For an upcoming game, I will have my NPC character at the players coventant. Currently, I have 2 concepts, either a Flambeau Hoplite or a Bonisagus lab rat, and for the lab rat, I have come up with a Driving original research goal and wanted to see if people thought it was ok...
Hemertic Longivity
In short - inherently have a magus' score in (tech + form)/5 apply as a modifier to ageing rolls.
Reasoning
Current longevity rituals are more effective on subjects with The Gift. Prehaps then it is a property of The Gift which allows longer life and current rituals are simply a method of forcing that potential out,instead of drawing it out naturally. If magi were able to draw out this potential naturally, a magus' own power would keep them young, without corrupting their body with infertiliy and warping.
Mechanical Effects
A magus recieves a bonus modifier to his ageing roll equal to his highest Technique + Form combination divided by 5 (rounded up). [An alternative idea being his Creo + Corpus combination, but I feel that would unfairly inhibit some magi - and the general Tech + Form is more inline with Tailismans and Familars].
Obviously, this bonus would not stack if the magus decided touse a classic longevity ritual.
Breakthrough wise, I see on the high side of a Major breakthrough (50 or so points), as it would allow magi to remain younger for longer (no warping, better ageing rolls), but they still would eventually die or fall into twilight. Also, as it is no longer a lab total, int, magic theory, lab specialisations and auras dont contribute to it, but you don't need vis and it doesnt run out...
I think the formula should be based off the sum total of the Arts if it is to represent a 'Fullness of Understanding' of one's Gift. It will also offset the general need to specialize found in every other aspect of the game.
That and require 're-application' or time spent meditating or something. So that the long term gain of time is offset by a re-occuring short investment of time.
Form + Tech. / 10, and stacks with the Longevity Ritual. And as you seem to be changing your essential nature to be closer to the Magic realm, maybe you also pick up "Prone to Twilight".
Kallista, yeah, I had considered that, I was just a little worried that it would grant significant bonus's to ageing rolls if I took all arts into account...
Saxonous, the idea behind the research is the opposite, not changing your essential nature, but understanding your essential better, that the RAW longevity ritual is brutish and forces your essential nature out.
Before I had hit on this idea, other goals included negating warpingg of longevity rituals and negating the infertility - this solution seemed to encompass both, and was more elegant.
Well if it's a better understanding of magic, hermetic theory and oneself wy not base it on the LOWEST tech+form ?
It's bad for the specialized magus and reward the versatile one
Which average would you want to use? (Mathematically, there are three.)
If you use the mean (add all scores and divide by 15, this is typically what people think of when they hear average) then one or two scores really different from the rest could dramatically change this average.
The median score would be the one right in the middle of an ordered list; this is the one that standardized tests use when giving data about quartiles.
Finally, the mode is simply the score appearing most often. This one gets tricky, since it is possible to have data with more than one mode.
For example, a magus with scores of 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 15, 18, would have a mean of about 10, but a median of 5. The mean would reward the specialist (or penalize tha magus with a serious deficiency).
