A couple of rules questions

1. Will the Ritual Wizard move allow them to create permanent magic items? Or should that have something to do with the Enchanter or Enchanters Soul advanced abilities?

2. Does magic Missile spell ignore armor? I read elsewhere in the rules that magic and poisons ignore armor. But if that's the case then why does the Fireball spell declare that it ignores armor but Magic Missile does not.

3. How do you determine how many people are affected by fireball? does it have a size that perhaps measures into weapon ranges(ie. affecting all targets in reach or Near range of the target).? Or is it up to the Wizard when he casts it how big it is?

4. Does the Druids Studied Essence require him to have seen the creature or observe the creature or is he using player knowledge for this? Or again, is this left up the DM or player?

5. Can the Bless spell be cast on self? I'm assuming yes, but if so, would that the -1 to cast spells would be effectively negated by the +1 Ongoing to everything since the Ongoing bonus is non-specific?

6. Why are Leather armor & Chainmail exactly the same except one is metal the other leather? Shouldn't chain weigh more or be clumsier or something? If not, is it just aesthetics and for circumstantial effects(ie. metal being a conductor and leather being flammable)?
 

2. The only place where the book maybe suggests that magic ignores armor is on page 23, where it is discussing how the GM should figure out damage on the fly. The recommendation is to add the ignores armor tag if the source of the damage is very large, or comes from magic or poisons. That's not a statement that magic ignores armor by default, only a recommendation about when the GM might want to add the Ignores Armor tag. I'd say MM doesn't ignore armor, since if it did I think it would say so.

3. The fireball spell says it envelops the target and anyone nearby. I'd say that's a GM call, but the GM is always free to throw it back at the Wizard with some questions. If I was the Wizard I'd be wary of making my blast of magic burning too big, unless I never ever rolled a 6-.

Thanks noclue, that helps. Much appreciated clarification.

1) Enchanter and Enchanter's Soul are strictly for analyzing and empowering magic items. Ritual can be used to create them. I copied this off of Google+ a while ago - one of the creators posted it.

Crafting Magic Items
When you engineer a design for a magical item (weapon, armor, artifact, etc) tell the GM what you aim to accomplish. The GM will tell you three or four of the following;

You’ll need to disenchant ________ first.
You’ll need the aid of __________.
You’ll need to find some __________ to use.
It’ll take an especially long time to prepare.
It’ll be unusually dangerous to craft.
You’ll need to craft it someplace special.

When you imbue a crafted item with power spend XP and roll+XP spent. On a 10+ choose two tags to imbue the item with. On a 7-9 choose one and the GM will choose one, too.

New Tags
- glamoured (with a thought from the wielder, this item can take on the form of something else)
- indestructable (the item cannot be destroyed by mortal means)
- shadow (the item gives off clouds of smoky darkness)
- energy aura (the item is tangible to ghosts, spirits, etc)
- holy (the item is imbued with divine power, either generally or specifically)
- unholy (the item is imbued with energies antithetical to the gods and their works)
- bane (the item is particularly hateful to creatures of a particular race or creed)
- defender (the item grants +1 armor)
- fiery (the item burns with a powerful fire that does not harm the wielder)
- icy (the object is fridged and freezing with a cold that does not harm the wielder)
- lightning (the object is possessed of a powerful electric charge that does not harm the wielder)
- hurled (the item gains +thrown, no matter the form it takes)
- thunderous (when struck, the item emits a blast of sound that does not harm the wielder)
- chaos-born (the item has an unstable form and can destabilize matter around it)
- lawful (the item is imbued with lawful energy, and gives form to the unformed)
- wounding (wounds inflicted by the item or in its presence cannot be healed by natural means)
- light (the item emits a brilliant light)

4) Studied essence is a strictly gong forward move. If you've had time to study a creature before this, it's because it was in your homelands. Though if you're doing an advanced start you might be able to cajole the DM into something.  Exactly what contemplating an animal spirit means, including the conditions and the amount of time it takes, is up to the Druid and the DM. Though it does seem to lend itself more to longer stretches of time.

5) The Bless spell explicitly continues as long as you stand and fight. So yes, it does cancel itself out as regards spellcasting on yourself, but you've got to be in the thick of combat casting or it'll run out on you.

6) Aesthetics and circumstance, yeah. You could be all chain shirt = "chainmail", chain hauberk = "scale mail" if you wanted to have a heavier grade of chain around.