Forums of the Megaverse®

The level 8 Temporal Magic spell, "Attune Object to Owner", makes an item's special abilities unusable by any person other than it's owner that it's attuned to. The specific example used in the book is in regards to a rune weapon, and it states that anyone other than it's owner could still pick it up and use it as a weapon, but could not activate any special abilities.

How would this spell work for mundane objects? If cast on a gun, would it still be able to be fired by anybody? If cast on a computer, would it still turn on for anybody? If cast on a vehicle, would anybody still be capable of driving it?

Glistam wrote:The level 8 Temporal Magic spell, "Attune Object to Owner", makes an item's special abilities unusable by any person other than it's owner that it's attuned to. The specific example used in the book is in regards to a rune weapon, and it states that anyone other than it's owner could still pick it up and use it as a weapon, but could not activate any special abilities.

How would this spell work for mundane objects? If cast on a gun, would it still be able to be fired by anybody? If cast on a computer, would it still turn on for anybody? If cast on a vehicle, would anybody still be capable of driving it?

The gun would still fire but you couldn't put it on safety mode or reload it.

No, the computer would not turn on for anybody.

No, only you can drive it.

Personally, I believe that it would not work on any device that is not magical.

I believe the intent of the spell is to prevent use of abilities that are would be normally activied by thought or by something non-psyhical. This follows the example that runes weapons are actived by though/ telepathy with the rune item.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:The gun would still fire but you couldn't put it on safety mode or reload it.

It doesn't really make sense that the gun would still fire when all other mechanical functions are disabled. I think the proper analogy between the gun and the rune sword would be that the gun could still be used as a bludgeon or a paperweight, but could not be made to fire.

Mouser13 wrote:Personally, I believe that it would not work on any device that is not magical.

I believe the intent of the spell is to prevent use of abilities that are would be normally activied by thought or by something non-psyhical. This follows the example that runes weapons are actived by though/ telepathy with the rune item.

The spell description specifically mentions both mechanically and magically powered devices.

For mechanical devices I reckon that objects having a power source (motor vehicles, electronics, power tools, etc.) cannot be activated by the unattuned, while those whose function depends on mechanical actuation (firearms, crossbows, bicycles, etc.) will be effectively locked, their internal mechanisms frozen and unresponsive to the non-owner.

I imagine that the "owner" would be the person whose bio-energy is most strongly imprinted on the object; in other words, whoever uses the object most often.

It's odd to me that the example is a rune weapon to begin with since they already have a certain level of attunement with their owners. It would be clearer if the spell made mention of whether the sword still did MD in the hands of creatures/beings with normal strength. As written it sounds like it does, however I would bet that was not the intention when written, and that it was meant for the rune weapon to only function as a mundane weapon when not used by its owner.

Given the examples in the first post, no the gun would not fire, no the computer would not work, and no the vehicle would not function.

For game purposes the wizards should be able to attune any object he currently possesses. As for what constitutes possession, well, that's probably just a case by case thing. I would rule that the castor would have to have either taken possession through exchange or theft, and could not simply attune anything he touches or has a minute alone with.

Glistam wrote:The level 8 Temporal Magic spell, "Attune Object to Owner", makes an item's special abilities unusable by any person other than it's owner that it's attuned to. The specific example used in the book is in regards to a rune weapon, and it states that anyone other than it's owner could still pick it up and use it as a weapon, but could not activate any special abilities.

How would this spell work for mundane objects? If cast on a gun, would it still be able to be fired by anybody? If cast on a computer, would it still turn on for anybody? If cast on a vehicle, would anybody still be capable of driving it?

As the example showed, the mundane qualities of an item remain. So if you cast "Attune Object to Owner" on a gun, it would still fire for other people... that's a mechanical/chemical property, not a special ability. If you did it to a computer, it would still turn on, unless turning on was connected to some special property (for example, if you're replaced the power supply/battery with a TW source).

I'd personally ignore the mechanical line in there.