silveroak will have to say for certain, but as I read that passage it means that if Soot doesn't take the virtue to be able to cast hermetic magic to begin with, once her Arts were opened, she still wouldn't be able to cast hermetic magic, not having that ability.
Up to SilverOak, but I have seen this read as allowing exactly the usage being made with Soot, to take one Supernatural skill without spending a virtue. Why? Because.
That's an odd reading because it says that if you start your character before the opening of the Arts you can get a free ability, but if you start your character after the opening of your Arts you can't. It applies different rules solely based on what phase of life you start your character.
Why wouldn't a player simply say in their background that they had a minor Supernatural Ability prior to having their Arts opened? The InVi Lab total for preserving that Ability would only be 10 if the Ability were only at level 1 or 2 (and presumably it's not higher than that at around age 10). So long as you don't have a deficiency in an Art, you know that your parens had at least a 5 In and a 5 Vi, which would have met the requirement.
Characters raised up through apprenticeship will probably end up much more powerful than ones raised up through the normal rules, if the magus tries at all to give the apprentice a good education. This can be especially true if the apprentice has virtues related to learning, or the magus makes a serious effort to raise the best apprentice possible.
Trade five seasons of Latin practice for 5 seasons of assistance that's +30 xp. If you train the apprentice in magic theory you can finagle various amounts of xp. +20 if your magic theory is 3. You could even get your hands on some high quality Summae or teachers for supernatural abilities, make the apprentice learn a few, open and transform them into hermetic virtues, and make them learn the supernatural abilities again. 16+ is an achievable quality. The rules for apprentices have rules for gaining Hermetic Virtues from your Parens. If you have access to a decent Mystery Initiator (Terra) you could easily end up with a pile of virtues and no counter balancing flaws.
If you really wanted to go all out with training your apprentice you could give the kid books on every season you don't teach. They could end up with several hundred more experience than the book expects.
Similarly a few ways of exploiting apprentices could end up with a vastly stronger apprentice than normal. If you make the apprentice perform independent research to steal they will end up with a lot of spells, some of which will be non-standard. In Soot's case if you try to get her to add to your books collection you'll want her to spend the first few years getting her ability scores up, then write, write, write.
That's against the rules. Just like you can't say you got experience from learning from others if you take Apt Student. Even when you have had a Hermetic Apprenticeship and should have had plenty of chance to use that virtue.
tl;dr: Characters in play can acquire power much quicker than during character creation stages.
Soot may have one supernatural ability for free, as noted. The first 5 points are not free however, as they are when you actually take the virtue. The ability can also not be learned before the age of 5, and of course has a (nominal in all likelihood) chance of being lost when the arts are opened.
Anything else that needs to be done before the character is ready? Would the current place in the Lab thread be a suitable introduction? Does anyone want to play Sparks?
I can take Sparks. Any personality or roleplaying ideas you want me to bring out?
soot needs one more minor flaw. A childhood flaw will suffice for now.
As for introduction, lets put that a little further ahead, since no seasons were spent searching for an apprentice...
... unless we want this apprentice opened and newly claimed by right of Bonisagus...
Fixed!
The only reason that Talus would take an apprentice from another magus is if the apprentice was being improperly trained or was in danger of death. It's not a prerogative that he'd use lightly.
Also, a word of warning to QPaC: with a Blatant Gift, it's entirely likely that there will be situations in which Talus will keep Soot in the lab rather than letting her out to cause trouble with the mundanes. That might limit her participation in some adventures. I just wanted you to go into things eyes open about what that Flaw would mean for game play.
Meh, she should probably be in the lab reading or writing. Anyway, adventures should be able to get her out of the lab if they're really that adventurous.
Hyperborean magic is ancient magic, which means by definition that nobody alive knows it. Pick a different free ability. You are also 5 pts over on abilities- remember the free ability does not give you the first 5 points free...as per discussion in this thread.
For Sparks, It's my impression we can choose the power level, which corresponds to how often Sparks will be in an adventure. Here are my impressions:
Grog = reasonably common, 2 seasons per year?
Companion = uncommon, 1 season/year or less?
higher? = when the character is in a real pickle, basically Deus ex Machina, should be pretty rare
The text basically indicates anything less powerfull than a companion will be essentially an extension of the character's will, so:
grog: always present
Companion: around, played by a different player, interacts at that player's will
magi: one season per year
higher- NPC deus ex machine (and probably a full blown dragon since this means might over 30)
QPAC - pick a number from 1 to 4....
Changed Abilities to:
Low German 5, Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Concentration 2, Magic Lore 2 (Dragon), Survival 2, Premonitions* 2
And I'm confused on how I'm over, especially 5 over. German is free. Athletics is 30, Brawl is 15, Concentration is 15, Awareness is 15, Survival is 15, and premonitions is 15. 105 experience Total at age 9 that's four years of later life at 15 each, and 45 xp from early childhood. 105 experience. Brawl and Athletics are the experience from early childhood.
Its supposed to be a young small dragon, so definitely grog power, but that indicates I should probably be running it... 15 might is quite a lot of something weak. What do you think?
Grog level would be might:5
Companion Level is Might:15
Magus level is might:30
I think I'll go companion level, then. I'll put in a little thought about this warder thing. I suppose it could just be a physical bodyguard, but it seems more interesting to take an active interest in his career, much like a hovering parent, or older brother who cares for a younger sibling. Possible to the annoyance of the magi who is failing in his perceived duties!
Seems reasonable. I think part of the theme of the warder is supposed to be imparting the wisdom/teaching the wardie. Goes well with being annoyed at the magus who is supposed to do the teaching! 