ReTe (He)
The great masters parrying blade allows a magus to deflect any melee blow directed at him by a metal or wood weapon (or mostly metal or wood weapon) while the spell lasts. Typically it is very hard to maintain concentration on a spell in the midst of a melee so this often doesn't last long. Its effect however is dramatic and flamboyant with the magus literally deflecting all melee attacks with simple passes of his hand.
Ok, thats the spell idea. However i have no idea how to go about it. Obviously a ReTe (He) ward would work fine but i don't want to be simply immune to the blows (i.e. they stop or swerve off) I want to actively parry them. Now this could be a touch range, group target spell but i really want to be able to affect assailants that join the fray after the spell is initially cast.
I'm not adverse to the mage moving faster than he has any right to, maybe some kind of ReCo effect to speed him up to the point where he is parrying each blow as it comes in, not sure if this is possible though.
The Masters Grand Parry
ReTe (In, He) 15
The great masters parrying blade allows a magus to parry any melee blow directed at him by a metal or wood weapon (or mostly metal or wood weapon) while the spell lasts. Typically it is very hard to maintain concentration on a spell in the midst of a melee so this often doesn't last long. Its effect however is dramatic and flamboyant with the magus literally deflecting all melee attacks with blindingly fast movements of his weapon. This spell is designed to be cast on a weapon in the magus' possession and this weapon needs to be a talisman.
(base 4, +1 diameter, + 1 intellego, +1 herbam, +1 complexity)
Ok, i think the levels are about right. Its a rego effect to move the mages quarterstaff quickly enough to deflect metal and wooden weapons. The intellego pre-req allows the caster to sense the incoming attacks even when he would not normally be able to do so (e.g. attacked from behind). The complexity + comes from deflecting more than one attack per round (the base of 4 is just to deflect 1 attack).
Now, the spell is cast on the quarterstaff but would i still need a voice range to detect the attacks before they hit me? Anything else i've missed?
Ok..things you may have missed..(just thoughts, so take it how you want..)
Corpus req: You have to try to hang on to a weapon that is snapping around in unanticipated directions, very quickly. This could also raise the level (seems too low???)
Might require a strength difficulty check ????
Mentem req: possibly to read the opponents intent...
Ceratinly need a limit on the number of blows that could be parried per round. The more blows you have the greater the complexity. Maybe 1 per magnitude????
Things not seen should certainly be harder....
Things from behind would tend to wrench your arms around to unusual directions...possible causing injury to YOU. (The arm doesn't bend certain ways, nor does ones back or knees)
