I don't really see Apicem Domus (the Hedge Relations covenant, where Salma is) as a library covenant. We likely have the best library to start (mostly due to having the most magi and mostly on the younger end of the magi) but we likely won't be devoting the resources and time to building it up as much as you all. Also Salma is definitely planning to write books on Magic Lore that she will share, at least with the Alexandria covenant.

Looking back over my post, that came out a bit more complainy and grumbling than I originally intended. It was supposed to be an amusing observation about how books are pretty much the gold standard of Hermetic experience generation.

No matter where people end up and who's writing the books, Vespera will be interested in your books.  She's brought a skilled bookbinder/scribe with her from the Tremere. Her magical Animal Companion loves reading new books as well.  If people are skilled writers from not-in-Alexandria, you can assume she's keeping tabs on you and offering you hospitality as often as she can.

I won't be at all insulted personally if my character fails to seduce you writers to her library, though Vespera will keep trying!

Yep, you're correct. I forgot about the requirement of having the Gift to serve as a lab assistant. His Magic Theory is still useful for the reasons you listed above.

After realizing that Apicem Domus has a Magic Aura of 6, Javan and Sirena won't be joining them. They would both suffer from Warping.

Fortunately, Javan received an excellent offer from Marius Lazarescu.

In reply to Player 17 (msg # 765):

Would the deep desert be more enticing if we have a jewish custos? Because we do. :-)

In reply to Player 17 (msg # 779):

A shame that it was a deal breaker for you but alas.

In reply to Player 10 (msg # 781):

Honestly, guaranteed Warping is an understandable deal breaker.

In reply to Player 12 (msg # 782):

True. Alexandria is probably better fitted either way.

Hopefully in the sense that you have to calculate differently in a bunch of places. I tried to model it with relatively quick piece-wise functions so that it would end up sensible, unlike the BP method. The BP method given is very simple, but it also egregiously disagrees with all the values presented throughout the books; the result being that you can get screwed over by the BP system or use it to splurge, depending on how well you know how messed up it is.


Try calculating with BP how much it costs to have your covenant start with a single copy of the Bible or the Qu'ran. Meanwhile, calculate how many pawns of Creo vis you could get for the same BP. Then note that a single pawn of Creo vis can buy you 20 copies of either of those if you exchange the pawn for silver with the Redcaps. That's why I recalculated.




For clarity, a score in Magic Theory is a necessary condition to work as a lab assistant, but it is not a sufficient condition. You need that as well as something that qualifies him. He could work as a lab servant. He could set up labs. He could copy Hermetic books. He could write books on Magic Theory. But he could not work as a genuine lab assistant.
... Looks like that was probably all figured out.

Who do we have that could act as a teacher of Latin for any aspiring writers, mage or mundane, to get their score in Latin up to 5 quickly? (and who has the time and willingness to do it?)

For that matter, what other mundane skills do we have good teachers for, who could teach classes? Getting grogs and companions up to speed on Latin, AL, Philosophy, MT, and Scribe could only help everyone.

In reply to Giovanni of Mercere (msg # 785):

What I'd really like is someone who can teach arabic and greek.  Or a book in Latin that does the same, I guess.

FMB

In reply to Giovanni of Mercere (msg # 785):

I have a grog that can teach Latin, for now only to 4, and he doesn't have the Teaching ability yet, but he has +2 Com. He also has a bit of AL, Philosophiae, and Art of Memory.

Another grog I have has all 4 weapon abilities at 3-5, Teaching 4, and +2 Com.

Ya, I neglected Art of Memory on my magus and I don't actually think you can start a Grog with it. But I do want to pick it up some how. My Book Binder is a Good Teacher I should probably age him a bit more to get his Latin and Arabic up, along with his actual Teaching score. I needed to anyway to get his skill cap to six anyway.

In reply to Player 4 (msg # 788):

He has the appropriate Virtue to learn Academic Abilities, and was trained at a covenant. But if our Alpha SG rules otherwise, I'd drop that, and spend the 30 xp allocated to it elsewhere.

In reply to Giovanni of Mercere (msg # 785):

At Apicem Domus we have a Levantine Arab teacher who can teach Latin, Arabic, and Ancient Greek, IIRC 6, 6, 5 respectively. Salma can teach the Tuareg version of Tamazight (sp?) up to 5 but she would rather do something else since there are plenty of easily available language sources and SQ for practicing a language in areas it’s spoken is decent, no need to waste a good teacher’s limited teaching time (2 seasons a year for employees, magi can do what they want). Our resident Bjornaer also has good teacher but I am not sure what he could teach pretty sure not the local languages.

I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to start a grog with Art of Memory, it’s a purely mundane skill and if you have access to academic abilities you could have learned it.

OK, reread the section on AoM, it's pretty explicit. My scribe grog has it now. Also Comm 2 because I tend to go 2/2/1 on grogs rather than the 3/1 for magi.

Really I think the question is who has the good teaching book?

Javan can write a couple Tractatus on Teaching Quality 14. As well as a number of books on various languages. He has multiple languages at 5 or 6.

As he writes books, hopefully we have scribes who can copy them. Since he is only 149 years old, he has quite a while to write and translate.

He is developing a sign language with Sirena. Currently, they have it at 3, once he gets it to 4, he could start Teaching using it.

I assume that this is a typo. Did you mean 49 years old?

No, he's a neph. Don't worry he'll probably die his first ageing roll, second for sure. Sad face.

In reply to Player 4 (msg # 794):

He could ask for a Longevity Ritual

No he can't. That's part of the problem. He just has the get lucky on the few rolls he actually has to make.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:46, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

P.S. Javan. I don't have a problem with you or your character. Blood of the Nephilim makes me mad because of how it is written. Living "thousands of years" as it says in the description is just not accurate with the way the math works.

Like you first ageing roll happens at 150 so you make it there no porblem. But you will be making it at a +8 ish (15-2 standard covenant bonus-5your natural bonus). You roll a 5 and boom. Your character is basically done, 1 exposure XP for the rest of your days, which I guess is nice since you can spend your time being active. ALmost at a minimum you stop getting XP at 200.

You are at a +22 by age 300ish just like everyone else so best case you are dead by age 350 maybe 400 or more with a good dietician and other living conditions bonuses (higher with a Vitkir along). But still a 2000th birthday as advertised is never ever going to happen.

An unageing grog by contrast actually has the option to of a Longevity potion without having to really worry about warping killing him. They COULD get a flaw that makes it so he can't gain XP in the thing he is good at but that is just the SG shitting on him rather than game mechanics attacking him.

In reply to Player 4 (msg # 797):

Aging for Nephilim is a pain, as player 4 has noted. With Wealthy, living at a covenant with Healthy Features, and possibly an Amulet from a Learned Magician, you can push the roll upwards. You have a bit of time to put in place these measures. But yes, a bad roll is going to severely limit future development.

Oh, I get how aging will hit Javan. My hope is that he has at least fifty to sixty years to write some useful books. I know his advancement will stop at some point, hopefully not for the first few aging rolls - but bad luck is bad luck.

I've never played a character with Blood of the Nephilim. I was the primary SG for a face-to-face saga that included one. He had the Strong Angelic Heritage virtue, which sadly Javan couldn't take so was immune to Warping.

Regarding Aging, we had a house rule that we worked out after seeing how hard aging hit that character. Instead of the -5 to aging rolls, we replaced Age/10 with Age/50 in the Aging calculation. He still aged faster than a magus with a good Longevity Potion but did survive to nearly 600 thanks to the Healthy Lifestyle bonus and Healthy Feature bonus of the covenant. We also ruled that the increase in size due to age modified his Strength and Quickness. Without that, we had trouble believing he could still walk.

Another (alternate) House Rule that makes sense to me is to divide age by an additional 10 (so /100 total) for aging rolls to correspond with rolling every 10 years.  I don't know how the math really works out but it seems to fit logically.

Why do people keep talking about advancement getting cut off by aging?  How does that happen?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:09, Fri 19 Mar 2021.