Tech Aptitude and College Mastery

Someone remind me, can you master a spell college with a high tech aptitude? I seem to remember it not being a problem, but I wanted to make sure.

 

As far as I can remember, all you need is to have learned all five spells of the particular college you want to master. I remember that my nature mage had mastered lockpicks without that being a problem, but I've never had a really high tech aptitude (of the "not being allowed in mage shops" variety).

 

Actually I found the answer myself in one of my old threads, apparently you can't get mastery with too high a tech aptitude - what that magical number is though I'm not entirely sure.

 

Re:

Don't you mean technical number? Ahahahaa, yes oh god yes, I'm just too much. Good one Ruda!

Erm, right. Do you lose your mastery if your technological aptitude increases after you've been trained (much like your expertise decreases if you gain technological degrees while high on intellect potions)?

 

I'd imagine once you've got it you've got it; the trouble would be getting to Tulla with a low enough tech aptitude to get the mastery, which is a pain in the arse if you're playing a predominantly tech character. Looks like I'll hold off on a crazy Temporal gnome gunslinger until I feel more motivated (in other words, indefinitely).

 

Well, you could give your gnome the "sold your sole" background giving you quite a lot of leeway when it comes to your technological prowess. The only problem would be dealing with the critical misses but I tend to enjoy critical misses when they come since they're quite fun (I usually pick the "Jinxed" trait in Fallout). And, of course, the inability to gain good followers without persuasion mastery.

Or you could pick the opposite of "Sky Mage" (can't remember what it's called), which increases your magickal aptitude when speaking with the masters of Tulla who're all standing around indoors.

 

No what I would have gone for is a gnome with the Only Child background (one of the best if you like to solo the game, which I do), and then I would have used the Vivifier, Strength of Stone, the Finger of Mannox, a Goggled Helmet, two Charged Rings and Velorien's Blessing to gain a natural +5 ST, +9 DX, +8 WP, +1 IN, +4 PE, +8 Firearms and Dodge from a no-background gnome base (amongst other bonuses I don't give a crap about). To get ST 20 (for bullets), DX 20 (for speed), WP 18 (for Temporal), IN 20 (for extra success chance) and PE 18 (for Firearms) you need 7/3/0/11/6 in those respective traits. Then I'd go for 2 points in Firearms and Dodge to make them up to max, and Electricity 7, Gun Smithy 7, Chemistry 7, Explosives 6, Smithy 6, Herbology 2 (for easy Fatigue Restorers) and finally Earth 1 and Temporal 5. This allows you max technical aptitude, use Featherweight Chain (the best armour if you're also looking to save weight enough for bullets) and have possession of every gun in the game (I would have compiled a set of them all) - that is if you use found items (such as Eye Gear) and technical manuals correctly to achieve these goals.

Unfortunately as the character would have lowish CN (7) the boost from Temporal mastery for that fastest gun in the west feel is really desirable. Compromising with a background would mean that you would no longer be able to make all guns or have full tech aptitude, etc. I'm not saying this build isn't doable, but it requires a large investment of time to make truly impressive. I'll wait and see if I feel like I can be bothered.

EDIT: Actually thinking about it, does anyone know the specific tech aptitude that puts them off? If it's not too high I might consider rushing the main quest and then going back and do more side quests.

 

As I recall, you need a magic aptitude of above 50% to master a college.

That is tech aptitude must be below 0%.

The solution is to begin with spells, raising your MA and going straight to Tulla (using Muro's Marvellous Map technique) then spend points to raise TA so you can gunsling.

 

With only 6 spells my MA isn't going to get that high anyway (even with the Dark Helm, as it wouldn't have full magickal power available at that stage) so I'll just have to do without. It'll probably be fine with the fatigue boost from Velorien's Blessing and plenty of fatigue restorers.