Rock of Viscid Clay and other Muto for easier Rego Craft magic

[Illopoly]

@PinkOpaque

(don’t ask what happened to the last guy who worked here)

I love the idea of the new guy nervously asking the impatient magus showing him around “one last question, about the previous master of glass ..”!

But I’m actually wondering about spells doing work a mundane craftsman could do in theory but that never has actually been done by anyone because the procedure requires new insight or muto magic.

Imagine there are two ways to make a knife, one takes two days and is known, the other one day but it is unknown. The knives look exactly the same. One day someone somewhere invents the second way. Does the magus suddenly find it’s easier to make knifes (no +3 to the EF anymore for duration) with rego terram? Would he have to see a quickly made knife first? Would he have to know it was made quicker? What if the fast way depends on muto and a smith would be able to do it after some getting used to, but there is no smith who has actually done it. Is the spell easier anyway?

@Hyalus

You need to know what the mundane artist does with tools

Hm, I never considered that this might be necessary. In Covenants and other places the quote is:

Rego magic can make any change a mundane craftsman can effect, even when the magus is limited by lack of tools, time, or skill.

But I fully agree that the rego craft rules are a bit confusing and in places inconsistent. There have been many threads on this forum (including more than one about the Mystic Tower) and I found this one to be among the most helpful to wrap my head around things.

@Hyalus

Moreover, even with Creo magic you won’t always get the +3 Finesse bonus unless (1) you have a model, (2) you encounter it on a daily basis, (3) common in an area you have Area Lore 3+, (4) uncommon in an area you have Area Lore 5+, or (5) you know it intimately for reasons. The item you create with Creo magic will still be functional, but may not be pretty.

What I meant was that you can often use creo to get yourself a temporary model to work from for the permanent rego object. For example, you have seen a cool piece of glassware in Venice two years ago and have some glass ready to try and reproduce it. Instead of going for rego straight away, you make it with creo from nothing first.

HoH:S p61:
A character using Creo magic need not roll Finesse unless he desires the finished product to be of a quality higher than that represented by an Ease Factor of 9 on the following table.

So now you have a normal quality example of the glassware you want, i.e. you have a model for getting +3 for the rego finesse check (+3: Magi have deep familiarity with the similes of things that… …they possess, and use as models.).

Or at least this is how someone might argue and I’m wondering about a fair ruling as SG.