I'm going to specifiy in my game that a spell of ring duration has to be completely immoble with respet to the earth, with one exception. In the 11th century a Bonisagus magus had a breakthrough that alllows ring duraiton spells to function on the deck of a ship.
Does anyone forsee any problems with this rule or with the exception? (In fact this may well be the way that the rules are intended but lots of folks have posited rings on plates and carpets and the like so I want to make things crystal clear for my players)
What about a ring that isn't intended for people? Like a ring around the lip of a container to affect the contents? The container is mobile, theoretically. With that HR, moving it would disrupt the effect yes?
LOL, in one of my old 4th ed sagas, we HR'd that "Ring" could refer to a ring worn on your finger, and the spell lasted for as long as you didn't remove it. Easilly abused, but it wasn't used very often at all.
I think you are being too restrictive though. Shapeshifting spells that allow you to "deactivate" the spell by removing some item; they have a Duration of Sun which is the same base magnitude as Ring, which in turn functions similar to my old ArM4 HR.
How about you rule that mobile rings automatically expire at sunrise/sunset?
But you've always been able to deactivate a ring whenever you want by breaking it or moving the target outside of the ring. What I'm after is something to counterbalance the potentially infinate duration of rings, that something is immobility.
That seems like like a fine rule but it lacks the simplicity of "rings can't move".
Well, it isn't all that much more complex. Mainly I am advocating the idea that Rings should be allowed to move. But I understand that we probably come from different gaming philosophies. I err in favor of the players and generally allow them to have (most) of the power they desire. But I do have a dual nature. My "Monty Haul" DM persona is matched by a Killer DM Persona that likes to throw Might 75 dragons at magi.
Well then I rather disfavor your rule. I find interesting uses of magic like that rather flavorful. I don't think I'd like the idea of someone trying to put a ring into a rug and have it be always on, and ready the second the rug was unfurled. But as long as the surface the ring was on was a solid/fixed thing... I'd be ok with it.
I don't think the ring on your finger would have the desired effect. You could make something like that, but wouldn't it only affect your finger for most things?
Comming to the conclusion that I don't err in favor of the players is in error and unwarranted.
I think that ring duration "instant magic items" have power beyond their cost. I want to give the players enjoyable challenges and an interesting experience. I think that movable rings are anti-mythic and they become the solution to far to many problems for them to be interesting.
I have a difficult time saying no to players. This is why I want to set expectations before someone decides to build all sorts of interconnected ring spell plans. Because I hate to squash the inspiration of players and also hate to not let the characters triumph over adversity by failing to give them any.
Casting a ring spell on the lip of a pail rather than on a circle inscribed on the ground around the pail seems less mythic to me. It seems more technology and less magic.
How could a ring be interconnected? You are either in one ring, or another one aren't you? Two 'rings' that overlap each other wouldn't work IMO? One would break the other one, or both would be broken?
What's the advantage of having rings that can move?
What specific cool things can be done with moving rings that I'm disallowing in favor of things which are less cool (rather than in favor of things which are more cool)?
Hmm, barrels bulge so all of the contents of the barrel wouldn't be within the boundary of a Ring made of the rim. I'd have no problem with carrying a rug that had a pre inscribed Ring on it, but I wouldn't let an active Ring spell be in place on a rolled up rug.
Does the cylinder of the Ring effect extend both directions? Would it actually cover the contents of a bottle in which the lip is a Ring? I'd be more inclined to say that the contents of the bottle are outside the Ring, so if you are just trying to seal a bottle it would be useful..
Overall, I'd agree with the original poster. It doesn't feel right to have mobile Rings. That's not what you see in the myth and literature IMHO.
I'd question the "breakthrough" as it seems more an OOC work around than a true IC breakthrough. Is the breakthrough that the ring works on a ship or is it that the thing the ring is based on can move? What's to keep somebody from getting a hold of the breakthrough research and extending it to a wagon or a table or anything else?
If it works on a ship, what about a boat? If it works on a boat, what about a raft? If it works on a raft, what about any 4 pieces of wood tied together in the water? What about 4 pieces of wood tied together on land? What if those pieces of wood are smaller than a "raft", like a shield? What if the ship is really small and stuffed in a bottle?
If the breakthrough is that the base of the ring can move, why only a ship and not anything else?
If Hermetic magic allows moving circles created with D: Ring, lesser amulets associated with the Craft Amulets Ability from RoP:D are pretty useless. Also, it's arguably the mobile aspect that makes the Robes of Dusty Dawn such a legendary item.
I don't think this rule modification causes any problems. In the saga in which I play, we have a similar rule concerning immobility, but we have furthermore decided that all Ring (and Sun, for that matter) spells fail for Diameter duration at dawn and dusk. Many enemies know this, which often makes for perilous but dramatic encounters.
I find interesting uses of magic like that rather flavorful. I don't think I'd like the idea of someone trying to put a ring into a rug and have it be always on, and ready the second the rug was unfurled. But as long as the surface the ring was on was a solid/fixed thing... I'd be ok with it.