I have some questions about spell duration and voluntary cancellation. I remember how it was in 4th ed, but a little unclear as to 5th ed changes.
As I read it (and I might be wrong, or have failed to find the right place), all spells need to run their Duration. The Virtue 'Harnessed Magic' allows any spell to be cancelled. But normally, one cannot do that?
Back in 4th I seem to remember that any Range:Personal spells could be cancelled at will, but not Touch or above. Is this still so?
I've been thinking about adding 'Harnessed Magic' as a Mastery option, but making the action as time consuming as actually having cast the spell in the first place. Perhaps it actually already exists, I've yet to collect all the Mastery option, form all the HoH books together with the ones from ArM5, for a complete list (though I'm sure someone has already done this)
Oh Shazbat! If only I'd properly copyrighted my invaluable idea, if only I'd plastered my post with 'copyright' and 'registered trademark' etc, and if only they'd have had any legal meaning, and if only all my bad ideas were as well recieved!
But seriously, knock your self out. I'm sure other people have several more interesting Mastery options, and I intend to find them. Mastery is the way to go!
But this still doesn't solve my problem with finding out, whether and which spells can be cancelled.
HoH:TL offers Harnessed Casting as a mastery ability within House Mercere (page 99-100). Just broaden its availability for your own saga if you wish. Or claim it was taught to you by a Gifted redcap in exchange for a significant favour.
I thought as much, that particular Mastery ability ought to already have been thought up. (Smeg! I thought I'd be able to squeeze Atlas for millions for this! )
I think I'll have to list all Mastery Options, and decide which are restricted and which are available for all, as most should be.
So am I correct to assume, that Personal spells can be cancelled at will, others need to run their course or be Mastered?
And am I correct to assue, that all spells NOT Range: Personal need the Parma temporarily suppressed or inactive to avoid having to Penetrate, even if it's your own? And is there a set Concentration difficulty for this?
The actual Mastery ability description for Harnessed Casting from HOH:TC simply reads...
Now as I understand it, under core guidelines, any Concentration duration spell can be ended at will (logically) but also certain other types of spells like MuCo shapechanging spells. Since Concentration duration spells may not always be R: Personal, the target has less to do with determining when it can end than does duration (generally).
In the end if you want strict canon judgement on the question, send an email to David Chart and ask the boss .
As for the Parma question, my understanding is that any spell which directly targets a being with Magic Might or Parma (other than yourself) requires penetration (ergo, suppression of Parma for voluntary receipt of the spell effect).
No. Any spells needs to run its course, whether its range is Personal or not. Some spells, however, have an in-built mechanism to terminate them before their stated duration expires. This is particularly true for Muto Corpus spells. Note the Errata on this!
This is a special mechanism that isn't related to the spell's target. It can be applied to spells cast at Touch range on another, for example. (The pre-errata text only allowed you to change yourself back when under the affect of your own spell, but that too allowed for Touch-ranged spells.) This special mechanism is part of the spell-guidelines for shapechanging spells, and isn't generally available for other spells.
Yes. You need to drop your Magic Resistance, and suppressing Parma also lowers your Forms-derived Magic Resistance. Since you don't have Magic Resistance, the spell affects you normally. Only Personnal-ranged spell are exempt from this, indeed. So a spell NOT of Range: Personal will only affect you if it has enough Penetration, but will surely have enough Penetration if you suppress your Parma.
The concentration "takes the same effort as concentration on maintaining a spell" (page 85), so it has an ease factor of 3 less than the normal table (no roll required if there are no distractions; see page 82).
Note that all spells will affect you normally, as you completely lack Magic Resistance, until your Parma is restored. This may mean a whole round, until your next turn, or immediately at any point in the turn upon ceasing concentration - as your troupe decides things. I'd recommend the latter option - you can cease concentration at any point during the turn, but may only lower your parma on your turn in the combat round.
From what I read in that spell description, it cancels the effects of any other spell of a specified Form (which I take to mean as making this spell a PeVi(requisite form) spell) up to 10 levels + stress die higher than the level of this spell.
That may well be a useful spell (I can certainly think of untold numbers of circumstances) but I don't see it effecting Parma, since to my understanding Parma isn't a spell but rather a special Hermetic ability.
A good example of this is Cloak of Black Feathers. To cancel the spell before the duration ends, remove the "cloak". I would rule that if a version of that were cast on someone else, the target could cancel by removing the cloak, but the caster couldn't.
Indeed. My Vim magus has all of them, I think. Even though he only has some of them at a very low level (as with left-over levels in the same season of spell-inventing), they're a fairly effective way to break spells of the appropriate Form with a formulaic spell. Quite a few he can cast spontaneously at higher levels, but it's nice not to have to spend the fatigue level, so the low-level formulaic versions are still useful.
Exactly. Unraveling the Fabric of (Form) is no use against Parma. If one tries to cast it against a personal spell on someone protected by Parma (buffs, etc.), it has to penetrate Parma before it has a chance of affecting the targeted spell.
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