Transfer Enchantment and Flaws

[Draven]

Based on the ritual text of Transfer, It is my opinion that it would not affect a flaw on an item. This is because a flaw does not inherently have an aspect, nor is it formal magic or a ritual.

A local Player disagrees with my interpretation, so I am seeking rulings on this. Thank you

 

[Feldor]

I agree with your interpretation.

Quoting from the "Choose Flaws" section of the rulebook:

Flaws are applied to an item, not to specific Rituals. Thus, so long as an item retains any Rituals (and thus a Magic Item tag), all flaws on that item remain.

If it was property of a ritual batch and not the physrep, it could get complicated if you had an item with a flaw, that had both a celestial ritual batch and an earth ritual batch. The "Transfer Enchantment" could only move one of the batches. And in that case it would not be clear if the flaw would stay with the original item or move.

Interestingly, I think there's a reasonable argument that this is also true for Empowerments.

 

[MaxIrons]

I'd say the flaw would stay, as it cannot be transferred and you can "extend" a flaw by adding more ritual magic. It's only when it has zero rituals on an item that the flaw dissipates.

"Empowerments do not count as “Rituals” for the purpose of Ritual Slots." P. 153 ARB - I'd argue that absolutely it's true for Empowerments.

 

[Draven]

Transfer Enchantment apparently doesn’t refer to rituals, but to “Formal Magic.”

I missed that with my original call, but I believe the intent is that “formal magic” refers to rituals and not

1) Flaws created by the Ritual system, via Ritual Manipulation

2) Plot-effect Flaws that are only able to be created via Plot magic items (while restricted, they aren’t really governed by the ritual system, IMO).

@Feldor, @MaxIrons would that affect your rulings at all?

 

[Feldor]

Our rules are really relaxed in swapping back and forth between "formal magic" when they mean "ritual magic". Its something that I'd hope is addressed in a future version of the rulebook.

But it doesn't change my interpretation. I think the chunk of text present with the flaw system makes it clear what the intent is.

 

[Jaerc]

I agree with all said above. Flaws just don't Transfer.

Ruling aside - I might personally consider (if it worked for my local Staff / Plot hierarchy) allowing a Flaw to be the subject of Transfer Enchantment (as long as it was moving with at least 1 Ritual) if the TE itself had undergone an Empowerment or True Empowerment.