Gabriel's Apprenticeship

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
1

Solomon is going to have a bit of a different philosophy for Gabriel's apprenticeship than Carmen does for Lucien, but, as Marko pointed out, while Gabriel won't have much say in things, I want Trogdor to have a chance to speak up.

Because he's training Gabriel not just to be a wizard, but a quaesitor, Solomon will be focusing a good portion of Ganriel's training on more mundane arts than Carmen likely will to make him more well-rounded and a good mundane investigator (as all quaesitor should be. This is a philosophical point for Solomon (and me), but it might mean being a slightly less powerful wizard, so I would like to know your thoughts.

For his training, I like following Carmen's model of 1 season of direct one-on-one study, 1 season of focused study (whether in the librabry or with a tutor), 1 season helping in the lab (or an additional season of focused study if Solomon isn't working in the lab), and 1 free season. The free season will be Winter (so Gabriel and Lucien can get into trouble together), the one-on-one season will be Spring, and the other two will be dependent on what's going on.

Looking through what you initially came up with for his pre-apprenticeship training, I'm interested in changing things a bit, keeping in line with Solomon's philosophy and it flows a bit better in my mind. so, here's my thoughts through 1242:

[size=150]1239[/size] - Gabriel age 12
Winter: enter the saga
Spring: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 xp in Latin)
Summer: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 xp in Latin)
Autumn: Learn Latin from Silvia (13+5=18 xp in Latin - down to 9 xp because of max value)

[size=150]1240[/size] - Gabriel age 13
Winter: Learn Artes Liberales from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Artes Liberales)
Spring: Learn Philosophiae from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Philosophiae)
Summer: Learn Profession: Scribe from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Prof: Scribe)
Autumn: Learn Etiquette from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Etiquette)

[size=150]1241[/size] - Gabriel age 14
Winter: Learn Order of Hermes Lore from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Order of Hermes Lore)
Spring: Get Arts opened (2 xp in Magic Theory)
Summer: Learn Magic Theory from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Magic Theory)
Autumn: Learn Magic Lore from Silvia (12+5=17 xp in Magic Lore)

[size=150]1242[/size] - Gabriel age 15
Winter: Learn Area Lore: Andorra from Silvia (12+5= 17, reduced to 15 xp in Area Lore: Andorra)
Spring: Learn Code of Hermes from Solomon (15+5=20 xp in Code of Hermes)
Summer: Study "Correlations and Expansions", Code of Hermes Summa (15 xp in Code of Hermes)
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab (2 xp Magic Theory)

[size=150]1243[/size] - Gabriel age 16
Winter: Free Season (no Arts)
Spring: Learn Vim from Solomon (15+5=20 xp in Vim)
Summer: Study "The Magical Art of Magic", Vim Summa (16 xp in Vim)
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1244[/size] - Gabriel age 17
Winter: Free Season (Vim or any non-Arts)
Spring: Learn Intellego from Solomon (15+5=20 xp in Intellego)
Summer: Study "The Virtue of Knowledge", Intellego Summa (13 xp in Intellego)
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1245[/size] - Gabriel age 18
Winter: Free Season (Vim, Intellego, or any non-Arts)
Spring: Learn Mentem from Solomon (15+5=20 xp in Mentem)
Summer: Study "Humanae Menti", Mentem Summa (13 xp in Mentem)
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1246[/size] - Gabriel age 19
Winter: Free Season (Vim, Intellego, Mentem, or any non-Arts)
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1247[/size] - Gabriel age 20
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1248[/size] - Gabriel age 21
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1249[/size] - Gabriel age 22
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1250[/size] - Gabriel age 23
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1251[/size] - Gabriel age 24
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1252[/size] - Gabriel age 25
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1253[/size] - Gabriel age 26
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1254[/size] - Gabriel age 27
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1255[/size] - Gabriel age 28
Winter: Free Season
Spring: 1 on 1 with Solomon
Summer: Focused Study
Autumn: Assist Solomon in Lab / Focused Study

[size=150]1256[/size] - Gabriel age 29
Winter: Gauntlet
Spring:
Summer:
Autumn:

Obviously Solomon sees the Code of Hermes as the most important thing for Gabriel to understand, even before he begins learning his Arts. Those two seasons get him up to a 3, which Solomon is going to be happy with for quite some time. In Autumn of 1242, he is assisting Solomon making an Amulet of Demon Warding for Gabriel. Because of Solomon's issues with demons, he is considered that Sabine or another demon may go after him through Gabriel, so he wants Gabriel to have some level of magical defense when he leaves the protection of the Aegis of the Hearth. This also gives Gabriel early experience in the lab and actually seeing the fruits of that labor.

2

Frankly, I'm just interested in seeing the process of training an apprentice fall into place. Your proposed regime seems perfectly fair and reasonable to me, and should make a perfectly reasonable magus at the end of the day. It seems to me that by giving a free season every year, you give Gabriel a chance to shore up any areas he thinks aren't being focused on enough. I also happen to agree that having a solid base of Abilities is a reasonable goal.

As for what I wrote up originally, that was to get things on paper, as it were. Whatever Solomon wants is good. It'll be interesting to see where Gabriel ends up when this is all over.

One thing I am concerned about, though, is the possibility of getting into trouble with Lucien. My concern stems from the fact that Lucien has the Blatant Gift. Without Parma, Gabriel may not want to spend any time with Lucien, even with the knowledge that his oogy feelings about his fellow apprentice are 'artificial.'

3

they won't synch up at first. Both Mistress and Mentor are to eclectic and chaotic. But it will eventually work out that way. And they will have time to get accustomed to each other, And Edith can always baby sit you. She has a son around your age.

4

I'm trying to figure out info for Clotide's apprenticeship and have to ask- who is Sylvia?

5

Silvia is one of my grogs and Solomon's personal assistant. Her writeup is here.

6

For Gabriel's free season he will study The Magical Art of Magic. All this talk of demons and what they might do to him has him spooked. He wants to be able to defend himself against such a threat.

[size=150]1242[/size]
Winter: Study The Magical Art of Magic (16 xp in Vi)

7

Hmm, so I had a different thought, subject to your inputs of course....

I think Solomon would want to restrict Gabriel learning any Arts prior to Solomon teaching them. The idea is that he wants to teach Gabriel "the right thing in the right way" before he begins studying from texts. So I see a training regimen similar to how I have his Code of Hermes learning; first Solomon teaches, the next season Gabriel learns from text to cement that knowledge. Then, as Gabriel finds things that interest him, he can continue with independent study.

So, for Winter 1242 and 1243, I'd like to have Gabriel focus his "free time" on something other than Arts. Some thoughts I had were he could do practice of Folk Ken (representing just interacting with folks at the covenant), he could study texts on Magic Theory, Magic Lore, Code of Hermes (or really anything else he's already learned). Also, it's worth noting that Silvia is literally stuck in Solomon's sanctum, so unless Solomon is working in the lab that season, she could absolutely teach Gabriel anything within her capacity to teach.

Now, based on Gabriel's concern about the talk of demons, Solomon would make Vim his subject of study for Spring and Summer of 1243 (Spring 1 on 1 and Summer with follow on text study).

As a note, Solomon is going to focus Gabriel on Intellego, Mentem, and Vim primarily. If he shows any interest/aptitude, Solomon will also provide some emphasis on Rego. Beyond that, as he gets older, Gabriel will have the opportunity to request some specific areas of study beyond those.

Is that reasonable?

8

So "Free" time is actually a misnomer. It's properly "non-Arts training" time. I had understood "free" to really mean "free." Now, your interpretation makes sense now, in the early stages of his apprenticeship, but I dislike it if it will carry through all of his apprenticeship. The idea of having "free" time is to let me focus Gabriel in ways that I like. If you're going to be skimpy on the Arts teaching, it's a way to allow me to focus on the Arts I care about. As Gabriel gets older, that's going to be more important.

But since you want Gabriel to learn non-Arts, which is fair at this stage, he'll instead learn from Silvia about the local area, taking Area Lore: Andorra instead.

[size=150]1242 [/size]
Winter: Learn Area Lore: Andorra from Silvia (12+5= 17, reduced to 15 xp in Area Lore: Andorra)

That all having been said, Solomon is the master and Gabriel will comply with what restrictions are placed upon him.

9

Ah, I think I may not have articulated things properly. Once, Solomon has taught an Art, like Vim in 1243, Gabriel can then use his free time to further study it.

Solomon just wants Gabriel's first exposure to an Art to be from him. After that, then Gabriel is free to study it in his free time. Does that make sense?

As I said, once Gabriel has a good baseline in Intellego, Vim, Mentem, and possibly Rego, Solomon will happily teach him any other Arts that he shows interest in, then giving him the opportunity to learn more about it during his free time.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

10

That makes perfect sense. I can understand that Solomon would want to introduce the Arts. And I will spend time on non-Arts abilities. I'd like to make Gabriel well-rounded.

11

Okay, so I've updated the first post, adding the Area Lore for Winter 1242. I also extended the timeline out to the end of the apprenticeship, just so we can both visualize what's going on and I added Gabriel's age to help me understand where he is maturity-wise, which was quite helpful because I had forgotten how old Gabriel was.

If you look through Winter 1246, you can see what I was talking about as far as the training regimen, and what he'd be allowed to study on his own in his "Free Time". 1246 on, Solomon will be open to where Gabriel wants to focus his training in regards to the Arts, especially since he's 19 by that time and should be starting to develop a feeling for what he wants to focus on. I'm guessing significant spell learning will start to occur somewhere around 1250-1251, just because it's more efficient to learn spells once your Arts are close to what they're going to end up at. But, I could see Gabriel learning some spells from text in InVi or InMe as early as 1246 if he wants to.

12

Looks good to me.

13

Okay, so let's call it good through 1242. Once you get Gabriel updated, please let me know what his lab total will be in Autumn 1242 when he is assisting Solomon so I can figure out what the final magic item looks like.

Depending on what's going on, I might have Solomon "steal" his 1243 free time for some travel to Duresca to meet some other nearby members of House Guernicus. He's definitely going to do that sometime, I'm just not sure if that's the best time yet, or not. It might depend on the outcome of the Exarch discussions.

14

Gabriel has an Int 2 + Magic Theory (assist in lab) 2 = +4

Now that he's 15 and child penalties have disappeared, I have dropped his childhood Flaw of Late Bloomer and have replaced it with Ability Block: Martial.

And you're very right about him needing some social skills. I forgot that he has none of them because of his Sheltered Upbringing.

Oh, and I need to make up his magical animal companion at some point ...

15

Are you sure you want his Magic Theory specialty to be in "Assist in Lab"? That seems like something that would be close to worthless once he becomes a magus. I'm not quite sure what the rules are for changing specialties, so maybe it's not as much as an issue as I'm thinking.

16

I always assumed you could change specialties each time you go up a level. It makes no sense to say that you have to keep the same specialty for your entire life no matter how much you study an ability.

I mean, an ability of 2 means that your specialty is effectively 3. Once your skill goes up to 3, it's caught up with your specialty. At that point you should be able to choose what your new specialty should be based on what you focused on when you went from level 2 to level 3.

At least that's always been my understanding.

17

Hmm, that actually makes complete sense to me, I've just never thought about it that way. It might be worth asking if Marko's willing to make that a House Rule.

18

Okay, so then this:

is actually +5, right?

19

It is not a House Rule. It is in the book.

20

Yes. I apparently cannot do basic math.