a few days practicing with the School of the Founder's Advocate can learn to cast their spells sufficiently slowly to allow unraveling the fabric of ignem to take effect before their attack spell. When the caster does this, their initiative is reduced by two for the rest of the combat.
(Base 5, +2 Voice, modifications +2 levels 3x per day, +3 levels linked trigger, +20 levels 40 penetration)
Hehe, well i was thinking you might simply give a bonus to targeting due to size. Ie. you make the hole just big enough to give a bonus that offsets Ranulf´s penalties.
I had originally seen it as a way to send objects back and forth or set up a communication network via unified flame and discourse of glowing tounges (and as a method of transportation as you'll see in the next section). It now occurs to me that he could use it to send a properly augmented conflagrative servant to do a simple task for him without even risking Artisano. His intellego deficiency bites him hard here because the level 35 eyes of the flame spell would be perfect to use with this but he doesn't have the lab total to learn it even from lab notes.
Enchanted devices take the same time to use as casting spells, so if Ranulf just takes a deep breath between the time he decides to fry something and starting his creo ignem it seems to me that he should be golden.
That's for when you're triggering a device, this is using a linked trigger from an intellego spell. It might serve as a guide telling us that items don't get a finesse bonus so they're as a whole slower. But if we try and pull more out of it then that we get the question of what quickness to use for an inanimate object that's self triggering. I'm still OK with my -3 modifier based on gut instinct.
That's four years since he finished his study break and eleven years past the Ranulf +60 version in Magi of Hermes.
Next he spends three more years in study for 90 xp.
muto to level 12 to 13 for 13 xp
corpus from level 5 to 13 for 76
leaving 1 xp for magic lore to get it to 0(1) because he should really know something about magic lore by this point of his life.
Inspired by his familiar and the prospect of finally obtaining a practical manner of travel by use of ignem Ranulf spends two seasons inventing Assuming the Fiery Mantle
Ranulf then gets down to the business of dealing with opponents who have a soak to high for his wizard's boosted pillum of fire.
he spends one season inventing the following spell
Ranulf now needs a way to get Skin of Wax on his targets without spending a round of combat casting it.
This is more or less a duration sun target personal version of watching ward (p.162). I had debated having the unused stored spells discharge on the caster at the end of the duration, but seeing as that would be sunrise/sunset when the caster has no parma I decided that it was too big a drawback. I probably made the spell more restrictive than it had to be in regards to the conditions for releasing the stored spells but I'm fond of the restrictive conditions. It's twinky enough as it is-there's no need to add more minmaxing at the cost of coolness. I could have gone the route of watching ward with the triggering conditions completely but then I had a difficult time justifying the stored spell hitting the correct target.
Upon reflection the above spell is certainly not going to release its payload prior he target getting hit with the PoF's, but Ranulf only needs the spell at level 3 (technically he needs it at level -5, but I'll ignore the weirdness regarding low magnitudes and guidelines that reference levels rather than magnitudes) he can cast that as a non-fatiguing spont. In fact he can cast the next as a non fatiguing spont as well.
That's 14 years and three seasons, leaving me one more season. During this one season Ranulf would like to learn:
⢠Wizard's Endurance (ignem) (as Wizard's reach or Wizards expansion but affecting duration),
⢠Unraveling the fabric of ignem,
⢠Flames of Stone as a spell, (he can only cast it three times per day from his talisman, I see that as a serious inconvenience for him),
⢠A version of Flames that leap leagues at range Arcane connection,
⢠Wizard's communion
⢠Veil of invisibility, and
⢠a target individual version of wind of mundane silence.
Sadly for Ranulf he can't do all of those things in a season .
He's going to choose flames of stone and he'd probably pick up most of the rest of that list in the next year and a half or so if you'd want to think about Ranulf +77 instead of Ranulf+75. Looking long term he'll want to get a high level version of Diurnal Watching Ward, a version of transformation of flame that can handle animal products and critters, and perhaps a version of skin of wax for animal. If he can get four more points in his intellego Ignem lab total he could learn vision of heat's light from lab notes which would be very helpful for him. He also hopes to be able to purchase a device to cast eyes of the eagle so as to mitigate his poor vision.
Base 2??? While there isnt really a Guideline that is comparable, a minor ability i would not call it.
After some looking the closest i can find is the MuAn 15 for changeing an animal in a major unnatural way.
It seems that night vision wouldn't be any easier than increased flammability, the ability to burn better is what I saw as a minor ability. But it does seem to be a low level. Base 3 is utterly change the appearance which seems like a bigger change. +2 soak seems comparable to me and that 's base 10 the same level as turning a person into a land animal. Turning a target into a land animal is in no way comparable to increased flammability the way that I see it. At base 10 it comes out as level 30 the same as Curse of Circe, I just don't think it should be that high.
Arm of the infant seems to be a comparable effect, that's base 3. Using base 3 would move the spell up to level 15, that level feels a bit better as far as game balance.
I'm open to an argument for a different level if you'd like to post one for consideration.
I think that I could live with Base 2. "Flammablity" seems like a Minor "Ability" to me.
However the actual mechanics of the effect seem to be a bit too powerful.
There are basically two effects here. One gives a Soak Penalty, the other means that the character ignites if he takes damage from a heat source. I can see that it makes logical sense to have these effects go together (especially if magic was "technology"), but I am inclined to split them out as separate spell effects. One spell for the "ignition effect", another spell for the "penalty to soak" effect.
Well, "minor ability" then you´re generally just changing either a small part or the change itself is minimal and generally somewhat natural or at least not far from it.
"utterly change the appearance or size of a person" with the conditional that they must remain human in "form"...
You´re not changing appearance(ie "skindeep" if very simplified) but rather something far more radical, changing the whole body completely, all through. Size makes there be much more or less of a body but the change of the body isnt very radical in itself.
So, i think it would need to be greater than either of those, this however is when it gets problematic, because on the one hand i can argue that this is a very strange effect, close in type to the Level 25 and 30 Base Guidelines, BUT there´s also a fairly good argument for placing it in the level 4-10 as you can argue that what you´re doing is the opposite of adding soak, but basically the same thing and that since you´re only making it more susceptible in ONE narrow aspect the Base level should stay fairly low...
Thats when i started looking through all the Muto guidelines(in the AM5 main book only that is so i dont know if there´s any better or more comparable ones around) and had a hard time finding something comparable.
The closest i could find was the MuAn ones. And there the Level 5 was enough to change the colouring of an animal, certainly on the right track but not enough, and potentially more inline with the MuCo Level 2 or slightly higher, adding confusion, but the Level 15 MuAn seemed rather fitting, "Change in a major unnatural way" and gives "scaly armored skin" as an example, essentially coming closest so far to a guideline that resembles what your spell does.
As the MuAn guidelines seem a bit higher overall than the MuCo ones i end up looking at a rough Base of at the very lowest 4 and at the very highest 15.
So i would say 4 or 5 as Base as Base 10 seems to be able to do more radical changes still, even if it can still be argued if its more radical to change a person into an animal, still "flesh and blood" just in a different form or completely change how that "flesh and blood" actually behaves. As i said, it gets problematic.
Agreed. But i also dont think it should be much lower. Especially not since then its too easy to exploit or use as precedent for similar reductions in Soak.
Im sure i could come up with a version of the spell but affecting Soak vs metal, or even Soak vs anything solid.
Like say, make someone as brittle as if they were made out of the thinnest of glass.
At a Base 2, that just gets insanely good. Its actually quite perfect as part of a One-Two spell combination for the "army killer spells" thread.
MuCo(Te) Base 2, Group +2, Size +3, Sight +3; Level 30
Up to 10000 people are made brittle as thin glass. (one can argue that this change is greater than yours, but at the same time you can argue that it is essentially the same)
After that, make a Size +4, Sight +3 version of Crest of the Earth Wave at ReTe 35 and an army there will be no more. Instead of +10 damage, they will take +20, and even those who manage to jump out of the way will take damage due to their extremely brittle nature, and they will take it at the -10 to Soak penalty.
And Level 35 is about the limit for what you can let beginning magi start with, so this combination is still perfectly possible right out of Apprenticeship. Ouch.
No, the more i look at it the more it feels too low.
For me, it is hard to see how making somebody "flammable" is not a minor Ability, much like "seeing in the dark" is a minor Ability. The opposite, making somebody unsually "resilient to flame" would be a perfect example of a minor Ability, IMO.
The problem is really in what "flammable" actually means in terms of game mechanics. That's where the existing version is a bit "good", IMO.
Seeing in the dark is only a tiny change to a small part of the body. Its also a totally natural change.
The spell is more akin to making a living person about as flammable as a mummy who spent the last century or so drying up.
And stopping fire from burning a person is Base 4 ReIg. Exactly in line with what i suggested. And yes i know stopping isnt the same as resilient, but with Ignem you would be affecting the fire directly not by trying to make yourself harder to affect by the fire, as i would consider that a good bit harder, as then we´re basically back at the equivalent of the MuAn Level 15. And to make a body totally inflammable, ie equal to the total protection from Base 4 ReIg, you probably need MuCo Base 25. Giving a +1 to Soak against flames i could agree with at MuCo Base 4, ie 1 lower than an overall +1 Soak. Base 3 for +1 against Fire isnt out of the question either, but spell effect we´re looking at is -10 to Soak, dramatically more powerful.
Thats what makes it so dastardly hard to place indeed. The only thing im sure of is that Base 2 is too low and that Base 3 is almost certainly too low. At Base 4 i can at least start justifying it even if it still feels potentially low.
Why not look at Flammability using the Perdo Corpus Guidelines (page 133) for inflicting Wounds.
05: Light Wound , 10: Medium , 15: Heavy , 20: Incapacitating , 30: Kill a person.
Penalties to Soak would require a Perdo requisite , perhaps.
Sure, using ReIg magic it is. That doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be easier (or harder) using MuCo to get a "similar" effect.
I would personally be happy with a Base MuCo 2 spell that gave somebody the ability to be "flammable" if that was translated into just giving a -5 penalty to Soak from heat based damage. You can then add a magnitudes for a "more powerful effect" to get a bigger penalty.