Failed apprentice virtue

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

So the virtue reads:

You may not have the Gift, but if your Gift was not completely destroyed, you may have some Supernatural Abilities.

The question I have is this, does this mean you can put XP in supernatural abilities without buying the virtue for it?

Or must you still buy the virtue for each Supernatural Ability you intend to take?

Because it says you may have the abilities, so it seems that you can just pick the abilities you desire as long as your group is okay with it.

2

You may have the virtues.

3

A gifted character cannot just out xp into any supernatural ability they want, so there would be no precedent for allowing any character to do that.
I suspect the comment is to clear up the fact that the character with failed apprentice can take some supernatural virtues despite the fact that his gift has been damaged otherwise it would be possible for a player to beleive a failed apprentice could not take any supernatural virtues

4

We do not interpret it that way. Instead, if you choose virtues granting you Supernatural Abilities, their source might be explained in this way.

If I recall correctly (but I'm relying fully on memory and it's been several years) the wording of this passage has been maintained from previous editions of the game, when characters with the Gift could not simply learn new Supernatural Abilities from a teacher as they can in 5th edition.

5

Actually, there is more than precedent if this is a starting character:

So, it is a reasonable question. I would not want to see it as a cheap way for a companion to pick up a major virtue, though. But if the group is OK with picking up a single ability, that wouldn't be an unreasonable interpretation of the virtue.

Chris

6

Yeah it made sense to me that you would still need the virtue, but the wording used says ability which seemed bizarre in a war-mokey-wonky-bitburger sort of way.

This meaning all you do is take the Failed Apprentice virtue then buy all of your super powers heh heh... broken broken broken...

Ah, I was just making sure I did not miss something, cause I do normally miss the most obvious of things.

Cool thanks

7

Yes, if the troupe allows that, a wonderful combination is Failed Apprentice and Apt Student. That's a cost of two minor virtues. Now you can begin with one supernatural ability. Leave it at rank 1. Then start finding others to teach you. The quality would start at 13 (3+6+5-1) and drop by 1 for each supernatural ability you pick up; even a teacher with Communication -5 can get you somewhere in the beginning. Hopefully the storyguide would make it hard for a player to do so if the troupe allows this.

It is possible for magi to do this, but they start with at least -15 instead of -1, so it's not nearly as easy. Also, they don't benefit from those supernatural abilities so much as non-magi do. The magi are probably better off putting the experience into their Arts.

Chris

8

On a related note, I've decided to name my next Normandy noble NPC Guillaume Viscomte de War-Mokey-Wonky-Bitburger....

9

mmwmmwaahahahahhahhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa!!!

three exclamation points THAT's how utterly funny I found this.

I got tears. :laughing:

10

make him a total pacifist being attacked by the Comte of the Rain a-bow, then

Cheers,
Xavi