Mythic Herbalism Question

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I was just putting some numbers together for a companion character I wanted to play who had the major supernatural virtue of Mythic Herbalism.

For a Major supernatural virtue it seems as if it would be extremely unlikely for anyone would ever be able to consistently make the higher Ease Factors. The chart of effects goes to 24. But the roll is only Int+ Ability, no lab bonuses etc. So..

let's assume it is my sole focus and my defining ability (i hadnt been planning that but...):

Let's assume someone of reasonable intelligence +2?
Its their main profession and they have had a few years +6 ability
puissant +2
Affinity +1 (with a 6 ability)

So I roll a 11+ a die

Let's make the intelligence +3, the maximum w/o sinking more virtues into this (we are already 1 major, 2 minor) so, 12+ a die.

In order to hit an ease factor of 24 I would need to open end. with a 1 and followed by a 6 or better so 1/10 * 5/10 =1/20= 5% chance... not exactly right because i guess i could open end again, but you get the point.

Even with an extremely focused character you are not going to be able to hit to upper end of this ability with any chance of reliability. If I bump up the ability to the max (10), the affinity will net another point, still assuming a +3 int, affinity and puissant. So I would have 17 + a die ( so i would hit 24 ease factor ~47% of the time?)

So my question: is this as intended? or was some bonus to the calculation left out, as it seems extremely difficult (I would fail more often than not on the upper end) even with a maxed out character?

I was planning to have my companion dabble and have him have the major virtue and sink 50xp into this with +2 int. That seemed as if I should be reasonably competent but then i realized i probably wont ever get past the first 3-4 guidelines reliably.

Any thoughts? I will grant maybe i have a differing viewpoint as i obviously intended to do something and it inst working out for me so i could be slanted here, so please give honest feedback on what you think.

Thank you

2

You are forgetting one thing. A Magic aura bonus applies to a Magical Supernatural Ability, which in the typical covenant is going to add 3-6 to your total.

3

I don't have my books in front of me, so I can't comment in detail.

However, you have forgotten that this is a Supernatural Ability. So you get a bonus for the prevailing aura.

4

Ahh, you are both correct, I completely forgot that! Thank you.

5

The aura thing does mitigate that somewhat, but I see your point. My magus in the Ad Fons Play by Post has this, and he hasn’t used it much, mostly because Corpus magic does it easier and being a Root Cutter tends to specialize you in Corpus to begin with. When he has, it’s to access certain Muto or Rego type effects that he doesn’t have spells for yet. I sunk a lot of exp into it and it hasn’t done all that much for me, although I love the flavor of the character. It may be I just haven't figured out how to take advantage of it yet - and it might be nice for a companion as well.

One thing I've thought of is storing up effects during a few days or a week downtime storywise and spreading them around grogs or your fellow magi to increase their effectiveness. The higher level stuff still does seem kind of out of reach.

6

A Supernatural Ability is not going to stand up to a head-to-head comparison with the abilities of a specialized Hermetic magus. The key to using Mythic Herbalism well for a Corpus magus is to utilize the things that Hermetic magic cannot do. You can create the equivalent of charged items in a few days of time and send them with the grogs while you are safe at home. The lower level effects are fairly easy to create in batches in a reasonably powerful aura. Create a bunch and send them with your grogs and companions. Create poison for the arrows of your grogs. Create combat potions for grogs and companions. All of these things are handy and would require a magus to spend multiple rounds doing at the beginning of combat or mutiple seasons of time creating charged devices.

7

Is there a way to increase the resistance Ease Factor for a Poison?

the first poison listed is a Ease factor 3 to make: Sleep poison, ease factor 6.

I assume this to be a Stamina Ease factor of 6 to shrug off, but can the Mythic herbalist increase the effect so that it is a Ease Factor 9 to resist and a Ease factor 6 to create.. or something like that? or is that beyond this Major virtue?

8

+3 for + 3 seems good.

9

A character after twelve years of play in the saga might well be able to hit those higher numbers more reliably. The character starts out as you say affinity, puissant, +3 int, and a score of six.

In the next twelve years they apply on average 10 xp per year to their skill (two seasons practice, a season practice and a season adventure xp, an excellent book might give them 12 or more). Affinity will change that 10 xp per year to 15 xp per year. so they'll net 180 xp on top of the 105 they started with. This means they'll have 280xp for an ability of 10.

so 10 (ability), +2(puissant), +3 (intelligence), +3 (aura) = 18. They still need to roll a 6+. It never really gets easy.