Virtues that add to Book Source Quality

Which is the other Virtue that adds to book Source Quality?

Good Teacher is one, adding +3 to the final Quality of a book or teaching session. I thought there was another but can't remember?

Isn't there a "Clear Writer" or something Virtue or is that ArM4?

Thanks

Book Learner makes the source quality of books you read 3 higher...

There's Clear Thinker, but that doesn't deal with books...

Improved Characteristics for better Communication, but that's pretty evident...

Those are the only applicable ones I can find in ArM5 after a quick glance...there might be something in HoH:TL, or Covenants? But I don't think so-- there was just resonances in Covenants, iirc.

I think Good Teacher is the only virtue on the author side that really helps quality...

-Ben.

House rule: someone with Profession: Scribe at 5 or more improves the Quality by one point.

The rule in Covenants is that you need a score of at least 6 in Profession-Scribe, or you have a -1! (Quality equals Communication + Virtues + 3, +1 for Well Bound, +1 for Well Scribed, and +1 for Well Illustrated).

I think what is bbeing refered to though is the 4th edition Virtue +1 Strong Writer, which is supplanted by Good Teacher. However, Strong Writer not only gave you a +3, it allowed yo to write and copy faster.

  1. I created a modified version of Strong Writer, modified for 5th edition.

Strong Writer (Minor General Virtue)
You are very good at expressing yourself through the written word, and find it easy to communicate through writing. You gain a +3 bonus to the Quality of any books that you write, and a 50% to the total determining the speed at which you write. Thus, you write a Summa at the rate of (com + Language) x 1½ points per season, you copy them carefully at the rate of 9 + (Profession Scribe x 1½) points per season, and copy quickly at three times your careful speed. If you are a magus, you write out Lab Texts at the rate of (Latin x 30) levels per season and copy them at a rate of (Profession Scribe x 90) levels per season.
This is compatible with the Good Teacher Virtue. The maximum bonus is only +3 (not +6). However, possessing both virtues allows you to add +1 to the level limit you are allowed for a Summa on Abilities (+2 if on Arts), and one to the maximum number of Tractati you may write on a subject.

Our version of Strong Writer:
Strong Writer, Can reduce Quality by 2X(*2 for abilities) to increase Level by X, final level may still not be higher than Writer Level, OR can increase Quality by 2 and write total by 4

And some other Minor virtues relevant:
Eloquent Writer, get double Write Quality bonus for reductions of level+ always +2 Write Quality, OR can halve Write Total to gain COM+2 extra to Write Quality

Insightful, summae level limit=2/3 of skill instead of 1/2

Clear Writer, +4 to Quality level of anything written

Fast Writer, Bonus to the time calculation for writing something(Strong writer bonus added AFTER doubling)

Major Virtues:
Clear and Precise [Instructions and wording], +8 to Write quality and +12 to Teaching, supercedes Good Teacher

Great Innovator, +6 to any attempts to create new works of art, adds +3 to Write quality, adds +7 to lab total for developing spells, enchanted items, research and attempts to innovate within a craft +50% starting Spells, +2 to any craft related rolls where any kind of original thinking could be beneficial, supercedes Free Expression

Superbly Eloquent Writer, get triple Write Quality bonus for reductions of level+ always +6 Write Quality, OR can halve Write Total to gain COM*2+6 extra to Write Quality

Productive Writer, Write total *3 after ALL other modifications

True Insight, summae level limit= Score of skill instead of 1/2

No guarantee against errors(translating from paper notes).

Perhaps I am remembering the ArM4 Virtue.

IIRC, Covenants states that the max Quality of a Tractatus is 17.

The basic corrected for errata formula is:
(the non-magical subject bonus has been removed by errata)

Com (up to +5) +3 (intrinsic bonus) +3 (for good scribe/bind/illuminate)

  • bonuses from Virtues (Good Teacher adds +3, but is there another?)

So +5 +3 +3 +3 = 14

This is 3 short of 17, implying another Minor Virtue.

So what's the other Minor Virtue?

Book Learner (ArM5, p40 adds +3 to the Quality of books studied by the reader, but this doesn't confer any intrinsic bonus to the book itself).

Thanks,

Lachie

Well perhaps that is what is intended by saying "Max Quality". 14 is the Quality of the tractatus itself, conferred by the writer and the final 3 are conferred to the one studying it by reason of his/her Book Learner Virtue.

After all, Quality is only an abstract concept until one studies the work in question and derives the benefit from it.

(Meh, never mind me, I'm an idiot.)

There is no other Virtue which adds to book Quality; Good Teacher is the only one. The "missing" three points in the maximum of 17 comes from resonant bonuses (see Covenants, p.87). You can have up to three points of such bonuses.

Which leads to the idea that if you were a particularly blessed person, you might be able to write in a way that ius resonant, but incompatible with other resonances, allowing you to make great books more easily, but not raise the XP per month maximum in the book rules.

I think I've become confused by not applying the errata and misremembering from previous editions (I hadn't looked at the writing rules for some time unfortunately) - there was at one point a +3 bonus to non-magical subjects which seems to have thrown my math off as I'd accounted for the lack of resonances for non-magical subjects.

I was particularly interested in non magical books, which seem to therefore have a Source Quality Maximum of 14 for tractati under the errata, whereas magical (Arts & Arcane Abilities) can have a maximum of 17. This is not as clear as I thought in the RAW.

I thought I recalled a non-magical tractatus with a Source Quality of 17, but when I checked this I seem to have been mistaken.

Thanks for the clarifications in any case.

The Strong Write Virtue is interesting in any case, as is Timothy's suggestion of non-Hermetic resonances.

Regards,

Lachie