Do summae have a maximum quality capped by their level?
For instance suppose you had an individual who had Communication 3 and the Good Teacher Virtue and Second Sight 8.
Obviously, he could write a summae on Second Sight of Level 4, with a quality of 12.
He could drop the level of the summae to Level 3 to gain a quality of 15.
Can he drop the level of the summae to Level 1 to gain a quality of 21? With a score of 21, an apprentice who has just had his arts opened but has no other Supernatural Abilities, this would provide 6 XP in Second Sight, of which the apprentice could only keep 5, but would still be enough to allow him to learn Second Sight .
No. However, lowering the Level can no more than double their Quality. Following your example, a character with Communication 3 and Good Teacher can write a Summa of Quality at most 12x2=24 (by lowering its Level by 12/3=4, if the topic is an Ability).
If the aforementioned character had Second Sight 8, he could certainly write a L1, Q21 Summa on Second Sight. However it would not be a very useful book: characters who already know Second Sight necessarily have a score of 1 or more (so they can learn nothing from such a book), and characters who don't know Second Sight can't learn it from a book (see below).
For a Gifted character to learn Supernatural Abilities without the appropriate Virtue, someone with the Ability must Teach or Train him (Arm5, p.166). A book won't do, in general (Ars Notoria from RoP:D is an exception).
Incidentally, note that to learn a Supernatural Ability by Teaching or Training, one must gain a score of at least 1 during the first season - but nothing says that a higher score can't be gained. In your example, if the (Teaching or Training) Source Quality were 21, the apprentice would keep all 6xp, for a final score of 1(1).
Note it should be easier to just teach the student Second Sight BEFORE you open the Gift, then Open the Arts. You'd only need a InVi lab total of 25, which anybody taking an apprentice should be able to manage.
Actually, I screwed up the math - I was thinking 5x the XP. It's 5 times the score in the Ability, minimum 10 for a Minor Virtue, so you need a 10 to destroy, a 20 to preserve if the Ability is a 1-2.
To address the OP - If you wanted to, you could have a L1/Q25 book - however, by RAW, you can have only one source of XP/season, so there's little point to have those extra 20 points. I do think the actual quality limit would still be whatever the max for summae is - 30? 35? (sum of level + quality no greater than 35?). Noble's parma. The books are literally right behind me, but I don't want to be bothered to look it up.
HOWEVER - it's a reasonable interpretation to say that such an activity would leave you with 4/5 of a season to occupy yourself with - as such, you could read 5 1/25 books in a season: for example, if a summa was entitled "Our world, and Our Place In it," and contained all the basic AM Lore skills (Magic/Farie/Divine/Infernal/Hermetic) at L1/Q25, then as GM I would allow someone to read that all at once.
Unfortunately, while that's IMO a reasonable interpretation, I don't think it's explicitly supported anywhere in the ruleset.
In the interests of defining the far, fringe areas of what an 'Extremely High Quality' book would be, I have the following:
Com +3
Great Communication (+1, ArM5 43)
Great Communication (+1, ArM5 43)
Mythic Communication (Clear Instructions) (+1, HoH:TL 107)
Good Teacher (+1, ArM5 43)
This works out to Com +6 for writing instructional books; +3 for Good Teacher; +6 for "I am writing a book' = Quality 15 for a Tractus.
A Summae can go as high as double that -- up to Quality 30 -- by sacrificing levels, but a Magus would need to have an Art of 32 to be able to write (a rather pointless) L1Q30 Summae; that same magus could write a (probably more useful) L16Q15 Summae. A L8Q30 Summae would need an Art score of 46, but could be completed in a season.
For an Ability, a score of 12 allows a L1Q30 -- but Ability scores this high represent a serious investment of experience, and L1 is a bit pointless. A L3Q30 would require a score of 16.
I'm not sure if it is possible to push a Quality total above 30; maybe a lab specialization in 'Texts'? I would be happy to learn if I am missing anything.
Quality for books on Arts and Arcane Abilities can additionally be increased by up to +3 by using resonant materials and clarification.
(Covenants p87-88. Make sure to check the errata for Covenants too since the insert on p88 has some errors)
No, the three different +1 boni are for skilled craftsmen (Scribe, Bookbinder, and Illuminator). Resonant materials are in addition to that.
Which is why they state the practical max Quality for a tractatus is 17, which is calculated as:
Com +5 +3 (writing a book) + 1 (skilled binder) +1 (skilled scribe) +1 (skilled illuminator) + 3 (Good Teacher) +3 (resonant materials) = 17
In addition to what the others said, Mythic Communication won't help. It doesn't increase Communication, but gives a +1 to rolls with it (and reduced botch dice), which is irrelevant here. There are other ways to reach Com +6 or more and to get other bonuses, though.
I had missed that; proof positive that it has been too long since I read 'Covenants'. Thanks for the correction. I know there has been errata issued for some of the factors -- the +3 for mundane subjects has gone away, I think -- is it still Q17 with Com +5?
Also note -- lowering level to improve quality is limited to (Com +3 +Virtues +Craftsmen) resonant materials cannot be doubled this way so it looks like (14 x2) +3 = 31 is the maximum Quality available unless Com goes above +5.
Good catch; Mythic Characteristic only applies to rolls, it is no help writing books or teaching. So what are the 'other ways' to reach Com +6, and what are the other boni? I really thought I had managed to find the upper limit, but it is obvious I have missed a few things.
Ablating - You can increase up to what the spirit had, which could be greater than +5.
Debauchery/Consumption - The increase to a Characteristic caps at +6.
Mystery of the Epitome - The increase to your human form can exceed +5.
Theriomorphy or Theriomorph - There are several Qualities that increase Communication further.
Improved (Characteristic) - At least for Magic beings there is a Major Magic Quality that lets you exceed +5.
It's even more distasteful than (all of?) these, but you can use Astrological Mutable Good Teacher to double the bonus from Good Teacher by writing in only in the four available months per year. Put the other months in those same seasons toward non-laboratory stuff. (Note that this bumps that maximum Quality by +6 without Communication needing to go higher.)
Mystery of the Epitome certainly does work, no question. Bjornaer magi only though, which is a small enough hurdle. As an extra bonus, the Epitome can be 'refined' in further self-guided initiations, adding to characteristics. This depends a bit upon 1} a noble & mythically appropriate heart-beast which is noted for being a good communicator, and 2} negotiating exactly how high a super-human characteristic can go.
Theriomorphy results in a temporary change, and causes warping, and is (again) only for Bjornaer magi. It is conceivable that a magus could choose to keep it up for a full season.
Astrological Mutable Good Teacher specifically does not cover a full season; so it is a bit iffy. Writing a low level / high quality Summae might be finished in a third of a season, but there is no such work-around for Tracti.
Ablating and Consumption -- aren't these temporary gains?
Getting a Major Magical Quality (and becoming a being with Magical Might so that the magi can qualify for Magical Qualities at all) seems like sort of thing which would be the focus of a long running campaign; a bit like any other of the roads to true immortality. This certainly seems possible, though.
Yes. I left that out. We know raising Presence this way won't work for initiations, so there is a good chance raising Communication this way won't work for books and teaching.
While Theriomorphy is only for Bjornaer, Theriomorph is more broadly available.
It's actually not iffy at all. It's abusive, but not iffy. With the exception of laboratory work, seasons are purely abstractions. You could write in months 1, 4, and 7; read in months 2, 5, and 8; practice in months 3, 6, and 9; and do lab work in months 10, 11, and 12 (where month 1 is the first month of the first season). This would be 1 season of writing, 1 season of reading, 1 season of practice, and 1 season of lab work in that year.
A Bjornear magus can take on aspects of their Heart-Beast; and this can allow pushing the Magus above human capabilities -- but all animals [HoH:MC, page 39] have negative communication as their base, and cannot spend 'Improved Characteristics' on the non-physical attributes. It seems like the best that a Heart-Beast might manage is +Mimicry; +Vocal; +Vocal -- for a Com +2, Music 5, and (maybe) Living Language 3. That might be better than the original magus, but it is not super-human.
Yes. But look a little closer at the particulars. You can split everything up except laboratory work. Read what I wrote above. The Mutable Virtue would cover the entire season in which the book is written. It's just impossible for laboratory work due to laboratory work needing to follow the actual seasons.
See what I wrote above about refining the Inner Heartbeast. While we have nothing explicit for teaching as we do for initiation, the notes for initiation are pretty suggestive that this would apply in similar cases. Meanwhile, you would also have to look at what's going on with the different versions (meaning as addressed in different books) of animals to see how much penalty might be incurred.
The Inner Heartbeast could have Mimicry, Pack/Herd Leader, and Vocal x2. If your base human Communication is +5 or +6 and you take on all four of these, then you're at Communication +9 or +10.