Alicornutopia

I am not sure if I understood the spell flowchart thing.

The requirement is something similar to memorizing it enough that you could recite any specific part of it, or do you need think about the whole thing in the same time for it to work?

You need its entire structure in working memory.

I am almost certainly missing a thing, but I don't quite understand the difference between an instantaneous effect spell and a hex. What does a hex do that oneshot spells can't? It seems like "permanently magicify" means "have a permanent effect" but turning something blue is a permanent effect. What am I missing?

I think "permanently magicify" means "impart a permanent magical property or function of some kind". Being blue is not a magical property, it's a mundane property. Being, say, invisible would be a magical property. I think that's how it works, anyway.

tau wrote:I am almost certainly missing a thing, but I don't quite understand the difference between an instantaneous effect spell and a hex. What does a hex do that oneshot spells can't? It seems like "permanently magicify" means "have a permanent effect" but turning something blue is a permanent effect. What am I missing?

I got the impression that Hexes can be actively magical, while the "permanently blue" isn't actively magical, only a non-magical something that was changed through magic.

Or in other words, when a spell ends the left over results are "mundane" and not-magical, even if they are created by magic. In theory, Hexes don't end, and can have traits that are magical and impossible to be achieve through mundane means.



Can you create a spell that becomes stronger-or-weaker depending on a variable charging time?

Ok. I think that makes sense. Just trying to figure out where the demarcation line is because clearly there is one but I'm having trouble figuring out what it is, or if it's a "this magic is too big and can no longer be a single spell" sort of thing.

Lets use the expert opinion. We get a cube that was changed into blue and a cube that is invisible and ask Lazarus to explain:

"See," Lazarus says poiting and making several hand gestrues "in this blue cube I can sense trace amounts of magic... I think someone changed their color, it is not actively magical right now."

The he goes and points to another part of the table that seems empty

"Now, this cube is invisible, and therefore you can't see it, but I can see that is actively magical right," he waves his hands in a expansive gestrue "Despite being invisible it would be easier to sense it from further away because it has more magic than the other cube"

Another example: to someone without Detect Magic, a spelled-blue cube is pretty much indistinguishable from a cube that had always been blue naturally, or that was painted or dyed blue, or something. A hexed cube might do something like automatically reverting to being blue whenever you tried to paint it a different color.

Alternatively: a spell could levitate something for as long as the spell's duration lasted; a hex could impart levitation permanently.

The fountain that heals familiars is an example of a hex. The fountain is a permanently magical object; if you dunk a familiar in it, the familiar will be healed. "Magic healing fountain" kind of requires the word "magic" to describe how it is doing "healing". "Magic blue cube" seems to suggest that there is something magic about the cube which is not its mere blueness.

The idea of a spell with variable effect power with variable charging time is interesting and I am potentially open to it but I don't think any are currently in circulation.

Alicorn wrote:The idea of a spell with variable effect power with variable charging time is interesting and I am potentially open to it but I don't think any are currently in circulation.

The concept sounds like a no-brainer, but I could understand if the implementation is hard enough that no one bothered.