Suggested Shipwright Virtues and Abilities

A mundane shipwright character will need certain academic and professional abilities. The Vernacular Eduction Minor General Virtue (City & Guild, page 109) can be taken, as this grants access to Academic Abilities. It also gives the character 50 additional experience points to be spent on academic and professional abilities. The description of the virtue suggests Profession Merchant, but this can be changed to Profession Shipwright. The points can also be spent on an Organization Lore ability, likely for any guild to which the shipwright belongs.

The Guild Master Minor Social Virtue (City & Guild, page 53) also grants access to Academic Abilities and represents the character's freedom to practice his profession under his own name and employ journeymen in his team. Without at least the rank of master, the shipwright will fall afoul of the guild if he openly conducts his trade.

While the business of the shipwright involves large sums of money passing through his hands, the shipwright is as likely to be rich or poor as any other profession, and the Wealthy virtue and Poor flaw can be taken to represent his financial situation.

The core abilities the shipwright needs are: Latin, Artes Liberales, Profession: Shipwright, Leadership, Organization Lore: Shipwright Guild, and Bargain. This gives him the learning that he needs, his proficiency in designing and building ships, and the ability to manage his team, suppliers, and customers.

Hermetic Shipwright

Of the standard Virtues open to Hermetic magi, affinities and puissance with both Magic Theory and Finesse give extra weight to the shipwright's ability to prepare ships for enchantment and to work Creo rituals and Rego craft magic. And a Major Magical Focus with ships benefits the magus with any effects enchanted into his magical vessels.

The Mysteries, either Cult or House, provide useful additional Virtues. Spell Binding (The Mysteries Revised Edition, page 27), allows the magus to bind both a spell and a spirit into a container or vessel, the spirit extending and maintaining the spell indefinitely. Philosophic Alchemy (The Mysteries Revised Edition, page 41) allows the magus to extract vis directly into items and reduce the number of pawns needed to fully prepare the device for enchantment. And of course, magi of House Verditius use their Craft Abilities to reduce the pawns they must use to prepare devices for enchantment, which allows them to enchant potentially very large devices.

Note that magi of House Verditius gain a bonus from their Craft Abilities, not Profession. A Verditius shipwright will need both Craft: Carpenter and Profession: Shipwright. The first represents his hands-on crafting of the enchanted vessels, allowing him to work his magic into the timbers, and the second represents the managing of the workforce necessary to build ships under his guidance.