Yeah, making both the movement spells esoteric is likely the right call. I was planning on making an item out of Portage as well, a rope that you can tie to the ship and gain the spell effect once a day, but maybe not.
You still can make that an item, and should--it's a great idea (name suggestion: Handheld Hawser). Items with esoteric spells as their base are present throughout the ACKS JJ and TT, they are just ones that can't be reproduced safely or easily.
It was the answer for how you can have e.g. an item like the AD&D Mattock of the Titans without it disrupting the verisimilitude of the setting. Yes, a mage can make that permanent item of Move Earth to allow effortless creation of ramparts and ditches and roads, which would have huge impacts on a region (to say nothing of the XP for stronghold creation one could accrue in the ACKS II rules for doing so). BUT--making or copying that item requires radical experimentation, so there's a 15%+ chance of a failure that instantly kills the mage (or worse). The item may exist, but as a one-off legendary artifact, rather than something every king with a budget surplus can commission.
>This spell breaks the recommendation that “No non-esoteric movement spell can ever grant the ability to move a creature or object weighing more than 285 st/level or 2000 st (spell creator’s choice).”
Nothing particularly wrong with making it esoteric -- it doesn't make it any harder for a mage to add it to their repertoire, just makes it harder and riskier to put it into items. Easy enough to say that one NPC mage took the initial risk experimenting to make it (and that's why nobody else has made their own yet).
I like the idea a lot! Especially with the requirement for draft animals to move it, it feels like a very mythic, Heroic Fantasy-appropriate spell.
Yeah, making both the movement spells esoteric is likely the right call. I was planning on making an item out of Portage as well, a rope that you can tie to the ship and gain the spell effect once a day, but maybe not.
Glad you like it though!
You still can make that an item, and should--it's a great idea (name suggestion: Handheld Hawser). Items with esoteric spells as their base are present throughout the ACKS JJ and TT, they are just ones that can't be reproduced safely or easily.
It was the answer for how you can have e.g. an item like the AD&D Mattock of the Titans without it disrupting the verisimilitude of the setting. Yes, a mage can make that permanent item of Move Earth to allow effortless creation of ramparts and ditches and roads, which would have huge impacts on a region (to say nothing of the XP for stronghold creation one could accrue in the ACKS II rules for doing so). BUT--making or copying that item requires radical experimentation, so there's a 15%+ chance of a failure that instantly kills the mage (or worse). The item may exist, but as a one-off legendary artifact, rather than something every king with a budget surplus can commission.
>This spell breaks the recommendation that “No non-esoteric movement spell can ever grant the ability to move a creature or object weighing more than 285 st/level or 2000 st (spell creator’s choice).”
Nothing particularly wrong with making it esoteric -- it doesn't make it any harder for a mage to add it to their repertoire, just makes it harder and riskier to put it into items. Easy enough to say that one NPC mage took the initial risk experimenting to make it (and that's why nobody else has made their own yet).
I like the idea a lot! Especially with the requirement for draft animals to move it, it feels like a very mythic, Heroic Fantasy-appropriate spell.
Happy to help
I'm sure you'll get to help even more in the future. I'm going to make a few Obsidius inspired magic items to sprinkle around as loot.