Questions about Enhanced and Imbued items

[BlueWinds]

Last night I played my first session of Mage: The Awakening. I'm apparently to be the "common sense" of the group - everyone else is off-the-walls (in a good way), while my character is subtle, quiet, and has a good head on her shoulders. Fun!

Now had a chance to examine the rulebook a bit more (I read parts in a hurry before the session), I have some questions. Since I'm playing a Prime/Matter focused mage (and I've joined a 50-xp group), seems important to understand my options.

Let's say I want to make a bulky sweater that's permanently armored. I see several options for this.

• Artifact merit. I couldn't make one of these myself, only find them. Said item is a Big Deal (TM), and has its own story. Great for some things, but not ideal for something as mundane as 'clothing that acts like armor.'
• The Enhanced Item merit.
  1. It'd be a three dot item because of Aegis (costing 3xp), yes?
  2. What potency would Aegis have, and how much reach? The amount I can muster when I cast the spell? For Aegis only one reach matters, but other spells care about more.
  3. Mechanically or story wise, how do I make an Enhanced item, and how is it different (if it is different) than...
• Casting Aegis with Indefinite duration, then relinquishing the spell with a dot of willpower, which I spend 1xp to get back.
  1. Am I essentially getting a 2xp discount on said item (vs. the Enhanced Item merit) because I can cast the necessary spells myself, and because it lacks narrative protection? That would make sense.
• Imbue an item with Aegis then relinquish it (again using a dot of willpower / 1xp).
  1. As I understand it, Imbued items only hold activated spells, never indefinite / permanent enhancements? So I could make a sweater that casts Aegis, using its own stored mana, but not one with Aegis active indefinitely.
  2. When the Imbued item casts Aegis, it uses 3 (Aegis' arcanum rating) + users Gnosis dice. I assume the Imbued item can't use yantras. This means it's going to be really hard to get more than 2-3 factors out of the spell, making Imbued items not all that impressive for spells that rely on spell factors. Is this working as intended, or are there ways to give it more dice?
  3. How much Reach does this spell get? Hopefully at least 2, so it can move up to the advanced Duration chart and down to instant casting.
  4. If I relinquish the spell in the imbued item, do I 'hard code' the spell factors (and reach use) at this point? The rules sort of imply this, but I'd like to be sure I'm reading them right.
• I think that all of the "release this spell" variations (eg, everything except Artifact) are vulnerable to another Prime mage tearing the spell apart. Is there some other option that would have a Lasting effect, rather than making the spell indefinite (and thus dispellable)?

I expect some of these are "ask your Storyteller" sorts of questions, but wanted to get a sense from other people (and see if I've missed anything in the book) before asking him. Thanks for your thoughts!

[totalgit]

Last night I played my first session of Mage: The Awakening. I'm apparently to be the "common sense" of the group - everyone else is off-the-walls (in a good way), while my character is subtle, quiet, and has a good head on her shoulders. Fun!

Now had a chance to examine the rulebook a bit more (I read parts in a hurry before the session), I have some questions. Since I'm playing a Prime/Matter focused mage (and I've joined a 50-xp group), seems important to understand my options.

Let's say I want to make a bulky sweater that's permanently armored. I see several options for this.

• Artifact merit. I couldn't make one of these myself, only find them. Said item is a Big Deal (TM), and has its own story. Great for some things, but not ideal for something as mundane as 'clothing that acts like armor.'
• The Enhanced Item merit.
  1. It'd be a three dot item because of Aegis (costing 3xp), yes?
  2. What potency would Aegis have, and how much reach? The amount I can muster when I cast the spell? For Aegis only one reach matters, but other spells care about more.
  3. Mechanically or story wise, how do I make an Enhanced item, and how is it different (if it is different) than...
• Casting Aegis with Indefinite duration, then relinquishing the spell with a dot of willpower, which I spend 1xp to get back.
  1. Am I essentially getting a 2xp discount on said item (vs. the Enhanced Item merit) because I can cast the necessary spells myself, and because it lacks narrative protection? That would make sense.
• Imbue an item with Aegis then relinquish it (again using a dot of willpower / 1xp).
  1. As I understand it, Imbued items only hold activated spells, never indefinite / permanent enhancements? So I could make a sweater that casts Aegis, using its own stored mana, but not one with Aegis active indefinitely.
  2. When the Imbued item casts Aegis, it uses 3 (Aegis' arcanum rating) + users Gnosis dice. I assume the Imbued item can't use yantras. This means it's going to be really hard to get more than 2-3 factors out of the spell, making Imbued items not all that impressive for spells that rely on spell factors. Is this working as intended, or are there ways to give it more dice?
  3. How much Reach does this spell get? Hopefully at least 2, so it can move up to the advanced Duration chart and down to instant casting.
  4. If I relinquish the spell in the imbued item, do I 'hard code' the spell factors (and reach use) at this point? The rules sort of imply this, but I'd like to be sure I'm reading them right.
• I think that all of the "release this spell" variations (eg, everything except Artifact) are vulnerable to another Prime mage tearing the spell apart. Is there some other option that would have a Lasting effect, rather than making the spell indefinite (and thus dispellable)?

I expect some of these are "ask your Storyteller" sorts of questions, but wanted to get a sense from other people (and see if I've missed anything in the book) before asking him. Thanks for your thoughts!

You didnt miss anything, The rules for enhanced, imbued and artifacts are pretty crap.

Your best bet is to ignore imbued items and cast it yourself or get somebody to cast it on you. The rules are unclear how many reaches a imbued item gets (artifacts mention it but not imbued items), there is no way to increase the small dicepool (except by having another effect thats higher that you only use for the dice) so your never going to get any decent potency or duration out of one. Hopefully Signs and Sigil will have better rules for artifacts or imbued items. But you'll probably have to wait a long time.
Again enhanced item says it can hold a spell but doesnt mention what potency or whatever those spells are. Is it 1 point per potency? Who knows?

[Shadowjim12]

I think it is intentional. Creating artifact-like magical items is difficult in the fallen world. Mages wage wars for permanent magical things because they are so rare.

The easiest way I found to create permanent potent enchanted things was to create multiple items that work in sets (also take a look of Dave's Sign of Sorcery spoilers)

Create a magic cloak (from perfected cloth) that triggers spell to protect you but with low potency.
Create a crown that protects the cloak.
Create a medalion to stores and recharges mana on your items.

Also, try sacrificing some humans for added dice pool. I think most Storytellers would let you add some dice on your item if not all.

[Electric Indigo]

• Enhanced Item
  1. Yes. That is definitely what the rule book says.
  2. That's a very good question. I don't think the books describes that anywhere, so I'm sorry to say I don't have an answer.
  3. I think you might be able to do it with the "Imbue Item" attainment. This might seem counterintuitive, and certainly inconsistent with the fact that the merit explicitly states that imbued items do not have indefinite spell. However, to quote the description of the attainment: The caster decides whether the spell imbued into the item
     is persistent (always active) or contingent (triggered by a word,
     gesture, or condition).
• Casting the spell with indefinite duration
  1. If by 'lack of narrative protection' you mean not being subject to 'sanctity of merits': Yes, but you could say the same thing about an imbued item you have created yourself.
• Imbued Item
  1. As I said, that is what the merit says, but the attainment says the opposite. That might be an oversight, as it does lead to the attainment being quite powerful.
  2. I think it makes good sense if you cast the spell you want imbued normally, with yantras and all. When you then have your imbued item ready, you would roll Gnosis+Matter to see if the casting is successful, and if it is you would cast the spell with the same factors/reach as when you imbued the spell. You might argue that it then seems weird it says you have control over your spell if you do not relinquish it, but by that I think they mean in the same way that you can decrease the spell factors of a spell that has already been cast, as described on page 118 under "Spell Control".
  3. I think I have already answered this, but I think it is worth remembering that the spell could still cause paradox, as described under the merit (which seems a strange argument from me, having just said you should look at the attainment primarily).
  4. I think you're right, as you no longer have spell control. I would add that if you add some extra successes to the total required to imbue the item, you would not only be walking around with a mana battery, but you would get an increased chance of getting an exceptional success, thereby not needing to spend a willpower dot to relinquish the spell.

I hope this all helps you. Feel free to ask any other questions.