So is it just me or could Richter have used that spell to detect whether there was food/water nearby? Obviously it was wrong to kill the critter, but since it came to him that means that there is either food and water nearby, or at least said creature knows where such resources can be found. Otherwise it couldn't survive.
Should have summoned it, had it direct him to a source of water, then camped it until something else showed up
After getting a water source Richter could have repaid the favor by having it direct him to its biggest predators, which would have potentially given him food, XP, and/or creatures to tame
depending on the small creatures level, he might be able to tame the small creature after summoning it. It would be a good one to convert it to an enchantment. Upgrade it to summon large creatures. If an item is casting the spell, then you kill the creature, would the item get the debuff?
The Power is presumably the one handing out the punishment for its own abuse. I think it or its lords would know who to punish. A ring has no more agency than a gun.
The wearer of the ring or wand might not have life magic. Losing that wouldn't be a problem. What other debuff would be done to the user...
Life spells becoming unavailable for an hour. This is supposedly just a warning, with far more severe consequences for repeated breaches. When Richter tried to forcefully use life magic anyway: Worst case scenario would probably be something like being declared an enemy of the life power, suffering debuffs for wearing items enchanted with life magic and being hurt by life spells such as healing magic or auras.
