Warping

Hello

Warping seems to be a huge problem for any magi. For example a magus with a lab equal to that of Richardus Caepuss (p. 123 covenants) have a warping score of 2. This means that 20% of all lab work warping occurs. This means that 40% of the lab work has either a minor, major or fatal flaw if you rolled a side effect. And there is a 30% risk that there is reduced effect if you rolled a modified effect.

If a magus works 100 seasons in a lab with such high warping score then 20 seasons work are warped. This means that 4 season work are probably spoiled.

Does anyone have a suggestion how to get rid of warping but still get the good stuff out of a lab such as this.

I am have for your thoughts on the subject.

/Max

Ignore the covenants book as if it was never written? It has a few good story ideas but thats about it

/em waits fer the "we love the covenant book" post to begin

But I love the Covenants book...

A strong familiar with the right Cord score and increasing the Refinement to include some Safety Virtues would be my approach.

Having said that, though, I'm beginning to think that lab work comes across as too safe following the basic rules, anyway. Pursuing magic in ME needs to be more dangerous. I know that I may be in the minority here, but it just seems to me that even minor experiments with Unknown Forces (or at least incompletely understood ones) need to generate a "Franklin, you were a brilliant apprentice, but please tell me that it is only your face is that particular shade of purple..." sort of event without deliberate, explicit care.

Thoughts?

-K!

The lab of Richardus Caepuss on page 123 has a warping score of 0.

Are you talking about the lab of Iermyra? This has warping because of the qualities haunted and predicessor. It also has the qualities of wrecked, uneven floor, unstable, vunerable, damp, decaying, and infested. I don't think that the warping score is this lab's biggest problem.

I think that if you had Iermyra's lab and were fixing it up, getting rid of the ghost and stripping it down to bare bones then re-equipping it would be your path to a lower warping score (getting rid of the warping flaws). I can also imagine an intellego vim enchanted device might be used to lower a lab's warping score (by providing warning when things start to go awry).

That's an excellent suggestion... Or maybe giving a bonus on the roll to be made. Any ideas on magnitude and such?

Serf's parma, but I recall that the rule in Covenants is that 20 levels of enchanted devices are sufficient to raise one of your laboratory characteristics by one point. By analogy, I would think that 20 levels should be sufficient to lower an unwanted characteristic by one point.

Seems reasonable.

Serf's parma, but it appears that a mature magus with a familiar with a Golden Cord score of 3 (and willing to work as a lab assistant) and, say, 40 levels of InVi enchantments would be able to have a lab that would otherwise have a Warping score of 5. That's a lot of investment but it seems to balance well.

-K!

Where'd you get the thing with the Golden Chord? It works towards magical errors, that is; botching. So I'd say that Godlen Chord helps with Safety, not Warping, or have I completely misunderstood here?

Uh, you may have it right and I may be the one misunderstanding. I'll have to check the books when I get back home later this evening.

In the mean time, though, does anyone out there have access to the books in question right at the moment and give sa straight answer on this?

-K!

I'll quote the paragraph:

I'll also quote the Familiar Virtue of Covenants:

Which basically means that, no, there is no "bonus" to the Warping score due to theGolden Cord. (might use a new one instead though...)

oh, poo! :frowning:

Well, there you have it. Hmm, I've been wondering about what a couple Bonisagi would be researching in my saga -- perhaps this would be one to look into.

Thanks.

The nature of the flaw depends on the source of your lab's warping. If that nature agrees with the kind of magic you're practicing, there is a greater chance that you can live with those flawed spells. If not, well, time for you to move into a more mundane laboratory, e.g. one which isn't filled with magical creatures.

Hello

What do you think of a perdo vim device. Perhaps with range voice and target part, then ad constant effect. The spell would destroy that stray magic power that warps a lab. Maybe a touch range would do the trick. But would only work on warping caused by hermetic magic. I most certainly agree with the statement that 20 levels of power could reduce the warping score of the lab.

I firmly believe that warping are a huge problem. Any magus would search for means to reduce the warping. A fatal flaw in a low level spell is just annoying, but a fatal flaw when enchanting the magus familari would be a disaster.

Thanks for the thoughts

/Max

Well, personally i'd go for a InVi effect as a sort of early warning system, this might of course be because I've always wanted to create a new eye for my Magus, one made from a gem with about 190 levels of InVi effects :wink: should be enough to let em keep a considerable amount of critters, eh? :laughing: