Hermetic Effect Design & Target Restrictions

The effect design rules for Hermetic Magic provide little incentive for any magus to restrict the potential target of an effect any more than the guideline dictates. This can lead to less interesting "generic" spells with little individuality.The following Saga Rule is intended to provide a concrete incentive for magi to narrow the effect or target of a spell or enchantment. In terms of game mechanics, it is similar to the rules for designing an effect expiry for enchantments, by providing a modifier to the "excess" lab total available to a magus, in exchange for narrowing the potential target of a spell or enchantment.

Some examples:
If the base guideline is to "affect an animal," then without any restriction of target, the designed effect could target any animal (subject to applicable size, etc.). A Minor restriction, however, would restrict the potential target of the effect. For example, the spell to affect an animal might be restricted to a specific type of animal: horses, for example, or dogs, or deer. The class of target must be a category based on a primary quality of the thing, such as a Platonic ideal form. Incidental categories such as "people who are Venetians" or "people who speak Latin" would not be valid, nor would a category of things such as "only red dirt" or "only barking dogs."

A Major restriction would be a specific individual, which the magus designing the effect can identify individually as distinct from any other thing. Having the target available in the lab as the effect is designed would suffice, as would having an Arcane Connection to the target (even if a lesser Range is specified in the effect design). Some pseudo-Hermetic or non-Hermetic Virtues may offer alternatives to an Arcane Connection. The key is for the designer to be able to uniquely identify the specific target of the effect at the time it is designed.

Some effect guidelines include provisions for broader or narrower targets. In such cases, the progression of narrower targets defined in the guidelines must come first. Only after the most limited scope has been established from the guidelines, can a further degree of narrowing using this Saga rule be applied.

For example, the guidelines for Perdo Vim have two degrees of scope specified for dispelling magical effects. One allows for dispelling any magical effect, and another, narrower, guideline allows for dispelling effects of a specific "type." In this case, if one selects the guideline allowing dispelling of any magical effect, then no further restriction is possible. However, selecting the narrower guideline would then allow further restrictions using this Saga rule. For example, a Minor restriction might be an effect limited to dispelling Hermetic Rego Terram magic, and a Major restriction would be dispelling the specific Hermetic spell "Creeping Chasm." In the case of a specific spell such as this, the magus designing the effect with a restriction must also know the specific spell that is the intended target.

This limitation also prevents the application of this rule to familiar bonds, because such an enchantment may only target either the magus or the familiar. Thus the base "guideline" is already as restrictive as possible, and no further restriction is possible. Similarly, this rule is not applicable to name magic that targets a specific being, as the base "guideline" is by definition restricted to a single entity.

A note on restrictions as applied to wards: the class of things applicable to the restriction is the type of thing warded against, not the thing warded. So, for example, a restriction on a Circular Ward against Demons would be a class of demon or a specific demon, not a class of thing inside the circle, or a specific individual or thing.

This rule may be less relevant to some Hermetic Forms. For example, Ignem may have limited Minor restrictions, as most fire is simply fire, lacking any mystically resonant categorization. There are a few classes of fire, however, that are mystically resonant. One example would be a class of fire created by the spell Pilum of Fire, which could be an applicable Minor restriction for a Rego Ignem warding spell. Another possiblity would be fire created by a fire elemental.

Major restrictions for Ignem might be of limited utility. For example, one could design a spell to only affect a specific fire (the fire that is currently burning in the hearth in a laboratory, for example). However, if that fire is extinguished for any reason, the spell would be nearly useless (aside from its utility as a similar spell for future effects). However, an effect that wards against a specific fire elemental, for example, might still have a certain utility, so long as that fire elemental exists.

A magus might desire to use the restriction of target in concert with the effect expiry rule for enchantments. In such cases, only the greater modifier applies. For example, defining a Minor restriction for an effect that will expire in seven years would provide a x5 modifier, because the x5 modifier for expiry is greater than the x2 modifier for restricted target. This does reduce the incentive to apply this rule in such cases. However, it might still be beneficial to apply a Major reduction to an effect that will expire in 70 years, because the x5 modifier would apply, rather than the lesser x2 modifier from effect expiry. This would tend to be useful only in situations where an effect expiry must be applied, as in the case of an enchantment made for sale to a mundane customer. One open question, not decided by any Tribunal to date, is whether an enchantment designed with a Major restriction, to only benefit a single individual, may be sold to a mundane in lieu of an effect expiry.

One final note: the rules for similar spells need to be modified slightly in accordance with this rule. For an effect to count as similar, it must meet either the "same effect" standard, regardless of degree of restriction, or it must meet the "closely related effect" with at least the same degree of restriction as the potentially similar spell. For example, let us say a magus knows a Creo Animal spell to provide a +3 recovery bonus to horses (a Minor restriction). For that effect to provide a bonus as a "similar spell" to a future effect invention, the new effect must either provide a +3 recovery bonus (with any degree of restriction, including none, and any Range, Duration, or Target), or it may have any sort of Creo Animal effect, but must be of the same Range, Duration, and Target, and must also have at least a Minor degree of restriction. The new effect, for example, could provide a +3 recovery bonus any type of animal, or even a Group of animals, or it could provide a +6 recovery bonus to dogs, with the same Range, Duration, and Target as the known spell. It could also provide a +6 recovery bonus to the magus' pet dog Alfred, because that is at least as restrictive as the known spell.