I like it!
Humm... That makes sense.
PItMM @ Concentration would be lvl 35, which is quite challenging for Atheus right now (even the regular one is a stretch, considering the Dominion).
It also has the downside of requiring an EF 15 concentration roll to cast while talking, and then EF 12 every 2 minutes. I generally prefer Diameter instead of Concentration, exactly because of this kind of thing. Anything that requires less than 2min can be Diameter. Anything requiring more can usually be increased to Sun.
Ok, what about mastery? If I have Multiple Casting mastery for PItMM, Mastery 3 and have (Con+AoM)/2 equal 2, for example, what does this mean?
- I can cast the spell 3 times, potentially in 3 different suitable targets, and I can glean 2 bits of information from each
- I can cast the spell 3 times, but I'm limited to acquiring 2 bits of info, from any of the three targets
- I can cast it 3 times, but the penalty for targeting also applies here (to the number of bits of info). Eg. if I could get 7 pieces of info (very impressive Con and AoM scores) but cast the spell on 3 different people I could only obtain 4 per round (7-3)
- Mastery increases the amount of information I can acquire (such that with (Con+AoM)/2 equal 2 and Mastery 3 I could aim for 5 pieces of info per round)
Not all of these bullets are exclusive. In fact, I think the last one is an interesting option of mastery in itself.
The house rule limits the amount of "answers" you can process mentally in a given round/turn without some for of augmentation. The 2 means you could mentally process 2 full/deep answers in one round. Multiple Castings with Mastery 3 would produce 4 deep questions & answers in the same round and therefore overwhelm your mental capacity for the one round with information.
You could however solve this problem with other effects, as state in the House Rule.
You could use an effect to copy the information into a temporary memory locus for example. This is a Base 5 effect. So using this is an excellent way to give yourself temporary perfect recall to process things. You could also use something like Muto (to augment processing) or Rego (to control information flow into a locus, or to control mental focus) Mentem effects to directly boost your ability to process information and get modifications to your processing speed based on the effects you design. If you want to be able to rapidly do deep probes of multiple people without slowing down as it were, that requires investing in effects that augment capacity like this.
Then it's bullet 2 (which is what I actually expected, tbh).
I think I have enough information for now. Thanks for the additional discussion on this!
Ok, I'll do the following. I'll ditch the spell designed earlier (An Eye for the Perfection of Creation (InCo(Me) 20)) for now, and have Atheus start with Enhance the Memory Palace (CrMe 20), Mys. p.26. Posing the Silent Question.
The other one will be The Building Laid Bare (InIm 10), which is just Prying Eyes @ T:Structure.
I’ll request the text for Enhace the Memory Palace to the coaliton in place of Lay your Burdens on Me.
One additional thought: while the focus here is on Mentem spells, I think the same limitations could/should be applied to any Intellego spell dealing with large amounts of data. InAn spells mirroring InMe spells, such as Opening the Tome of the Animal's Mind, are the obvious ones, but others might also fall under this restriction (eg. a Touch and Momentary version of Sight of Active Magics)
EDIT: actually, one more question. How does Imperturbable Casting interfaces with this limitation (if at all)? Could I add my mastery score to the amount of distinct pieces of information I am capturing through the spell? Or perhaps add it to my Concentration score before halving?
EDIT 2: we lack texts for Art of Memory in the library.
Very quickly, you could edit in some modifications for durations etc into your lab text list if you would like to. They can be anything as completely custom as you want them to be.
Edited to correct my horrible typing on my phone. 8P
Thanks for the reminder! Do you see anything worth changing?
The Welcome Stranger could go from Diam to Sun/Moon, but I don't think this changes much. My idea here is just having something to break the ice and jumpstart the act of establishing contact. It won't make the person disregard the Gift, and I think a longer duration, even Moon, wouldn't make them act like acquaintances, so no reason to push for that?
Peering into the Mortal Mind... is a suitable candidate to be increased to Conc based on the recent conversation. And also to change from Eye to Touch, I think. I'll do that.
The other spells should be ok, but I will take another look at my starting spells. There are a few corpus ones that can probably go away.
In the spirit of tipping things out so that I don't keep overthinking them and start to take action.
My initial design of Atheus gave him Bind Wound, Purify the Open Cut (+3 to recovery rolls for month) and Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh, but I don't think my reasons (at the time) for that are making any sense right now. I'll change those spells (boy, I just can't stop changing things, can I? 
). His updated spell list is:
The Noble Visage (MuCo 5)
The Raiders Drop Their Weapons (ReCo 15)
The Welcome Stranger (CrMe 15)
Catching the Eye (CrMe 15)
Perception of Conflicting Motives (InMe 15)
Posing the SIlent Question (InMe 20)
Convincing the Raiders to Give up for Today (MuMe 10)
A Good Suggestion (ReMe 10)
The Building Laid Bare (InIm 15)
I'm dropping the +1 Part on The Noble Visage to reduce it's level to 5 (I had a reason I wanted it to be lvl 10, but it is not much relevant). The Building Laid Bare is Prying Eyes @ T:Strucure and allowing two senses (vision and hearing).
I'll update the list of spells requested to the Coalition ASAP.
I am also stuck on his second persona. I just realized I probably want her based in Dublin, not Athlone. But beyond that, I'm not sure on what I want to accomplish through her.
The obvious use for his personas is saying to his agents (or potential agents) something like "hey, you need help with X? I know a guy", and the guy is just him in disguise. But I have not detailed what X is for any of his contacts (I was expecting to do that during play), so I can't really flesh out a new identity right now.
The ability description states the following:
The character gains one identity for every point he has in the Persona Ability. Every time the Ability increases by one point, the character must design a new identity.
I was wondering if I can postpone the development of the new identity, and for how long, despite what the ability text says. Otherwise, I could:
- either reduce his Persona score by 1 (say, take 5 xp from it) and spend it in something else right now
- or develop his agents and potential agents a bit more right now, and then create a persona based on that
I'm also thinking about Atheus' reputation among the magi from Hibernia. I have two angles here.
- They think his real face is that of Mathias (his first persona). In this scenario, he'd have a reputation suitable for a Tytalus mundane meddler.
- They know his real face (Henry). In this scenario, they know he roamed Hibernia, but no one is sure of what (or even if) he did, because he operated using Mathias face 99% of the time. His reputation would be something on the lines of "Unknown", with some magi taking that as "mostly harmless" and others as "keep an eye on him".
I don't know which idea I like the most. XD
#1 was my first approach, and I like the idea of no one knowing his real face. But then, everyone knows he is meddling with mundanes.
#2 adds secrecy to his activities (as Mathias), but his face is known to the Order (as Henry). If he takes a lot of care, he can keep the two identities entirely separated from each other.
Thoughts?