OK so thanks to Atlas Games for allowing me to make earlier edition official spells available under the Open License, and even in formulating them I realized many were irrevocably broken...but probably some just need some re-examination. What’s broken with the Forgotten Magic of Hermes? Let’s make it better!
(Gonna make notes and edit as I go)
Feels like CrAn Carrier Pidgeon needs AT LEAST something to the effect of “You need an arcane connection to the person”, otherwise how will the bird know where to go? That might also add an Intellego requisite.
InAq Eyes of the Shallow Seas seems Not Useful as a ritual - that may well be the sort of thing you simply do not have the time to get the candles out for. But Base 3 “Learn the Properties of Water” Personal/Momentary/Individual +4 Vision has the same final level, if we’re allowing “Depth” to be covered therein.
ReAq Alchemist’s Touch definitely needs a Part target, yes? Also, would y’all allow Touch, if the mage is touching the container but presumably not actually touching the liquid? How much leeway is allowed there.
ReHe The Benevolent Oarsman has a sort of “What’s happening here” factor to the description vs the requisites.
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Bear’s Cloak: Voice seems unnecessary, use Touch instead?
Conjuration of Savory Beef: Add note that it does not nourish?
The Venomous Blade: Base 15 refers to Animal product +2 magnitudes for treated and processed? Muto Aquam allows to turn a liquid into a poison causing a Heavy Wound for Base 4, so this seems high to me. Momentary seems too short to strike anyone. I’d say CrAn 10 (Base 4, +1 Touch, +1 Diam)
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Yeah, there is some work to do.
Wholesome Foal: Spell calculation doesn't work and I'm not clear how to do this in 5th, beyond adding another spell known not to work with magic theory.
Wizard's Hat of Rabbit: +2 flexibility is warranted.
Carrier Pigeon requires an arcane connexion.
Conjuration of the Tiny Killer: That's not how poison works in 5th.
Conjuring the Lord of the air is base 50.
Vision of the Mastered Beast: This would be a much, much higher base than that.
I'm stopping here for now.
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Wholesome Foal is like. Perth?? “I, Opaque, Bestow a Blessed Birth” with a bonus to the breeding roll equal to the magnitude of the effect (which would have to be upwards of 10 Magnitudes based off the breeding rolls in Hermetic Projects, a thing that seems nigh impossible for a Vitkir)
Thanks, all, for the additional scrutiny.
While again the point of the “quick and dirty” conversion was to get the text out as Open License material for folks to riff on, there was some effort into matching these with ArM5/ArMD guidelines. But unless our game table had a chance to bring one up and hash it out, that may have only been an initial pass.
Speaking of which, it’s not like anyone was creating griffins in any of the sagas I’ve played in, but I begin to question my sanity when I know that at some point I had the CrCo 50 base guideline for Conjuring the Lord of Air…but where that went…I am at a loss. A copy and paste error? I don’t know, but @temprobe is right to point it out, and that’s the kind of goof I was hoping folks could catch.
I will note that in several cases for my own purposes I was designing a spell that seemed workable under ArM5/ArMD, but probably necessitated adjusting the spell description. But I wanted to adhere more closely to the original text just so it would be Open License. So some designs will suffer as a result of the mismatch.
Anyway, my pride be d*mned, please keep these coming. I told John Nephew I’d be happy to produce additional iterations of the Forgotten Magic of Hermes and I was hoping just such community scrutiny would make those both necessary and useful. It’s a brave new world of Open License iterative production, and I’m excited to see the results.
Thanks,
Patrick
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Note: I only vaguely understand the complexities of the Open License, so if some of this is unchangable, do ignore it.
CrIg Warmth of the Hearth doesn’t seem like it needs to be Voice Range. I guess you COULD if your magus wants to go ‘round shouting through windows of a building they can’t enter but I imagine dropping it to touch would be fine.
CrIg Flames of the Wizard’s Soul is fun flavor, but I’m not sure how it works - are we assuming a casting tablet, or Lab Notes on that spell, given to the unwary? Would a mage not understand how a spell they’re learning in a lab works, even after a whole season spent on it?
I would pitch that ReIg Curse of Attraction of the Fire doesn’t need the +1 Req for Corpus, but might have a required requisite based on whatever’s being targeted (so you could also target an animal, a tree, a particularly mouthy rock, etc)
CrIm Elaboration of the Conspicuous Sigil feels (to me) like it doesn’t need a concentration roll / could be a nominally momentary duration spell that technically lasts for ~10 seconds, so, as long as your next action is to cast a spell, it goes off. It’s also so low level that I would almost suggest that this is a thing any mage of sufficient skill can just choose to do. ALTHOUGH it would be a cool spell if it was at, say, Voice Range, Fast Cast on a spell being hurled at you so you can figure out who you’re dealing with.
Does CrIm The Mind’s Eye need a range, so the caster can see it? Or is it only in the caster’s mind that the image is seen, so no one else can?
Not sure about CrIm Image of the Inanimate Thing - it says “Creates an inanimate object” but should probably be “Creates an image of an inanimate object.” I would allow for the idea that if you bump up the Base to 2, you could give it visual-ness and the ability to affect touch, though no solidness.
Might need to AT LEAST adjust the listed virtues/flaws in CrIm Illusion of the Purring Cat, since those don’t exist - Sleep Disorder and Night Terrors might sub in. (I, who sleep with a cat purring in my ears all night, would argue that it should provide a bonus, not a penalty, to good sleep, but perhaps the author is built different.)
CrIm Decoration of the Pleasant Chamber imo should be Muto instead of Creo. (I’m getting very picky with Creo Imaginem, was the design philosophy for that Form very different in prior editions?)
MuIm Sealed Lips of the Written Secrets wants at LEAST some +Mags for complexity, and/or a Finesse roll.
MuIm Song of Spring might do well with a Storm duration/target, from Atlantean Magic. Also, I don’t think it should be Personal unless the mage is currently a storm?
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CrMe Glade of Contentment does this still work on an unbounded area like a clearing? How strict are “definite boundaries.”
InMe Scent of Fear probably needs reworking as a Magical Sense (+2 Mags for smell) but doesn’t need +1 for Imaginem.
ReMe Communion of Peace is a lovely spell, but it seems to work on an older-edition “Enchant a thing” logic, that I don’t think we see in 5e. It almost feels like it should be a MuAq/MuAn/MuAu, +Me for all, to make the wine/food/candle smoke have a particular effect. That part could also simply be removed (such that the spell is just “Everyone in the room when cast”), although I’d be sad to lose the flavor.
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This does look fantastic, and I’d be happy to take a look at the project - When updating them to the most recent edition, are you prioritizing the accuracy of the spell description, or maintaining the spell’s level?
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I don’t have notes on 5Te Healing the Land (apart from thinking that Faerie Magic 16 is INCREDIBLY high, maybe adjustable?) I just think it’s a really lovely spell.
I question InTe Seek the/Sense of Dry Land, based on an unbounded boundary - the level seems perfectly fine though.
ReTe Invisible Hand of the Thief has a Duration: Concentration, but it’s not listed at the end. Feels like it should be a momentary?
ReTe The Circle of Warriors specifies “Up to four weapons” and I don’t have a sense of why it should be any less than ten?
Vim is such a fiddly thing that I’ll leave that to my more metamagically inclined sodales.
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Thanks all for taking a look. Sorry to be incommunicado, but I’ve been traveling.
When updating them to the most recent edition, are you prioritizing the accuracy of the spell description, or maintaining the spell’s level?
Yes. 
This version was really aimed at getting the old spells out under the Open License, and that meant I tried to maintain as much of the original wording as possible. That said, I feel like the spells themselves are better served by tweaked text that reflects ArM5/ArMD rules and sensibilities. That’s where we get things like The Circle of Warriors affecting up to 4 swords per the original text, when—as @PinkOpaque rightfully points out—Group Target should get us 10. Likewise the old Near Range is more than Touch, but for spells like Bear’s Cloak, Voice is probably overkill. As I look to include these in my Master Grimoire, I’m likely to tweak both the parameters and the descriptions, but I guess for the purposes of this document I think my goal is to focus on making the spell design account for the description as much as possible. That may end making Bear’s Cloak Touch Range just because the spell description doesn’t say anything to the contrary, but I’m particularly worried about things that are plain wrong (like that Conjuring the Lord of Air spell’s base).
Anyway, I guess with the next iteration we’ll get some practice with giving credit for these tweaks under the Open License! Again, appreciate the additional sets of eyes.
Best,
Patrick
As per a conversation I’ve had with the Mad Irishman, any spells I’ve sent to magazines that have reverted to me are now in the SA license.
Eventually pretty much everything I’ve ever done for the older magazines will be: I keep thinking it’s an easy way to do a free supplement. It’s not of course: I’d need to update everything and do art, but if you need something before then, go ahead and use it. Everything in the new magazine is already in the SA license.