The intention was to increase the speed at which Virtues are installed in a lab. Flaws now have a greater weight than they did before, essentially providing two benefits where before they provided only one. Faster installation of virtues, AND their ability to be taken as an offset against occupied size.
By RAW, you can take flaws when you install a major virtue, Marko's plan, if it truly double counts flaws, allows you to do the same, and also speed up the pace at which you can install the virtue.
That may speed up gameplay (arguable, this is PbP), or it just gives players an incentive to stack flaws at virtue installation time. And when it comes to Refining those flaws away, they get a "double" bonus, in that it served a dual purpose before, but is as easy to remove as it ever was.
That's not even comparing it to the whole buying your lab system.
Everything you say is correct, but again, I think that was the intention. I get that it's not "balanced" and you don't like it, but that's not really the point. It's the rule we've been using for quite some time, we all recognized the ramifications and chose to go with it. Beyond that, what's your point?
Question, I just noticed that the Core Rules list Incantation of Summoning the Dead as a ritual. Color me just a touch confused as there's no reason that it should be, it just seems like an arbitrary decision on someone's part. What's the troupe's take on this?
Ugh, someone's learning Mercurian Magic... Otherwise again, the concept in untenable. What good is a Necromancer who can't... well you know, actually summon up ghosts? Otherwise it's an eight pawn tax anytime he casts it.
Why is it that I notice these things after I finish fully fleshing out my character? I swear, I'm like this close to just making a blasty Flambeau (which would make Marko unreasonably happy I know).
Ironically enough, I just finished reading a way to make my previous idea work. Life is full of these little ironies...
Have you looked at Canaanite Necromancy in Ancient Magic? You could make your frustrations your character's, which could fuel a search for such a thing.
There's also Imbued with Spirit of [Form] from Realms of Power: Magic that let's you substitute long-term fatigue for vis of the appropriate form (Mentem in your case).
That one was erattaed, unerrattaed, and re errattaed. The way I understand it, and crrect me if I am wrong, you need a ritual version if you have no AC and are not in the haunt. If you have one or both, a non ritual version will do. See The Mysteries Revised, Summon the Spirit of Form.
Again, I bring up Abaddon and Val-Negra. According to legend, he learned many strange mysteries in the east before the Schism War. History records that he led a cabal out of Val-Negra called the Chaldean Sorcerers. They were a rival organization to the Titanoi, but after the Betrayal they waned in popularity. Then the war came. This cult no longer exists and their writings are gone (if there were any).
So lets say you wanted to pay another Magus to teach you a spell(s) during a season during character creation. How would you say that is handled? I was thinking 3+ pawns (as that is what you could earn in a season) are paid to the teacher. The situation is one where a character is a member of a cult known for these big rituals and doesn't have the lab total to learn the spell in a season. However, if someone who knows the spell were to teach him... And honestly that's probably how half the cult members learned these spells.
The other alternative is to learn spells from Lab Texts - which is also very fast. A teacher who's better than you will be faster, but the Lab Texts also don't eat up a season of the teacher's time, so~ buying the texts is probably cheaper.
Oh absolutely! But for someone's who's first learning a big honking ritual that is meant to be group cast, he might not have the totals even for something with a text... Sure it's obviously more expensive to go the teacher route. I'm just curious as to how much more expensive...
I think you misunderstand what a teacher can teach with regard to spells. The teacher can teach their highest applicable lab total in a season in spell levels, so long as one spell of that TeFo was taught during the season. The student can only learn individual spells up to their Lab total in a TeFo, which is, for all intents and purposes like a lab text. So, if you can't learn it from a lab text, you can't learn it from a teacher.
Nithyn, I noticed the following thread. I thought about commenting there, but felt it might fit better here. The Hermetic Shipwright is a difficult concept to pull off. It requires relatively broad Arts, and importantly, without being a Verditius, the time and patience to get to an astounding Magic Theory score to be able to invest a ship as a magic item.
Oh I'm well aware of what it takes, although I appreciate the warning! I should have been more specific, I'm not so much interested in actually enchanting the ships (maybe eventually?), rather I'm more interested in being able to produce them quickly via Rego Craft Magic. Does that make sense?
It does.
Acquiring the materials is not an insignificant hurdle, though. Whereas conjuring a a boat for a sun/moon duration requires a high degree of finesse, too, but doesn't have the raw material requirement.
Indeed the costs are quite high, but I'm making strides towards resolving those issues as well. Thankfully wood is fairly easy to get thanks to CrHe magic that can mature trees.