So let's see if I understand this well. Having a prepared space (How much time and resources to prepare, and which abiltiies ?) would enable any mage to cut down ceremonial magic to 5 min/level (groovy !), while a mage with Mystical Choreography could do it, anytime, anyplace, by means of his skill at weaving mystical significance into artistic performances like dancing.
I ask since having checked on the HoH:S TOC, I realized that Mystical Choreography is going to be a mostly Jerbiton Virtue (correct me if wrong), so while it may be interesting in a general way for a spont specialist, esp. of the musician-mage kind, it is therefore of little appeal to my pagan Chthonic Diedne Merinita Philosopher of Rome Theurgist, who has a very little opinion of "christian mundane-kissing wussies" and their tricks, and to his player, who mostly shares the opinion (see my sig).
Mystic choreography always allows the caster to cast at 5 minutes per magnitude. When the caster uses Mystic choreography within a properly prepared space the casting time drops to 1 minute per magnitude.
Ceremonial magic can now utilize props an prepared spaces. Props can give bonuses to the casting roll of up to +5 for props that are to big to move by manual labor any any reasonable manner. Prepared spaces can reduce the casting time of ceremonial magic.
Good to know. My lab area is so going to include a prepared space 8)
What I'd be also interested to know, is it feasible at all to prepare a space while you are away from your lab, or is it a seasons' worth job of improvement a fixed area ?
Say, you "prepare" your room at the inn, or an open area near your camping.
The more preparation you do, the biggest the speedup you later get. With mere chalk circles (e.g. in your inn room) you'll take 12 minutes per magnitude, while a dedicated room will get you down to 1 minute per magnitude. No specific ability is required, so you can assume it'd fall under Magic Theory... or possibly Artes Liberales and Philosophiae (which are the ceremonial casting abilities) or some Realm Lore (letting Infernalists and suchlike have some fun redecorating too).
Sorry ... either this is rubbish, or I'm being stupid, or there's some context to this statement that's passed me by completely. Why would it help to concentrate on techniques over forms?
Surely you want your technique and form levels to be roughly equal for any fatiguing spontaneous spells you cast, as you double the lower of the two. That is, you want the lower art to be as high as possible.
For example: if you're casting a ReTe spell and you have 10 Rego and 2 Terram (say) you would double the Terram and get a total of 14, but if you had 7 Rego and 7 Terram you would have a total of 21 (and at a character point cost of 56 rather than 58, too).
OK, that example is a bit artificial ... if your character concept was for strong Rego and weak Terram you probably wouldn't bring them both to 7 in a Diedne, but I think it makes the point.
True if you have the time and resources to improve all your stats equally to decent levels then do so, it's actually cheaper and slightly faster to get the same casting totals. Most characters wont have that luxury. So I'll stand by my original statement.
powerful spont spells are used more frequently in tame situations to resolve some issue than in stress situations. (your experience may have been different).
In situations when you can afford to blow three extra fatigue levels (which in my experience are not rare) life linked can give you a bonus +15 to your roll in any art combination.
Diedne doubles your lowest art, this will only give a +15 to a spell when you have really paid your dues in both the techniques and the form. Not surprisingly ot is in these arts that you are more likely to have an appropriate spell and not need to spont at all.
Erik is correct...at the start. As a Diedne gets older though, he gets higher art scores...(of course)...
Life linked max out is like +20....you get to do that one time, then you are a pile of goo on the ground. No matter what your age...
An older Diedne with art score combo's of 20 and 15, would add +15 to four spells...with 20/21 he could add 20 to four spells (virutes not withstanding). Of course Erik is right that most likely those arts would be the main arts, but only at the start.
I have seen characters about six years out of Gauntlet start with an 18 and 10 (?). Not too bad for a NooB...in a few years that can go to somewhere around 18/15 without a problem...
Sure, it would be in his preferred art (to start),
In that case I don't think I fully understand the context of the original statement.
What do you mean by "decent levels"? What age/experience of mage are you talking about?
If you don't increase all arts equally, how many do you increase and to what levels to get the best advantage, as you see it, from the Diedne Magic Virtue?
it all depends on your character concept, if your happy with 10 level and below spells then you only need ~7 in each score, but if you want to spont leap of home comming then you need ~17 in the required arts.
Also consider what else drives your character, do you want to beable to make a good longevity ritual at the start or do you intened to buy one or create a low level one at 1st and then improve as you can? Do you want to turn your self into a virtual fire elemental? then you need to focus on several techs and ignum.
Personally I wanted a good longevity ritual before I started aging, and since we had Creo and corpus resources the result was both of those scores are in the high teens. The next big effect I wanted was Leap of homecomming, my corpus was already high so now i needed rego. Down the road my characters goals changed to focus on animal. (which I need to find the resources to improve) As my goals change the arts I focus on change. He would be a very borring character in my eyes if he was a total generalist.
Indeed you do ... and I'd say that's rather an ambitious spell for a starting mage at age 25 to try to spont -- affinities in Rego and Corpus notwithstanding -- which is why I asked you what age/experience you were talking about.
Yes, it absolutely depends on your character concept. When I asked about the context of your earlier statement I suppose I was really asking what sort of character concept you had in mind to make that remark. If the concept is for (say) a Corpus specialist then of course you want a high Corpus score and to increase all the techniques (or all those you care about) as far as possible because they will be doubled ... but you actually want to do the same thing for a Corpus specialist who isn't a Diedne, don't you?
If the concept is for a mage who has just one Form and all the Techniques then there is something to be said for pushing that Form as hard as possible (especially initially, if you have an Affinity) but after a certain level it becomes more cost effective to increase all the techniques by one than to increase the Form. With Diedne Magic that level is lower because the techniques (being lower) all count for twice as much.
If your concept doesn't include all the Techniques then the point at which it is more cost-effective to put points into techniques rather than forms comes sooner, but it still comes sooner for a Diedne than any other Hermetic.
I'd bore you with some figures, but I don't think BBCode does tables
Actually, it'd be a pleasant change to be able to be involved in one saga for long enough to have to worry about ageing!
Yes, of course you do ... but do you want to do so any more for a Diedne fire elemental than for any other. I'd say less, rather than more.
I quite like generalists, I must admit ... but it would be very dull if all characters were completely general.
