Apprentices
Apprentices is a Fifth Edition supplement about Hermetic apprentices, containing the detailed rules players will need to roleplay and develop an apprentice as a player character.
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| Product Information | |
|---|---|
| Rules Edition: | Fifth |
| Abbreviation: | none |
| Product Type: | Sourcebook |
| Author(s): | Matt Ryan with Erik Dahl |
| Publisher: | Atlas Games |
| Product Number: | AG0300 |
| ISBN: | 1-58978-128-7 |
| Release date: | May 2012 |
| Format: | Softcover, 64 pages |
| Availability: | Softcover only |
Subject and Contents
The table of contents is available on this book's official product page.
Playing Child Characters
While primarily focused on Hermetic apprentices, this book contains rules for playing child characters generally. There are rules for how child characters can acquire (and outgrow) Virtues and Flaws while they grow up. Throughout the book are a handful of NPCs who can accompany a child PC in stories.
Standard Apprenticeship
Apprentices outlines a "standard apprenticeship" that involves a balance of teaching Arts, Abilitis, and formulaic spells -- with a heavy emphasis on the apprentice helping his master in the lab.[1] This results in an apprentice who, when he reaches his Gauntlet, is approximately equal to a starting character made using the core rules. Apprentices whose tutelage differs from the standard apprenticeship are possible, and are likely to end up more powerful than a normal starting magus.[2]
Low-Level Spells
The book contains a couple of dozen low-level spells, called cantations, that are especially suited for apprentices.[3]
Opinion and Commentary
The Fifth Edition rule book devotes about a page and a half to apprentices[4] and spells out the basics: an apprentice requires a minimum of one season of training per year, apprenticeship generally lasts 15 years, etc. However, this is not really enough guidance to roleplay either an apprentice or master. In particular, it leaves players on their own to figure out what to teach and when in order to produce a well-rounded starting magus. Even for an experienced player, that's not easy. This book should be quite helpful in that regard. I regard the rules about Virtues and Flaws changing over time as overly complicated and I just prefer to wing it. --Andrew Gronosky
References
- ↑ Apprentices, pp. 15-16, "A Standard Apprenticeship
- ↑ Apprentices, p. 14, "More Powerful Than Normal" (inset)
- ↑ Apprentices, pp. 44-48, "Cantations"
- ↑ Ars Magica Fifth Edition, pp. 106-107
Related Products
- The Second Edition sourcebook Order of Hermes the first supplement that discussed Hermetic apprenticeship in much detail.
- The Third Edition sourcebook Houses of Hermes, also used in Fourth Edition also included a section on life before, during, and after apprenticeship.
- In the House Guernicus section of Houses of Hermes: True Lineages dedicated to the Peripheral Code, there are some very few points about apprentices within the law.
- The Sundered Eagle describes a different process of apprentice selection practiced in the Theban Tribunal and how that tribunal also provides some rights to apprentices not existing elsewhere.