A&A Alchemy questions

Lab assistants
Can assistants be used to increase the lab-total for alchemists? There are guidelines for assistance with locating materials, but not for mixing them. This question applies to astrological inceptions as well.

Applicable Virtues
Can the virtue Inventive Genius apply to alchemists even though it is a hermetic virtue. Is there an equivalent virtue that they can take?

Astrological Inceptions
Is there a method to detect when someone has used Astrological Inceptions about you, or do they bypass your magic resistance due to the limit of the lunar sphere. In a wizards war it is easily worth the cost for a magus to hire someone to divine where someone will be, and when they will be most vulnerable.

Alchemy and Rego Craft Magics
Can Rego Craft magics be used to create alchemical compounds? We were divided on this issue, because one of us thought that as alchemy is a mystical process it could not be hurried by magics.

Alchemy and Creo Magics
Is it possible to create Alchemical compounds directly using creo magics? In some cases, such as Alchemical Steel it would be worth a magus time to create it using vis. Especially for a Verditius crafting some armour/sword.

The rules don't allow it, intentionally. It would over-balance the Lab Total, which is carefully scaled so that only those who devote themselves endlessly to Philosophiae (or whatever) can achieve results. If you decide to House Rule it, then I suggest that:
-no more assistants than your Leadership Ability
-add only 1 point for every 5 points of the total appropriate Academic Abilities of your assistants

I would make a new Virtue, which gives a +2/+4 rather than +3/+6. This will balance in a similar manner to Puissant Ability vs Puissant Art

It is not that they are bypassing your magical resistance. It is just that the inception is no more magical than poking you with a stick.

I think it would be very hard to determine magically if an inception has been used. I would imagine that Initiates of Hermetic Astrology might have a way of doing this, and even a way of safeguarding it. However, be aware that the answers from an inception will never be as simple as "he's in the cellar of Black Dog Tavern hiding between a barrel of port and a pipe of murrey", or "he'll be most vulnerable when standing in a puddle of water since that is his Restriction."

The rules say yes (A&A, page 70). However, the Finesse roll required is very hard (Formula Level + 9, for completing a season's work in a moment). You still need to pay the cost.

Again, the rules say yes, but you need to have the Formula because it is pretty complex.

Hope this helps,

Mark

I realize that it can be over-powering - if a king finds someone who can make Alchemical Steel he will want a suit of armour and weapons made from it. He would throw money and people at the problem until he had what he wanted. We are not going to house rule this.

That is fine with me, but you can already do Puissant/Affinity philosophiae, I was after something extra.

Yes, but knowing when they will be feeling ill or confused, knowing the general area of where they may be hiding - that is all useful stuff.

Yes it does, thanks.

Oh yes, a new version of Inventive Genius, as a General Virtue, which grants a +2 bonus to experimentation, or a +4 bonus if you are doing something you've never done before. That is, identical to the Hermetic Virtue but the bonus is less, in an analogous fashion to Puissant Art vs Puissant Ability.

Mark

Unlike Arts where you would need fifteen different virtues, you can boost alll of Philosophiae with a single Puissant Ability, plus take "experimentation" as a specialty if you want to. Isn't that plenty already? :stuck_out_tongue:

Hi everyone,

Are the doses of reagents divissibles? For example, if you concoct a single dose of a version of the "Preservative" formula (A&A, pg.75) with a +1 size modifier, can you use only a part of it and store the rest? Or will it be consumed completenly independently of the volume of the wood treated?

I would personally say no for 2 reasons

  1. Game Balance, because for a few size modifiers and a bit of dedicated lab work, a person could accelerate his production of charges to an unprecidented degree.

  2. the effect of a reagent is X is added to Y to make Z. The way I see it is that a size modifer doesn't make MORE of the reagent it just makes it more potent or efficient.

A