Um, it is a quick death sentence for a magus who doesn't recognize his limitations. A magus with Twilight Prone can be extremely effective and almost never go Twilight.
Specifically, he can specialize in enchanting items, and achieve immense power without ever rolling a botch die. He can specialize in non-stressful sponts and be quite effective (really). He can master his formulaic spells, have a high Golden Cord and be Cautious Sorcerer. He can be an expert at ceremonial magic while also having Cautious with Artes Liberales (a surprisingly useful virtue for some characters. He can do all of the above and still have points left over. Flawless Magic or Mercurian Magic? Both good choices.
Twilight Prone + Weak Spontaneous Magic + Magic Foci + Flawless Magic + Cautious Sorcerer + Faerie Magic + Charm Magic. This guy isn't going to see Twilight very often. He can regularly spont stressless and fatigueless spells of lvl 10 in any Art combo, with a bit of preparation. (He can fast-cast them! How cool is that?) All of his Formulaic and Ritual spells immediately enjoy four fewer botch dice, potentially none at all; a familiar increases this by another 2 or 3. It's like Twilight Prone is a free flaw--and that's before we make this guy good in the lab. So your complaint "it's a death sentence" does not hold up. It's a Major Flaw. It's like taking Dark Secret and complaining that it's a death sentence because your character likes wearing a "Diedne: IfU12B1Ask1" button at Tribunal.
I understand that you want to be as effective at dealing with Twilight as possible. The issue is that you're making up rules and acting as though you're not. This makes it hard to make the conversation useful: On the one hand, we cannot talk about the advantages and disadvantages of your proposed rules because you're not quite proposing them. On the other hand, we cannot talk about what the rules actually are, because you are selectively disregarding them. So we're somewhere between.
I wouldn't count a regio as being part of the Magic Realm, but Twilight probably is. Sort of the way Arcadia, the Faerie Realm, is a different place from a Faerie regio.
Well, I'm not trying to suggest rules, I'm trying to work out how the rules we have work. As to what I'm disregarding, what have I ignored, other then your fixation on Supernatural Immunity, which you have already trumped with your mention of the Heroic Virtue that allows re-rolls? That was a WAG to try to reduce the chances that terrible zero would come up on the stress dice. You figured out how to do what I wanted to do.
If you go into Twilight and you have a high Warping score, you physically dissappear (as opposed to a paralyzed catatonia that results from low Warping). During your absence, you are in the "Twilight Void" (RoP-Magic), which is indeed a part of the magic realm. Also, when travelling from place to place within the realm, you usually cross through the same Twilight Void to do so (though this can be very dangerous).
I think that's only one (possibly the most common) option. You can also do other weird stuff (turn into a bear, Bjornear; turn into a bonfire, Flambeau; etc).
Interesting, I didn't consider boosting the comprehension roll to allow you to survive to higher Warping scores. Where are Items of Quality that boost confidence use from?
If you build your magus right, as noted above, you can escape botches and hence Final Twilight completely, and (by RAW) reach arbitrarily high Warping scores.
Just to add to the magus specialization to survive twillight, I don't know if it is RAW but in our stories, there is a specialty for Enigma that is "comprehending twillight" that add another +1 to the roll
Note that the Enigmatic Wisdom does not reduce time in Twilight. Also, I am curious how an item of quality can help on this roll, since there is no relevant mundane item to have quality. Confidence works. Spirit Familiar is an awesome virtue, and it helps with comprehension but ought not apply to reducing time (since the bonus pertains to Enigmatic Wisdom).
Strange: I have been tempted to post a variant Twilight duration table for a long time now, because I like the idea that magi don't really know if Final Twilight is all that Final. Maybe the magus will return two centuries from now. So I removed Final Twilight, but arrange things so that Twilights can be really long, effectively removing a magus from a saga. Those rules coincidentally affect this idea too.
Variant Twilight Duration Rules:
The Twilight Duration Table is the same through 7 years. After that it is extended definitely, with each subsequent entry lasting 7 years longer than the previous (14, 21, 28, etc). The 49 year duration is replaced by a 50 year duration, and each subsequent duration is 50 years longer than the last.
There is no 10+ Warping entry on the Twilight Duration Table. Instead, higher Warping scores correspond to longer durations.
A magus who is down and out for 50 years is probably out of the saga anyway. Magi do return from Twilight. This makes Longevity Rituals more important. It also makes Enigmatic Wisdom better (for the character, if not for the player), in that Criamon magi return to the world, even if not when they left. Warping scores above 10 continue to increase Twilight duration.
The Item of Quality is, as I noted, a WAG (Wild *ss Guess), but follows the rules as best as I can tell. You have, off the top of my head, crowns to give a wisdom bonus and helmets to affect the human mind. While preventing Warping is a Limit, there are several examples of things that aid comprehension once that Warping has happened. Both wisdom and affecting the human mind would seem to apply, and Items of Quality allows abstract concepts like that in it's write-up. To quote the Items of Quality section, "First, select a tool or item that would be appropriately used by a professional in his trade. This does not have to be a craft trade, since everyone uses various tools and items to effectively perform activities in their daily life.". "The item must have a Shape and Material bonus, as listed on ArM5 page 110, and other books.". One of the examples given is a courtier's refined clothing, so obviously passive effects are allowed. Some of the bonus from Shape and Materials are pretty open, and "may be added to Any simple or stress die roll in which that power would be useful.". So I don't see why Items of Quality would not apply.
Enigmatic Wisdom does not reduce time in Twilight? I thought the canon was pretty clear that it was based on the difference between your roll to comprehend Twilight, and the "Warping" roll. Where is that? What did I miss? Enigmatic Wisdom really sucks if that's correct. Blow years of your life raising your Enigmatic Wisdom roll, and all you get is you leave before the other mages, but your corpse looked good. And I thought Magic Sensitivity was the only virtue out there that's really a flaw......
I'm not saying there is no item of Quality that might apply but that there must be a mundane version of the item that applies first. Thus, a courtier wears fancy mundane clothes to make a good, so clothes of Quality help to make a better impression. It isn't enough to have a S&M bonus (mmm, S&M bonus...) but there also must be a base appropriate item. A crown has the right S&M bonus, and would be appropriate if a mundane crown were at all applicable.
Nope.
I thought the canon was pretty clear that it was based on the difference between your roll to comprehend Twilight, and the
"Warping" roll. Where is that? What did I miss? Enigmatic Wisdom really sucks if that's correct. Blow years of your life raising your Enigmatic Wisdom roll, and all you get is you leave before the other mages, but your corpse looked good. And I thought Magic Sensitivity was the only virtue out there that's really a flaw......
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EW isn't a very good virtue, true. But it does mean that Criamon magi get good stuff from Twilight. Also, the RAW make even attempting to control Twilight a dubious proposition a lot of the time. A magus is often better off not bothering even to try. The downside of EW doesn't apply in these cases.
I do miss the old version, where EW would limit the number of Twilight Points (superceded in AM5 by Warping) gained.
considers
Variant Twilight Control Rule: Controlling whether or not Twilight is entered occurs within a split second of real time, and the magus does not have time to choose whether or not to try. Magi with Enigmatic Wisdom are more naturally drawn to the secrets of the Twilight Realm, as usual.
Variant Twilight Results Rule: When determining positive Twilight effects, a magus can add his Enigmatic Wisdom score to the number of Warping Points gained to determine the extent of the benefit, except when the benefit is to gain a virtue. Note that no extra Warping Points are actually gained; Enigmatic Wisdom only improves the benefit. Enigmatic Wisdom does not help alleviate bad Twilight effects, except to the extent that magi with EW are more likely to comprehend Twilight and avoid unwanted effects.
Yes, but Enigmatic Wisdom makes you more prone to Twilight. I did look it up, and you are right, Enigmatic Wisdom does not help with time in Twilight. Man, that's a bad virtue. And it can go up against your will too. "You controlled the Twilight that Enigmatic Wisdom forced you into! Get 30 exp in Enigmatic Wisdom! That's two ranks, Lucky!". At the higher levels, you could control the Twilight and still leave the campaign! Don't like that at all. Does give me an idea for a Original Research project, one to make Enigmatic Wisdom useful by having it help with the time in Twilight. Wonder how many points you would need. You aren't adding a new range or anything like that, and you aren't messing with any of the Limits. Funny, because this whole idea started with the need to deal with all the Twilight moments that Original Research and Ancient Magic research cause......
You're worrying about the points when the real concern is whether the GM will allow the research to succeed at all. Not all breakthroughs are possible.
Yes, but this is pretty low key. Again, not like you are adding a new range or pushing one of the Limits. Not like there's a reason for the ST to blow it off unless he likes punishing players by giving them flaws and calling them virtues......
No one forces you to play a Criamon. EW isn't a very good virtue, true, but it's not forced upon you.
A Breakthough can be Minor yet not be wanted in a saga, and Major but belong. Low-key is in the eye of the beholder, as is suitabiity. It's not about the points.
Actually it was forced on me in game. Had a Twilight episode, controlled it, and the ST gave me 22 exp in Enigmatic Wisdom, which is of course canon for a "good" Twilight experience.
Did you say that you wanted a different good Twilight experience? Did you explain to the GM that it's not a "good" experience if you're not happy with it? That, if you're in a troupe, that you'd maim his character when you got a chance to run? /2
(As a freebie, 22xp in EW is not bad, but not if you said you wanted something else.)
Nah, my best gaming experiences have always been the unplanned bits. And of course, you don't get to choice your "treat' in canon without a Major Virtue from Paths of the Forest, and that virtue comes with the Prone to Twilight Flaw. Just pointing out that in canon, Enigmatic Wisdom is not always voluntary. And 22xp for 11 Warping points is not exactly a freebie...
You don't get to choose your treat, true. But I think you do get to tell the GM that you consider Enigmatic Wisdom a negative effect, and that you don't want it given to you as a positive. Especially when 11 Warping Points could have instead provided a Major Virtue.
