Spell Validation: Perception of The Defiled - InVi 30 R: Per, D: Conc, T: Vision

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Perception of The Defiled - InVi 30 R: Per, D: Conc, T: Vision
This spell allows you to sense an Infernal aura. The foul stench of the infernal can be quite disturbing and easily overload the senses but this effect allows you to tone down the sense as you hone in on the epicentre of the infection or a specific infernal tether of the Aura, by allowing another sensory organ like hearing or tasting, to take over. Each “lower” organ, giving you an extra detail on the corruption. You start with the type of Echo (Perfidious=Whispers of lies, Debauchery=Moaning or Malevolent=Screams), followed by the smell of stench which gives you a sense of when was the last sin performed in the Aura. Then you can Touch the epicentre to feel the number of fallen souls tied to this fowl place, the more numerous, the more vibration or Hot/Cold felt. Finally, you have the Taste which will confirm if tasted object is a Tether of the Aura. After exposing each of the senses, a stamina roll of 3+ is required. If you fail, you shift 1 point to the Personality Trait that relates to the aura’s tarnish until you leave the aura. Clean aura’s are barely perceptible and no information other than not corrupted is provided. Some infernal auras have been documented as not being perceived by this effect, most likely while under the active deceptive efforts of a Demon. (Base 1: See Infernal Aura, +1 Conc, +4 Vision, +1 Aura’s of the 4 Realms, +1 Aura Taint, +1 Strength of Aura/Teints, +1 All Senses)

Honest opinions plz.

W

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Here is my feedback:

  • Base 1, +1 conc, +4 vision is straightforward;
  • Analysing tethers requires reading Conciatta material and would be a higher base, see LoH 17 - base hermetic magic can't do this;
  • It's not clear to me what "+1 Aura’s of the 4 Realms" refers to;
  • You don't really need to get sick to analyze an infernal aura, i would see that as a negative side effect;
  • I'd honestly wouldn't want to put things I find in an infernal aura in my mouth;
  • +1 All Senses: if each sense was an additional effect, I'd ask for more, but if you're merely splitting the info and allowing you to switch your sense - I'm okay with it.
  • If by sensing souls you mean sense infernal ghosts, I'd require a mentem requisite and would review the base guideline used again;
  • Globally, I'd be okay with a +1 complexity sensing something like the how recent a sin powering the aura is, because of how infernal tethers is, but I'd gate that behind Conciatta research too. Otherwise, use Commune spells and hope the place you're in hasn't been corrupted to the point it became a pathological liar.
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I forgot about Conciatta. I was going off RoP:TI & Magical as it talks Tethers there too but it did not go into specifics as to how to see them.

B5 to see all tethers is a bit high for what I was going for. Might have to forgo Tethers for now.

For the Ghosts/souls, I was imagining that the aura held some sort of cord to the sinners/cultists akin to a familiar cord and those cords could be visible within the Aura... or Felt somehow with the sense of Touch.

Don't need to get sick in infernal but it does seem thematic... but the stamina just allows you to gain some traits as described in RoP:TI. Same as the cultists/sinners gain except theirs is permanent.

The +1 to see the 4 realms is just what it says, allows to see Infernal/Magical/Fairies/Dominion but the effect focuses on infernal so it will zoom in on infernal taints within non-Infernal Auras.

W

4

Not that I know. There are two ways that I know to gain the kind of information you're looking for, however. One is the commune / talk to objects line of spells. The second would use arcane connections (if they exist) and would fall along the lines of a Corpus or Mentem spell most likely. Mentem would be required to distinguish the sinners... And you would need to penetrate, if applicable.

Fully agree with you.

So typically I would weave that into the description and say that the senses nonetheless focuses on infernal. Seeing all 4 auras with a spell is something we allow and a few fun spells were built with that. However, each additional aura is an extra effect for +1 magnitude for a total of +3. The kind of effect you're looking for is starting to approach the limits of what formulaic magic allows if you keep everything.

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