My Bonisagius has 6 in Magic Theory (+2 for House Virtue) so by the rules on page 91 in AM5 I can use 16 vis per season as max.
Now that I want to open a priceless gem (Base 20 x1 size), this is impossible for me. But can I use my Apprentice as a laboratory assisitant and use his Magic theory of 3 (+2 for House Virtue) so that my total MT becomes 8+5=13 (26 vis per season)?
Not by RAW, no. It's based on the (primary) magus's magic theory score and it's not a lab total, so nothing else gets added to it.
An idea for an HR that I have never used...
Lab Bonuses with Items, and Arts, & or whatever; these add to your normal vis limits.
Do people think this is too outrageous? Or does it seem to fit?
Any Lab Total bonus just straight up boosts vis limits? That would be outrageously broad and abusable. Now, if you meant that in the specific terms, I'd totally agree. I'm thinking like "your Magic Theory is treated as higher in regards to how much vis you can use on the laboratory activity of your specialty. If the specialty in question is an Art, it only applies for vis of that variety. You gain effective Magic Theory levels equal to your specialty /2, rounded up. If you have multiple sources that could potentially increase your effective Magic Theory in this way, only the highest one applies." So if you had an Ignem specialization score of +3 in your Laboratory, you could use four more pawns of Ignem vis in any project involving Ignem, because your Magic Theory would be treated as 2 higher specifically as it pertains to how much vis can be used. Things like Familiar bonding and Item Enchanting can use any kind of vis as its extra, but only while the action they govern is being undertaken.
Or you could remove the / 2 part, but if I were SG'ing, I wouldn't want to make the specialization a better option than getting better at Magic Theory, because you still don't have the knowledge necessary to control and utilize that much vis even with the help. (And it would make specialization in the lab REALLY powerful, to boot) In fact, this feels a little powerful to me in and of itself; ysmv, but I'd consider rounding down rather than up after the bonus division.
HR?
House Rule.
I apologize for my slang :mrgreen:
The House Rule, as I envision it,works like this...
You have a Magic Theory of 5, allowing you to use 10 pawns of vis in a season. Now, say you have a Lab with bonuses of +3 Items, +2 Longevity, +1 Creo, and +1 Vim.
The HR I propose would allow you to use 13 pawns Enchanting Items, 14 pawns if Vim is involved. For Longevity, you can use 12 pawns. 13 if involving Creo (which is a given).
Adding the bonus directly to Magic Theory distorts the scale to far I think. 16 pawns for Items, 18 if Vim, etcetera.
This is not anything I have done in my games. Just an idea I have had for years and never tinkered with.
Have you included your specialty in that score of 6? If your specialty applies, you're up to 18. All you need now is to gain one more in Magic Theory and you're there. Other ways of pulling this off without a higher MT score:
- Philosophic Alchemy (put the points toward having already started opening it)
- Verditius Magic (reducing costs with an appropriate Craft)
- Verditius Elder Runes (changes x2 to xPhilosophiae)
- Faerie Magic (use only Faerie vis)
- Chthonic Magic (use only Chthonic vis)
- hire someone (doesn't work for a Talisman)
My sagas have always house ruled this as magic theory * 3. This opens up bigger enchantments and means that we can use things like gems.
I've never had a character in any of my games ever get to magic theory 10 or more whch is when the raw allows you to open precious gems, we wanted that in our game and haven't come across any problems with it yet.
IMS we also have the MT*3 limit, or we will do when we start back up in a couple of weeks.
I'm going to offer my players the option to increase it to *3 themselves, or issue a House Bonisagus Folio with a (low quality) MT tractatus describing the breakthrough within.
Bob
I've thought about the MT Limit for a while. I like it at the low end of the MT score.
I'm thinking that it might not be a bad idea to graduate it a bit.
MT of 1-2 is 1 pawn
MT of 3-5 is 2 pawns
MT of 6+ is 3 pawns.
At Magic Theory 5, you can use 10 pawns of vis in a season, but if you work your butt off and become a professional wizard, join the big leagues, in a sense, you can get 18 pawns of vis into something. The MT of 1-2 is really only a major obstacle for the apprentices, or those who decide not to spend enough xp to get to a Magic Theory score of 3 for some reason, and their magical item creation suffers for it.
Well, once one plays with the lab rules from Covenants, then anything goes. I like the atmosphere but not the mechanics, which adds a very large extra bonus to lab activities that I think distorts the game. (My insect shaman had >20 in her specialty, no problem.)