Robes of weapon immunity

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

In a different topic it's brought up that arrows can affect a wizard rather well, and that if a wizard puts up a spell to provide constant protection he'll get Warped. Initially I disagreed, but looking it up, that's definitely true.

What if the wizard cast the spell on his robes though, or enchanted the robes?

Robes of Weapon Immunity ReTe (He Requisite) 25

R: Touch D: Sun T: Individual

The spell effects the robes or clothes of the wizard, preventing weapons from striking the robes, and thus the wearer of the robes.

Base 4, R: +1 D: +2 T: +0 +2 for special effect (all weapons striking robes)

Or

Robes of Weapon Immunity (Magic Item) ReTe (He Requisite)

R: Personal D: Sun T: Individual

Base 4 R: 0 D: +2 T: 0 +2 for special effect (all weapons striking robes)

2 uses per day +1
Environmental trigger +3

Total: 24

Would this work? Also would it prevent the accumulation of Warping points?

2

The effect is on the robes...so I'd say no warping should be incurred by the magus... however, this doesn't protect uncovered areas, like your face or hands-- both of which I've heard are fairly important for magi. :wink: While I'd imagine that purposefully aiming at the face or hands would require an insane attack roll, I also wouldn't take the village bumpkin who dabbles in archery with me to attack a wizard. Any combat modifiers with such a device would really be SG-dependent, I think.

To fully protect the magus, you'd need a ward on the caster rather than the clothes, which bumps the magnitude up by one to 30, which brings about the warping again.

If you find the idea of an Achilles' Heel (Face?) acceptable, then you just go with the warded robe with a hood, keeping the exposed areas to a minimum.

at least that's my opinion...

-Ben.

3

It's one of those ideas that are obvious in hindsight. :blush:

Yes, that would work, with an achilles heel as mentioned.
Although I'm seeing it as base 5 (ward), not sure where you got base 4 from.

Now, what would be the needed enchantment to repel everything from not just touching, but even getting close to the robes? That will protect you fully, but at the cost of not being able to approach any metal thing.

I would say it can be Base 3 (move in unatural manner), +2 metal, +2 Sun, +4 levels Constant Effect. Range I would put at Sight. Target is the difficult one, there is no real way to affect "anything that comes near me" that I can see. I would peg it as above Room, so Room+1.
Level 54: B 3, +2 metal, +2 Sun, +4 Sight, +3 Special Range, +4 Constant Effect.
Not trivial at all, but not out of reach and provides great protection.

4

You're warding the robes, not the incoming metal, so range:personal is all you need for the robes, since the robes are casting the spell. Touch if you want the robes to ward the wearer and eliminate the Achilles' Face. :wink:

Base 5, +2 for metal, +2 for Sun, Target: Individual, just like Banish the Fatal Blade that I posted on the wiki. +1 for 2/day, and an environmental trigger? for daybreak/twilight. Even if we throw the +1 subtlety magnitude bump you suggest for allowing metal objects already on the magus' person to remain there... we're still talking about a 35ish level effect? 40 to ward the person?

That's the distinction here, you ward the robe/person against metal approaching, not the metal against approaching the person. It's like a little ring of sandpaper on the ground all around the robes that metal without penetration can't slide over to reach the robes.

-Ben.

5

Hmm - considering all this - the Dobblet of iron (serf's parma - spell that prevents anything piercing/cutting clothing), cast with penetration 0 prevent any damage comming to the magi wearing the clothing?

After all, it does prevent the clothing from harming the magus, and nothing can pierce the clothing? Or is this kind of thought too Newtonian?

6

Warding the cloths will leave the achilles face. Warding yourself will leave the Warping. The only way to avoid both is to invest a power that affects metal around the target, not affecting the target itself.

It's not like a circle that the items cannot penetrate. There is a hole in the ward - it isn't covering your face. At least, that's how I see it.
This again is a matter of how one imagines wards to appear. I imagine the spell not letting anything touch the robes, not creating some forcefield around them.

7

Add 1 magnitude to increase the power of the effect, and keep all metal 1 ft away... Range is still personal, no warping, but you can no longer pick up metal objects...

8

That sounds like a resonable possibility. Requires a slightly generous SG, but it isn't unreasonable at all.

9

You may also have problems with any kind of furniture or construction that includes metal nails.

10

Thus making it the hot new Verditius gag gift of the 1220 christmas season.

11

Why do you need a constant effect???
:confused:

Make it a twice a day item, with duration Sun. Use the item at need, or when out of your sanctum/covenant...

:bulb:

12

Paranoia.

The crafty paranoiac, however, might consider the use of an environmental trigger. The trigger, of course, being "swords/arrows/daggers/etc. are speeding towards me." (Depending on your interpretation of environmental trigger, you may need InTe spells in the enchanted object to detect swords/arrows/daggers/etc. Details, details...)

13

great replies all. How I got the base is like so:

Under Rego Herbam (pg 138) it says its level 4 to deflect 1 attack. Repel the Wooden Shafts shows this. The main issue I had was how to get it to affect everything. That was the +2 magnitudes at the end, not sure if that's enough though.

For the Achille's hill portion of it, that's definitely a problem (but who said magic was perfect?). Robes would be the best option, it offers the most coverage and if you put up the hood and have long sleeves there's little to no target. If you really wanted to you could enchant or cast similar spells on gloves, boots, and a mask or scarf.

The possibility that it would repel nonweapons is a definite problem. To try and resolve that, I'd add an Intellego requisite and 1 more magnitude for the specialized effect. If it's actually an enchanted item you might make 1 effect to detect attacks and then have second effect triggered to repel the attacks.

14

So... for the protection that keeps the terrible metal weapons away and doesn't give you that not-so-unwarped feeling we have:

The Robe that Laughs at Blades:
A lesser enchantment:
ReTe 40 (Base 5, +2 Sun, +2 metal, +1 subtlety [the ward faces out from the robe only], +1 complexity [the ward keeps metal 1 foot from the robe], +2levels 3/day, +3levels Environmental trigger--sunrise/sunset)

The robe keeps all metal outside of the robe at least one foot away from the robe. An extremely well placed shot might "thread the needle" and hit the wearer in face, but that shot would need to be outrageously well delivered dead-straight on to the head without ever crossing the plane of the outlying effect. It is the storyguide's discretion as to what attack advantage represents such a blow, but one might suggest at least +40

This allows it to be made from cloth (1 base point) and be a full robe (Huge, x5 multiplier) like a Franciscan robe. I'd consider having lead thread inlayed along the hood, for another s/m bonus.

You'd have shape and material bonuses of:

+4 protect self
+4 wards

If you had arts of Re 10 and Te 10, MT of 8, an Int +2, in an aura of 3, and a decent lab +1... for a 42 lab total-- if you don't know a related spell... you'd be busy for a while. Knowing a similar spell, the personal version would give you a +5 to +7 bump, depending on the complexity, and you could experiment for another +1-13...

It doesn't look like an item you'll expect to find on a junior magus, unless he traded with a capable Verditius for it.

-Ben.

15

I think the book is pretty strict on environmental triggers only detecting allround changes in the magical environment, such as the sun cycle or changes in Aura.

16

We've had this conversation before.
[url]AM5 Book binding]
It would probably make a good entry on the "suggested errata" thread.

The short version is, yes, that's what ArM5 says, but the core book isn't consistent with published uses of environmental trigger in the 5th edition supplements, which seem to allow environmental triggers to be used far more broadly. (Consider the "Fire Guardian" in the Semita Errabunda write-up and "The Crystal of a Hundred Candles" from Guardians of the Forest.)

I anticipated your objection, though.

Returning to the subject at hand, however, I like the idea of putting the weapon-ward spell into a magus' talisman. If the object triggers off the approach of weapons (detected by an InTe spell, if necessary), you can make sure that the magus is completely warded (so no Achilles' face) during only those times when the magus needs to be completely warded (so no Warping).

17

I built something like this under 4th edition Ars. I have yet to update it. In addition to tossing on the immunity spells as discussed in the thread, I used rules included in the Parma Fabula Screen to essentially reinforce the robe itself increase it's soak score and requireing botch rolls to tear it. So if a magic attack actually penetrates the immunity spell, it also needs to pentrate the increased soak score. The increased soak score also accomodates a variety of mundane attacks that might slip through.

It was a by the book gross munchkin project. I'm such a stickler and yet I went and made it anyway. When I introduced the cloak to my troupe I think they were both impressed and frustrated with me. Eh, serves them right for all the things they try to get away with. LOL. If I ever update to Ars 5 I'll have to rebuild it. Maybe I'll make cover the cloak in pink dots.....

18

I was giving some thought to this issue, so I cast Shadow of Life Renewed on the thread, since I realized that with some tailor customization, this kind of enchanted item could be very useful and made essentially foolproof, and indeed become almost as widespread and precious to mages, as talismans ?

Instead of using a vanilla robe, which would leave face, hands, and feet unprotected, what about using a two-piece tight-fitting whole-body cloth ? I mean, you prepare a pair of breeches that cover the feet also, and a corset with sleeves and hood that has gloves sewn to the back of the sleeves, and a face-mask sewn to the hood ? This way, the mage has but to put on the gloves and the mask, and all of his body is protected, but the magus suffers no warping.

Alternatively, the same enchantment could be put in a vanilla robe, with a different range: Personal, to cover the robe, which would leave the face, hands, and feet, unprotected, to use in relatively safe circumstances, and Touch, to ward all of the body, to activate in combat.

Lastly, what about putting in additional Requisites, to ward against additional mundane hazards ? He, Te, and Ig are the obvious baseline, to ward against wood, metal, stone, and fire. Aq could allow to keep the mage dry, and immune to sinking, and ward off acids. An could bar animal claws, horns, and even stampedes, of mundane animals. Co would stop bare-handed attacks of mundane humans. An and Co would have to be de-activated in order to allow the mage to ride, or touch animals or humans. Re He (Te, Ig) Sun is 35. One can put another couple of requisites in. Which ones would you use ?

19

In fact, the Societates book ha ssomething similar already: the Robes of Dusty Dawn of the exmisc (columbae tradition) create a "ring" around the hem of the robe (that are quite big, I tell you) that protects anything inside the hem.

Xavi

20

Except, of course, the previous Prima who wore them :wink: