The book mentions that many magi have their parens create a longevity ritual for them. This seems to be an excellent idea despite the increased Warping. Are there any guidelines for such?
I was thinking a Generic Minor Virtue for a Ritual of 8, Generic Major Virtue for a Ritual of 12.
Any thoughts?
My understanding of that passage was that the magus would go back to their parens once they've (nearly) reached age 35, rather than that they'd get one during apprenticeship. I therefore wouldn't treat it as a virtue, but rather as something to occur in play/have seasons spent on during pre-game experience.
This does mean, of course, that there's no easy way to decide how powerful the longevity ritual is. Skilled/Weak Parens may affect it a bit, but the cynical part of me suspects that PC's with Creo Corpus specialist parens are rather more common than the profile of the Order would suggest.
First, increased warping? I don't understand that part.
Second, most magi won't have longevity rituals performed until well after apprenticeship (at least a few years). So I don't understand the point of the virtues. But if you do use these virtues, I would point probably the best alternative: personal vis source. Let's say it's Corpus and you collect 4 pawns/year. If you have 5 years after apprenticeship before you want your ritual, then you have 20 pawns available. You'll probably be in your 30's, so probably 7 or 8 pawns are needed for the ritual. That leaves 13 or 12 pawns to pay for the ritual's development. I would expect you could hire someone who could pull off a level 56 lab total (12th magnitude ritual) for one season for 12 pawns pretty easily. Since that's a really low lab total for anyone's focus area if they're at all advanced (don't forget you're assisting, so you're adding at least 7 or so to it yourself), you really ought to be able to hire someone a lot better for 12 pawns for one season's work. So one minor virtue is better than the major virtue you're inventing.
Chris
As has been mentioned by other posters, the way most people interpret the passage is the following. The longevity ritual is usually created not during/immediately after apprenticeship, but immediately before one starts to make aging rolls, i.e. 35 or so. Atthatpoint you can usually call upon your parens, so there's no real need to spend the 10-15 years immediately after apprenticeship scrambling to boost your Creo Corpus as high as you can.
There are no such guidelines. However, if you read the Redcap Virtue, Redcaps "in good standing" do get the guarantee of atleast* a level 50 ritual once they turn 35 (which would be a +10 ritual for a Gifted person). In fact, 50 is kind of lowish. A little experience with the Ars Magica mechanics suggests that even a relatively young magus specializing in longevity - even without a focus in it - can provide you with a longevity ritual of 60+ (to which you should add your Intelligence and Magic Theory if you help him out during the season), probably in exchange for a rook or two of vis and a season of service or two at most. If you plan ahead and spend a little time searching, a 100+ total is certainly something you can aim for (from an elder specialist in the Order, who'll likely charge a fortune in vis and several seasons of service). Even lab totals of 150+ are within the realm of possibility.
I do not think you need to treat this benefit as a Virtue; it's part of the package of being an Hermetic magus in relatively good terms with his parens (which is the norm). Of course, it does not come for free - just like he's expected to help you out in matters such as this, the parens is likely to ask you for a favour or two...
BTW, Kilgs, are you the same Kilgs that posted the Tundric campaign for Artesia on rpg.net? If so, I really enjoyed reading it! Ah, the Artesia rpg ... my heart breaks every time I think of it...
Thanks, folks. I was assuming that someone may want to have a longevity potion at character creation for vanity purposes. I should probably look at average Lab Totals to get a better idea. I was playing around with Metacreator and Parens/Apprentice progression and realized that the Parens could give their Apprentice a level 12 ritual with no sweat. Thought I'd figure out a way to make that available in character generation especially if a Saga was going to allow more experienced mages 5-15 years post-Gauntlet.
Yep, Ezzelino, that's me. My heart doesn't break because I love it so... but I do sigh a lot. In fact, I actually pulled out all that stuff a few weeks back when I was looking for a variant setting for Ars Magica, something a bit less constrained by history where players could go more wild. Artesia is a great setting for it but I didn't want to mess with the "feel" of it. It's too perfect 8) I do love it so... now if I can just convince my players to pick it up again. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks!
(The increased warping comes from about +10 years of being under the effect if you started at age 25 as opposed to 35ish.)
If it is a girl, you should be probably trying to hit her with longevity at age 14-15 or so. She will never be considered wise, but she will have the preferred looks of the period.
Cheers,
Xavi
I don't know... that's 20 points of warping for an effect that a first magnitude MuIm spell can produce when necessary. Plus, avoiding apparent aging is much harder than avoiding "characteristic damage" - you need to roll 2 or lower (including all bonuses) to avoid the former and only 9 or lower to avoid the latter).
Unless she wants to breed.