Great idea. This is often forgotten, and, IMO, are not appropriate for a lot of characters (especially as divine virtues are more powerful due to realm interaction) but all "neutral" supernatural virtues can be from any realm. Having a holy character derive this kind of power to the divine is, IMO, quite appropriate.
Ah. bon, follow marko, then
Take my answers with a grain of salt, as I answer as I understand it.
Ah, marko answered already. Still leaving my replies, quite similar anyway, and it may help.
I saw it, and based myself in part of it. That is, I assumed that, given time, all corebook spells were available as lab texts, but that any spell or effect outside of it had to be invented the hard way. Same thing for items. Heck! I realize I was harder on myself that what marko allowed
I'd say do it as a normal lab activity, but give the reference if it's a published spell outside the corebook, and detail it if it's an original creation (base description, R/D/T). Spell design can be tricky and vary a lot from individual to individual, like the net grimoire proves
I'd say yes for vis.
I think RoP: M is better, but I believe both are possible. IIRC, Callen has an entirely mundane animal, with no might, but a supernatural virtue that makes it a little exceptional, as a familiar should be.
I'd say no... Unless you scratch one season to find it, and then there's one season per year you've had him where you take only exposure (as you teaches him), with the apprentice gaining 1 season XP based you your teaching and 3 seasons of exposure. No "Ok, I teach my apprentice a season, and he gets the 3 others to learn from a book or mundane teacher". A standard apprenticeship, as per Apprentices.
For example, you've had an apprentice for 4 years. You spend one season finding one (and opening his arts at the end), and then one season per year teaching him. He? He gets your season of teaching, and 3 seasons of exposure (probably in latin at first, MT later)
Just to say: I love the new tremere, and am happy you're doing one
I don't have Apprentices, but that seems very harsh for the apprentice. If he has Latin 4, why wouldn't he be able to learn from books? For that matter, why can't he learn from vis once his Arts are opened? Not trying to munchkin here - I just don't understand the rationale.
I'm not sure what you mean by new, since I haven't played previous editions of Ars. To me, 'new Tremere' means 'Tremere that aren't vampires'. I've been playing (and running) 5th ed for a couple years, focused solely on the Loch Leglean tribunal. I know nothing about Iberia or Provencal (beyond what Marko has posted) and very little about the Tremere beyond what's in HoH:TL. I'm mainly looking to expand my horizons.
Basically, if you actually play out an apprenticeship (or even a significant part of it, like I'm doing with Ulrich over in Bibracte), you actually turn out a lot more powerful than a starting magus using the character creation rules. For the years before play starts, yes, I'd build him as a normal character (Companion) at age x. Once play starts, I wouldn't put any governors on his advancement beyond what's normally in play.
On the other hand, if you play a magus for five years, you're almost certainly going to turn out more powerful than the "create a magus five years out of gauntlet" creation rules, too. In my opinion, it boils down to whether or not the apprentice is being played or is an npc. Personally (in my saga, anyway), I wouldn't allow an apprentice unless someone was willing to play him, just to avoid this kind of situation.
The apprentice will not be your character. I will create them based upon how many years you have been training them and how much time you invested in finding them. You personally will have to scratch one season a year. I'll take care of the rest.
Or Peregrine can play the apprentice. He has that book, I don't. That will provide some balance. You have all the benefits of an apprentice, but still not as your character.
Either way (NPC or Peregrine) is fine with me. I'm considering the apprentice because it fits the story I've come up with so far. Any benefits I receive are just gravy.
Along those lines, another question - how are we handling advancement of familiars? Or more to the point, how did Callen get Astrid's MT to 9, and how can I do the same?
I followed advancement, but only after the Astrid became a familiar. I also started Astrid as a weaker familiar than the norm because I know I know how to get a lot out of familiars. I'm not really doing so here, though. Generally speaking, a magical focus that covers your familiar is one of the most powerful. Then load up the familiar bond with lots of powers with no warping downside.
Apprentices consider this to be the "standard apprenticeship", and it gives scores relatively close to what you have out of gauntlet if using standard chargen.
If you would have chosen to play the apprentice as your main character, I'd have gone the other way (Andorra needs strenght now! So they're rushing you along, their need breaking their cultural bonds), but it isn't the case. He isn't played, he is just a free boost. If you do otherwise, your apprentice will see his scores skyrocket, and will be ready for you sooner.
On a side note, I'm on the mind that wasting vis for an apprentice to increase his arts is not something most magi'll do (They'll need it to increase their arts or for their enchantments).
I also (mind you, this is purely personnal!!!) don't like the practice that consist of giving your only Ignem summa, that took months for someone to copy and vis for you to get, to an adolescent for him to read. Books are cheap today, and we can afford to have a youth ruin them. In the middle ages? They were treasures, copied by hand*. Since the rules no longer cover book damage, there's no mechanical risk at all, but it runs against my suspension of disbelief.
IIRC, copying a bible could take as much as an entire year, for exemple, working 6 days per week.
I'd be willing to do so. It's kind-of along the lines I was thinking of anyway with my companion I hadn't finished. I agree with Fixer that the new Tremere (5th edition interpretation) are cool. Also it would be cool to look through Apprentices more and the new Tribunal book when it comes out. Most who wanted companions now already have one in play. Meanwhile, I hadn't finished, so adjusting is easy.
Also, consider what Fixer wrote. Don't be too kind to me. Profit as best you can. It will make things more interesting.
No problem, since it looks like I'm going to pass on starting the saga with an apprentice anyway. I'll have too much going on in my first three cycles.
I have a story idea for my third cycle that I want to run by the troupe. I want to preface it by pointing out two things: a) I don't expect Vocis to join a mystery during development because none of them fit his concept, and b) I don't have access to RoP:F, so I'm doing a lot of assuming and hand-waving here.
Vocis is spending his second cycle fighting in the Shadow Wars, going from an all theory/no practice messenger to a viable magical combatant. Once the Wars are over, he wants to explore an idea inspired by the infernalists he was fighting. Infernalists usually make their demonic deals in order to gain power and/or knowledge. The problem is that they damn their eternal souls (and for magi, break the Code) by doing so. Vocis's idea is to find another source of power and knowledge that doesn't lead to automatic damnation - the fae. With his tiny bit of Faerie Lore, he knows the fae are consummate illusionists. He plans to spend a year or so mingling with any Merinita he can find, bone up on his Faerie Lore, and locate a faerie who would be willing to teach him some secrets. As long as he doesn't get into a bad deal or molest any fae, he's going to come out ahead without causing any Hermetic trouble. Yes, this is a very risky (borderline reckless) plan, but that Overconfident flaw is major, after all.
What I'd like to do is use this as the 'Adventure' option for gaining virtues. I'll probably take two or three minor Hermetic (not mystery) virtues and one or two minor flaws that demonstrate why this was a bad idea. However, the HR post specifies that Adventure virtues can't be magical in nature. I guess I'm asking if the troupe would be willing to allow me to do this. As I mentioned above, I don't plan to have Vocis join any mystery cults, so I'm looking for alternative ways to add virtues over time.
I seem to recal a small cult of Tremere faerie magic illusionists. Vague memory. Not sure where to find the reference.
You can also use Twilight to account for Virtues & Flaws.
Or maybe we can pass it anyways. Depends on what this package includes I suppose. Let's have a look and see
My concern here is that virtues and flaws from Twilight require at least 7 Warping points at once, which seems like to should be exceedingly rare. It's even less likely for a magus like Vocis, who doesn't use vis when casting due to his Waster of Vis flaw.
Harnessed Magic is the only sure thing at the moment. I'll work on it some more and see if anyone else has information about the faerie-linked Tremere you mentioned.
Because it didn't occur to me. I'm away from my copy of RoP:M, but I'll take a look when I get home tomorrow.
I also have an unrelated question about magic item design. Let's say I'm enchanting an ermine cloak as an invested item. My MT is 5 and I'm therefore limited to 5 components when designing a compound item. Does the cloak itself bestow S/M bonuses for Cloak, Animal Hide, and Clothing? If so, do I need to assign three of my 5 component 'slots' in order to use all of those bonuses?
I've been playing (and running) 5th ed for a couple years, focused solely on the Loch Leglean tribunal. I know nothing about Iberia or Provencal (beyond what Marko has posted) and very little about the Tremere beyond what's in HoH:TL. I'm mainly looking to expand my horizons.