Also, better hope that everyone enchanted their Familiar Bond so that their familiar can speak understandably. (And that you're not keeping your Parma up in the lab if someone used a Mentem effect for that.)
Sure, the familiar can understand you speaking Latin... but can you understand the cat speaking Latin? And what if someone has a horse familiar? Imagine the Reputation your covenant's labs will get! Barnyard of the Order 4.
True. Having 2 ranks in Leadership is reasonable unless you are a true lab rat. Taking in account that you stand at -3 for the gift when asking a grog to obey you, 2 in leadership is hardly lux. Hard to imagine any Magi that occupies a station (hoplite, quaesitor, Master of rites, Praeco, etc.) to have less than that.
Also good to keep in mind is that if a covenant subscribes to this sharing of Familiar convention, then they probably have as a rule that primary lab worker needs to remove his sigil from his sanctum or use a "neutral" sanctum in order to ensure that the Familiars are still protected by the code.
Corebook p.103 "This research may take place outside the sanctum of either magus, in which case both parties are protected by the Code."
W
Ironically, I'm probably most likely to make sure my magi have some skill in Leadership, if said magi are lab rats. :-/
Good point. The Autumn Covenant probably as the magical objects allowing the familiar to speak human. If the Magi intends to loan his Familiar often, he probably has the bond invested accordingly. The Familiar might be driving this himself as once awakened by the bond, he has a will of his own and wants stuff. Magi might tell him that he can work for it.
lol. Very True but then again, Familiars are a respected and loved part of the Order. I don't think it would drive a negative hermetic reputation. The Church might find it inappropriate... Still, covenant wanting to attract "working" Familiars will probably invest in objects that address the animal nature of Familiars such as those that simply turn them into humanoids.
W
Having thought about this, I think it's not good to allow magi to use other people's Familiars as Lab Assistants. (Obviously, play your game any way you like, these are just my views.)
On the one hand, the rule book really doesn't seem to support it (with one exception). It defines a Lab Assistant as someone with the Gift and a score of 1 in Magic Theory. It does say that Familiars can serve as Lab Assistants, but in a context that suggests it is referring specifically to their mage (p.105). It is somewhat ambiguous, I accept. From the point of view of realism, in the reality of Mythic Europe, it seems likely to be a result of the Bond, which isn't present if the mage isn't there.
The other side of the argument is that a rule that lets anyone add +15 or more to their lab total devalues Arts, and makes all the mages too similar. That actually carries more weight with me.
The exception is that RoP:M indicates that an intelligent Magical Creature can have a Major Quality of "Gifted". Given the rules about Lab Assistants in general, it seems clear to me that a creature with that Quality can be a Lab Assistant to anyone they like, whether or not they are a Familiar. If they aren't, that's a stonkingly useful Companion character for any Covenant!
Other magi, and their apprentices, are usually much better lab assistants than their familiars, providing a bigger bonus.
So getting many familiars to act as your lab assistants would usually be a Plan B, when you couldn't get the people you actually wanted.
True! But if you have a mage as an assistant, you are using two mage-seasons, which is in some senses a bigger cost. That assistant will probably get no more than Exposure experience for their season. Whereas a familiar can be lent out when their mage is reading a book.
As if the familiar would not also want to read a book!
Maybe but if you decided, a a free will familiar, to work as a lab assistant, it is because you prefer the reward of that work or are being forced in some fashion to do the work. I would not expect a familiar do typically do the work for free.
Agreed but they would be more like Magi and would probably not be able to be Familiars... I mean their arts can be hermetically opened!
W
That wouldn't be a Core book or ArMDE 08-laboratory familiar, because for these we know:
Familiars can learn Abilities in the same way as humans. They cannot, however, learn magic, although they can learn Magic Theory and serve as laboratory assistants, even though they do not have The Gift.
A TMRE p.66f Spirit Familiar may be able to help in the lab (p.68), but also this one (p.68)
cannot learn Hermetic magic
and is hence not "Gifted".
So if a troupe decides, that they have "Gifted" familiars, they can also be tasked to rule about such beings' usefulness in the lab.
When the core rule book was written, the Gifted Quality hadn't been invented. So I don't think you can take that statement as forbidding a Gifted familiar. But I agree with your conclusion: this is getting into work-it-out-within-your-troop, don't-expect-the-rule-books-to-cover-it territory.
I tend to think that the Gifted quality is intended for high-Might magical creatures, putting them out of reach as Familiars for nearly anyone.
But certainly when the ArMDE was written, from which I took the quote.
I would expect that was just pasted in from the earlier edition without much consideration. ( No disrespect to the authors - they couldn't review every sentence, and this is very much a fringe case.)
I think people are trying to push that sentence way too far. For example, let's say I quote
Characters deprived of food, water, or air suffer quite seriously.
Would you say that means no one is allowed to take a Greater Immunity to Deprivation? Would you say that means RoP:M is incorrect about the default being with Magic Might not needing to eat? Etc.
The sentence in core and DE is saying that the Familiars can learn Abilities like humans and can assist in the lab, even though they would otherwise not normally be allowed to. Just like the sentence about deprivation, it isn't saying there aren't rules that could create exceptions to the general rule.
I could go and quote many more cases of this, like getting burned v. Greater Immunity. Fundamentally, it is essentially impossible to provide a general rule and take into account all possible exceptions that might get created. Should every spell that does any sort of damage include caveats about Immunities that someone might use? Should Pilum of Fire have notes about Immunities to flame, heat, or flames & heat? Oh, darn, forgot to include "fire" so an Immunity to fire must not protect against Pilum of Fire. No, this is a ridiculous expectation, and thus drawing conclusions based on it not being done is nonsensical.
Others might not agree. See here: Any Errors in Definitive Edition? . If you wish to report the missing "Gifted" as an oversight, go ahead.
But by ArMDE and also TMRE as they are, troupes introducing "Gifted" familiars with RoP:M p.37 are welcome of course, but also completely on their own. Such beings are not meant to be supported as familiars in the current ArM rules, and questions about the status and role of weird familiars e. g. opened to the Hermetic Arts and/or initiated into TMRE Mystery Cults are completely left to the troupe.
What you are pointing out is a special exception to the rule 'you must have the gift to assist in the Laboratory' which was created for Familiars. It assumes that Familiars will not have the Gift, and so will need to use this rule.
Anyone with the Gift can help in the Laboratory without needing to use that rule.
Not to nitpick, but I would rather say that anyone with a Gifted opened to Hermetic Magic can help in the lab.
I would not allow a Gifted hedge witch (or any other magical tradition) to help a Hermetic magus in the lab.
The rule isn't that your Gift needs to be Opened to Hermetic magic, though. It's that you need the Gift and to be trained in Magic Theory. By the rules, a Gifted hedge witch who has a score in Magic Theory can assist in a Hermetic lab.
I'd counter that you don't need tthe Gift to be trained in Magic Theory. You still can't help in the lab.
IMHO, having you Gift opened to a different magical tradition means that your magic was shaped and conditioned in a way that is too different for you to be able to provide meaningful assistance in a Hermetic laboratory activity.
What is there to counter, and how is that even a counter to what I said since I said "need the Gift and"? This is pretty clearly written in the book:
Anyone who has The Gift and a score of at least one in Magic Theory may help you to perform any activity that uses your Magic Theory.
See that "anyone"? And there are two requirements attached to it: Gift + Magic Theory. If you don't allow a Gifted hedge witch with a score in Magic Theory to assist, that violates the "anyone" and so is clearly a house rule.