Shape and Material Bonuses
Shape and Material bonuses can give your characters bonuses to their Lab Total when inventing item effects (ArM5, page 99). Also, if a magus has a Talisman, then its Shape and Material bonuses can be used to give him a bonus when casting appropriate spells (once the Talisman has been attuned; see ArM5, page 98).
Some new Shape and Material Bonuses are listed later (the troupe should feel free to devise their own Shape and Material bonuses too). The bonuses written in italic text
have been drawn from other books in Ars Magica Fifth Edition. The bonuses written in regular text are new suggestions.
Ash (burned debris, not the tree) (+2 burning things, +5 affect things that have been burned, +2 Ignem)
Artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum (+3 volcanoes)
Marble (+5 wards, +3 beauty, +3 cold)
Mask (+2 affect wearer's sight, +3 hiding, +7 disguise, +2 affect wearer's breathing)
Mirror (+7 illusions, +5 see the truth) Vent (+7 affect air passing through it) Volcano (+5 volcanoes)
Shape and Material Bonuses
Being constructed from wood, effects enchanted into a ship almost certainly benefit from at least the usual +4 bonus to affect dead wood. The type of wood used provides additional material bonuses and different parts of the vessel have different mystical resonances, which provide their own shape and material bonuses.
The table that follows lists the appropriate bonuses according to the shapes and materials commonly used in ship construction. There are also a number of shapes and materials not traditionally associated with shipbuilding that provide useful bonuses and may find their way into enchanted devices.
| find their way into enchanted devices. | Oar | +4 affect currents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opal | +4 travel | |||
| Shape/Material B | onus | Pine | +3 light | |
| Agate | +3 air | +1 friendly faeries | ||
| +5 protection from | Rope | +4 restraint or binding | ||
| storms | Sea Shell | +2 the sea | ||
| Anchor | +3 prevent movement | +3 sea creatures | ||
| Aquamarine | +3 water | Ship | +5 sailing | |
| Ash | +2 harm people | Ship's Sail | +4 affect winds | |
| Bellows | +4 create wind | +7 sailing | ||
| Beryl | +3 water | Wood (dead) | +4 affect dead wood | |
| Boat | +3 sailing | +3 affect living wood | ||
tire ship. Alternatively, the ship can be treated as a compound item, in which case the ship can be prepared for enchantment for a number of pawns equal to the highest-cost part, or the sum of all included components.
This means that a small buss with a single mast and a steering oar can be prepared for enchantment with either 10 or 26 (10 pawns for the hull, 8 for the mast, and 8 for the steering oar) pawns of vis. A magus can use twice his Magic Theory score in pawns of vis per season. So in order to prepare the buss for enchantment as a single item with 26 pawns of vis, the magus needs an effective Magic Theory score of 13.
Enchanted Items that Act Upon the Ship
Enchantments do not necessarily need to be invested into the ship itself. By increasing the range of enchantments to Touch and adding one magnitude to the effect's cost, smaller devices can be installed within the ship to much the same effect. This may limit the interactions between effects, and it increases the risk that any one device might be lost or broken, but it does allow less-skilled magi to create helpful devices for use on board ships.
There are drawbacks to this approach. If lesser enchanted devices are used, the level of their effects is likely to be lower that those enchanted into a ship prepared for enchantment, due to the need to enchant the device within a single season. On the other hand, individual invested devices must be opened for enchantment in their first season, which potentially adds many seasons to the overall project.
While this approach is certainly viable, especially for younger shipwrights as they grow in experience, this chapter assumes the attention of a skilled or knowledgeable magus capable of opening the ship's hull for enchantment.