I'm not going to fully work up the spell because I want to throw out the idea first. I'd like to create a spell that uses a wind to move small objects, knock over things, move pages in a book, put out flames and so forth. This seems to be Creo with a Rego requisite because it is unnatural.
Could this be written with a finesse roll to do fine work such as opening a book to a specific page? Or blowing a flame so that it spans a gap such as one candle lighting the one next to it or a fire in a fireplace being blown onto the wall hanging next to it?
What about using Aurum to move larger or heavier objects in a controlled fashion similar to Unseen Porter but carried on a strong but very focused gust of wind? Effectively Broom of the Winds (if I am remembering the name correctly) but focused and controlled accurately?
I'll work up my versions of the spells when I get back to my books.
You mean like Wings of the Soaring Winds (core, p.126)? Yes, you can definitely move things around, even heavier ones, with a good enough Finesse using Cr(Re)Au. And we do see the increased magnitudes for "unnatural" there, too.
I like the bunch of clever applications to which you're applying this. This very much sounds like the Auram specialist doing everything via Auram.
I'm sure you can. I was playing an Auram specialist going into Calebais, and we had a severely injured grog early on. I used a wind spell to lift the casualty out of the big stairwell up to the surface, and the SG agreed on a difficult finesse roll to do it without injuring them further. You will need good Finesse to make it work, and as always Finesse botches could be disastrous, but you can do a lot of things with wind.
You most likely always want to include a "+1 Unnatural" with any such spells, so that they can create a wind in a location where one would not naturally happen. You will find this on nearly all published spells that can do things like crate a wind indoors or underground, while those that don't have it would actually not function in such situations.
The spell should also account for the fact that the heavier is the object it is trying to move, the stronger the wind, thus small, light nearby items (like parchments, quills) would be blown away in the process. Not discreet, but that's the price for a flexible, multi-purpose spell.
And similarly to Wings of the Soaring Winds, accurate manipulation, or keeping something hovering in place will require high Finesse.
Actually I'm thinking of creating a couple of versions to move light things, medium things with a little shifting of light objects but not much, and a heavy lifting spell. Really I hadn't planned on the heavy life spell (grog level lifting) at first but I can see the utility in it.
I agree that these spells would need an "Unnatural" increase. But equally, there seem to be precedents that you don't need a Rego requisite for this sort of spell, unless you want a wind whose behaviour you can change after the spell is cast. And it's probably easier to just cast another spell instead, in most cases.
Finesse rolls to do tricks such as blowing fires onto other objects sound OK to me. If I were
GM, the finesse roll to turn exactly one page of a book would be extremely high, though. (If you don't agree, find a small book and try doing that with your lungs.)
I agree completely that they would have the +1 Unnatural increase.
I go back and forth on flipping pages in a book. As you say it fails a real world test. But should magic be limited by what we can do with our lungs? Clearly a wind can and does blow the pages of a book so it seems minor to have a finesse roll allow for controlled turning such as faster, slower, one page, a few pages.
Yes, a lot of yours would probably be fine with +1 unnatural. Flipping pages wouldn't need a strong wind. More powerful stuff would end up with +2 unnatural, most likely.
This triggered an old memory from, hmmm, the 1980s, about a scam hoaxer who could flip the pages of a book by blowing covertly, and it was super-effective. It was debunked on "60 Minutes", I think. I can dig more if someone wants.
At times you will see flipping book pages by blowing on them as a demonstration in high school physics methods books (the connection of air pressure with air speed / Bernoulli's equation). I've done it once or twice but mostly it felt fiddly and the students didn't have a lot of success. Plus since they knew they were blowing on it they ended up getting a slight lift of the page and then blatantly blowing underneath so even if it worked they didn't really get the connection that I wanted in class.
A wind that flips the pages of a book, sure. Getting to flip exactly one page and then stop seems harder: not impossible, though. That's just my view, of course.
