Jason, how would you handle someone taking Rote for an Incantation that normally has no duration? Since, say, Bolt just happens and then dissipates, what is your method for "restraining" someone from going willy-nilly with it? It seems as if you could cast it automatically as many times as you wanted?
Yes, I would say they can cast it as much as they wanted. It still won’t be risk-free if they’re casting in combat — they’ll risk attracting attention, or even being killed by trying to cast right up in somebody’s face. They are just eliminating the risk of side effects. In the case of Bolt specifically, that makes it a powerful weapon, but it’s a powerful weapon that required you to take a talent to use, which sounds like a fair trade to me.
Also, the text never specifies whether Rote can be taken more than once, but if it can’t, using your one Rote to make a super weapon sounds like a fine strategy to me. (I’d even let players choose that talent multiple times, too. Up to you.)
There’s probably more than one way to answer that question, but you asked how I’d handle it, and that’s what I would do. 😄
I’ll add: The text never specifies how to handle an incantation like Sleep if taken as a Rote, even though it’s effect is specifically based on rolling. This still bugs me, so I may add some text to clarify later! But for now, my intent was that you could make a judgment call in context, such as to say it still poses a risk (as described above with Bolt), and so you still roll, or it affects only one target.
