HR and CD discussion

What about Restriction (standing still) as I suggested earlier?

Study Requirement could work well for such a character, as he would wander from one study site to another to improve his Arts.

Another possibility that I can see is Deficient Rego. He needs to travel all the time, but he must walk most of the time! (Yes, Rego is so very useful that players almost never take Deficient in it. But it might work for some concepts.)

Let me step back and ask, how does having a Gifted child impact development of your character?

I guess I'm not entirely clear on what your need is? I'm personally a fan of all of the Major Hermetic Flaws, so I'm not interested in substitutions.

Unless they are specified as belonging to a house/cult/tradition, they are widely available.

Shall we ratify this understanding? The same enchantment in another device (other than a talisman) can be used as to gain a similar spell bonus, based on the magnitude of the effect (which is base/R/D/T), excluding any magnitudes for enchantment specific parameters, such as penetration, maintain concentration, etc.

I would certainly be in favour of that, but doesn't answer the original question.

The gist of my original questions was: At what point does a lab text no longer provide its (full) benefit?

It comes down to how specific an enchantment lab text is with regards to the Shape and Material. Does a lab text always specify the full shape and material? For example, does a lab text for a lesser enchantment of Pilum of Fire into a staff apply to any staff? Or does the original lab text need to specify that this was a plain staff made of oak (even though oak provides no benetif) and cannot be replicated in a staff made of ash?

If the answer to that is that the lab text can be used on any staff, then a second question arises. Do additional bonuses provided by the S&M of new staff (e.g. from a ruby mounted on it) apply to the lab total? Note that all that does if perhaps save some time if this was a multi-season enchantment, or provide some additional charges for a charged item.

This might lead an enchanter to leave some of the S&M bonuses out when he crafts the initial item, so that the lab text is easier to reuse. Which makes sense, since he would want to be able to reuse that lab text making a wooden staff as hard as iron (Aegis of Unbreakable Wood) to be widely reusable to any wood item. So he might decide not to include any S&M bonus to make replicatation of that effect easier.

I want a flaw that reflects the traveling nature of my character, one that makes him a permanent wanderer.

For the purpose of tying a special habit to hermetic magic, there are two major hermetic flaws in the core book : necessary condition for stuff that needs to be done right when you cast magic, and restriction for rare stuff that is blocking your magic completely. For the reason that they apply so well to adding flavour to a hermetic flaw, these two flaws are the bread and butter of HoH:S when it comes to describe ex-misc. Yet, they are much more loosely applied in this book (e.g. necessary condition : true feeling does not fit the guidelines given in core)

My need is to have a necessary condition flaw, who is not a specific behaviour at the moment where you cast a spell, but rather the following of a set of principle, to which the follower's magic is tied (hence its hermetic nature). It follows the same nature as a necessary condition, but the formulation of what a necesary condition is in ArM doesn't give me that. I mean, if I follow the advice that was given to have a necessary condition (while walking), a sedentary magus could very well cast spells with such a restriction, while walking from his bed to his kitchen. On the other hand, someone always on the road could be prevented from casting for having drunk a bit too much in a tavern. That does not express my idea well.

Well, a suit of armor isn't really a single piece, either, but there's canon that supports it being enchanted, I believe. However, if you are ever missing a piece, it's nonfunctional, and both pieces are also Arcane Connections to you.

Sure, just note it in the spell/item design.

Which die roller is he using, let's put a link to it here.

Let's make it extremely specific to get the full benefit, anything else is a similar spell bonus.

Calpurnia wants to teach the child magic. If I haven't Opened Arts, the child may be taken by any magus seeking an apprentice. To open arts properly, I need to increase my Intelligo Vim lab total, to incorporate the child's Strong Faerie Blood, and to meet minimum competency in all Arts. This is about three years of study.

What constitues "extremely specific", exactly?

Taking an example, starting with a lab text of a invested effect for Pilum of Fire into an oak staff.

  1. Oak staff
  2. Oak staff from a tree struck by lightning
  3. Oak staff capped with silver
  4. Ash staff
  5. Ash staff capped with silver

The distinction is of little import for lesser enchantment, as these only contain a single effect. But is quite important for invested items, as you might want to reuse an effect previously enchanted into a slightly different item to obtain a different combination of effects. If the shape and materials need to match exactly, even those that don't matter to a specific, then this severely limits the future usefulness of those lab texts. It is quite rare that you'll want to crank out exactly the same invested item.

As for the similar spell bonus, is that in addition to or instead of the regular similar spell bonus? Again, the answer impacts the usefulness of those lab texts.

(I just want to be sure of the parameters before I start designing devices again.)

So you go to http://www.coyotecode.net/roll

And as an example of a specific roll:

roll.coyotecode.net/lookup.php?rollid=155353

And you'll see that I rolled a 6.

If it is a matter of timing, have you consider that Calparnia could take one of of grandchildren as an apprentice instead?

Ahh, you're saying that if your child isn't Gifted, you wouldn't have to advance in a particular way to satisfy the requirements necessary to Open the Arts. In this saga, unless one wants to roll the dice, the decision as to whether children are gifted is a story concern. In this case, she's gifted, it's fine. Taking an apprentice before 30 years post gauntlet is, most times, a huge impact on the development of a magus, anyway.

I feel as if I'm going down a slipper slope. Perhaps I need to back off and reconsider...

Jonathan, could you take a look at this and give me an answer? Thanks, John

I understand the feeling completely!

On one side, we want to make lab texts useful. ArM5 p.102 is a bit vague when speaking of lab texts for enchantments:

If it were me making the ruling on this (putting my SG hat on), I would go with something like this:

  1. Any S&M that gave a bonus to the original lab total must be included in the lab text.
  2. You must specify at least 1 shape and 1 material in the lab text. If none provide a bonus, use the most general one applicable.
  3. When enchanting the effect into a new item which could provide additional bonuses, these are not added to the lab total is using the lab text.

Thus, in the previous example, where an oak staff is enchanted, the lab text would be: Pilum of Fire (Base 10, +2 Voice; +5 for 24 uses per day, +10 on Penetration) in a wood (no bonus) wand/staff (+3 project bolt).

That lab text could not be used to enchant a silver wand. But it could be used to enchant a wand of ash tipped with a ruby, though the ruby would not provide a bonus to the lab total.

It could also be used to invest the power into a talisman which is a staff of any wood, although no additional S&M bonus would be gained aside from "Wand/staff: +3 project bolt". I'm on the fence whether the talisman bonus would apply to the lab total anyway. I would lean towards allowing it, due to the particular nature of a talisman.

It's more of a story/living with the other magi issue than a rules thing. It is a violation of the scrying clause, but the Order isn't really able to enforce that to the degree it was before...

How about this - you build your character however you like, and you're a member of a Mystery cult that requires you to take a Vow: must be travelling, per your description?

Pyrale, your concept is intriguing, but we're all together trying to survive Scandanavia in a time of plague. How are you going to fit in with this motley crew of a winter mage, a Tremere agent, and two Verditius of dubious fidelity?

I'm not familiar with mystery cults. I will have to look into it.

I'm sure that magi in a quest for isolation won't mind having a trailblazer with them, someone that's used to the wilderness. Besides, it's easier to bear someone when they're rarely here.