that works, I was thinking about an effect that activated after the armor was damaged rather than one that was constantly active. I guess my aversion to items that could conceivably warp themselves over time (from a player perspective, I love them as a story guide) made me immediately think about the reactive option instead of the always active option.
Ah yes, warping over time that's an issue. For a reactive version you would probably want touch+group. That way it can catch all the pieces and little bits. Make it triggered by a strike.
If I may, is there a precise reason to this?
It seems to me that, for these, unless your SG wants to pick on you, this is the occasion to negotiate all kind of special SFX that'd make your item cooler and more fantastical, such as an armor that gets glowing verditius runes, or a book that sprouts leaves.
I'll have to do a bit of self reflecting here.. Ok here is the answer that my brain came up with (human brains are notoriously bad at figuring out why they do things so please take it with a grain of salt).
It is a bit that I might not trust the storyguide's tastes to run close enough to my own to please me when it's my item that they're messing with (that includes the but is not limited to the possibility that my character will be screwed over). But it is more of thinking from the perspective of the magus who knows item warping is a possibility and would design in such a way to avoid it when practical.
Well, sounds like a simple Perdo Vim enchantment. I'm not sure how to write it up, but I bet if you started a new thread, our clever, angry young men would give you a dozen write ups to choose from. I would love to see them as well, because of the overlap with the Lab "Warping" score, which I would like to get rid of.....
I suspect a lot of magi probably don't care.
Many magi probably make items with constant effects or under constant effects all the time. Then you have magi who live in high auras (6+) and just accept that warping of their mundane stuff is the price they pay.
Item warping is wonderfully unspecified in the rules. This, to me, puts it firmly in the 'cosmetics' camp. If it were my saga, I'd put it to my players to come up with warping effects for their own items, and just veto it. I'd only step in if they were using it as an excuse to munckin, or I had an idea for a story involving the covenant's enchanted tree guardians becoming redneck treants (do not google. you have been warned).