It's not linear, either. That is, 10 is more than twice as fast as 5.

Not only is 10 more than twice as fast as 5 in terms of improvements/attempt, you also gain two other advantages:

1) Increased affinity means reduced mana consumption. You spend a higher percentage of your practice time awake and casting, thus generating more attempts per unit of time invested.

2) You're mastering fewer spells. You've paid the cost in flexibility, but you're reaping lowered practice time here as well.

Using rome's initial example, let's say a 4-path invoker needs to master 25 spells, and a 7-path invoker needs to master 40 spells. Let's also say it takes an hour to master a given spell with baseline affinity.

Even if the speed advantage was only "twice as good" (it's better), the 7-path guy has to invest 40 hours, and the 4-path guy has to invest 12.5. On top of that, the 4-path guy is spending less mana/spell, maybe enough of a savings to get the practice down to 10 hours. On top of that, we're telling you that the improvements/attempt advantage is even bigger, so 10 hours is an overestimate.

All of these things multiply each other's efficiency, and you sharply cut your overall practice time by getting rid of even one or two paths.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com