Spells for peasants

Games Discussion Ars Magica
21

Not sure what is going on with this spell. It seems to be making the target think that their pain is music instead? If it's actually transforming "pain species" (haptic?) into auditory species it should be an Imaginem spell... not sure if you could target "pain species", though, since they're internal to a person and the wizard wouldn't be able to sense them (unless they're his own).

Also, probably needs a Finesse roll to determine whether the target gets gentle harps or anachronistic death metal.

22

Societates pg. 63 says "the ability to interpret internal senses may be targeted with Mentem magic" and that pain is treated as mental capability with regard to base levels given in the 5e corebook and that Mentem is used to affect the mind's ability to detect the signal or to create false signals.

Your point of it being very hard to target them directly with Imaginem because they are haptic is 100% spot on, which is why you come in at interpretation (step 5 of the described process) with Mentem.

23

Made an example magi in the thread for those based off of this thread. Looking at the core rulebook, these seemed to be the best picks when using it alone outside of specializing in He and Te.

Comfort of the Drenched Traveler (PeAq 5)
Purification of the Festering Wounds (CrCo 20)
Touch of the Pearls (InAq 5)

Cloak of the Duck’s Feathers (ReAq 5)
Endurance of the Beserkers (ReCo 15)
Rock of Viscid Clay (MuTe 15)
Palm of Flame (CrIg 5)

Soothe the Ferocious Bear (ReAn 10)

True Rest of the Injured Brute (CrAn 20)

Image of the Beast (InAn 5)

Circle of Beast Warding (ReAn 5)

Bind Wound (CrCo 10)

24

Sorry for not replying earlier, I've been a bit busy. Thanks for all the great suggestions - these are the ones I like best:

  • True Rest of the Injured Brute CrAn 25 (+1 Size for Size +4 or less - you want to be able to heal a horse)
  • Soothe the Ferocious Bear ReAn 10
  • The Invisible Presence of the Rodents' Slayer ReAn 20 (Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Room, +3 Moon): No mundane animals can enter the room. Very useful to protect grain harvest from mice.
  • Sailor’s Foretaste of the Morrow InAu 15
  • Bind Wound CrCo 10
  • Purification of the Festering Wounds CrCo 20
  • The Unseen Midwife CrCo 20 (Base 4, +1 Touch, +3 Moon): Gives a single woman +9 to her childbirth rolls. (I think moon duration is helpful, otherwise you have to predict the time of birth.)
  • A non-ritual version of the Bountiful Feast CrHe 20 (Base 1, +1 Touch, +3 Moon, +2 Group, +1 Size)
  • The Hungry Pyre Begone PeIg 15 (Base 4, +1 Touch, +2 size modifier): The charged item (frequently a small clay pot filled with water and sealed) is toss into a fire, extinguishing it immediately. The size modifier allows to save a house from fire.
  • Touch of the Poppy PeMe 20 (Base 4*, + 1 Touch, +3 Moon): Diminishes a person's ability to feel pain.

Helpful spells:

  • The Miner's Keen Eye InTe 20
  • Rock of Viscid Clay MuTe 20 (+1 size)
  • The Forgiving Earth ReTe 20 (+2 size)
  • Unyielding Earth ReTe 20 (+2 size)
25

The problem with a non-ritual 'Bountiful Feast' is that it provides no permanent nutrition; when the duration expires, it is exactly as though you skipped that meal. People die from over using spells like this, and suffer health and aging 'Living Conditions' roll penalties.

I thinks something like 'Cauldron of Magnificent Porridge' MuIm(He) 20
Base 4 (changes four senses about a specific object), Range +1 (touch), Duration +2 (Sun), Target +1 (Individual) -- Changes the appearance of a cauldron full of bland vegetable substrate ( like porridge, again!) to seem to be a cauldron of delicious and savory beef stew. Does not affect the way it sounds; but vision, taste, touch, and smell are completely convincing. The spell only affects the substance in one cooking vessel, but persists even when the substrate is removed (to a smaller bowl, for example).

Each example of this spell only produces one particular perceived dish, but versions for other dishes are easily invented -- producing chicken soup, for example; or changing bread to seem to be fine, fresh, sweet white bread instead of coarse, stale, dark peasant fare.

26

Wait, there is some confusion. Bountiful Feast does not produce food, it ensures that existing crops will be healthy. It is a limited protection against a bad harvest.

For the item: I'm not sure that peasants had only porridge day in, day out. I like to think they grew vegetables and fruit in their garden, had a few chickens, and enjoyed reasonable food - but I never really looked into it.

27

My bad, sorry.

While peasants might have had a nice variety of (perhaps mostly vegetables) food, porridge seems like it would often be available. And, just as often, a source of grumbling.

28

Being able to find a peasant who has met misfortune is useful. I was gong to make a spell, but core rules have two decent ones. The Inexorable Search (InCo 20) and The Eye of the Sage (InCo30).

Peasants spend a lot of time on maintenance, and if something is broken, it can present big problems.

Repairing an item is base level 15 CrTe. I take that to mean something fully broken, and one has all the parts. Also, as all the parts are there, it needs no vis.
The invisible Craftsmen (CrTe 20 base 15 + 1 touch) - repairs as new, any crafted item. All the parts must be there. If the damage is minor, a finesse roll of 3 is enough. If the item is completely destroyed, and complex, such as a vase, the SG could consider a finesse roll of around 18. If there are animal or plant parts, animal and herbam requisites are a requirement.

Depending on one's perspective, this could also sharpen a plough, take rust off of tools, etc, or that may need a different spell.

The Spice is nice CrHe 5 (base 2, touch +1, sun +2).

This creates a bunch of herbs that can be used to flavour meals. While the herbs disappear at dawn or dusk, the memory of the more flavourful dinner, does not.

The creator of this spell, is known to be whimsical and likes rhymes. Upon casting the spell, he has been known to say Winner, Winner, Peri Chicken Dinner (I know, anachronistic.)

Taste of the Spices and Herbs, can be moved from Individual to room, to affect all the food in the kitchen.

29

Do you have a reference for that?

30

If that's the guideline from MoH then I believe the CrTe guideline is for magical repair like regenerating the sword to perfect condition, it would need vis or a duration. Rego can beat a thing back into shape, sharpen a plough, or put it together again when its possible for a mundane craftsman to do it.

31

Not at all.

Making base metal is level 5, precious 15, gemstone 25, it would seem weird to be harder to repair a cracked sword, than making one.

Looking at page 307 of the definitive edition, it says nothing about repairs in craft magic. I appreciate another book might. Considering to fix basic breaks, a variant rock of viscid clay (steel of, plank of, etc) would work, I would prefer the Creo guy to be at least as good as, if not better at fixing things, thus my interpretation of no vis needed, provided all parts are there.

32

The only "repairing spells" using Creo and not costing vis are the spell granting a bonus to recovery: it enhance the body ability to heal, but the timeline remains de same.

Applying such rule for fixing items that have been damaged is not reasonable: items are inert, and cannot heal by themselves. Rego craft can fix broken item as long as spare material is provided. Creo can provide missing material, but it will disappear once the spell duration expires, unless made a ritual requiring vis.

I stayed away from Rego spell since most peasants won't have any Finesse skill, so it will be mostly useless for them. A covenant can have a grog specialist that learnt enough Finesse to do basic repair with the appropriate enchanted item, repair taking less than a day, so there are no duration penalty increasing the EF for the Finesse score.

33

I think the use of Creo for repair is less in the sense of 'Something from nothing', and more along the lines of 'Improve something' -- similar to the way Terram can be used for 'all solids' instead of just 'dirt in particular'. A brick wall which is whole and sound is superior to one which is precarious from having a bunch of bricks knocked out of it; someone might argue that Creo is appropriate to improving the wall back to sound condition -- but it seems like requisites would be important. In that case, any magically-created bricks or mortar would disappear at the end of the duration; but any that were purely mundane would remain arranged in their 'improved' state.

I'm not sure I entirely buy this approach, though. Having extra magnitudes for 'complexity' replacing or reducing the need for Finesse might play into the reasoning here; and every table likely has a different set of rulings covering that.

34

Yeah, my understandings of the rules match up with @Ezechiel3571 , Rego Crafting can do things a normal crafter could, which includes repairing anything that is repairable. A repairing spell is basically a healing spell, and would require vis.
I could easily see a spell that makes repairing it easier, for example an InTe spell that helps you see flaws and how to repair them.

35

Even creo improvement requires rituals to last. For example healing or characteristic increasing.

36

Nothing explicitly covers the topic, but all the example spells of creo repairs require said repair to be rituals or with a duration iirc. It's often treated as if it is healing magic.

Perhaps a breakthrough could work around that, but with the current circumstances I am inclined to say hermetic creo cannot repair without vis.

37

It's a little odd that City & Guild didn't cover magical repairs to items when it was laying out item damage rules, but there is no reason to assume that Creo repair spells would function differently than any other Creo spell: the Creo effect ends when the Duration ends, unless it's a Momentary Ritual effect.

38

The loophole here is that the result of the Creo effect does not necessarily disappear. A person who recovers because Creo magic gave them a recovery bonus do not instantly become ill again; nor is it obvious that a shattered vase welded back together with Creo would instantly fall apart again. It was a whole vase in better condition, then it became worse, and (temporary) Creo was used to put it into better condition. If Creo is making the 'breaks' disappear, then the fix should be permanent; if Creo is making 'glue' to hold the vase together, then the glue disappears & the vase falls apart.

[Edit] I guess a mage could permanently repair a broken vase without Vis by just using Muto to transform the vase into a living plant; then use temporary Creo to allow it to 'recover' overnight into a specified shape. [/Edit]

39

Few things to note here.

First the creo effect in the person's case has disappeared- it's just the process that it was enhancing has ended earlier. The creo effect isn't "heal this person" which would require a ritual- it is "improve this person's capacity for recovery". The aftereffects of the proccess itself continues even after said effect ends- you can throw a creoed rock at someone and (barring MR) it leaves a mark even after the duration is up.

Second is that due to the above, the comparison to the shattered vase is a false equivalence. A better comparison might be "a creo effect to improve the vase's capacity to be repaired" or such... which afaik no appropiate guideline to such exist, but it'd probably give a bonus to the workshop total of the crafter or the like.

Creo isn't really making the break disappear, anymore than it is making a wound disappear- it is directly fixing the thing rather than accommodating the process of recovery/repair.

40

Creo can make a wound disappear, though -- a process which certainly does require Vis. But not all benefits from Creo require Vis, or disappear when the magic ends -- the wound which recovers 'naturally' with the assistance of a temporary Creo 'Bonus to recovery' being the easy-to-think-of example.

Certainly, a shattered vase does not (nor do any other inanimate objects) naturally heal. I suppose someone could stretch a point & talk about Roman Cement healing cracks -- but I will pass over that for now. Part of the problem might the imperfect parallels between 'healing' and 'repairing' -- a vase which is shattered into a hundred pieces might be better considered 'dead' rather than wounded; but restoring life to dead non-humans does not seem impossible. A still-standing dry-stone or mortar-less brick wall from which many bricks have been knocked might be a better analogy for a 'wounded' item; would Creo magic only temporarily move the displaced pieces into place? Or require Vis for a permanent repair? I can certainly understand calling for a Rego requisite & an extra magnitude, but requiring Vis seems excessive if all the bits are still at hand.