I just happen to have Cygna's original character sheet handy (I don't throw anything away). Okay, now keep in mind that Cygna v1.0 was 4e, so she had to spend 15 seasons getting grounded in the Arts. Other than that, she had:
1 season of busywork in the lab (no game effect).
13 seasons of Independent Study from books.
3 seasons helping Aiden in the lab.
6 seasons helping Mikhail in the lab.
11 seasons spent being taught (not including the Grounding) by her parens.
4 seasons learning spells from lab texts.
1 season inventing a spell.
5 seasons helping Aislinn in the lab.
1 season being taught by a covenant knight.
And 1 season helping Litha in the lab.
I don't think anyone's arguing that you get don't get a lot more powerful magus playing his apprenticeship season by season in play then you do with straight beginning character generation. But I don't think doubling (or more) the number of points you get for Apprenticeship in starting char-gen, or hobbling how you use your apprentice in play (just to throw out totally fictitious stuff), is the answer. And hopefully this is something that they fix in 6e.
But yeah...in Dave's campaign, cross-training apprentices was something everyone did...assuming that we knew about the apprentices, of course. And unfortunately that's the only saga I've been in that actually got as far as dealing with apprentices until Bibracte.
I had her five seasons? I don't remember spending all that much time in the lab.
I am tempted to park Mikhail at Duos Flumen. I based the covenant on Riverrun from the Ice & Fire books, but that's not very different from RBG, after all
Autumn 1236: Helping Aislinn in Laboratory: +11 XP Aurum (3 levels max) - that season, she and Mikhail were helping Aislinn invent a lightning spell.
Winter 1236, Helping Aislinn in Laboratory: +11 XP Aurum.
Summer 1237, Helping Aislinn in lab: +10 xp Aurum.
Spring 1239, Helping Aislinn in lab: +11 xp Aurum.
Winter 1239, Helping Aislinn in lab: +11 xp Aurum
So, just from helping Aislinn in the lab, she got one point shy of a 10 in Aurum. Wish I could remember why she only got 10 xp that one season instead of 11 shrug
Hebrew 5 would be 75 points, but with the Linguist it would be 60. So, add 25% to what you spend, or get a 20% off of the cost for the level, works out the same either way. Just easier for me to do the discount during chargen, and then add the 25% for post-creation spending.
Speaking of which...numbers round to the nearest whole, and ½ rounds up. So if you get a Study Total of 11, that's increased to 13¾, which rounds to 14. Study Total of 9 is increased to 11¼, which rounds down to 11. ST of 10 increases to 12½, which rounds up to 13.
It is so much simpler if the experience points remain constant, and instead the affinity or relevant virtue lowers the threshold for changing the ability score.
This is probably something I need to review for mention in Bibracte, that I'm using the MC method, rather than RAW. Then I don't have to worry about rounding, nor do the players...
Does it make sense to have the Spell Mastery Ability options above as distinct abilities?
Have a spell like Repel the Wooden Shafts and a character has the following mastery ability scores
RtWS-Fast Casting -1 (5)
RtWS-Quick Casting - 3 (30)
RtWS-Multiple Casting - 2 (15)
That's a total of 50 xp which is not inconsiderable. To get the same level with RtWS Mastery ability as RAW would be a total ability score of 6, which would be 105 xp, so yes, there is a pretty big benefit to this change. At the same time, it allows a narrow focus along an area, but a relatively easy way to pick up some side knowledge
How this would work for FM, is that the individual will get one ability score for free, as normal. Their xp doubling allows them to spread among all known mastery abilities.
seeing as how they don't know each other in this saga...
falling into the medieval ideal that it can only be true love if you can't be together.