Exaggeration yes, but the point is the same as for the Mercurian. In a low-vis saga, they can be played for flavour, but their mechanical advantages are wasted.
Right, sorry. I misread that. That makes it a little more entertaining, but the flexibility is still far short of the Hermetic effects which is what drew me to the game in the first place.
But to be clear. I do not think this is a problem. It is just to say that one has to design characters to sagas and plots to characters. There will always be virtues/flaws/houses/concepts/themes that do not fit a given troupe/saga. Mercurian magic is no exception.
First, never build Invested devices. That's a waste of Vis. Also, too many eggs in a single basket. Instead, use Lesser devices (effectively half the Vis) and some Charged devices (No Vis cost at all).
I do not have a Talisman, because I still haven't found any use for it.
I do have a familiar, but very few powers invested in the bond - it's a friend and a lab assistant, not some sort of prestige project.
Second, I have sold a few devices, at the rates described in HoH: MC. Details are listed on the Wiki with each item: Page Tags - Rhine Gorge - Servat This has made for some income of Vis, though probably not enough to really make a difference.
Indeed my fellow covenant members have generally decided that they can't be bothered to create their own devices (save for Talismans), because my character (being a Verditius) is so much better at it that it's more sensible for them to just pay me to do so.
Verditius magi can actually get away with spending surprisingly little Vis, due to their various discounts (ArM5, p. 93), though admittedly this mainly applies to Investing items, so hasn't made much of a difference.
Please notice the what at least started as a low-vis saga part. This arguably is no longer the case - IIRC we have 18 pawns per year to distribute among 5 magi. So this is post-Aegis. This may not qualify as "low Vis" any more. Though obviously it does by the standards of the box on ArM5, p. 218.
Power levels are as much about expectations as anything else. Perhaps we simply expect different levels of power from our magi?
Really, the first few years were hard. 20 or so years into the saga, I have enough Vis that I'm thinking about maybe looking into some of those prestige projects after all.
Thank you. It is always interesting to see how others use various concepts. In this case, I do not think we use it very differently.
My expectation is always relative to the rest of the troupe, so I could not possibly comment on that without reading all the details for every magus. What I note is that your 3-4p/year is just about one lesser device per year, and that is assuming that covenant does not spend a lot of vis on booksĀ¹ nor on healingĀ², and that you abstain from stat boost ritualsĀ³ and other things your covenant mates might spend their vis on. That is not a lot when enchantment is supposed to be the core of the concept. OK, I have not taken trade into account. That may help a little. OTOH if the Verditius sell his items, we lose the pleasure of seeming them in use in the field, which I thought would be most of the fun.
But you too say that the first years were hard, and 20+ year sagas are rare enough that they are rarely worth planning for.
Ā¹ I suppose your library is well stocked twenty years into the saga, though.
Ā² Our saga is vis rich and has no Verditius, but we really do spend quite a lot on healing. The magi are simply not very good at staying out of trouble.
Ā³ Sure, they may be made unavailable to most, but they are popular and makes another of these saga-dependencies.
I can say that this describes neatly the Verditius in the Rhine Gorge saga that I ran. I was aiming to behin with to have the party on 3 pawns/mage/year to harvest directly, plus the opportunity to gain a few extra yhrpuhh hunts, quests etc
Neither as a player or as a storyteller have I seen books be a big expenditure, they are too expensive and vis can be used for other things. Also i like to give books as rewards.
Healing: in both games there was a Co specialist butbwe never used the healing rituals, it also seemed too expensive for heavy wounds, and the milder wounds, one can live with.
Stat boost: that was the biggest expense line for our Baltic game. We had a mercurian CrCo expert who brought all the physical stats of the entire covenant to +3. It did not come up in the daga that I ran.
In my arrogance, I tend to assume that sagas will last for 20+ years in game. Why else bother?
Somewhat. Most books aquired via trade: Book for Book, rather than Vis for Book.
We also have access to the library of Collem Leonis, in part because the Author thereof is in the troupe. And so the rest of us decided to troll him a bit.
Ah. That's big. We try to limit trouble and have grogs take most of the damage. I don't recall having spent Vis on healing in this saga.
Stat boosting rituals have not featured significantly in this particular saga. IIRC we do not have a Mentem expert.
Does anybody feel that something important would be lost if the Flaw were separated out as Ceremonial Spontaneous Magic, and a note included in the Virtue to say that almost all Mercurians have that Flaw?
This is still a bit borderline, but my sense is that there is enough reason to do this, as long as it doesn't seriously upset anyone.
Yes, I like having the flaw as a separate entity, for those non-mercurian magi who might have it, but, IMO, it should be a requisite for the virtue, if only thematically.
But whatever
Iām with ErikT on this, bad idea but Iām not gonna fight about it here. It may start arguments at CharGen with a group when someone says they want to play a Mercurian without that flaw.
It looks as though no-one thinks this is a terrible idea, and some people think it's good. I will thus go ahead and do it. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
No. There is no persistent sense that those Virtues are probably a bit underpowered, and converting them into sets of multiple Virtues and Flaws is too much of a change for errata.
That's really off. Maybe not for Diedne Magic. But I'm pretty sure almost everyone thinks Mythic Blood is Underpowered. You pay 3 points and use up your Major Hermetic Virtue spot. What do you get? Minor Magical Focus (worth 1 point), a power (for someone with Hermetic magic this is generally well less than you'll get out of Skilled Parens, so less than 1 point), a little Fatigue reduction (it's only a little useful, not a lot; it'd be odd if this were worth 1 point), and a Personality Flaw (-1 point). You do also get access to Heroic stuff, which helps a little. That's a total value of about 2 points while you pay 3 points and lose your Major Hermetic Virtue spot.
That's why, from what I've seen, there is a persistent sense that it is underpowered. You only take it for major thematic stuff, knowing you're taking a hit for it.
