I was wondering whether anyone has ever considered having the opening of the Arts done by two Magi together? ArM5, p. 107, says that the master must have a score of at least 5 in each Art in order to avoid giving a Deficiency to the apprentice. This is the sort of requirement which could be met if several Magi had, together, the required knowledge.
Any idea how it could be dealt with in game terms? I was thinking about a Communication + Theory of Magic roll of something equivalent of both masters, to be sure that they are on the same wavelenght and succeed to convey their (potentially conflicting) personal vision of magic to the apprentice.
Of course, this would require that one of the two senior Magi consents to entering into the sanctum of the other during that season, which is never without risk...
I do not thik, that this will be possible. However, since opening the art is a laboretory procedure, you might use a gifted assistant adding his Magic Theory and Int. score to avoid losing some supernatural virtues the kid already has.
Funny. I can perfectly imagine a pair of mistagogues in an initiation. confusing the one nbeing initiated with a kind of "good cop/bad cop" role and circling around him.
But no, according tpo the rules you can't have that. Training can be done by several people, but in a given season only one of the magi can contribute to the "project". in this case the project is opening the arts; the other magi can act as assistants, but in this concrete lab activity the lead magus needs to have all his arts at 5
Agreed - since there is no actual explanation of the details of how it's done, and it's always referred to as a "one mage" job, it's assumed to be exclusively so.
You could always just house-rule it otherwise, but you could also house-rule that all lab totals should be tripled - it's not canon, but if it works for you, do it. Ysmv.
A major reason to work together opening an apprentice's arts is to preserve or change existing supernatural abilities, as it uses the parens' InVi lab total. I've ruled that the primary lab worker needs all arts at five, but the helper(s) don't. The helper was a familiar, btw.
(Please excuse if I somehow post this incorrectly- new to forums)
(Welcome, P! A bit of threadomancy, but it's all good.
And an interesting observation! If a familiar, why ~not~ another lab assistant or 2ndary mage? (Altho' there is a connection, a literal Bond between a familiar and mage that no other "lab helper" could possibly hope to approach.)
Tho' I think your ruling about the Arts being determined by the primary mage, and their scores alone, is wise.