Extend, Preserve, Permanence

[jpariury]

For the past few months, there have been rumours flying around the WC based on a supposed OOG conversation with ECJP regarding magic item durations and the use of Extend, Preserve, and Permanence. Specifically, it was stated that if you have a magic item with a duration formal cast on it, the duration could later be replaced (and the expiration date of the underlying formals increased) if you cast a duration formal of greater potency on the item. For instance, if I have a +3 sword that was Extended and expires on Jan 5, 2008, I can cast a Preserve or Permanence of the same school on it anytime before then to alter the duration of the +3 damage aura. I could even cast, perhaps, a couple daily activates and some cloaks and banes on it and the Preserve or Permanence it, setting all of the formals (including the Damage Aura) to the new expiration date.

Similarly, if I have a formal that is Preserved, I can later have a Permanence of the same school cast to make the five-year duration changed to Permanent.

The marshals who were present for the conversation took it for gospel, and a few items have benefited from this interpretation. However, to date, I have not found any documentation indicating that this is legal. Am I missing an update somewhere, or is there perhaps an update to the Formal Scroll database that I'm not aware of? This is not a situation for FOIG.

 

[Duke Frost]

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: The only extension ritual that will allow a batch of rituals to later have another extension ritual cast upon that batch is the boost duration, which lasts only 28 days. Extend, Preserve and Permanent Duration only work on rituals cast immediately before the extension. Once a batch of rituals are completed by the caster they may never be extended again.

Any items that have had this done to them should be recalled and corrected, as they were not made within the ritual system as used by the Alliance. Another option would be to make the Local Chapter Only.