how do magi stay in good physical shape?
Other than the earthly ones they don't?
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"Best way I've yet found to work out the daily strife" - Cellulotti of Criamon
"Damn, they stole my idea!" - Secundus Chinus of Verditius
Just a pawn of corpus or perdo vis and 20 minutes a day and you'll be the talk of the tribunal!
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CrCo rituals to improve the strenght. (See the guidelines in the CrCo section, if you have a source book...)
That is not staying in good physical shape though...
EDIT: JUst saw that the topic was started by abe. I would delete the reply as a consequence, but it seems one of those rare occasions where abe generated a worthwile thread instead of sheer nonsense.
Yup. That is something that always irked me: lab rats with +1 or +2 stamina. Either they do a lot of lab equipment lifting to stay fit, or I can't see how they can maintain such stamina characterstics. Pure willpower (a common "description" of the positive characteristic) does not fit well here, IMO.
A positive stamina is OK for people that work regularly in heavy duty activities, including quite a few verditius. It is OK as well for people that does quite a bit of travelling and moving around, but for "usual" mages that live in tall towers, have long white beards and all the characteristics of a "classical" magus, I find it quite difficult to match their appeare4nce with something superior to a +1 stamina. or strength.
The system does not place any limits on this (you can have -3 str and +3 sta) IIRC, so hey. Such extreme characters are discouraged IMS but mages that do not venture more than 10 minutes from their labs and have +2 stamina have always been common IMS.
So, after this rant: IMO magi either do phisical activities like travelling or heavy duty, or they are NOT fit.
I can see mages doing quite a bit of exercise for 6 months before drinking their longevity potion to ensure that their shape stays fit, though.
Cheers,
Xavi
They can also cheat by only eating one main meal a day, and then making diameter duration snacks to gobble the rest of the day, all the yumminess, but none of the calories!
But you know, some of it can just be how the person is.. some people can't get fit easily, other people find it comes easy to them. Even magi who stay in their labs all day can be quite different.. Take one magi, who sits around in his lab all day, reading mostly, sitting around and just watching flasks boil and such, whereas another might be on his feet all the time, never able to stay still, constantly moving around and setting more reactions in progress etc.
Also, lets be honest.. do many of your magi use stamina regularly for physical activity rolls like running?.. if they do.. then hey, they've just justified it, cause they -are- exercising, otherwise, perhaps its just a measure of how good they are at withstanding spellcasting. Remember the actual description of stamina, it's not just physical, it's about both physical and mental staying power. Maybe they're not overly fit, but they're just so mentally disciplined that they can keep themselves going through the pain barrier.
I second the going through the pain barrier idea on this one.
But I can assure you that non-mechanised lab work is a tiresome business. Most magi will stay in somewhat of a shape by it. Next to that: you travel to most places by walking there.
My laboratory loving Bonisagus gets his workout by actually working in the lab, but those trips to the fairy regio sure help. Maybe he has gained gained some weight now that his talisman knows leap of homecoming 
, but on the other hand: that has lead him to venture of more as well.
In general I think that having both physical and mental stamina in one characteristic will always have this problem. That why: go for the preserverance, pain barrier solution if you want the easy way out.
Given that spellcasting itself uses the stamina attribute, and that poor spellcasting rolls make you lose fatigue levels, i'd say it is quite clear that the practice of magic is itself a strenuous activity that can be physically exhausting.
Essentially mgic is a high calorie burning activity and thus lab work (which is lots of magic spread over a large period of time) would probably be quite good at fat burning.
Adding, as Paris Sophia mentioned that no magi have cars (at least IMS) or public transport and that the best way of travelling, i.e. on horse back is off limits to magi, they'd walk everywhere. There are no lifts in those tall towers either. With gentle gifted magi who can ride you have to bear in mind that even horse riding is quite a physical task.
Finally, there isn't anything like the same level of sugar (i.e. high density energy sources) in what magi eat. We often forget exactly how well we eat these days, medieval magi would be eating mostly veg, with roasted meat, fish and poultry. No sugary treats, or extra helpings of dessert.
I think most magi would tend towards the slim.
And to Xavi, in my current saga i started with a magus with a +1 stamina and a -2 strength. I was going for the Raistlin image, a stick thin and weedy chap with formidable willpower. In this case, my magi pushed his physical limits by virtue of willpower, when a more physically fit character might take a rest, he would resolutely push himself onwards. Note that he is hardly a lab rat, but he is a sickly and weedy man (or at least, was, events conspired to bring his strength to 0).
So, spellcasting is the exercise itself.... Never thought of it that way. In fact, it makes sense in the setting, even if the frail mage that gets tired by PHYSICAL effort but throws up large ammounts of spells (both in quality and quantity) is a common image as well.
Interesting. 
OTOH, I am diabetic, and semi-vegetarian (my g/f is a veggie, so that tuernas me into a de fact6o veggie as well most of the time), so I do not tend to eat/drink high powered food. Pasta (equivalents available at the time?) and rice (not equivalent at the time) are my main carbohidrate sources. You can go quite far with those. No need for fancy sugars when it comes to carbohydrates
Cheers,
Xavi
so,what sort of exercises could magi do?
House Flambeau is particularly fond of Jumping Jacks as long as it's someone else doing the jumping! 
twenty three
Any criamon in the area will understand 
Hmm... sure it is 23? I thought the answer was "yellow Yes".
Xavi
No no, Xavi, it's "No Soap, Radio!"
"Bugrit!" is another popular one.
ROFL!!!! HA! 
One should have known that it takes a futuristic computer to come up with Forty Two... maybe the Criamon will get there if they ever fuse with the Verditii... 
BTW - Agnar, yoou do know that the topic-starter is Criamon himself, right?
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
That's one of Heron's lost devices that Ive been searching for for decades!!!!
Depends on where you're talking about... we have a really multicultural palette in the 21st century, but that's not universal in the 13th century. Sorry for the diversion =D