I've done a huge part of catching up on life. Still a little to go. But that August date should work for me.
Yes, Ciara would be very happy with an alchemist. And she does a lot with grogs and other mundanes, so things like medicine would be appreciated as well.
I've got to figure out what someone will want for a companion now that the Quaesitor for whom I was building a shield has been tabled.
Glad to hear it!
And I know, I am in fact, the worst. You're more than welcome to make someone who hits things with sticks still! Could very much use a right hand man.
For a final push before opening, circling back around:
I concur with this list.
You should also address at least a basic description of your lab/sanctum and how/where it is situated in the Covenant. Additionally you might consider writing up a grog or two, if you want them.
Vortigern
Setting/World Building
I would like to expand our material on the two lords on the east and west coast of the lake, forming essentially our two major borders into mundane territory before we begin. I'd like to develop those things a bit more to give a deeper sense of what is right around us in the immediate environment before we are starting and characters walk out into it as it were.
Lord Walls on the east coast is associated with Meath and the English. I've already written a bit about him, but I'd like to see it developed a bit more/deeper.
Lord Brian on the west coast is associated with Connacht and the native Irish. This one has been challenging for me to really dive into with limited time just now due to the Irish not really living in fixed settlements and having very different customs and economic structure, so I haven't really settled on much here.
If anyone could take on writing some material for those let me know and it would be appreciated.
Ok, I'll develop the ex-Hospitaller Mythic Alchemist concept in the coming days and post something more on it by Friday. He will be an unGifted Learned Magician, and I'll give him a bit of Medicine in his background. Is there a particular area / facet of alchemy that would be particularly useful for Ciara? And would theriacs be of interest?
Also, to touch on the compatibility of the character with the Pagan-flawed, my thinking is that through his experiences in the Holy Land and back at home in Ireland (he will have fallen out with the Hospitallers after returning there) he recognizes that those who are zealous do more harm than good.
Reagents would be most useful, perhaps even more so with Mythic Alchemy.
Are we allowing unGifted hedge traditions as Companions? Learned Magicians are nice. I always recommend SuFo and SuMa for them.
Absolutely.
Speaking of companions for Mr. Summoner over there (@Emelric) I was thinking of a low might spirit of some sort. Haven't given it much thought yet (getting ready for school here next week), but I'll hopefully have a few more details later.
Just saw on ArM DE that the Aegis doesnât need to penetrate to impose half the level as a penalty to casting total. Is anyone aware of the reason why?
I⌠really dislike that. Can we not? Or, could anyone convince me of why is this a good design?
The debate that went on for years was whether this penalty was a result of cutting off [ambient vis / the aura / whatever it should be called] in the environment from those not native to the AotH (no penetration needed, just like a bad Aura doesn't need to penetrate), or if the penalty was more if a direct malus on the caster (penetration required). I asked David about it needing to penetrate for this purpose or not, and he specified it.
The ambient/fluid vis argument was the only argument that made sense to me at all regarding not needing to penetrate. I'm not completely sure I like it, but it does make a certain sense to me since the argument is that the actual target being affected is the ambient/fluid vis and not the caster.
For the sake of consistency (ghasp!) I think it is worth exploring what a similar effect designed as an isolated/single effect would look like and whether saying it doesn't have to penetrate seems intuitive under those circumstances. Which reviewing the guideline it explicitly has a statement requiring penetration.
Just to continue exploring the idea then, would it seem intuitive/reasonable for Container targets designed using those guidelines to not have to the penetrate? I think in general most wouldn't find it reasonable at all for individual or group targets to not have to penetrate. But how about Circle, Room, Structure, or Boundary? The guideline would still seem to explicitly require it, and in general magic is required to work that way overarchingly (no penetration, no joy).
The ambient/fluid vis argument then is left as an unusual feature of the Aegis and doesn't seem possible with designs of the same sort of base effect, unless allowing it were a house rule for container targets.
How does everyone feel about this? Are we ok with the Aegis being "special" in this regard? Granted it is noted as a major discovery that isn't fully integrated ... so it being special is already true, it is simply a question of how special.
I think in general I prefer that things have to penetrate in order to inflict effects as a matter of general rules consistency. Yet I'd like to hear opinions. I know @Nithyn favors anything that makes the Aegis stronger, and I won't say I'm unsympathetic with that perspective (hence my house rule for affecting ritual magic). But it also seems like @RafaelB rather disliked this discovery?
You've said my thoughts. I think as it stands, Aegis isn't necessarily worth casting except at a lower level for most covenants (as they'd lack the penetration to make it worthwhile). Given that it's supposed to be this amazing super significant thing, I'm all for it.
Don't get me wrong, I get that mechanically it doesn't work perfectly, but this is hardly the first time for that sort of thing?
I was taken by surprise. I'm a simple man, I see spells needing to penetrate, I like it.
Consistency and preferences apart, I can stand behind "what is the game we want to play, and what the rules need to be to support that". One example is our recent discussion regarding the bonus from auras being doubled, which will favor supernatural abilities.
For the Aegis... I think that, needing to penetrate, it works well for creatures with Might 20~30. With 5 magi it's not unreasonable to get a lvl 40 Aegis with a Penetration of 35, as long as we have a ReVi expert.
Are creatures with Might above 35 a constant menace in our vision of Mythic Europe? Large enough for us to say this isn't enough? And see, I'm not saying "NO creature above Might 35". If we are concerned specifically with the Goblin King of Athlone, who has a Faerie Might of 50? Have the magi acquire an AC to him (Atheus and Gazik, I'm looking at you) and use sympathetic magic to increase the penetration against him. It won't work on his Might 35 ratkin vizir, but it won't be necessary against him either, as we can manage his might. But if we have dozens of Might 35 or higher creatures directly opposing us? Yeah, that's going to be hard. But then the more proactive way to deal with the situation wouldn't be to cast an Aegis, but to show dominance and seek allegiances. It's not that we can't be invaded, but that the cost is high, and any creature with Might 35 and above is smart enough to know there's no benefit in mutual destruction.
On another note, is this what you all are envisioning? Dozens of creatures above Might 35 as our enemies?
Now, talking numbers. The Lvl 40 Aegis mentioned above does put pressure on everyone to learn the Wizard's Communion (which I don't think is a problem) and on the main caster to increase Re, Vi, Artes Liberales, Philosophiae, Penetration and master the Aegis, and this is a problem, as it requires one player to have a very specific kind of character.
Eliminating the need (totally or partially) for the Aegis to penetrate lowers the burden on the main caster but doesn't solve the fundamental problem.
Honestly, for this particular concern, I think other, more effective options for sharing the burden among the magi involved in the wizard's communion should be looked at. Eg. allow magi involved in the communion to add Artes Liberales and Philosophiae to the CT of the main caster if the spell is already ceremonial. Allow to add mastery in the communion to the CT. And on mastering Communion, the rebuttal mastery adds Mastery x 3 to the level of the spell affected by your spell (such that a lvl 20 Communion with a mastery of 3 will count as a lvl 29 Communion).
These options (which are just examples I spitballed, no need to take them too seriously) work to both allow other magi to contribute to the Aegis effectively AND in increasing the CT, and therefore, penetration, without significantly increasing CT and potentially breaking something in other situations (I believe).
Or make the Aegis a ritual, like the Fenicil Ritual, built upon the Parma. The magi add their Parma scores, the EF is the magnitude of the Aegis, penetration calculated as usual (again, I'm just spewing ideas).
But anyway, I'm fine with whatever you guys want. As I said, I was just caught by surprise with what I understand is an unnecessary addition (and deviation from standard) to the rules.
Not there yet but I'll be working on it. 8P
One of those rules has already been adopted. But yes. Adding Rebuttal Mastery an Aegis seems apt as well.
I think the real question to me isn't about finding ways to strengthen the Aegis in this particular instance. (My ritual magic rule is more about making ritual magic in general stronger compared to formulaic magic, and thus making the vis investment for casting it more meaningful and "value added" for doing so.) Nor was I really thinking about it in terms of power scaling. Not that I should be seen as advocating for the rule in question regardless, as I wasn't aware of that particular change until you pointed it out.
I think my personal inclination is against the change for reasons of consistency, as I think I'm right that the ambient/fluid vis argument would fall flat (be rejected) by most people when used for Container Targets for the same effect in any other context. A Boundary casting penalty effect ritual would generally still have to penetrate, yes? So why shouldn't the Aegis?
The general principle of penetration being required to affect something being violated annoys me. It isn't like the Aegis is something making an aiming roll or that can be dodged either. 
That said I'm trying to hear out possible arguments from any/all parties first.
This! I can go either way; my answer above was just explaining why it's written that way.
@Emelric do you have an opinion?
I have to admit that I have a somewhat high tolerance for inconsistencies in rpgs as long as they are applied consistently. It's kind of like English; I've just learned to live with them. But I also see where you are coming from, and fewer inconsistencies does lead to more cohesive, easier to apply rules. Personally, I donât have a strong opinion either way 
.
Maybe an alternative for our saga that (1) makes the Aegis more powerful, (2) avoids inconsistencies in penetration rules, and (3) doesnât need a mechanistic explanation that could cause new inconsistencies for Containers, would be to simply imbue everything within the Aegis with Magic Resistance equal to the level of the Aegis, so that foreign supernatural effects coming from within the boundary would also need to penetrate to have an effect? We could go with MR equal to half the level instead, if we still want the Aegis to not be as effective against effects that originate within it vs. those that come from without. Or am I overlooking a good reason not to have the Aegis work like Parma Magica, regardless of the origin of hostile effects?
Sure, I'd be open to that. Thinking of the story flaw I was planning (and still need to flesh out), a spirit Supernatural Nuissance, maybe we can come up with something interesting that ties the flaw and the companion together? Just suggesting ideas that come to mind - maybe the companion is a Jekyl/Banner & Hyde/Hulk, and becomes the Supernatural Nuissance because of an SG-controlled trigger? You'd get to wear two hats for one character that way, which could be entertaining. I also like the idea of a Dresden-Bob-like dynamic. But I'm happy to go with anything else that you would like to do too.
Thanks, I'll try and incorporate both of those. I might end up just with Fo or Ma though, since I also want to make him reasonably good with Martial abilities, and the Alchemy-related supernatural abilities take up quite a few virtue points.
Question for the troupe, since this character build is likely going to end up being quite xp-intense:
both Doctor in (Faculty) and Magister in Artibus in ArM5DE state that characters receive 30 xp per year spent studying, in addition to the normal xp allocation, so for non-wealthy, non-poor, it would be 45 xp per year for those years? Seems too good to be true. Considering Hermetic apprentices gain only 240 exp over 15 years, they should be asking for better instruction.
Alrighty, just wanted to share my thoughts on Aegis for a minute. So first off, the reason it works differently is fairly easy to explain; it's a breakthrough. We have an existing guideline that needs to penetrate to reduce casting totals. So it's not a particularly hard stretch. Shoot, I'd argue that it's not even a stretch, just a breakthrough that was never fully integrated.
On a story note, I actually think it's very beneficial. Hibernia is a high-conflict Tribunal (to say the least). So by having Aegis function as written in RAW, we help keep the body count lower (as it provides a notable defensive boost for magi) and shifts things towards the raiding of outside (at least the Aegis that is) resources and the like as opposed to direct assaults. It also makes the fall of Praesis all the more notable and explains the need for the siege.
So yeah, I'm team RAW?
I can definitely have some fun with this, so let me play around with things and see what I can come up with!
I swear I read this section of the HR yesterday before commenting, but totally overlooked it. Probably kept fermenting it in my head and thought it was a very original idea of mine. 