But if you're asking where you are, you're #24. If you're asking where I got this, go to Members, then click on Posts, then on Posts again. First one sorts the memberlist by number of posts, but it lists them low to high; clicking the second time sorts them high to low. You want high to low, because there are like 25 pages of members who have never posted (1,245), and another 11 pages (267) who only posted once. There's only about nine pages of members who have posted at least ten times.
Why, no, I don't have entirely too much free time on my hands, why ever do you ask?
I decided to use some titles here that reference pop culture, but may only be tangentally related to the actual story. Leaves are Brown and Hazy Shade of Winter were the first two to do that.
This story will likely be a nonparticipatory one. I'm still toying with this a bit, although I have done quite a bit, I'm not really sure if I'll be able to polish and post it. I threw it out there as a possibility. Of course, there may be a sequel, of sorts that is ripe for PC interaction.
Seven League Stride w/mastery boosted casting 6
Gentle Touch of the Purified Body w/mastery for penetration 4
Bind Wound w/ mastery quite casting 2
Jupiter’s Resounding Blow w/mastery fast cast 2
I'm not sure where these came from. These appear to match Korvin's known spells. If Korvin translated them, then the spell lab texts can exist, but the mastery abilities do not. That would be like creating a free tractatus on spell mastery...
they were lab texts that Korvin bought with his 75 build points. It is my understanding that if they are Lab notes from a mastered spell then the mastery goes with the spell. If anyone uses the lab text to learn the spell the mastery goes with it.
Spell masteries for individual spells are discrete Abilities, independent of the spell itself. The only way to master a spell automatically upon inventing it, is to have Flawless Magic.
Lab notes are generated while inventing a spell. You can only master a spell after you know it.
I suppose you could make an argument for a Flawless caster's lab texts including notes on spell mastery with the lab text, but even then, only someone else with Flawless Magic would be able to make use of that extra knowledge, AND it would only consist of a mastery score of 1, at that.
That's not my understanding of how mastery is treated. And even if it were, there would need to be a corresponding cost. Secondly, spell mastery texts can't actually dictate a specific form of mastery on a text, the person learning the mastery ability can choose any mastery they already know or one that is included with a text.
Without citing a specific page, there needs to be some revision here. I'm sorry I didn't catch this sooner, and if it impacts spells & mastery levels for your character, please adjust accordingly.
So, I've been mulling over some inconsistency or lack of clarity in the lab assistants as it relates to leadership. A leadership score of 1 allows no extra help in the lab, so for spending 5 xp, one gains very little, nothing unless one picks a lab specialty. That specialty isn't unreasonable at all.
I'm thinking that the bonus should be: Leadership ability +1, but for Bonisagi it's Leadership +2 (see HoH:TL, page 20) for limiting the number of assistants. Any comments about this? This may not affect too many, but it's something I've been thinking about, and it will definitely present some opportunities for more magus collaboration...
I like the idea of having number of helpers = leadership. But I also think there should be some "penalty" for not having any Leadership at all.
Perhaps having your assistant adding either his Int or his Magic Theory (whichever is higher), but not both? Or, since with no Leadership score you don't really know how to direct the assistant's actions to their full effect, you should make an unskilled Leadership roll with the attendant triple botch dice?
My rationale behind this, is that RAW, you get one assistant. It also make sense that some people would never invest in leadership and still be able to turn out serviceable magi AND get good use of them in the lab. The penaltie to not having Leadership is that you can't have more than one assistant and your familiar. Leadership ability score of 1, grants one the ability to have two assistants + familiar, and so on.
Note, I left unsaid that I was going to do away with or nix any specializations on lab work for leadership. It was around this time that atlas went down, and when I went back to edit it, I wasn't able to, and forgot to come back to the post when Atlas came back up. It's based solely on one's ability score, and the specialization should be used in a different area (such as House leadership, politics, etc, anything but labwork).
Well, i'm throwing this out there, it's a discussion not SG fiat. I think there's a bit of a discontinuity in that someone without leadership and someone with a score of 1 in leadership can have the same number of lab assistants. And then the Bonisagus has to have a leadership score of 3 (30 xp) to derive any benefit from having the ability. That's my reasoning for the change. This may have little to no impact on this saga, it's something I'm throwing out there.
In your case, there is no net change for your character if the rule is adopted and you change her specialization to something else. You can then focus that specialization on someting important, such as House politics, conventions, or herding cats, something infinitely useful to her in other ways that don't focus on the lab.
Except that the math with the specialites works out differently. A magi with no leadership skill, who spends 5xp because he wants help in the lab, now receives Leadership 1 (lab work), which allows him to have 2 assistants in the lab.
Note that Verditus get a maximum number of forge-companions equal to their Leadership, with no minimum. Does a specialty in lab work, as it currently stands, apply to them?
Leadership is also used mechanically in other places, like combat groups, and has role-playing considerations attached to it.
So, my question is, why does the math for laboratory work get special consideration? Is there a huge amount of joint lab work being done out there that needs these rules in order to more appropriately demonstrate the communal, giving, copy-leftist attitudes of the Order of Hermes?
Or is it possible that magi are such a bickering, secretive lot, that the notion of having 2 or more of them spending 3 months in the same room, working together under a clearly defined leader is so ludicrously unlikely, that one needs to dedicate time and effort into developing a skill that allows it to happen?
Personally, I would say that the Lab rules should really say you can receive a bonus from an apprentice's help in the lab, because every magi has had to be an apprentice and knows how it works. To get anybody else's help requires a score in Leadership, with a max number of helpers equal to the skill, and that includes Bonisagus. If they want to be able to have extra people in their labs, they should durn well spend the Eeps like everybody else.
I like the idea of an ability to direct people facilitating greater assistance in the laboratory, but the more I think about it, the less I like the idea of it being Leadership. For one thing, there's many characters for whom the Leadership skill is inappropriate (and yes, I'm thinking of lab rat Bonisagi) but they should be able to direct a lab full of apprentices. In that same vein, many players would take the Leadership skill solely for the laboratory assistance, even where actual Leadership doesn't fit the character. Being able to delegate tasks in a laboratory is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from leadership potential. Case in point: I directed a horde of enthusiastic undergrads (ugh) in bio research, and I've got about the same leadership quality in an Eagle scout's big toe. I found that it wasn't so different from how my grandma (head chef for a big catering company) ran her kitchen.
Long story short, I'd be much more in favour of a discrete "Profession: Personnel Management" skill. And while Leadership is based on Presence, Personnel Management should be based on Communication. Failing that, I think Teaching is much more appropriate to directing laboratory assistants than Leadership.
"Here's what I need you to do, and why" = Teaching.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English!
--THAT is Leadership.
Oh, gods, the last thing this system needs is another skill.
While I could see Teaching being used as a skill to coordinate assistants and apprentices, coordinating the work of many people who consider themselves your peers is a far different skill in real life.
That seems like more reason for it to be Teaching instead of Leadership. Magi don't take well to being directed about like apprentices, and should only do so when absolutely necessary.