There's no way to justify it. It simply does not involve what she has been doing and getting experience at, in any way.
You tell me she picks up Unseen Seer? I'd buy that in an instant, it's the eponymous "Wizard Inquisitor" class.
Incantrix? On her own? From scribbling notes in her very rare downtime? From random musings?
You better slap her on the Companions list, because she makes Lya look like an amateur. This is Beethoven sitting on a piano for the first time and randomly pounding a masterpiece.
To expand on this a moment. I don't think TNE here is saying that Mia couldn't become an Incantrix on her own. But there needs to be narrative grounding for it. Have her work with Lya for a month, or one of the research Arcanums, delving into the field of metamagic and spell interactions, something that's come up due to a growing interest born of work in the field. Give her the time to actually develop something like this - something that the lore grounding it implies took decades, and is still something that requires massive specialisation and is rarely gained anyway.
To be clear, my point of view here is that I'd be fine taking her onto the bench for a while, with the aim of gaining this class, and possibly codifying it for us. With the aid of the Arcanums, Lya and our vast library to draw on, I see that as doable. But not just from the rare downtime she gets as an Inquisition Field Agent - which right now, she is.
Hey @Goldfish, Mya is in the Inquisition right? How about this Inquisition PrC I made?
It's only 5 levels so she could actually finish it. It advances spellcasting at every level except the last one (which has such an amazing skillmonkey bonus that IMO it's worth it), it has flavorful abilities that are useful but not gamebreaking, and IMO it's perfect for an Inquisitor.
To expand on this a moment. I don't think TNE here is saying that Mia couldn't become an Incantrix on her own. But there needs to be narrative grounding for it. Have her work with Lya for a month, or one of the research Arcanums, delving into the field of metamagic and spell interactions, something that's come up due to a growing interest born of work in the field. Give her the time to actually develop something like this - something that the lore grounding it implies took decades, and is still something that requires massive specialisation and is rarely gained anyway.
To be clear, my point of view here is that I'd be fine taking her onto the bench for a while, with the aim of gaining this class, and possibly codifying it for us. With the aid of the Arcanums, Lya and our vast library to draw on, I see that as doable. But not just from the rare downtime she gets as an Inquisition Field Agent - which right now, she is.
OOC: Since I know you guys are going to ask, the trouble at Rosby was the infant Tywin Rosby getting sick, his mother getting help from the Golden Shields, and then a spontaneous mob forming around rumors of changelings and evil magic. The fallout risks alienating either the Faith or one of the stronger Baratheon loyalists in the Crownlands, hence Jon Arryn riding out personally.
Oh my how that house of cards just continues to shake.
It's a damn shame we need it to hold up for the moment or I'd have turned this industrial fan on and got my shovel ready for the pile of fresh steaming bullshit sitting right next to it.
Kevan Lannister was the first one to speak this time: "We are not ready to give that sort of challenge. The Golden Shields are working diligently, but discovering a way to reproduce the Dragon-slayer weapons without becoming like the Old Valyrians themselves takes careful and often dangerous study, and raising dragons to fighting weight even more so, though we might cheat here and there as my god sister Lanna puts it."
Hey @Goldfish, Mya is in the Inquisition right? How about this Inquisition PrC I made?
It's only 5 levels so she could actually finish it. It advances spellcasting at every level except the last one (which has such an amazing skillmonkey bonus that IMO it's worth it), it has flavorful abilities that are useful but not gamebreaking, and IMO it's perfect for an Inquisitor.
You know what would be a great place to learn the laws of metamagic?
The bugfuck crazy Wild Magic Zone in that Drow city.
Sort of like understanding the object by studying its shadow, or in this case, understanding the order of things by observing pointed disorder, as they'd have opportunity to throw specific things at it and observe wildly different phenomena.
To be clear, if you'd be willing to take Mia off the roster for a bit, fluff it as her coming to an apotheosis of sorts, but needing time to sort out what she's realised, I don't think anyone would have an issue with her getting an Incantatrix level in a month's time or so. Just...give us that narrative grounding, y'know? A month or two of focused study, around doing, call it...'control' work. She's been doing well in the Inquisition, this is about the level that I'd see her being trained towards leading a field team, instead of just being a field agent.
It limits her applicability, yes, but the payoff is...quite something.
"...so you see, your Grace, we can thus turn the Sorcerer King's strength into a weakness, give him the choice of either letting his grain rot in the silos, drawing rats and pestilence, or sell them to his foes, all the while we learn from these spells, after they have been suitably purified with the aid of the Golden Shields, of course." Baelish droned on and on as usual, seemingly determined to kiss every ass in sight at least three times over.
A mailed fist crashed down on the table. "So that is how we are going to kill him it is? Smash him across the face with a bigger grain sack?" Robert Baratheon rumbled disgustedly. "You said you had something important about how to fight him. Fight doesn't mean 'pinch a few coins out of his pocket' Littlefinger, it doesn't mean sending off some sick peasants and hope the plague gets him either," he added turning his head to look at the Spider.
Everyone around the table froze still as the red eyed sphinx statues opposite the king's chair glowed. Without Jon's presence none of them wanted to speak first. Baelish swallowed dryly. Varys just dipped his head in apology, cold as a fish and living proof that you didn't need your balls to be brave, then again maybe life was not that worth living all that much for him.
Kevan Lannister was the first one to speak this time: "We are not ready to give that sort of challenge. The Golden Shields are working diligently, but discovering a way to reproduce the Dragon-slayer weapons without becoming like the Old Valyrians themselves takes careful and often dangerous study, and raising dragons to fighting weight even more so, though we might cheat here and there as my god sister Lanna puts it."
Then before Robert could reply Varys put in: "I am working to stem or perhaps even turn the tide in Essos. I have it on good authority that many of the magisters in the newly conquered lands chaff at his rule. The raising of freedmen above them chaffs so much their throats are bloody with it, in the east Volantis gathers its strength. The boy's rule may look impressive, but it is a brittle thing held together by fear of his powers, one stone in the right place and it will shatter like glass."
"And the right place is through his head," the king's voice was softer now but no less dangerous. Why hadn't he killed the Dragonsapwn when they were hiding under rocks in Braavos? he asked himself as he had done many times before, but the answers were of little use. Because he was just one boy without an army, because he hadn't wanted to test Ned's friendship any further. Surely now he would understand, surely Ned wouldn't... He shook off the thought, the fear. "The damn Dragonspawn is practically inviting an army to his shore for his Traitors' Tourney. Make it an army of loyal men and then they'll all..."
"I fear they would all burn," Pycelle's normally wispy voice was surprisingly firm when those were Tywin Lannister's words in his mouth. "An army, even a true one, cannot kill a dragon, engines, magic, perhaps even an extraordinarily skilled warrior armed and armored with sorcery."
It's still mind-boggling that we got three minions in Roberts council. Even more so that their main job seems to be preventing him from getting his best troops killed ignobly on our shores.
"Like the Valyrian steel he's giving away!" Robert roared. "He doesn't seem to be too fucking worried about that, does he. I've been listening to that shit for years now and look at where it got the realm? Knights pouring over the Narrow Sea to pledge themselves to Aerys' foul get, lords rushing off for a chance to plot treason in person since ravens just take too bloody long. What are we going do do about Driftmark and Claw Isle when the fleet doesn't dare stick its nose out of port?"
"Perhaps it is time that we trust faith to guard against foul magics as your ancestors did," Guncer Sunglass, the Master of Ships, said. He probably even meant it. He was almost fit to try and pray to a arrow to the gut in the middle of battle. Of course that was not quite as stupid as it would have been a few years back, a small and not entirely welcome voice at the back of his head spoke noted.
"Lannister, I know you have ways of talking to Tywin that are faster than a raven. I want news about what those wizards of Tywin's are doing, real news before I ride off North," he king commanded.
If there was one small mercy about a small council with Jon away dealing with that mess at Rosby it was that he couldn't look on with disapproval at the decision to leave the capital as he had done so many times before.
Why not? Is it hard to understand, or just not to your taste for some reason? Or is it mechanically weak?
The BAB prereq can be met by a Wizard 6, the skills are easy (take 2 knowledge skills and a few ranks in all the social skills and you're pretty much there) and Alertness even comes free for people with Familiars !
If it's flavor, then... Yeah. I made this class to fit the "I'm damn good at what I do, and I use it for spycraft" theme. If our Inquisition personnel don't have these skills, then why do we keep them around? Bruisers should go straight to the army
We want James Bond, not Thog the Barbarian!
Otherwise, have some more PrC suggestions:
Stay a plain wizard. Why not? Every five levels you can get Spontaneous Divination or a domain ability. That's already better than most PrCs. And the world needs people with no PrCs!
Loredelver. She'd have to take a Rogue/Beguiler/Spellthief/Factotum level and mechanically this would not be very powerful (losing 2 caster levels sucks) but the skills are amazing for an Inquisition agent and the Loredelver's class abilities are then quite good.
Divine Oracle. It's accessible to arcane spellcasters, and it's quite good.
"...so you see, your Grace, we can thus turn the Sorcerer King's strength into a weakness, give him the choice of either letting his grain rot in the silos, drawing rats and pestilence, or sell them to his foes, all the while we learn from these spells, after they have been suitably purified with the aid of the Golden Shields, of course." Baelish droned on and on as usual, seemingly determined to kiss every ass in sight at least three times over.
A mailed fist crashed down on the table. "So that is how we are going to kill him it is? Smash him across the face with a bigger grain sack?" Robert Baratheon rumbled disgustedly. "You said you had something important about how to fight him. Fight doesn't mean 'pinch a few coins out of his pocket' Littlefinger, it doesn't mean sending off some sick peasants and hope the plague gets him either," he added turning his head to look at the Spider.
Everyone around the table froze still as the red eyed sphinx statues opposite the king's chair, jewel eyes glittering in the torchlight. Without Jon's presence none of them wanted to speak first. Baelish swallowed dryly. Varys just dipped his head in apology, cold as a fish and living proof that you didn't need your balls to be brave, then again maybe life was not that worth living all that much for him.
Kevan Lannister was the first one to speak this time: "We are not ready to give that sort of challenge. The Golden Shields are working diligently, but discovering a way to reproduce the Dragon-slayer weapons without becoming like the Old Valyrians themselves takes careful and often dangerous study, and raising dragons to fighting weight even more so, though we might cheat here and there, as my good sister Lanna puts it."
Then before Robert could reply Varys put in: "I am working to stem or perhaps even turn the tide in Essos. I have it on good authority that many of the magisters in the newly conquered lands chaff at his rule. The raising of freedmen above them chaffs so much their throats are bloody with it, in the east Volantis gathers its strength. The boy's rule may look impressive, but it is a brittle thing held together by fear of his powers, one stone in the right place and it will shatter like glass."
"And the right place is through his head," the king's voice was softer now but no less dangerous. Why hadn't he killed the Dragonsapwn when they were hiding under rocks in Braavos? he asked himself as he had done many times before, but the answers were of little use. Because he was just one boy without an army, because he hadn't wanted to test Ned's friendship any further. Surely now he would understand, surely Ned wouldn't... He shook off the thought, the fear. "The damn Dragonspawn is practically inviting an army to his shore for his Traitors' Tourney. Make it an army of loyal men and then they'll all..."
"I fear they would all burn," Pycelle's normally wispy voice was surprisingly firm when those were Tywin Lannister's words in his mouth. "An army, even a true one, cannot kill a dragon, engines, magic, perhaps even an extraordinarily skilled warrior armed and armored with sorcery."
"Like the Valyrian steel he's giving away!" Robert roared. "He doesn't seem to be too fucking worried about that, does he? I've been listening to that shit for years now and look at where it got the realm? Knights pouring over the Narrow Sea to pledge themselves to Aerys' foul get, lords rushing off for a chance to plot treason in person since ravens just take too bloody long. What are we going do do about Driftmark and Claw Isle when the fleet doesn't dare stick its nose out of port?"
"Perhaps it is time that we trust faith to guard against foul magics as your ancestors did," Guncer Sunglass, the Master of Ships, said. He probably even meant it. He was almost fit to try and pray to a arrow to the gut in the middle of battle. Of course, that was not quite as stupid as it would have been a few years back, a small and not entirely welcome voice at the back of his head spoke noted.
"Can you get those miracle workers and angels to guard your ships?" Robert Baratheon asked bluntly.
"That is not for me to say, nor for any man," Sunglass answered. Useless as the rest of them.
"Lannister, I know you have ways of talking to Tywin that are faster than a raven. I want news about what those wizards of Tywin's are doing, real news before I ride off North," he king commanded.
If there was one small mercy about a small council with Jon away dealing with that mess at Rosby it was that he couldn't look on with disapproval at the decision to leave the capital as he had done so many times before.
OOC: Since I know you guys are going to ask, the trouble at Rosby was the infant Tywin Rosby getting sick, his mother getting help from the Golden Shields, and then a spontaneous mob forming around rumors of changelings and evil magic. The fallout risks alienating either the Faith or one of the stronger Baratheon loyalists in the Crownlands, hence Jon Arryn riding out personally.
Viserys already is a huge true dragon of the right color, and he can finagle getting bigger by one or two size categories. Add the Charisma to the expressive dragon roar, and the bullshit boni to the diplomacy/animal handling/"do you want to get eaten" skill-check, ...
