After watching "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" I was intrigued by the objects that could trap humans inside for lengthy periods of time, and came up with the following invested device. Since I have not worked on something this complex before, I would appreciate feedback. I am specifically wondering about the duration and how the arcane connection would affect the penetration total.
The item is an agate attached to an eggshell, the shell having been emptied by piercing a hole at each end and blowing the contents out. The agate is fixed over one hole. The agate is a tiny, semi-precious gem and the eggshell is small (and similar I think to bone), so the number of pawns to prepare the item is 12 (for the agate) or 18 (for the compound item). The item can be prepared with 12 pawns.
MuCo(Au) 50
Transforms the person who is touched by the agate into air, until the egg (ring) is broken. The penetration is +10.
(Base 30 +1 touch +1 "ring" +1 requisite +10(levels) increased penetration)
ReAu 28
Pulls the transformed person into the egg and holds him/her there until the egg is broken. Activation of this effect is linked to the successful activation of the previous effect, and again has penetration +10.
(Base 5 +1 touch, +1 "ring" +3(levels) linked, +10(levels) increased penetration)
Penetration bonuses can be increased if an arcane connection to the target is placed inside the egg.
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Each point of penetration at the lab total adds +2 points of penetration so you would have each +5 lab total or + 20 penetration.
For Ring to work you would actually need a ring.... the simple effect you have here is that on turn 1 the person becomes air, then on turn 2 there is no 'ring' here and it breaks. Even though the egg would be the ring the device can only activate 1 effect per turn (as far as I'm aware I could be mistaken on that point).
Try having it so the device is a container of some sort, switch auram to terram and have the device use a touch range with rego requisite to transport the item into the container which uses a concentration duration effect with the device maintaining concentration. Therefore when you want to transform the person back you take them out of the container and therefore they are out of the touch range of the item and the spell ends.
Mu(Re)Co(Te) 50
Turns a person into a small gem which is transported into the container and will keep the person in that state until they are removed from the container. (+10 Pen)
My guess is that the eggshell is still tiny (mainly because it's hollow I guess, and certainly much smaller than eg. a dagger) but that's not the main point.
Normally I'd simply say that items (generally) do not use the 'ring' duration. You may have actually come upon the one exception, I'm not sure.
Page 99 defines constant duration items to use 'Sun, 2 uses/day, enviromental trigger'.
Also, 'ring' is the same level as 'sun', so +2 magnitudes, not just one.
This is not standard for a magical device. The increased penetration isn't penetration skill and so do not take multipliers. Oh how I wish it did!
I would interpret this to mean that the target must be inside the ring when the spell is cast (otherwise magi would just use one of their many rings to cast any spell they wish with Ring duration and make it effectively permanent). So here you have a problem: for the first effect to work, the target must be inside the egg when the effect is invoked, which is unlikely. Actually, you have the same problem for the second effect: you can't use Ring duration to affect a target who is not inside the ring at the time of casting, and your gaseous target is still outside the egg. You could always go for a classical permanent effect (Duration Sun, 2 uses/day, environmental trigger, for a total of +14 levels to the effect). Or first get the target inside somehow, then use your ring effects.