placeholder for character sheet
Rónán's married his four wives all relatively recently. Once he had planned out his desired course, making inroads with the Order of Hermes, seeking out partners became a priority. For reasons of loyalty and from his own personal desires, he new multiple Irish wives would suit him quite well. He sought out several promising later-born girls of small noble houses. He wanted women who would get more than they'd expected from their positions and who would have learned some skills while expecting not to be placed so prominently. He also sought out pretty women and selected ones who would get along with each other. His own magic aided him, making his search much easier.
Brígh
Age 18
Int +2, Per +2, Str -1, Sta 0, Pre 0, Com +1, Dex +1, Qui 0
Ability Block: Martial, Affinity with Craft: Woodcarver, Clumsy, Gentlewoman, Soft-Hearted Venus's Blessing
Caitlín
Age 19
Int +2, Per 0, Str -1, Sta 0, Pre +1, Com +1, Dex +2, Qui 0
Ability Block: Martial, Affinity with Craft: Leatherworker, Gentlewoman, Poor Eyesight, Temperate, Venus's Blessing
Deirdre
Age 19
Int +2, Per 0, Str -1, Sta 0, Pre +1, Com +1, Dex +2, Qui 0
Ability Block: Martial, Affinity with Craft: Tailor, Carefree, Gentlewoman, No Sense of Direction, Venus's Blessing
Sorcha
Age 18
Int +2, Per 0, Str -1, Sta 0, Pre +2, Com +1, Dex +1, Qui 0
Ability Block: Martial, Affinity with Craft: Jeweler, Gentlewoman, Humble, Motion Sickness, Venus's Blessing
Updating with the rule updates...
Rónán was born into a minor noble family in northern Ireland. He grew up well. All along, between his various mental acuities and his interests in learning he was surely destined for something educational. His family sent him to Oxford for training. Not being particularly wealthy, they could only afford to have him there for half of each year. Still, half of each year from age 15 through age 26 gave him a dozen years of education he would never have been able to get from a lesser background. And that is where he learned his magic...
Through age 5: Living Language: Gaelic (Ulster) 5, and 45 experience
Through age 14: 9x15=135 experience
Through age 26 (6 years in university and 6 years not, as the averages work): 6x15+6x30=270 experience
Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Str 0, Sta 0, Pre +2, Com 0, Dex 0, Qui 0
Size: 0
Age: 26 (apparent age 26, no longevity ritual)
Decrepitude: 0 (0)
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues: Affinity with Philosophiae, Alchemist of Oxford (Mathematicus of Bologna), Fortunam, Gentleman, Magicam, Mythic Alchemy, Succurro
Flaws: Ambitious (minor [strike]major[/strike]), [strike]Close Family Ties[/strike], Laboratory Magician[sup]I:MA[/sup], No Magical Defenses[sup]I:Su[/sup], No Text Casting[sup]I:MA[/sup], Short-Ranged Magic[sup]I:Su[/sup],
[strike]Temperate[/strike], Weak Magic[sup]I:Ma[/sup], Weird Magic[sup]I:Fo[/sup]
Personality Traits: Ambitious +3[strike]+5[/strike], Loyal +2, Temperate +2[strike]+3[/strike]
Reputations: None yet
Combat:
Dodging +2
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), Dead (21+)
Abilities:
[table][tr][th]Ability (Specialty)[/th][th]Scr.[/th][th]Exp.[/th][th]Notes[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Area Lore: British Isles (Politics)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Area Lore: Ulster (Clans)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Artes Liberales (Alphabets)[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][td]Latin[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Athletics ()[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Awareness ()[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Brawl (Dodging)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Charm (Nobles)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Dead Language: Latin ()[/td][td]5[/td][td]75[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Etiquette (Nobles)[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Folk Ken (Nobles)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Guile ()[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Intrigue (Irish)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Leadership (Laboratory)[/td][td]3[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Living Language: English (West Midland)[/td][td]5[/td][td]75[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Living Language: Gaelic (Ulster)[/td][td]5[/td][td]75[/td][td]Native Language[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Magic Lore (Things of Virtue)[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Mythic Alchemy ()[/td][td]3[/td][td]30[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Organization Lore: Alchemists of Oxford (Initiating Others)[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Philosophiae (Alchemy)[/td][td]4[/td][td]34x1.5=51[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Profession: Scribe (Latin)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Swim (Not Drowning)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Teaching (Groups)[/td][td]1[/td][td]5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Theology: Christian ()[/td][td]2[/td][td]15[/td][/tr][/table]
Arts:
[table][tr][th]Technique[/th][th]Scr.[/th][th]Exp.[/th][th]Form[/th][th]Scr.[/th][th]Exp.[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]Succorro[/td][td]3[/td][td]30[/td][td]Fortunam[/td][td]8[/td][td]36[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]Magicam[/td][td]4[/td][td]10[/td][/tr][/table]
Vis: ***
Items:
placeholder for Rónán's seasonal development
How does he have an apparent age lower than his actual age with no LR, faerie blood, or anything like that? (Or am I missing an "anything like that?")
The standard rules actually have you around apparent age 22 when you get to age 25 if you have any changes that set up the rolls. Neglecting that. He has a privileged upbringing. So I figured he would end up very slightly lower due to living conditions. I can change it, though.
Or he has a baby face 
Wait...what? What am I missing here?
Oops, I was off. It's 23.
You have to roll 3+ for apparent aging. Rolling a 0 only give apparent aging if you have at least a +3. You don't get that until your 20s. A roll of 1 is always too much without significant bonuses. A roll of 2+ also requires bonuses. So 1/10 of the 20 rolls up to age 20 and none of the rolls afterward give you no apparent aging. So that means appearing 23 when you're 25.
What I'm not getting is why you're making Aging rolls at all before the age of 35.
ArM5 p169 says you may apply aging rolls (treating all rolls of 10 or more as 9) to any character with modifiers to the aging roll. (e.g. non-zero LCM, Virtue/Flaw, whatever). However this is at storyguide's discretion.
Again, I can just make it 25. I've always followed that rule because otherwise some things become quite nonsensical. For example, let's look at someone with Strong Faerie Blood. They don't start aging until 50 instead of 35 and have a +3 for their rolls. So, really, the years are affecting them less at 50 than a normal person at 35. Without this rule, the person with Strong Faerie Blood appears 50 at 50, perhaps appearing older than the normal person and certainly not younger. How does that fit? If you apply this rule, on average they will appear 4.1+3+2+1+1=11.1 years younger than 50 when they get to 50, or about 38.9 years old, not far off of the 35 they're supposed to be equivalent to.
I was looking through the Virtues and Flaws, trying to figure out which of them gave Rónán "modifiers to the aging roll", since I'm not very familiar with the stuff from HMRE. And I noticed, in the first paragraph under "Mythic Alchemy", that it depends on the rules given for alchemists in Art & Academe, which we're not using. It also references modifiers to making Superior/Excellent/Wondrous Items from C&G (again, a book we're not using). How useful will this Virtue be without using those books?
Also, didn't find any Virtues or Flaws that affect his Aging Rolls, so technically that optional rule wouldn't apply. I can see the reasoning behind it, but it runs afoul of House Rule #1: KISS. If you want to do it, go ahead, but it's not going to be a Thing that I expect everyone else to do.
Another also: what do those superscripts mean by some of the Virtues and Flaws?
Explicitly, nothing, because nothing there provides the bonus independent of circumstances. Implicitly, Gentleman. Again, I can just make it 25.
I had asked about this before with no response. First, even with that stuff, it doesn't require A&A. The crafting-bonus stuff would be relatively worthless, but I didn't care much for that. As for the purely A&A stuff, we can set any target levels we want for Mythic Alchemy without allowing any philosophic alchemy at all, like with what is given in HMRE. Second, that's not really the main point of having Mythic Alchemy here. The main point is to use it as a Learned Magician. The ideas are to make powders, potions, etc. and to be able to extract Vis from the aura. Lacking A&A won't affect those parts at all. Those parts are all contained in HMRE's Succoro, Fortunam, and Magicam.
I like to label things from initiations, talismans, familiars, etc. I haven't gotten through writing a full description yet. I planned to include one paragraph about the initiations. I marked those with "I" for initiation followed by letters to indicate which Virtue had been initiated.
I'm finally getting around to going over this character (been putting it off because I'm very unfamiliar with this flavour of hedge wizard, and the first time I tried to plug everything into my MetaCreator I got frustrated, gave up, and forgot that I hadn't parsed it.)
First problem I came across: 15 points of Flaws? Um...no. You're allowed "up to ten points of Flaws, and a corresponding number of points of Virtues." I see that you used the "excess" Flaws to do Initiation for various Virtues, which would work in play. But at Character Generation, it really needs to balance.
The Mythic Alchemy Virtue gives you the Mythic Alchemy Ability: 1 for free, so having that at 2 should be 10 points, not 15.
Before you totally agreed with this approach. Do notice I did not take 15 points of Virtues, just 10 points of Virtues. The extra Flaws did not provide anything. But if you insist on giving him lots of Virtues essentially for free, OK, I can just stick with what the rules say must show up through initiations, and that will fill the points up quickly.
I did notice, and I appreciate your not trying to go 1:1 on the Virtues & Flaws.
I am, however, trying to keep to the RaW (and house rules, especially the core book and the Houses of Hermes books) as much as possible.