Nevill said:
They should be aware that we are casting, as well as what we are casting, right? As long as the item belongs to us, they have no reason to suspect anything, do they?
They would have to realize what you are trying to do and be able to stop it
or they would have to be paranoid enough to take such precautions in advance.
Nevill said:
Can we make a notch or add some other identifier on the rings so that the both of them are easily discernible? Can we use one ring to 'recall' the other that way?
Yes but you would have to do something to make it unique for that to work. If you put a notch in the ring but there is another similarly sized gold ring with a notch in it, it might not work very well.
Nevill said:
Can we 'recall' small animals, like mice?
Possibly. If the animal in question was unique enough it might work but you have never tried it. There may or may not be side effects.
Nevill said:
Do we still need to maintain a line of sight? It was required because we needed a good look at the item to 'recall' it, but since we cast the spell beforehand, would this still stand? Can we 'recall' an item from another room without looking at it? Or, say, from a mile away?
Well there are two ways to go about this if you really want to go indepth.
The first would be to apply the spell as Derryth knows it onto the ring. Following this method would require line of sight but it would also let the 'caster' set the object at the moment the spell is activated. The user would provide the direction behind the spell without having to properly understand it.
The second method is, I think, closer to what you are aiming for but would require modifying the spell slightly. You would need to 'rip out' and 'rewrite' some of the basics of the spell to remove the requirement but it should be doable as long as you provide a clear image in advance. You would lose a little versatility and the end user would have no real input into the process but it should work.
As for the distance this second spell can reach you would need to try it a few times to figure it out. It might be related to just how much power you pour into the spell or there may be other variables at play.
Nevill said:
If one wants to protect himself from such an attack, how does he go about it?
There are a couple ways.
If you are powerful enough and can heal quickly enough (Balor, Mazzarin or the Watcher for example) then you can simply shrug off the spell provided you are prepared for it, but there are very few mages that operate on that level.
For most mages the only way to survive such an attack is to not get hit by it. Meatshields are good, if someone or something is willing to throw itself in the way of the spell that works wonders. You have to be willing to sacrifice people though.
Scouting can also work. If you can discover what your enemy plans to do before they do it then perhaps you can escape it.
Failing that if you can kill the caster quickly enough you might also be able to save yourself. You could also attack the spell with a spell or weapon of your own (hit a fireball with a fireball and they should both stop well short of their targets for example).
Other than that you could try to pioneer defensive spells to shield yourself but they belong to a rare and poorly understood field of magic.
So I am afraid there is no magic bullet there, just common sense defenses that anyone can employee and a few more esoteric means of protecting yourself that Derryth is unaware of.