Ok, I have dropped Bernat's Animal Handling from 2 to 1, and spent the 10xp on buying 5 Superior (+1 Atk) knives, primarily for throwing.
I have run into this problem many, many times, so you have my sympathy.
Good new, though: According to TME, non-living plants are teleported through ReTe (Why??? No idea.)
Bad news: This is hard. Base 20. At best, you're looking at a combo Intangible Tunnel + ReTe 25 touch spell.
Reading all the 'how does magic resistance work with an enchanted item' threads does nothing but give me a headache, that's for sure.
I think my favourite interpretation is the one where, if something fails to penetrate, anything magical doesn't work / goes away but the mundane stuff is still there. A magically sharpened sword swung will loose its magical sharpness if it fails to penetrate, but you've still got a regular sword swinging at you. A magically propelled jet of water will lose its magical momentum and do nothing but make you a bit damp. A magically created something will vanish or shatter harmlessly.
Though, I have to admit, the interpretation where you fail to penetrate with an enchanted sword means the sword bounces off you leads to hilarious spells: "I TURN ALL MY ENEMIES WEAPONS YELLOW (for a sun duration)! FEEBLE MORTALS, YOU CANNOT HARM ME."
This ain't RAW, and leads to its own problems, quirks and abuse.
Exemple 1: If a maga cast a "blunt sword" spell, or surrounds it with rubber, if it fails to penetrate, the sword will hurt as if it was just fine.
Exemple 2: I MuTe a boulder into a peeble, which I easily throw at you. It fails to penetrate. You get crushed.
The only problem of the RAW parma is the Pink Dot (Which your example is), and I've NEVER seen it come into play. Sure, it could, but players don't try it because it's just silly.
Something I'd like to see tried is a mix of the 2, which I can the Vampire Analog Parma: Weak vampires will be destroyed by the sun, but it will only repel the stornger ones. Likewise, lvl 10 or lower spells that fail to penetrate are canceled, whereas stronger ones are repelled (as per RAW). But that's another discussion entirely.
True! I guess that's why those threads seem to go on for dozens of pages without resolution. There's just no particularly easy way to handle it.
I always think that
a) magic items don't need to penetrate if you want to hold or use them.
b) wholly transformed items DO need to penetrate. If I turn a sword into a sharper sword it needs to penetrate. Ditto if I turn it into sand.
c) Images are separate from what they attach too. If you turn everyone's sword yellow the image will bounce off and the sword will slice.
All other cases are edge cases to be decided by the story guide, possibly inconsistently. Tricky cases get the same deal.
But I'm not storyguiding so I don't have to deal with it! Huzzah!
Now that the Autumn of 1236 is concluding, I have written something! "Covenants and Tribunals - their relationship, past and present" - level 13 Order of Hermes Lore tractatus (a commentary on the "History of the Order of Hermes").
If anyone's interested in the content~ it's about why tribunals became a thing, how they've developed, the advantages they provide, and what it means to be without a tribunal in this day (both the pros and cons of being without).
I'm going to be flogging this to anyone who has a hand in Andorra's politics. Frederika wants to prove she understands enough of what's going on to be included in that. Plus she believes she is an excellent writer, and would really like it if more people shared that notion!
Working on my Tremere and should have him posted today, but to that end, I have a few questions:
I see the breakdown for the cost of items in terms of vis, but what about Verdi Items of Quality? I was thinking about the cost being based on the skill level of the maker, since it's just a fixed cost (1 Vim) to make. The theory being, the better the item, the more skilled the maker, the more skilled the maker, the more their time is worth. I was leaning towards something like 2 or 3 QP per point of the bonus. Again, just tossing something out here, if I somehow missed an actual ruling on this somewhere, please let me know!
Second, as a Tremere, my Magus will be expected to devote a not insignificant portion of his time in exchange for aid from the house. My question becomes, how would we want to represent this during creation? Leave it up to my discretion, or say every X years you must devote Y seasons, in exchange you get Z?
Thanks folks!
I think the easiest way to represent it would be in the abstract experience seasons. He does a service for his house and gets a season with a good teacher. Or something that conveniently balances to 10xp/season.
That was my thinking as well, but I just wanted to check! Thoughts on the item of quality pricing?
I think QPaC has the right idea. I seem t recal Vocis aso did it s a traight shoot.
Do note that you d not have to accunt for each season. Some do and I have before. But I have also done it the simple way and encourage others to do so now.
The Simple Way
- Account for each Cycle
- Take your vis and aging and warping as normal
- Count the years, mutiply by 4 and subtract one.
- Cull aside how much is for advancement, multiply by 10, and spend the xp. Do not worry about the vagarities of precision or details of what you read or who you studies under or what was earned from adventure. Feel free to write about adventures, but do not worry about exact length or gain.
- Spend your seasons in the Lab using normal rules. Take 2xp per Lab Season as exposure. If you didn't always use your full Lab Total, just say that many were pre spent on Magic Theory and assign the exposure xp at the end of the cycle any way desired.
- Next Cycle, Rinse and Repeat
Versitius Items of Quality and Excellent Quality Items have a cost written in the Hermetic Economics section. The HR's link to it. I think it is qp equal to four times the bonus. Not sure.
Not sure how I missed that, thanks!
Yeah, I was going to do detailed creation, but decided it just wasn't worth it.
Question to those in the know: are there any spells that animate or summon a substance/thing (e.g. weaponry) so it can protect the caster (as a trained/untrained group)?
It's not a weapon, but take a look at Circular Wall of Shields (Pg 50, Magi of Hermes). Not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for, but it's a good start.
Thanks (had to get Magi of Hermes before looking that up)! It's roughly about the sort of magnitude I figured the spell for, though trying to comb through the books for other summoning spells and whatnot...I think the guidelines seem to be "make up everything!".
Apropos of nothing, does anyone have any XP/season time spending advice? I'm kind of flailing around at the moment; not really sure if there are any basic bases I should be trying to cover, etc.
Are using the "individual season/year" method or the "whole cycle at once" method?
I used the individual season/year method, and basically did two things.
- Decided what her next goal would be (whether a new spell, or improving/gaining a particular Ability), and spent seasons on that goal. In the case of a new spell I wanted her to learn, I spent seasons improving her Arts (and Magic Theory) to the point she could learn or invent the spell.
- Decided that she needed either to enchant an item or buy her Longevity Ritual. Those take Vis, so I set aside a season a year to earn extra Vis Wages (3 p.f. per season). Once she had enough Vis, I had her buy her LR or enchant an item.
It's not as hard as it sounds. Marko even has a a recipe to follow. (I say that, but it took longer than it should have for me because of all the "ooh shiny" I had going on.)
Yeah, PB's advice is solid. I find it easier to look at it from a long term (Cycle vs Year), but that's just me.
Question for you, what are you aiming to do? What's your long term goal as it were?
One season at a time - just being trying to figure out what I want to do with Frederika's development going forwards. I was more asking for advice for things to develop towards. I think, for example, now that I've produced an example of my ability to write, I should maybe look into getting a Talisman. Because that's a potentially significant bonus for a (comparatively) small amount of effort (I think). But I'm really just stumbling around and picking things that I think sound good, without actually knowing if they are good.
Talismans are fantastic, if you don't have anything else to do, they're always a suggestion of mine. Again, what are you aiming to do long term? If you can provide a rough idea, we might be able to guide you a little better. Even something as simple as 'get better at hitting things' or 'get better at Terram Magic'.
Talismans can be great, but they can also be vis sinks. And alas, the journeymen at the covenant tend to be vis poor.
I love the casting bonuses you get from talismans. But the need to open them up one-by-one is a real limitation. Usually that's offset by the fact that your talisman is getting better by being enchanted. But if you can't afford to enchant it, then you lose that benefit.
I'm not saying that talismans are a bad idea. But they're less of an advantage when you're vis poor.