I'm designing a blind magus, who happens to be a Heartbeast: Bat Bjornaer. Anyone got any suggestions for spells? I'd like a spell that allows him to move around in human form, and one that allows him to read books? Any suggestions?
cj x
Best way he might read books is to us Borrow the Eyes of Another InMe30 (A&A pg 33).
Can't use MuIm to change the species of sight to sound. That is in the guildlines and in A&A.
Houses of Hermes: Societas has a section on Synaesthesia spells. Something that alters the visual species into some other species. IIRC the examples typically involve turning one type of species that involve touch/smell into speciest that involve sight.
I believe ArM5 has an InAu spell to detect the air's boundaries. This would cover walking around.
Chris
Yes. forgot about them. I would think you could change the words to touch and train yourself to read them. I think sound would have a problem. Think about how a person reads. We have an entire page of words but we are starting at one point and moving to another then to the next line. The Synaesthesia spells would change the species coming from the letters to sound. Just in a basic form it would change all the words to sound at once and at the same time. Fairly useless. You would have to pump up complexity to "read" the book. Basically read the word(s) you are touching with your fingers. But then how would it handle diagrams???
Maybe a summoned entity could read the book to the magus?
Heck, servants with pleasing voices, a sculptor to make 3d versions of the diagrams, lab assistants to verify the results match, it would be a lot of extras, but you could do it all without magic. Hmmmm... idea for a character....
K.
Excellent ideas! So stolen!
I know this thread is old but for a Bat Bjornaer you also have the Minor House Mystery Theriomorphy (HoH:MC 27) to give him the ability to us the bat sonar.
The spell Eyes of the Bat (ArM5 127) would be still bether for this as it is less obvious.
Downside of both is reading is imposible with them unless there is a clear hight difference betwean text and the paper.
For reading a book maybe a Base 4 (Learn all mundane Properies of a plant product) InHe perhaps with Animal prerequisit for parchament effect could do the trick.
You could go really radical and skip reading - learn from vis (get a Personal Vis Source or two and/or Study Bonus; Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic optional) and stick to only non-formulaic magic. It's not easy, but the freedom might be liberating, too - handicaps can do that at times. It would segue well with Diedne Magic, but that may be a handicap too far, of course. Although as a non-Roman mage it would be very suitable to be better at non-Hermetic magic. Food for thought.
The spont specialist (via ceremonial magic) that someone developed in the "cheese up a magus" thread might be useful for a blind magus. Good catch there with the "reading is for sissies" approach.
Cheers,
Xavi
furion dealt with pretty seriously a few years ago
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/in-the-kingdom-of-the-blind-the-one-eyed-is-king/702/1
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/blind-magus/4662/1
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/blindness-revisited-again-towards-a-comprehensive-debate/4761/1
Oddly enough I remember a nature program that demonstrated that some bats can actually distinguish paint on billboards and ink on pages of paper with their sonar. However it was only two bats that had that level of skill. Not sure if your group is friends and forgiving of such assumptions in your game or not.
In the real world, blind people drive bikes. They do so by following the echo of clicking noises they produce with their tongues. This takes a lot of practice, but it is possible. No magic involved.
Consider enhanced hearing and a (magical) animal companion.
Magic can make things easier, though. "Eyes of the bat" are not the end of what you can do.
Following the line of "The heart sees better than the eyes", throw in some InMe the feel minds around you, as well as their intentions. You won't be fooled by pretty looks, though you can fall for flattery like everyone else.
InHe and InTe to get out of harms way might be a good idea.
Have fun!