Have you used a Mental Constuct lab in your saga
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Just curious to see if anyone has used a mental construct lab, and how it effected the saga. Was it useful, was it just background info etc? Post your experiences and any spells you used with it.
The warping incurred, 1 per year will shorten the life of almost any magi notably, definetly not worth it.
As we are playing around with warping rules, and including a way to reduce warping points gained(but not easy), it may become an option in the future.
In the rare circumstance where a magus is "warped" enough to be forever twilight bound after his next twilight experience then there's no real incentive not to use it.
I like the idea of moving objects from one's memory palace to the mental laboratory and back. I've often schemed of creating a mytery cult secretly gathering mental copies of all of the world's information in this manner but I've no immediate plans to bring the cult of Mnemonic archivists into my game. (Thus I answered no and I don't intend to).
I was thinking of something like that myself - a creo mentem ritual to create a perfect copy of a book in someone's mental lab. The book could then either be studied from at leisure, copied out by hand, or re-created whole with a creo ritual of some type.
I was thinking of either a spell to specifically "copy" books permanently into the library, or a much more useful to make any detailed memory permanent.
You use normal intellego magics to memorize any type of object in detail, then when you are happy with it, you make that memory permanent. You could have a couple of different spells to gather information about different types of objects, and then just a single ritual to store the thing into your library. If the intellego spells have a decent duration you can check through them to make sure that the details are correct before using the vis.
I've looked through the mentem section of the main rulebook but there is nothing there about perfecting your own memories - only creating memories in other people. I recall there was something a little like this in TMRE, but I'm too tired to look it up right now.
I played a maga called Neshama in a labwork-only saga, that lasted only a limited time, that used a Mental Construct lab. The SG was very generous, so I did not incur Warping - but Neshama would have done things with Warping, if needed. (She also maintained a seperate, physical, lab - to conduct work on magic items and so on.)
The lab was created using a CrMe Ritual, creating it as a "natural" fixture of her mind. She invented the spell via experimentation, so has two variants:
Not sure if using the crown/magic item isn't better, story-wise.
She used CeMe to furnish her with a lab virtue,
She used MuAn(Me) to bring her Familiar to the lab, so it could assist her.
The full laboratory had the following stats:
Her full character sheet, at season 72-post-gauntlet (age 42) is here.
Necroposting but: the spell for a mental lab... where is it?
It's in two main areas: Covenants and The Mysteries Revised. In Covenants, it's a crown that you wear. In the Mysteries, it's in the form of a 'mental palace' that I assume could easily be the groundwork for a Hermetic Lab.
Jim
I nearly did when I did a write-up of the magus Wheostan for Sub Rosa. But in the end I went for an implausibly large large contained in an implausibly small space instead. I'm not sure how accurately I desctibed it, but that's how I'd do it again.
The mental construct idea is a great one that's crying out for a decent write-up to show the possibilities.
Hi,
IIRC, it is not the magus who is warped but the results of the lab work that are modified. And I'm pretty sure IRC.
Still, that +2 Warping makes a mental contruct pretty harsh. 20% of your formulaic spells don't turn out as you expect. 20% of your magic items, likewise. Your familiar? shudder Unwanted effects when you use vis? shudder Your longevity ritual?
I like the idea, though, especially for one of those dream magi...
Anyway,
Ken
If the lab is created through a spell or item, then the magus is ALSO getting warping.
The limitations are much harsher than that. Can invent spells, work with lab texts and study arts normally, NOTHING else.
Basically as written I find it to be a really cool concept, and a thing that is too harsh ijn its drawbacks to do unless you are desperate. A magus on the run or that cannot set up a lab (like a travelling mage or a magus acting under cover) might benefit from it, but otherwise you are much better served by a regular lab. even ifg you are a dream magus and a mentem specialist.
EDIT: Now that I think of it, if you designed the lab to be for your specific magus, would it still cause warping? Even if you did not use it? I guess so, but just to be sure....
Cheers,
Xavi
Good question. Im not sure on that one myself...
Hi,
If it's a constant magical effect, it still causes Warping, 1/season of use.
I'd allow any magus initiated into the dream mystery to simply be able to set up his lab in Dream. This would be a freebie, since the dreaming virtues are not very useful. Distilling vis would be pointless, since it would be dream vis which is abundant anyway. But inventing spells, or even training an apprentice or binding a familiar while they both share a dream makes good sense.
A cat Bjornaer with mastery over dreams....
Anyway,
Ken
Anyway,
Ken