I'd change "unable to sate their need for food" to "no matter how much they eat" - it's less elegant, but clearer, as the former still reads to me like the spell's preventing them from eating. I do think Creo works better - most of the states of mind listed (in HoH:S pg 67) for the Rego Mentem base 4 guideline are states of consciousness, which I wouldn't consider hunger to be.
One more, looking for a way to help with work - dreamed up this spell but now that I’m typing it the Perdo Animal spell is so much lower level.
...This is probably harder than just using a Rego work replacement spell, or using PeAn Base 3.
Not sure if Muto An Base 5 is too high.
I picked Diameter because shedding probably takes longer than Momentary.
Might need to be two separate spells, but wasn't looking for the most efficient, more like what a Muto magus would do to speed up manual work. He walks into a pen where the gathered animals are, repeat casts the spell (or invents a Group version) and casts.
Sounds like something that should be done with Rego. An instantaneous day of work.
Hi,
Perdo ruins things, so not appropriate.
The encouragement is Rego.
A work replacement spell requires a stress Finesse roll, but is probably the best way to ensure that the wool is not ruined.
Muto wizard making the work easy? Put the sheep into a big sieve which is set atop a barrel or trough. Transform Part of the sheep (either the wool or the rest of the sheep) into water. Probably the wool/hair. Concentration duration, and let the spell go when enough of the water has dropped through the sieve.
But variants can keep it within Animal.
Anyway,
Ken
That's an excellent suggestion. I still want a "normal" version which is used at R:Touch to confirm the basics of the spell effect. Texture has limitations based upon the perception of those affected by the spell (kind of skin-on-skin contact) which make it not suitable for applications where a regular R: Touch spell is still very effective. I'll probably create both version, as using the Texture target is exceedingly "bear-like". I've added sensory magic versions for both animals and humans below so that penetration can be lower, and both spells could be active concurrently if needed.
I imagine a wolf pack trying to fight a bear with this spell effect active getting frustrated as they are all held still after their first attack, or several guards grabbing the magus and wondering why they are held still.
I have a +/- 5pts lab total spare in one season for a MuAn/Te activity, so adding another bespoke spell in the +15 advancement period.
Edited to alter the spell descriptive so it did not dictate the behaviour of others, and to remove the Terram requisite.
I don't think that the requisite is even required. You change the scent (that is the minor ability). The odor of soil is not more Terram than Imaginem, but I don't think any of them is required.
Hi,
Agree with AericEM that the requisite is not required.
But I have an issue with the second sentence, preferring "Creatures which hunt by scent, or depend on scent for alert purposes are usually much less likely to notice the creature." After all, what if "the smell of natural earth" created by the spell is different from the smell of the natural earth where the animal currently is? A creature that hunts by scent or depends on scent for alertness is likely to notice, and might even be set on edge. If the animal is intelligent, it might even realize that something is going on worth extra investigation, and gain bonuses to track the odor that is so clearly out of place. These are corner cases, to be sure. Yet a spell that forces a target's reaction (rather than suggesting a likely reaction) needs to target the reactor and probably needs Rego.
(CrIm, The Odor of the Delicious Meal, creates the smell of food so delicious, that anyone who smells it must stand and drool for the spell's duration, utterly distracted from all thought and action due to the absolute yumminess of the food....)
Anyway,
Ken
I’ve said “usually much less likely” as a way to not prohibit edge cases already. Also I think it is plain and fair that a guard dog will be far less likely to react to the smell of foreign soil than the smell of a human or a bear. I’ll revise the language
The smell of fresh earth that most of us recognize is not in fact created by the earth or its humidity. Two terpenes are responsible for that, and they are produced by Bacillus Subtillis, the bacteria of the soil, which are everywhere. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14362-smell-of-fresh-earth-traced-to-bacteria-genes/. So probably, the proverbial "smell of earth" is the same everywhere. The other components are specific to the terrain, but you don't need to modify them, as they will be present everywhere in that terrain.
But anyway, that text was only fluff. Ironboundtome could be have worded the spell as "the spell causes the creature to have no smell. Creatures which hunt by scent, or depend on scent for alert purposes will not notice the creature." The smell of earth is only smelly fluff.
Hi,
The natural smell of the earth in a desert is different from what a swamp smells like and from what the tundra in winter smells like and....
Destroying the scent of an animal is Pe, not Mu.
Anyway,
Ken
Yeah, but the terpenes that we associate with the smell of fresh soil are the same because they are produced by the same ubiquitous microorganisms. The other subtle differences are really produced by the particular terrain. But you would be in that terrain so those odors would be present.
You don't need to destroy the smell (which would be Perdo) that you don't produce because you have the ability of not producing smell. Perhaps it is not a minor ability? That can concede.
But the same way you don't need Ignem or Imaginem to see like a cat when you transform your eyes, you don't need Perdo for that. You perhaps would need physical changes not to shed particles to the air.
Hi,
The vocabulary used in this counterargument (and some of the previous) suggests that it does not apply to ME.
"Natural earth" can refer to different things. The odor of these different things are not identical. The spell needs a magnitude for flexibility if it creates different odors, and is more difficult still if the animal's odor changes as it goes from a swamp to a desert to a forest...
That is still destroying a property of the animal.
The "Cat" in "The Eyes of the Cat" is a metaphor. To really give someone cat's eyes, An is needed. To transform a human's vision to see in low-light conditions, and then name the spell after a cat MuCo is sufficient. Regardless, Perdo is certainly not relevant, unless you want to argue that you are destroying the target's inability to see in low-light conditions, and that makes the target a worse example of its kind.
Anyway,
Ken
Eyes of the Cat is a MuCo(An) spell which really does give the target the eyes of a cat.
Maybe the way to “fix” the CrReAn bear paw spell is to break that spell apart into two spells. It’s arguably a poor choice to Cr and Re Animal object in one spell, which does not impact the crystal dart as much due to the lower base in Terram.
Splitting idea came when I saw how savage the Raven bone grog-grinder would be when it uses Base 1 ReAn to move the bone.
Samual already has a spell which extends Conc so he could prep a few bones each day, or it is also plausible he has real bear bones sharpened and prepared too.
As a demonstration of the basic intent.
Then what might be crafted depending on final lab totals.
Hi,
Oops! 
What I get for not checking a book.
Still doesn't need Perdo.
Anyway,
Ken
Ok, the odor of fresh earth effect would be possible from the knowledge that nowadays we have about the smell sense, and there is no contradiction unless you picture a smell as a thing and you think that our sense of smell precisely detects that specific thing, which is not what happens. But you probably would argue that that is not the Mythic Europe perspective, so I won't explain how that sense works.
Instead, I propose that the spell gives you the skin of a puff adder, whose smell that cannot be detected by even a dog, the pinnacle of scent detection in Mythic Europe. Of course, puff adder is a South African beast, so perhaps other creatures would be more appropriate (I won't search for them). No requisites, as the guideline intends to.
I was surprised at how efficient this was. Check out Corvus' thread to see the curretc (final, I hope) version. Also, with a more dramatic name.
Hi,
Sure, that wfm. Pick your animal, call the spell Skin of the Whatever, and the GM can decide how well the target can track it. Heck, you can even let the animal retain its skin by modifying it to produce the scent of the chosen, appropriate creature.
Anyway,
Ken
What would you think of a spell that changes an animal's scent to match the earth he's currently on (as in time of casting, not changing). It would allow you to cast the spell in a forest, or a desert... but if you cast it in a city and then send him into a forest, he would stand out even more. Or would that also require a magnitude for variance?
I'm curious, because I always interpreted the magnitude for variety when the wizard gets to make a choice, rather than something different based on situation. A spell that turns someone's hair blue clearly doesn't need a magnitude for variance, but would a spell that turns their hair to match the color of their eyes?