You can always spend a season teaching your familiar
Oh really. I'll keep that in mind. Plot_Device reminded me of the lab practices, so if you're OK with it, I think I'll do early riser to bump the lab total up to allow for the original 2 spell invention plan which I think works with a 70 lab score. But teaching the familiar might be a great use of a season. That and getting a season or two with the MT book in Gardenia's library.
Speaking of that: Let me clarify with you. For the purposes of learning from books, Bartomeus has puissant MT, so his effective score is 10 (8 + 2). Can he still learn from a lvl 10 book? In other words, do I look at effective score or the actual experience based score?
A lab total of 70 allows you to invent a total of 35 levels of spells in that TeFo combo
Winter 1229
Season's Work:
Serving the covenant by inventing protective wards against creatures of the Magic realm.
Protective Ward Against Magical Spirits (ReMe 20)
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind
Provides a protective ward against mentem-based Spirits and creatures of the Magic realm with a Might up to and equal to Might 20.
(General with changed duration and target)
Spell Invention Lab Total:70
ReMe 30
Inventive Genius 3
Aura 16 (Mentem aligned)
Magic Theory 11 (10 + 1 spell invention)
Int 3
Familiar 6 (2 Int + 4 MT)
Early Riser: +1 Lab Total
With a lab total of 70, Bartomeus will invent two flavors of this spell: the version outlined above and a version with duration "diameter" which would put it at a ReMe 15 level. I believe the lab total is high enough to accommodate both spells.
Protective Ward Against Magical Spirits (ReMe 15)
R: Touch, D: Diameter, T: Ind
Provides a protective ward against mentem-based Spirits and creatures of the Magic realm with a Might up to and equal to Might 20.
(General with changed duration and target)
Winter 1230 - Aging
Stress Die Roll: 2
Age +5 LR -10 LC -2
Aging Total: -5
Result: No apparent aging
aging should be rolled in winter, not spring
Oh ok. I'll edit that to be the Winter 1230 aging result.
Thx!
The winter of 1230 is still nearly a year away game time, lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, so long as that shouldn't be the winter of 1229.
Fair enough. I had it tied to age 45 which is 1229. I'll scratch this roll and we'll do it again when we get to Winter 1230.
1230 Spring:
Activity: Install Lesser Expansion into Free Virtue Spot
Other than the brief excursion into the magic realm, Bartomeus spends the bulk of his time in the spring of 1230 in his lab. It appears from the way he enlists various hard working grogs, that he is likely doing something of a lesser expansion to the lab. The observant notice a small increase in the verticality of a portion of the dedicated building that houses Bartomeus's lab, as if the roof is being raised to provide additional head room in the lab. Bartomeus makes no secret of what he's doing, sharing in conversations over meals that he is working to improve the lab to facilitate his experimental work and the overall quality of the lab.
(Season Activity: install Lesser Expansion into the Free Virtue Spot for this lab. +1 General Quality, +2 Upkeep, Specialization: Experimentation.)
A few weeks into the season, Bartomeus offers each of his sodales a draft copy of a covenant charter explaining that he wrote this out from his former covenant's charter which was based on the well known Arae Flaviae covenant charter that often receives quick if not automatic ratification by the Quaesitors. "It's a starting point. What changes do you think we should make? Bear in mind that anything we change may spark questions form the Quaesitors."
(Note: I'm happy to put up the text of the standard charter from p. 126 in Covenants. Perhaps we could iterate in a forum thread about it to get to some decision on what to adopt and start that process in game.)
Bartomeus is generally gregarious and chatty, willing to talk with any of his sodales or the covenants people, companion and grog alike. He seems forever curious about people, their work, and especially their ideas for innovation and the development of new ways of thinking or doing things.
Question on XP Spending from the trip to the magic realm:
Can any/all of these points be spent on Magic Theory?
I'm thinking of how Bartomeus this visit is challenging his assumption a bit during this visit, his expectations around vis development with the stones, the layers of regio, the way the learning seems to happen etc.
I'm thinking of spending the 9 xp like this:
Magic Theory 8 xp
Area Lore: Magic Realm 1 xp
Thoughts?
The rules state max of 5 XP on any one Ability/Art on Adventure XP.
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You can put xp in magic theory, but you can only spend up to 5 xp in any one ability or art.
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Understood.
MT: 5 xp
Area Lore: Magic Realm 4 xp
Plan for Summer 1230:
Study/Read "Correspondence of Diedne and Bonisagus- Magic theory tractatus Q:10"
Advancement Total = 13 (10 Quality + 3 Book Learner)
Here's the rub: I think, though, that this might be a bad idea because of the Gain Limit rule but I need some clarification. Bartomeus's current MT = 8 but he adds 2 for Puissant MT. That leaves his effective MT at 10.
Does the Gain Limit apply to the combined ability + puissant score or to the raw pre-puissant score?
Also for future understanding, does the book learner's improvement to the source quality apply when considering the Gain Limit? So if an art was at 10 and the book quality was 10, would the book learner's elevation of that quality to 13 allow the magus to gain from that book until they hit rank 13 in that art or ability?
It's a Tractatus, you can only read it once, no matter your score.
I'm not sure what gain limit you are talking about.
If it is a summae you can read it multiple times, up until your level (before additions for puissance) is equal to that of summae. You can read a tractatus once, but there is no gain limit.
p 163 ArM middle column under Limits:
"Some study sources, notably teachers and summae, have a level themselves. The student may not gain a score in the Ability or Art higher than the level of the source, and may not gain any experience points towards the next level from that source. This limit is called the Gain Limit."
I didn't catch the summae difference but your answers help a lot as always. So to confirm:
A season reading the book = 13 xp toward MT. But then additional reading/study of that book does no good.
The limit is based on the score before puissance.
One more question:
It seems reasonable that during the same season, Bartomeus could gather up a list of requested/recommended tomes to add to the library and to send letters of inquiry to known sources of books and to the Redcaps seeking said books.
I'm thinking this would be an effort that Bartomeus would do as a 'spare time' activity over Spring and Summer 1230. It doesn't feel like a full season job in terms of time dedicated to it, but I want to confirm that idea with you.
Or is this in fact a thing Bartomeus should dedicate a full season to.
I'm also thinking of this as a "general contribution" to the covenant and not equivalent to his debt of a season's work to the covenant.
A Tractatus isn't a Summae. Tractatus only have a quality, and can be read by anyone, but each Tractatus only benefits you once.
A Summae has Level and Quality, and will only benefit you if your Level in the Ability/Art is less than the level of the Summae, and only up to the minimum Xp needed to attain that level.
If you have an Art Summae that is L5Q15, whether you have Book learner or not, reading it will only bring you to level 5 in that Art, whether your have 0 xp or 14 xp in said Art.
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I would not expect coming up with a general list of books you want would take a full season- especially if you rely on redcap recommendations and letters of offering to choose the books instead of trying to research what tomes are available.
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