You belive wrongly. P.56 MiTS States that all detection spells have a range of touch so the touch modifier does not apply to them. However several detection spells also have an area affect the spells detect life, detect enemies,detect individual, detect life form, detect magic, and detect object all come to mind. Using these as examples a spell with a touch range and an area affect means the spell affects and area around the caster in meters equal to his magic attribute.

Prehaps you missed the part where I said it had a metal effect which means that it has a metal blade surrounded in flame i may have been mistaken about the power that flame aura adds to the attack(thought it was only +1) I gave it STR + force bonus because if it didnt have it there would be no pointin taking it at a higher force than force 1 and the entire point of having different force levels is to make a spell do more damage, have better detection range, heal more boxes of injury, ect....

Since Caster only is a combination of Very Limited Target, Touch Only, and Voluntary Target lets break down how each could apply to the spell. Starting with touch. The sword could be made to appear in someone elses hand if i touched them and cast the spell. Voluntary target would mean that anyone who didnt want the flame sword could resist and it wouldnt appear int heir hand, and very restricted target would mean that the sword could only be made to appear in a certain persons hand. Ok so caster only would mean The spell can only be cast on the caster and if he drops the sword the spell drops as well. He cannot make the sword appear in anyones hand except for his own. leaving a drain of +2(M)

I would have to say yes drekiness could definately transcend to the astral.

EDIT:

I happen to like what you have to say and how you say it. I find it very amusing

Yes, well see that's kinda the problem with using those spell design rules to determine whether a spell is "good" or not. IMO those design rules should be used as guidelines, and the best judge of what works is to compare with spells that already exist. Comparing this to other elemental manipulations I'd say the drain is at *least* +2(DL+1) (DL meaning Damage level, of course), plus even more if you want to add Str to the weapon's Power.

According to MiTS p. 53 FASA used these exact rules to create their spells. We should use their spells as a 'point of reference when creating' our own spells, keeping in mind that they are more that just 'guidelines', they are a specific standard that we should hold ourselves to, just as they did.

Im going to assume you are thinking of other spells such as fireball, lightning bolt, and the others like them. Those spells arnt really an accurate example for this spell. Those spells are instant spells that create something such as lightning, acid, or fire to do damage none of which are static objects and use sorcery die to stage up the damage. Creat food would be a better example of this type of spell because it creates a static object. Since this spell creates a sword I looked at other examples of swords and found that most do a damage level of M and power based on str. Ok so this spell creates a static object(a sword) with a flame effect which adds +2 power and also uses a sword skill to stage up the damage. Allowing force to modify power seemed natural because it made it more advantagious to take it at a force higher than 1

But lets do it your way. Making a create flame sword spell with a damage level determined by the caster lets calculate drain.

Elemental effect metal (DL+1)
+Elemental Effect fire (DL+2)
Now add the self only mod (which I explained earlier) (DL-1)

So casting this spell at serious would give you a drain of +2(M)

And I still dont understand how allowing str to increase the power of the sword would affect drain.

And since this spell has a varying drain code and uses spells like fireball as examples extra sucesses could be used to increase the damage level of the attack theoretically increasing it from serious to deadly.

What a wonderful way to behave. Deny all responsibility of your actions on the basis people are free to ignore you. That's a cheap cop out for feeling artificially superior by making others smaller. I have no problem with you being an asshole in your daily activities, but if you're going to post on a forum, whose entire concept revolves around lots of people socializing and communicating, you'd best apply manners to your posts. And if you don't agree with that, YOU're free to go talk to a wall.

Oh that's right, I left off the Sustained modifier. My mistake. I'll edit that in real quick just so I won't forget if I reference the thread again.

Okay, your example of detection spells as touch range/area effect spells isn't valid for a control manipulation. The detection spell grants the subject of the spell a new sense - everyone within the area of effect is a target of that sense.
Your spell doesn't do anything differently than the Mob Mind spell, really, because there is no subject of the spell apart from the caster. You cannot cast the spell to make anyone else control these people's minds. The targets are in the area of effect.
In effect, you are trying to bend the rules to get lower drain, something which is highly discouraged by the MiTS spell design section.

As has been pointed out, the Caster Only modifier doesn't stick, neither does the damage code really.
Caster Only: If the spell transformed the target into a sword, then yes, this applies. If it trandformed an object he was holding, then yes. But this spell creates something totally independent of the caster, and so there is no target of the spell. The Touch modifier is the only one that could apply since you have to touch someone with the sword to damage them.
Damage Code: Flame Aura adds +2 to power, and that is the spell most similar to this. Personally, I'd go for creating a Str+4(damage level) sword with this, alternatively a Force+2(damage level) spell with Iron and Fire elemental effects. The drain would thus be: +2(Damage level+1). I'd either go for a spell fixed at a certain damage level, or do the following: L damage = knife w/0 reach, M damage = sword w/+1 reach, S damage = claymore w/+2 reach. Since no sword type comes with a base damage of Deadly, I'd simply disallow it, or create a monster sword of D damage level and +3 Reach that can only be used twohanded by the largest of trolls (like cyclops and giants) - this sword would be something like 2.5-3 meters long.
I'll break the spell down: base drain = Damage Level (It's an elemental manipulation), +2 drain levels for 2 elemental effects (one giving base damage, the other adding an aura that gives a +2 power), +1 Power for Sustained spell, +1 Power for Physical Spell, -1 drain level for Touch range(simply to make it less impacting than the ranged elemental manipulations).
This sword cannot be given away - it remains in the casters hand, and you must use the approperiate skill to 'touch' the target.

He denied nothing; Lime implicitly owned up to the fact that his posts are offensive to some people by suggesting avoiding them.

As for posting behaviors in a public forum, the requirements of these forums are listed under Guidelines. Being a sarcastic snot is not forbidden, which leads to Lime's legitimate (IMO) point: if you don't like it, don't read it. (Similar theories applying to TV, radio, etc.: if you don't like the material, skip past it.)

And while Lime was unnecessarily sarcastic in his reply to your first post, he had another point: characters do, in theory, have lives before the first gaming session they are involved in. They are quite capable of being inspired before roleplaying begins.

Something like that was once discussed here. Near the end of second page.

Here's the version I wrote;

Lightsabre

The spell basically combines the elemental effects of fire and light. The plasma effect causes items to resist at half their normal value. One could have a lightsabre hilt that acts as sustaining foci.
The color of the blade is decided in the formula.

Type: Physical
Range: Touch
Target: 6
Duration: Sustained
Drain: +2 (Damage Level +2)
Category: Manipulation

That would indeed do the trick, and is the best explanation (imo) if you allow it in your games, but there is no canon support for that interpretation.

I still like the basic spell idea though; whether as a slightly off-canon damaging manipulation (off canon in that there is no precedence for a 'touch' range elemental manip.), as a transformation manipulation creating a new bodypart, or as the basic spell - just without 'caster only'.

Not criticising your idea, just pointing out the non-canon parts, as I see them - no offense I hope


Edit: And hazarding a guess at Reaver's lightsabre, I'd say Force(Damage Level) with light and fire elemental effects, as an elemental manip should.

A physical barrier that only affects the caster? sure why not, a bit silly if you ask me.

Sustained Raincoat. Also keeps splashed mud, etc, from landing on you. Wear your fine clothing in the worst storm with no problem.


(Well, I supose wind still might get through, so maybe not.)