It just occured to me that different traditions have different form bonuses, and therefore the form bonuses for the hermetic arts are likely part of magic theory, which could be improved by insight by studying with a different tradition that has a related form bonus. I don't recall that this is spelled out as an example of a research topic anywhere, however. Thoughts on applying insight to improve existing form bonuses included with the hermetic arts?
I believe there is one with the Sahir around adding Corpus Form bonus to Aging roll bonus but, other than that, I don't remember any.
But I don't see it listed in tC&tC in the Integration section starting on p44 so it is either just mentioned quickly somewhere else or was proposed either on the Forum or Discord.
Yes, if this was doable, Sahir could definitely yield a few insights, such as the one you list, and possibly:
- Adding Corpus form bonus to Strength when calculating what he can carry without penalty;
- Adding Corpus form bonus to to Stamina rolls to avoid fatigue
- Adding Mentem form bonus to Concentration rolls (several hedge traditions could also be studied for that)
Folk witches might be studied to broaden the Animal form bonus to include "Defense against effects cast by casters in an Animal form (includes shapeshifted magi, magical animals, faerie animals, etc.)."
I'm sure there are other interesting applications.
I think adding just aging was viewed as a minor breakthrough but perhaps I am misremembering the whole thing. A wider study and improvement to many Form Bonuses might be a difficult Major Breakthrough?
This thread may have mentioned something:
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Far as the Magical Defenses of Hedge Traditions go, Sahirs are unique in several ways and could be pretty good if successfully incorporated into Hermetic Form bonuses.
-Two of their Solomonic Arts (Alchemy and Physic) give bonuses to Aging rolls, and they explicitly stack
-Alchemy gives a Form bonus to Soak, not just soak rolls
-Astrology gives you bonuses to their original research (or rather, something of an equivalent they have instead of the Experimentation Table)
Beyond this, all Hedge Magic traditions have access to Greater Magical Defenses virtrue (double all defenses / form bonuses). Hermetics have no such equivalent. Might also be worth looking into.
In Rival Magic, one of the breakthroughs from Soqotran Magic is Greater Longevity (RM p. 141). It adds the Corpus Form Score to the Longevity Ritual total as an extra modifier.
I don't think that having more bonuses to LR is really what magi needs, but it certantly is something one can integrate into Hermetic magic.
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I think you have left out the most useful: Storytelling's "Defense" is actually a bonus to all non-magical social activities... plus it adds to Leadership in the Lab! I've always considered that vastly overpowered, to the point that I've seen it argued that the most effective "social" companion one can design is a Storytelling Sahir.
In general, I think that some of the Sahirs' "Magical Defenses" do not really fit the theme of "defenses" at all (resistance to aging, or a better chance to navigate Twilight/Fatra Banya is ok; a bonus to social activities, to Perception rolls, to research, or to strength for carrying purposes is not).
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