Well, it started with a +5 bronze cord not being a bad LR, to which Erik Tyrell and I responded that it was. Ramidel said something about about it +5 being good for an under 50 year old magus (I didn't refute that, but I digress) and no magus under age 50 could get a bronze cord of +5, which I demonstrated was wrong.
But, yes, when you examine warping, you have a point, callen. In my maga's case, she's avoiding her LR to have children on the off chance one of them is Gifted. She can't work with her mater on an LR (Tytalus, an almost Tormenting mistress situation) and so she must make her own LR. But a +3 bronze cord on top of her +3 stamina is a really nice soak total, too. Which is the other point bronze cord helps a lot more than just longevity, being able to soak damage is huge.
I was thinking further back, as the OP was about avoiding Warping via the familiar. That's why I made the argument against the Bronze Cord based on Warping.
Yes, I agree with you about Soak. I'd take Gold: Bronze 4:4 over either 5:1 or 1:5 any day. And, yes, wanting to have children is a good reason to avoid the longevity ritual early. They're just not what the OP focused on so I figured they would take a back seat to Warping when evaluating things.
Yeah, avoiding botch dice through high Golden cord, spell mastery and perhaps Cautious Sorcerer is really the best way to ensure longevity if you are concerned about expeing due to Final Twilight.
Is there any good reason to take the LR before 35? The really vain sort will have Unaging and Venus' Blessing at character creation. Apparent age really doesn't do much, and anyone concerned over it could put an easy MuCo effect in their familiar to look whatever age they wanted.
Well, there's Age Quickly... But even then your age is treated as 35, just earlier, so it's still like waiting till you're 35. So, uh... Well, I guess there's in-character reasons. I mean, Neither Unaging nor Venus' Blessing grant Supernatural Abilities, so you can't just take them for being Gifted, and it might just be that your character doesn't have those Virtues but still wants to be highly desirable for a long period of time. The only issue with this is... There's still magic for that. Looking good when you actually don't, I mean.
Hm... Yeah, no. Can't think of any reasons to take the LR before your (effective) age is 35 that I can see. Having Deficient Form in the stuff that you'd use to make yourself look good in the future, maybe?
That's just it though. There is, in fact, magic to make yourself look younger. The only thing you can get out of less aging is being able to look in the medieval equivalent to a mirror (they used brass or something, right?) and knowing you're pretty without magic. And I have come across relatively few magi who care much about what they are without magic. Most of them were of the Houses Jerbiton and Guernicus, who I tend to assume are more mature than to assume they need to look young to be beautiful.
If it's just vanity, and you already have that familiar, just invest an effect into the bond that makes you look like you were still 19.
It's not that hard.
Not so much a familiar question but what is the general concensus about using CrCo base 5 to create a human body with vis to make it permenant (guidelines don't specify live or dead) then using ReMe (base effect uncertain) to switch into that body, avoiding the need for a LR? Would this require a breakthrough, and if so at what level?
AM5th, pg. 152. "Exchange of the Two Minds" - lvl 55 ritual.
The issue is that it switches your mind, but not your souls. Plus, it only lasts for a year. Plus, the "Save vs. Death" check you have to make every time you use it.
Calling back to the start of the thread, having your LR connected to your Familiar bond is a great Original Research project.
As to not getting your LR as soon as you can, I can see other reason. If you started OR or some other high warping activity when a young mage, you might have a warping score of 4 or 5 by the time you are 35. Such a mage would be much more aware and nervous about more warping, and look quite strongly at other paths to long life.....
Okay, so create a corpse, use CrCo 75 to 'resurrect' it, then ReMe base 20 to switch your mind into it.
being able to transfer the soul would definitely require a breakthrough...
depending on what it would mean in a given saga for the soul to be in a body which dies while the mind is in a body that doesn't...
