[ArM5] Is non-hermetic magic better for your apprentice?

[otr at hushmail.com]

I might be getting something wrong, but... it seems that, as long 
as a magus has a InVi lab total of 20+ (something quite hard not to 
have if you have all your arts at 5+) the best way to train an 
apprentice with the gift and no supernatural abilities would be the 
following:

1. have someone teach the apprentice the rudiments of one or more 
supernatural abilities (at level 1 or so, one "minor" ability for 
every 20 points of the magus' InVi lab total or one "major" ability 
for every 60);
2. *then* open the apprentice' arts converting those supernatural 
abilities into hermetic virtues.

Here "best" does not mean necessarily best for the magus, who would 
have to wait one or more extra seasons before actually being able 
to claim the apprentice, but definitely best in terms of "good 
development" of the apprentice's gift. This seems a little odd to 
me: I had always had the impression that in Ars Magica any 
development of the Gift outside the hermetic framework would 
hamper, or at the very least not help, the development of hermetic 
ability. Was the new twist  intentional? 

If not, and if one considers it undesirable, a possible way to 
house rule around it would be to say that, for every 15 points of 
InVi lab total of the magus *not* spent on converting supernatural 
abilities, he can mold 1 "free" hermetic virtue point into the 
apprentice's gift. This would mean that, in general, for a given 
master:

1) The fewer supernatural abilities the apprentice starts off with, 
the better she will be at hermetic magic.
2) It's slightly more efficient to "incorporate" a pre-existing 
power of the apprentice into her hermetic training (20 InVi points 
for 1 virtue point) than to simply destroy the ability and add an 
unrelated hermetic strength of similar magnitude (10+15=25 InVi 
points for 1 virtue point).

Any thoughts?

Oscar



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