Recently was tossing together a Learned Magician as part of some setting work and came across the following sentence which I had previously missed on page 86 HMRE, just below the box in the center column:
A learned magician may not replenish the charge of a charta as he can with an amulet.
To my reading, that implies that a Learned Magician CAN replenish the charges on an amulet. I've never added charges to a charged item before after creation, and didn't think that was an available option, so if there are rules for this, please let me know! I also can't find any rules on replenishing charges in an amulet after creation in the Learned Magician section, and the errata hasn't removed the sentence. The idea of being able to pump some more charges into an amulet rather than have to spend another season making a new one is potentially really helpful for a long term resident LM.
Anyone else done anything with this? Am I just misreading the sentence?
Yes, Learned Magicians have the capacity to recharge their Amulets, but only to a certain extent.
The guideline in question:
Succuro Magicam
Increase the number of charges in an amulet of a level less than or equal to the charm +1 magnitude by one. The amulet must be one created by the learned magician casting the charm.
A further clarification is made with a Charm (spell) "Revive the Fading Amulet":
Revive the Fading Amulet
SuMa Level Gen
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind
This charm allows the caster to increase
the number of charges in an amulet he created
by one. The level of the amulet’s effect must
be less than or equal to the level of the charm.
This charm can never increase the number of
charges an amulet has above the number it
had when created, and the charm may only
be used on a single amulet a number of times equal to the initial charges of the amulet.
(Base effect, +1 Touch)
So essentially, the most you can recharge an Amulet is to effectively double it's initial uses.
Depending on whether or not Learned Magicians gain a bonus for similar spell known, they can quite easily invent very high level Charms that they would not be able to use....other than for knowing a similar spell bonus when enchanting an amulet or charta. If this is the case, and coupled with their Astrological Bonuses for Amulets, you can easily have lots of charges in the initial amulet, then double it with this guideline.