At 50%, it becomes the major virtue you want IF you plan to use all elements, but its not something you go out of your way to get if you just want an ignem or terram specialist. It's a concept virtue that enables a concept but isn't necessarily better than, say, major magical focus, flawless magic, or flexible formulaic magic. If I built a character that depended on two elements rather than 3 or 4, I'm not sure if that's necessarily what I would pick, since I could get better result out of 2 affinities + book learner and a different major virtue. On the other hand, if I want 4 strong elements, I'll pick the revised virtue. Which I might not pre-errata, after having tested it.
Would you have expected a conscensus?
There are two different approaches to the entire problem. Are we looking for a simple solution to patch a flawed edition with minimum disruption? Or are we looking for an optimal mechanics for elementalists?
David's two proposals are excellent as undisruptive patches, and we could have them both. No reason not to allow a minor and a major version of the same theme.
Personally, I think they are slightly overpowered, especially the minor version. It is right that 3xp/season is on par with other minor virtues, but in this case they apply to all modes of study. You can assign just 1xp from exposure or adventure, and have your three bonus xp. However, the effect on the primary art is less than that of other virtues, which limits min/max power gaming.
The major version has some potential for boosting the primary art by reading low level/high quality books in a secondary art. I would have been really worried, were it not for the fact that the secondary arts will also advance rapidly and prevent the use of low level books.
I am not worried about the simple XP calculation, read a Q18 book and get 27 bonus xp. XP put into the primary art mean much more to game balance than XP in the secondary arts. My problem is that I am unable to gauge the exact effect on the primary art.
In short, I think both virtues are acceptable, but I am prepared for being surprised by simulation or play test ...
I would like to propose two amendments to the major version. Firstly, bonus XP should round down. Secondly, I think it is ok to retain the requisites benefit; this is mainly to be non-disruptive, and I also do not consider it to be a major benefit, and even less so with the balancing bonus xp.
To all the more fantastic elementalist proposals, I think they fit better as Ex Misc traditions and V/F packages. This is partly because some of them comprise both virtues and flaws, and partly because they deserve some lineage lore.
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I have worry about the sheer xp gain, especially if Ioke has the numbers right and a 12 xp tractatus gives 18 extra xp, ignoring gain limits.
How about actually just giving them Affinity with all four elemental forms? Add a caveat that stops them from getting other affinities. And allow them to siphon any or all of that bonus xp into a different elemental form than they gain? It does steal away xp from the exposure xp or the one-point adventure xp options, but it makes everything cleaner.
That becomes a very different virtue which boosts the primary art, rather than evening out the four elemental arts. It goes contrary to the existing virtue in spirit, and personally I like the spirit that has been.
I think that instead of thinking in terms of how many xp this should give you, 9/season or +50% or whatever, the design process should go as follows.
- Think of a single Form specialist, say Terram, with a score of 30 in his specialty (including Affinity & Puissant). That's 2 Minor Virtues.
- Ok. Now, suppose the concept of Elementalist is a character equally at ease with the 4 Elements. The most important question is: what score in the 4 Elements would make you say "I might just want to play this character rather than the specialist"? Ok, that's probably a bit too low because remember, you've just spent your Major Hermetic Virtue there, so boost it a little or else add some extra perks.
- Ok, so what kind of bonus do you need to get to that score, under different learning conditions?
- How do you avoid that bonus from interacting wierdly with other Virtues and Flaws? Your primary goal is to avoid excessive, game breaking synergies; your secondary goal is to keep as many of the existing V&Fs viable, interesting choices, but if you disqualify a few or even many it's ok - your characters is defined by being an Elementalist.
- Fine, now imagine you try to "skew" the Arts of your elemenalist into a handful of configurations: e.g. two Elements at equal score and the other two at 0; one strong element, the other three at ... 1/2 the score? Etc. Does your bonus still work here? If it does great!, if it's too weak that's ok (that configuration will be suboptimal, and so will be avoided), if it's too strong it's not ok and you have to go back to the drawing board.
I think only a result-oriented process like this lets you gauge correctly how much oomph to put into the Virtue, and what checks and balances to add. Otherwise, it's almost inevitable that your view will be too myopic, particularly without playtesting over a range of power levels.
Playing an elementalist, I would probably also take affinities and puissant to boost the primary element.
What I expect from a major elementalist virtue is pretty much a second art at similar score. Unless I go for the Hermetic Vulcano Project, I am not going to care much for more than two or three elements, so the bonus xp in the fourth element do not add value.
I think spending 3 Virtue points for 4x Affinity in Forms is a very different choice than spending 1 virtue point in Affinity in the primary art. Add in the ability to spend that +50% in other elemental forms and now you have an elementalist character who has the choice to specialize OR generalize.
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