Thaumaturgy Lore requirements

[fabulator]

So I am writing up a villian for my DFRPG game and I have a question. What I'm shooting for is a dumb jock kind of guy who has either discovered a bit of magical talent in himself or has come across some sponsor/item of power/tome of eldritch lore/etc...  I've started with the focused practitioner template and given him ritual (neuromancy) but I wanted to keep his Lore low for the concept.  Some of the spells I've worked up for him have complexity of 8 or 12 which in his case is going to require a lot of time for prep (like, 7-11 shifts worth).  I'm toying with the idea of giving him a book (Malicious Mentalism and You! or something like that) that gives him an effective Lore of 5 (Superb) but only for neuromancy. Would this be an item of power? sponsored magic? enchanted item slot? is this even a good idea? So far I'm leaning towards sponsored magic; the book gives him the Lore as well as the ability to do any neuromancy ritual with a complexity of 10 or less at evocation speeds. How does that sound?

[Haru]

I think the sponsored magic option is the best, for multiple reasons. First, you can make the book itself evil, and the jock have no power of his own. That way, your players can "save" the jock from the book and destroy it (which will for the moment be the same as killing the jock with power himself). However, the jock now knows some things about magic and magical power, and you can have him return as an emissary of something much nastier when nobody is expecting it (Think Cassius in DB). This will work very well if you have some sort of faith based character in your group, I think.

On the other hand, if you want him to have magical talent, give him a lore stunt on necromancy and let the book be his necromancy complexity focus. That way you would have Lore 1 + Stunt 2 + Focus 2 = 5 Complexity. If you need more, you can always give him more focus item slots. Of course you won't have it at the speed of evocation this way, and once he is defeated, he is gone.

[fabulator]

oooh, I like the lore stunt idea; itd be for neuromancy though, not necro.  Although I do like the option of having him pop back up later as a recurring villian. thanks for the ideas!