You almost can't fail study rolls anymore. Period.
Because you can only gain an X level scrap by studying a book that is at least of the same level, so the extra difficulty of the test is outweighed by the book's "source of knowledge level" bonus. So really, it all comes down to your "+15 Lantern", your learning, and your extra +5 from "Well Read".
Unless you roll a nat 1, of course.
But keep in mind that so far the books you are studying are... (picks up glasses) relatively cheap books about modern subjects, written in Equestrian language.
Yes, that does warrant absolutely no maluses.
I wonder how hard it will be to get to level 5, though. You all seem pretty confident at scoffing at Comet Feet's block, like you are all swimming in level 4 books and will be able to surpass him easily.
Anyways...
I'm definitely not, by the way. I believe we'll reach level 3 in everything relatively soon (like in 4-5 more months at most, depending on books found), and that we're slowly going to continue to improve until level 4.
I never thought reaching level 5 would be easy though. After all we have no explicit way to do it right now, and only unverified ideas about how to approach the problem. Those all come with their own problems
1)events: unreliable.
2)Expeditions to find artifacts and high level books: risky, time consuming, expensive.
3)Great book search: expensive, high action cost, might not work.
4)higher lessons from master: no idea what we need to do to get them, IF he can give them, or can be convinced at all.
5)influence training: risky, comes with side effects, limited effectiveness, we're not sure it's enough for lvl 5.
6)mansus exploration: rewards uncertain, riskier the higher we go.
it makes sense, really. If level 5 is, as I think, the second milestone, it seems like it will be a much bigger jump in power than what the lvl 3 skills gave us.
This sort of thing won't really require an action. Much like how you stay up to date with Rarity offscreen.
It is something you do on your own, since it's the smart thing to do, much like how you slowly eased yourself into your Lantern-touch.
Or it would be, under normal circumstances.
What just happened was quite...
so "no, except yes"?
At worst I usually offer to take it to PMs.
you know, it's probably better if you simply SEND the pm, instead of "offering to take it to pm".
worst case they ignore it, and nothing changes. No reason to ask for permission to send a message.
I echo the earlier suggestion of visiting Baldomare again. Her last bit of "you are not a monster" advice probably helped us avoid an even worse reaction after returning from the Blank Plains, and she's probably our best hope for both noticing our problem (even if we can't speak to tell her of it) and knowing something about how to cope with these sorts of changes.
We can pair that with an "attempt to ascend the Mansus" action, since we can do two Mansus actions for the price of one now. Even if we don't pass through the next door right away, at least we've both improved the cult's KNOCK level in preparation for once we do and improved our odds of succeeding when we try again, so we can at least report progress if not full success.
I agree with hurdle+baldomare mansus action.
Getting to explore twice the places is nice. Maybe after this hurdle we can start exploring the various places we already have access to but never checked, like the well in the woods. We're the loremaster, we should explore every mansus location at least once I think.
How about spending an action studying magic? The normal kind.
Not being able to teleport has been brought up multiple times now. With the +1 to magic from Forge and possibly eldritch insights that can change.
Using eldritch knowledge for "normal" things may go a way to integrating it and coming to accept it too.
I said it before and I'll say it again: after we check on Twilight I'd really enjoy getting her to teach us a few spells.
In particular I'd want teleportation and the "wings" spell. Possibly cloudwalking too, but we might have enchanted horseshoes for that already I think.
Heck, we're trying to make friends with Twilight sometime in the future, and she's about the best resource we could get our hands on as far as learning magic - why not double up and hit two birds at once? Get her to Good Friend status and I'm fairly certain she'd be happy enough to teach us some stuff.
I mentioned it already!
We want to teach her the lores at some point, but she's the PERFECT unicorn magic teacher, so we should take advantage of that.
And really, wouldn't she enjoy having a unicorn to teach to? There's so few in ponyville...
So. Realistically speaking, working entirely on our own,
incomplete post.
On ideas for other spells to learn: How about a spell for finding things, say books? Perhaps get a small bonus to book search rolls when preformed personally?
Anyone have any ideas for "intermediate" level magic that would be useful in everyday life?
If there was such a spell, Twilight would have shown it in canon. Still, we have our secret history bonus, which can work like that I think.
In terms of useful magic... self levitation (probably really advanced, only ever shown by starlight glimmer)/wings (advanced and tiring), cloudwalking, teleportation (advanced, unknown range at our level), transformation spells (to become, say, a gryphon or a pegasus maybe), mind-influencing spells of many kinds (want-it-need-it, "reforming" spell, spell that makes it so that an animal wouldn't want to eat a specific kind of food anymore, combat spells..)...
The real problem is that the show actually showed relatively few actual spells.
...wait, I KNOW A GOOD ONE!
Twilight once mentioned a way to ENTER a book, to study it from the inside! She called it the Haycart's method.
That might help us studying lore books!
ok, top three: Haycart's method, teleportation, wings or transformation to a race that can fly (pegasus or gryphon probably). Mind-influencing spells would be nice too, but they might be a bit harder to justify wanting to learn.
This is also why I want to get higher level Artifacts, because we can use those in place of our own Lore Level, not just as sacrifices. If we got a Level four Artifact for Edge? Or even Heart? It would become even easier.
We can only find/buy up to level 3 artifacts, and we're going to reach lvl 3 in most things relatively soon, so I don't think buying artifacts only/mostly to use their level as a crutch is a good idea (especially with how much they cost).
*hems and haws, while stealthily pointing at Da Rulez Book*
which rules? As far as I know there's no rules against this. There ARE quests with LOTS of sex on SV, though they tend to be very peculiar. As far as I understand, the point is that it has to NOT be gratuitous, but has to have plot/characterization meaning.
ah, and also no minor characters (as in "age", not "relevance").
And what I'm asking is more a matter of understanding the setting. Different countries have very different laws on prostitution, and as we're managing a cult that seems relevant, especially as we DO have a Grail advisor.
I'm obviously ready to drop the topic if Bird asks though.
So like, am I the only one who wants to bring up Velvet's mental breakdown with the Master?
No, I want to ask too. We were told we can ask one question with lesson, so I'd want to ask it during the Winter Lesson next turn.
Yeah, I'm not willing to delay Winter. I don't expect it to cause a breakdown like Knock did, and it might actually help. Also we need it for the mansus hurdle... and we're just that close!
I don't think we should get more than 1 lvl 3 lore per turn though (not that that's exactly
easy to achieve, but we should avoid it when possible, give Velvet time to adapt to each new skill).
I am not sure it would be worth it for our action economy. Velvet has said repeadtedly that she was not good enough to get into the school for gifted unicorns and while that doesn't mean she is bad at magic, most unicorns who don't have a magic related cutie mark don't do that much magic wise.
We'd only want a few specific spells, not hundreds like Twilight.
Also our lores have improved our magic and learning scores (Magic: 12 + 1 (
FORGE)Learning: 12 + 1 (
LANTERN) + 1 (
SECRET HISTORIES)), so we'd actually fare better now.
And that's without considering the possibilities of specific spells enjoying lore bonuses, like, for example:
1)Forge for the wings spell (creating wings)
2)Forge or moth for the transformation spell (modifying ourselves)
3)Knock for teleportation (we're
opening a path between two separate places)
4)...Lantern or Secret History for Haycart's method? Not completely convinced about this one.
On the other hand, this will require a magical system for unicorn magic. Which will require Bird to write it. And I would not like for Bird do a lot of work for such a minor thing, except if he wants to. So I'm waiting @BirdBodhisattva's word on whenever he's willing to do that.
I think it can be as easy as "x spell gives +y bonus in situation z". We won't learn THAT MANY spells after all.
well, that, and the obvious narrative advantages.
