I'm slowly working my way through the 5th edition rules. I started with the core book, and the HoH books. So far, it's great!
Two of the greatest problems with the original Houses of Hermes, that it painted some Houses as filled with two dimensional maniacs, and that it was just way too short, have been elegantly resolved. And many of the complex rules have been moved from the core book to various supplements where they can be more fully treated.
But what about Alchemy? And to a lesser extent Herbalism? I noticed those two Virtues/Abilities are absent from the core rule book. Does the pattern hold true here too? Is there a supplement that covers these unusual abilities, more satisfyingly than the frustratingly short blurbs in 3rd & 4th editions?
I believe those can be found in The Mysteries revised edition, but I do not own that book yet so I am not sure. The old cunning folk and a unique take on herbbalism is presented in HoH-Societates.
As far as your take on the old Houses of Hermes goes, I will have to disagree. I love 5th edition rules, but I am severly not happy with the way old cannon has been casually retconned and revised unnessecarilly. I have a feeling I know what you are refering too, and the revisions to that house are what I am most upset about.
But that's off topic. Alchemy can be found in TMRE. Divination is in there too, but I have been informed that it really isn't anything like the old Divination ability was. But I was also informed that there is a ton of interesting goodies in there as well, and that new Divination is fun to play with, so I have to wait until I get my copy before I make a decision.
Well I wouldn't say that alchemy or divination have really been published yet. The take in TM:RE is very specifically a hermetic variant (as opposed to hedge magic). Herbalism though made it into HoH:So. There is also suppose to be apothocary information in Art & Acadame (whenever it finally ships). There's also a blurb somewhere that more alchemy info is going to be in Art & Acadame.
As for divination, TM:RE makes reference to other divination abilities but it doesn't seem that there is any hurry to get them published. Maybe in ROP:M maybe not...
Alchemy was of questionable value to a mage in 4th ed (unless they were really excited about potions) and it was frustrating that it only addressed potions (as if that was the only focus of "alchemy"), but it did allow for some interesting Companion types.
Alchemy is in Art and Academe, along with medicine, which covers some more aspects of herbalism. They do indeed get rather more detail than they got in ArM4.
The Mysteries Revised is stacked to the rafters with new virtues permitting all manner of alternatives for this kind fo magic. There is a decent chapter on hermetic alchemy. In particular it focusses on the fact that 'The Great Work' is the quest for eternal life, not that crass business of lead into gold.
i suspect the reason alchemy isnt dealt with in much detail in the core ruels is that the potion maker element is completely covered by the creation of charged items. If you want your charged items to be potions then feel free to use that medium - they are still created in exactly the same way as any other charged item. You simply elect to have your charges in some quaffable form.
I've been curious about one thing ever since I read that herbalism will be in Art & Academe, but will it go in detail with specific plant types and so on? I'd love to see stuff like that
