The following rules serve to encourage enchantment.
When a magus invents a potion or magic item, a record of the work is created as a byproduct, similar to what happens when a magus invents a spell. This record can be transcribed for other magi to use. Every power instilled into a magic item will have a corresponding lab text.
A magus in possession of a lab text can spend a season to learn it if his Lab Total including Verditius Magic and any Form and Effect bonuses pertaining to that item equals or exceeds the adjusted level of the power, similar to the rules for learning a spell. A magus who invents the item learns his lab texts automatically.
The major benefit of having learned a lab text is that instilling its effect requires a Lab Total merely equal to the effect's adjusted level.
Lab texts for potions are learned in a similar way; when potions are created from a learned lab text, one dose is created for every full five points of Lab Total, provided the Lab Total at least equals that of the effect.
A magus who learns a lab text must retain a copy to benefit from it, since the text describes the work of an entire season in detail.
Also, lab texts can only be used to instill the exact same effect into the exact same kind of item. Thus, a lab text that describes how to instill a 1-use-per-day "Ball of Abysmal Fire" that cannot be vis-pumped and that uses the current Arts scores of its wielder, into a ruby-tipped oak wand that already has a constant-effect "Ward against Heat and Flame," cannot be used to do anything else, no matter how similar.
Reproducing the results of a lab text is not considered invention, but a magus may experiment to boost his Lab Total if he wants to.
The secret of creating a Longevity Potion is known throughout the Order, a collaborative breakthrough by Bonisagus and Verditius. Lab texts for LPs are used as described in the ArM4 rules.
A magus inventing something in the lab is always considered to be experimenting, unless he is creating a spell as a Ritual that ordinarily need not be a Ritual, or unless his lab total is at least twice what he would ordinarily need.
Add a quality die to your Lab Total in any season in which you experiment.
Gain 1 EP to spend on any Ability or Affinity used in the Lab Total. Lab assistants working on a project do not get this EP.
A roll on the ERC results from any season of lab work in which experimentation occurs. A project that requires a few seasons to complete may incur the effects of multiple rolls on the ERC.
A perusal of the spells in the rulebook indicates that most spells have moderate, minor or insignificant "problems."
The number of botch dice rolled is usually one; Aura does not effect this.
Roll Result
Botch: Roll on Experimentation Disaster Table, or SG Chooses 0: Fatal Problem or Restriction 1-2: Serious Problem or Restriction 3-5: Moderate Problem or Restriction 6-9: Minor Problem or Restriction 10: Insignificant Quirk 11-20: Minor Benefit 21-40: Moderate Benefit 41-80: Significant Benefit 81+: SG Discretion
Disasters are just that. Perhaps the lab explodes, or you summon a demon that you didn't want to summon, or you gain a Delusion that you are on the verge of some great discovery, which will cause you to waste a few seasons in fruitless experimentation, or you roll for Twilight or something completely unpleasant.
Fatal problems are fatal to the project. A fireball spell always targets the caster. The target always successfully resists the spell. The approach you are taking to the problem simply won't work. Vis used is always wasted. Start the project over.
Serious problems cause the project to still be useful, but in a more limited way. A lightning spell that can only be cast during a thunderstorm, or that also strikes the caster, or whose Penetration is halved, or that is 20 levels harder to cast (which might end the project right there) or that can only be cast as a Ritual or that requires the destruction of a rare focus every time it is used. Or perhaps the entire season was wasted, or the research is perfectly successful--but for a different spell. Or perhaps the caster's sigil utterly dominates the effect, or the spell has some other unbeneficial side effect. Spells that have serious problems can also have minor problems, at the GM's discretion.
Moderate problems can be annoying, but the project is on the whole successful. Perhaps the spell is 5 levels harder to cast, or is the equivalent of a slightly weaker spell, or the target or range is somewhat reduced, or the spell is hard to aim, or targets get an unexpected resistance roll, or perhaps the spell needs a focus such as a wolf's skin, or has a requisite not in the original plan. Thus, "Incantation of the Milky Eyes" came out with a Moon duration, even though Momentary was all that was required. Spells that have moderate problems can also have minor problems, at the GM's discretion.
Minor problems are reasonable. Perhaps the target gets a difficult resistance roll, or the spell doesn't work on a narrow and rare class of targets or is less effective in rare situatios, or the effect diminishes with range, or the spell has other very reasonable restrictions. Most effects are like this. Thus, PeCo40 should kill a person, but "Clenching Grasp of the Crushed Heart" comes with a difficult resistance roll.
Other kinds of problems are possible.
Insignificant quirks are disadvantages so small and so rare, that they can usually be ignored. For example, "Transformation of the Ravenous Beast to the Torpid Toad" grants birds a +3 bonus to their resistance rolls.
A minor benefit is just that. Perhaps a natural resistance roll for a spell is made more difficult, or an aimed spell gets a better targeting bonus, or the spell has a minor but beneficial side effect (that may be related to the inventor's sigil), or an additional quality die is added to the season's lab total, or the researcher gains an additional EP for experimenting, or the benefit from using a spell focus is increased, or the spell focus is convenient and re-usable, or the spell is slightly more useful in a restricted circumstance.
A moderate benefit is more useful. Perhaps the effect remains the same but is 5 levels easier, or remains at the same level but has an increased effect of approximately 5 levels, or can be cast without gestures, or is otherwise more potent.
A serious benefit is better still. Perhaps the effect is more potent in a subtle way, or perhaps it can be used with multiple forms (such as a PeCo spell that can effect animals also with an optional Animal requisite) or is simply more powerful, or perhaps the season counts as two seasons of work, or a requisite that is normally necessary can be dropped, or the inventor of the spell automatically masters it, or a definitely advantageous side effect emerges.
Better results than these are possible, which often involve discoveries of the sort that create reputations, such as bending a Hermetic limit. Breaking a Hermetic limit is the sort of major story event that ought not be governed by a mere die roll.
Vis related either to Vim or to an Art used in the Lab Total can be used to further enhance experimentation, up to a maximum of three, subject to the usual limits for using vis.
Each pawn so used adds an additional quality die to the Lab Total, but also incurs an extra roll on the Extraordinary Results Chart and extra botch dice equal to the number of pawns used.
Updated on 25 June 1999
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