Why not base 3 (create a cloud), with +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +1 Rego, +1 Terram, +2 or +4 unnatural mod for CrAu (and possibly +1 for the great strength mod mentioned in the ReTe guideline box?)
That was my original plan (more or less, create a cloud is base 2, and I used fewer "unnatural" levels) but it seemed wrong to use a lower base level to create the thing ex nihlo than to change an existing cloud of smoke into he same thing. By adding "unnatural" magnitudes I can get it to come out to the same level, but it feels more sloppy to me.
Your description does have the advantage of not leaving the reader to wonder where the guideline came from.
Edit:
I just need a better description than "unnatural" I like this version better.
Unlike Adelbert's boring 121-135 period, Ranulf emerges from this period as an arch magus with a whole huge suite of smoke spells and the possibility to employ a dragon like creature to use for his purposes if he really thinks its important. This was huge for him.
Artisano had an additional nine seasons of free time. I'll have him raise his Faerie lore to 4, gain divine lore at 2 and infernal lore at 2. That's 50xp, it seems a justifiable to me, he's been reading up on critters that they might be sent after by the Tremere archmaga.
Ranulf has a longevity ritual for -16, a -2 living conditions modifier and a strength 2 bronze cord.
so six rolls (from 145-149) at -5
8 at rolls (150-158) at -4 and
one roll at -14 (age 159) once he gets his -26 ritual
Throwing that in to the same spreadsheet I used for Adelbert, Ranulf gets 3 years of apparent age and gets one ageing point in a characteristic chosen by the "player" (he rolled a 1 then an 8 at age 155). Ranulf's apparent age is now 55. He looks 45 years younger than Adelbert when the actual age difference is 3 years. Having had a good longevity ritual from a moderate age made a huge difference in appearance even though the number of ageing points in their characteristics is about the same.
I'm going to alter his reputations a bit but I won't mess with the personality traits.
One might argue that gaining the arch magus title after years of effort would be sufficent to justify yet anther raise in confidence score. How do any of you feel about this task being roughly equivalent to a 15 year tytalus apprenticeship for the purpose of building confidence?
This was an endeavor, and if he was in my saga, I'd allow more confidence. He completed an archmagus trial given by the archmaga who doesn't grant people archmagus titles.
Here's the +135 years character sheet,[strike]I don't have any of the revised casting totals in. I'll come back and edit them later.[/strike]
I'm OK with this.
Ranulf's Enchanted devices as of 135 years post gauntlet.
Chest of the Ember Seed, see Magi of Hermes p.114 ,
Ribbon of Arcane Preservation, see Magi of Hermes p.113,
The Collar of Obedience bellow is presented in two ways. Which item you should use is dependent upon whether or not your game requires Animal spells that target an animal's mind to include modifications for the animal's size. If you do play with size modifications, then in addition to using the second Collar of Obedience, Ranulf also does not know the spell Command of the Lion.
Ranulf's unique spells as of 135 years post gauntlet
Animal spells
Auram Spells
Corpus spells
Ignem Spells
Inaginem Spells
Terram Spells
Vim Spells
The following spells are not spells that Ranulf knows but they came up as likely sponts for him
Looking at Ranulf 136-150 I have two matters that I'll push him to see to.
In previous periods I had him take a leisurely pilgrimage to Jerusalem, considering this along with his arch magus status and his location in Iberia it seems a reasonable possibility that he might be requested to servae as a liason to the order of Suliaman on at least one occasion. In addition, he's going to want to raise his social interaction game now that he is an arch magus.
Secondly he's going to enchant the familiar bond with stuff that Artisano wants.
Both of these endeavors are going to be helped by Ranulf learning a few teleport spells.
With these plans in mind, here is how he's going to spend 10 years worth of xp (leaving him 20 seasons for lab work and, probably, the start of teaching another apprentice)
living language Arabic at 2 for 15
Organization lore Order of Hermes raised to 2 for 10
Magic Theory raised to 9 for 44
Carouse raised to 2 for 10
Etiquette at 1 for 5
charm at 1 for 5
Organization Lore Suhhar Sulayman at 1 for 5
15 xp in spell mastery for 15
creo to 18 for 35
Muto to 23 for 23
Perdo to 17 for 33
Rego to 17 for 33
Auram to 18 for 35
the remaining 32 x will be applied to ignem netting him 48 with his affinity. This raises his ignem score to 33 +3 (26)
Here is a matching 300 xp for Artisano
Brawl to 9 for 95
Awareness to 5 for 25
Stealth to 5 for 25
Organization Lore Order of Hermes to 4 for 35
Faerie Lore to 5 for 25
Divine lore to 3 for 15
Infernal lore to 4 for 35
Magic Lore to 7 for 35
Philosophae to 2 for 10
Artisano is fond the spell Pilum of fire (or if he isn't already that's going to be the next personality trait from the familiar bond) so Ranulf and Artisano are going to enchant the ability to produce something very much like it into his familiar bond.
Here's a recent thread about this sort of enchantment.
The two of them can instill a level 45 effect into the bond in a single season, this would let Artisano throw Pilums of fire for no might cost and they'd have two mastery points left over (perhaps for multi casting and fast casting). That would be great, but they decide that if this is worth doing at this point in their lives, it's worth doing in a more impressive fashion.
They spend a single season researching this spell for the similar spells bonus. Just working on the enchantment for three seasons gives almost the same final level as spending one season researching the spell then two on the enchantment benefitting from the similar spell bonus so why not have the spell too?
Then two seasons instilling the following effect in the familiar bond
Artisano develops an irrationally great fondness for Pilum of Fire style effects, Ranulf's love of flying increases.
The description of a greater power says
After reducing the power's cost to 0, I had eight points left.
*Multi casting and fast casting were used mostly as is but I restricted multi casting to 4 bolts rather than 9 which just felt excessive.
*I used something akin to penetration mastery to improve the effect's penetration by 8. This was much better than just adding 5 xp to Artisano's penetration score (which didn't make any sense from a setting perspective).
*While mastery points can be used to increase initiative I used four of them in a manner akin to quick casting mastery to add to both initiative and to fast cast speed.
*I used one to allow the production of bolts of flame that aren't as likely to flat out kill a target (and that can themselves serve as a target for Ranulf's Talisman enchantments of Pila of Unmatched Heat and Pila of Jagged Bone, although Artisano at present is not large enough to hold the staff in the proper way to trigger these.
So there's some things that might benefit from scrutiny in this effect.
1 season learning Rego Corpus spells from lab texts:
Leap of Homecoming (level 35) and
Lifting the Dangling Puppet (level 15).
Also one season learning perdo vim spells from lab texts
Revoke the protection of Bonisagus at level 5
Unravel the Fabric of Mentem at 40
Unravel the Fabric of Corpus at 45
A season learning Rego Ignem spellls to deal with magical fire creatures from lab notes
Summon the Spirit of Fire level 40 (from Mysteries Revised)
Coerce the Spirit of Fire level 20 (from Mysteries Revised)
Ring of Protection Against Infernal Creatures of Fire at level 30
Burst of the Sweeping Flames level 25
Then a season learning Rego Vim spells to conjure spirits, once again from notes
Summon the Spirit of Magic level 40 from mysteries revised
Summon the Spirit of Faerie level 40 from mysteries revised
Nothing really to see here (except how far off that 30 levels per year thing is), Please go back and look at the fire breathing spells in the previous post. I've never seen anything of the sort done before and I'd like some opinions on them that aren't mine.
Two seasons to instill this in the familiar bond
One season for both of these effects
While sending words from Ranulf to Artisano can be accomplished with a level 5 creo imaginem non-fatiguing spont, they had a lab total of 60 and no better level 15 creo mentem bond enchantment came to mind.
Changing an animal, specifically Artisano the familiar, into a fire elemental, here are some thoughts about how it should be done:
Changing an animal into an inanimate object is base 15 but elementals are animated, instead I'm partial to base 25; the same as giving a creature a magical power or changing them in a major magical way. (For reference, changing an animal into a plant is base level 10.)
How big should the elemental be ? Size 0 seems like a reasonable choice, going by the rules in Realms of Power: Magic the might a of a size 0 fire elemental is 15, the same as Artisano's. A standard ignem individual is about size
+0. Leaving the creature's size unchanged has a bit of resonance - if he (Artisano) was changed into an elephant it wouldn't be a size -5 elephant but, unlike fire elementals, there are no size -5 elephants.
Realms of Power links the characteristics (strength, quickness, presence and so on) of the elemental to its size. They give a list of 8 numbers for each elemental size. I was going to grab to four highest numbers for the physical characteristics and leave the mental characteristics unchanged.
If I wanted him to be say size +5 do I just do a *10 per magnitude Target size adjustment or two? I think so.
I am going to give him a fire themed but perfectly functional roar-like crackly voice. I'm not intending to pay for this with levels at all.
Finally all fire elementals have the burn power which represents how hot they are. I consider this a byproduct of being a walking mass of flames rather than an additional power they'd have to enchant into the bond if they'd want it - yet it is written up as a power - a major power in fact. Is it cheesy to gift it for no further cost in levels? If I don't include it, what's a good way to represent the fact that he's a fire and that comes with drawbacks (and some benefits)?
Very nice.
Not that he'd complete such a project in this period, but would making CrIg create a fire doing +x damage a general guideline and thereby making PoF, Ball of Abyssal Flame and Cloak of Flames general level spells useable with adaptive casting mastery be a reasonable minor breakthrough for him to work towards? If so, how many breakthrough points would you put it at?
Of course embarking upon any original research at his age is an express ticket to permanent twilight so perhaps this is not a path he'd choose to follow, but it is interesting to consider.
Most people on the forum would tell you that's what they already do, I'm sure.
I disagree. Not only does CrIg get a "free magnitude" when determining damage dealt, but there is also a cap. Why is that I wonder? Was there a reason, or just a clumsy result of how it was felt necessary to write the guidelines?
Answer these, for the purposes of your saga, then we can answer your above question.
And yes, this means it won't necessarily be 100% transferable between tables - something that I consider a feature, not a bug.
With regard to a power in the familiar bond that will allow Artisano to change into a fire elemental their lab total is 99 assuming three points from an apprentice, so in two seasons they can create an enchantment of level 66.
I adapted the fire damage portion of the description from the Burn power of Fire Elementals in RoP: Magic p.139. I added the Teram requisite to allow him to carry his typical enchanted items. In this form he still has issues using Ranulf's Talisman unless it (the talisman) is warded against flame-which I'm sure it frequently is.
Ten seasons done, but I'm thinking that I'll only have him do one or two more things and then put in 8 or 9 seasons with an apprentice.
One season for this wand , it uses 11 points of shape and material bonuses, +8 a similar spells bonus, +5 from an apprentice and +1 from an early riser schedule.
Ranulf made this wand to trade with another magus in order to get a device to compensate for his intellego deficiency.
One season for this
They then take a season to reforge the familiar magus bond their lab total with some bonuses for lab schedule and an apprentice could be as high as 130, they'll only use 120; gold 4, silver 3, bronze 4.
The remaining seven seasons are spent with his apprentice. That wraps up all of the lab activities for both Ranuld and Adelbert through 150 years out of apprenticeship. (woo hoo!!)