A few questions about Becoming

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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With two Merinita magi in our group, one who has already initiated the mystery of Becoming and another one who would be extremely interested if he ever learns about it, I'm coming to the point where I want to make sure that I understand the rules right.
Probably most of my questions have already been discussed in depth, but I couldn't find the proper threads.
I know that many people regard Becoming as overpowered but please keep that out of this thread.

1.: Is Vis needed for the transformation rituals? So far we ruled yes, but I'm not 100% certain.

2.: By Transforming the Spirit the magus sacrifices The Gift, do the negative consequences of The Gift vanish as well?

3.: Do the healing rules for unchanging immortals (TMRE p.135) apply after Transforming the Body?

4.: Do the rules about the physical form of Faeries (ROP: F p.47 f.) apply?

5.: Is a transformed magus Incognizant, Narrowly or Highly Cognizant or nothing like that?

6.: Is Faerie Sight gained by Tansforming the Body?

7.: Will a transforming magus acquire the Virtues: Humanoid Faerie, Passes for Human and Infiltrator? If yes, after which transformation, Transformation of the Body or after all three transformations? What would be suitable corresponding Flaws?

8.: Can a magus with Faerie Raised Magic still learn spells with experience points after Transforming the Spirit?

9.: When a tainted magus with The Gift as a false power transforms the spirit, does he loose the taint? Will he register as a infernally tainted faerie? What happens to powers gained through Infernal Blessing?

Thanks in advance!

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These are good questions, and not all have a clear answer. The fundamental difficulty is that HoH:MC, and thus the mechanics for the Becoming Mystery, were written well before RoP:F.

Not according to what's written.

Ah, good point. I would say yes. No Gift, no penalties.
Keep in mind that, in general, it's very hard to manage the totals necessary to Transform without adding Ordeals. An Ordeal that gave the transformed maga the "Magical Air" Flaw and thus the same social penalties of the Gift would be very appropriate.

No. The character becomes a being of Faerie, not a being of Magic (like all the examples in TMRE). Being "unchanging" is ties to the Magic nature of TMRE (and RoP:M) immortals.

Hmm. Tricky, also because the question is not entirely clear. Could you be more explicit?

As I said, this requires a bit of interpretation, since cognizance appeared after HoH:MC. But since every Faerie is one of the three, and the transformed magus is a Faerie, I would say he is effectively Narrowly Cognizant, based on the fact that it's what characters transformed by Fable become (see RoP:F).

No. Note that not every Faerie has Faerie Sight.

Note that Passes for Human / Infiltrator are "Social Interaction" Virtues that define how a Faerie interacts with human society. A Faerie should only take one of the two. The difference is that the first allows one to play the part of a "normal" human with Social Status Flaws or Free Virtues, like Merchant or Craftman, the second the part of a human with social Virtues, like Knight or Senior Clergy. A transformed magus is treated as having one of this two Virtues, converting any appropriate Social Virtues it had. Whether he actually has the new Virtue or not seems immaterial (like a grog who gets ordained as a Priest -- does he get the Priest Virtue?)

Humanoid Faerie is something similar. It covers mechanically effects like having Magic Resistance, being immune to Warping etc. It's a Virtue for characters created as Faeries because a Humanoid Faerie is overall a "stronger" character than a normal human (even though it has limitations that a normal human does not have). These effects are already covered by the Transformation, but in a slightly different fashion (e.g. think of the total Might, which is probably higher than 5, but requires no additional Virtues). So. The transformed magus has a Faerie Body, but not the Humanoid Faerie Virtue.

Sure. Why not? But after Transforming the Mind, she can only learn new spells similar to those she already knows etc. etc.

Hmm. Noble's parma, but I thought Faeries could be "tainted" as well. If that's the case, the "taint" remains: the character appears Infernal to Divine and Infernal powers etc. etc. Powers gained through Infernal Blessing... would you care to give some examples?

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@ezzelino:
Thanks for your help!

Alright, all of the following can be found in ROP: F, p.47-48. ROP: F states that a faeries body is made up of matter and glamour, which has both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that a faerie can form the equipment/the props traditional for the role it's playing as extensions/parts of his body.
This leads to equipment without encumbrance that never really gets lost. Can a magus after transforming his body do this? If yes, what are the limits? One of our Merinita mages already plays several roles, one of them is that of a villainous knight, I guess weapons and armour would be alright as props, but what about a warhorse when needed, could lab material, even a whole lab be constructed of glamour when the faerie has the role of magus?
The next question is that of regenerating. Quote=ROP: F: "Narrowly and highly cognizant faeries can repair all but the cosmetic level of the damage their body has suffered, at will once the scene they are participating in has concluded."
It is even possible to rebuild the body when a faerie has been killed by humans, would a magus be able to do this?

This topic is the one that's bothering me the most, it all revolves around one character that is not a exactly a standard magus.
So let me introduce you to Anwell:
Anwell is played by a Ars Magica beginner with a tendency to create slightly problematic characters that are tons of fun for everybody.
Anwell is the child of a human mother and was sired through an Incubus (his biological father is still unknown), his conception was part of a plan by a coven of diabolists that was thwarted, either by a demon hunter (who of course is a diabolist himself), or a mysterious figure that is loosely connected to house Merinita.
Anyway, Anwell was brought to Arcadia/Elysium at an extremely young age, where he grew up at the court of Ogmios under the benevolent protection of his parens Hieronymus. He grew up without much contact to anything but faeries and now being sent to the mortal realm at the age of twenty, just past his gauntlet, has huge problems understanding the morality of humans.
Technically that amounts to the following:
Member of house Merinita (still not accepted by all members of the order)
Virtues: Affinity Mentem, Faerie Magic, Faerie Raised Magic, Hermetic Magus, Improved Characteristics x2, Infernal Blessings x2, Subtle Magic, The Gift, Venus' Blessing
Flaws: Depraved, Diabolic Past, False Power: The Gift, Tainted with Evil

The Infernal Blessings are spell like powers that make him resemble his demonic "father".

  • Demonic Speed: raises Quickness at the cost of a penalty to fatigue rolls
  • Harness the Wind: enables him to fly on the wind but only at night
  • Sense Emotions: enables him to sense the emotions of those who are close, as long as they aren't protected by magic resistance. So far this power has kept him out of trouble a lot and kept him on the "good" side. So far Anwell doesn't want that anybody feels bad because of him. (this attitude might change over time and the development of his morality is what makes him fun for all involved)
  • The Demon Revealed: Anwell can change his body and parts of his body into a more "demonic" and to him more natural form. Cat's eyes, spikes, claws, horns, a spiked tail and stuff like this, one day it might be usefull, but so far it has been more of a problem for him, since those changes can happen unvoluntarily (triggered by fear, anger, arousal...)

What is important to me is that he hasn't yet used his powers for "evil". He is tainted by evil but not yet evil himself. So if we manage to convert him to a faerie fast enough my tendency would be to convert the infernal blessings to faerie powers. If the temptations prove strong enough, especially his sexual desires drag him towards the "evil side", I'm not sure if the whole process of Becoming would be possible or if he would rather somehow become a being of infernal might or end up in purgatory/hell.

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Ah, no! I wouldn't allow any of that. I'd put it this way. The role of the Hermetic Magus in stories is that of the endless consumer of material and services :slight_smile:: grogs are supposed to procure him vis, lab material, coin etc. etc. So, no, he can't create stuff that would otherwise require some "game effort" to obtain!

The magus-transformed-into-a-faerie could repair the damage. However, he'd pretend he couldn't, because that's how he'd play his role in the story. Functionally, this is indistinguishable from not being able to repair the damage.

Similarly, the magus-transformed-into-a-faerie could come back from "the dead". But not as the same magus! Functionally, this would not be any different from making up another character (even though it's technically the same faerie, that plays another character!)

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Ok, from the example you gave, the "infernal" part is:

  1. A False Gift. Since the character loses the Gift, whether it was False, Blatant etc. no longer matters.
  2. Tainted with Evil. This stays. Play it up!
  3. Infernal Blessings. Note that these are different from inherent demonic powers (like those that a demon child with Infernal Might would have) or supernatural abilities "intrinsic" to the character. This is stuff that a demon or infernalist gave the character through application of a particular Power/Maleficium, explicitly designed with a specific R:, T: and D: when the character was created (RoP:I,p.85). Just evaluate if the effect keeps affecting a character turned into a Faerie. For example, it's likely that Duration is Forsaken; that's certainly the case if the powers you cited were taken from the similar examples given in RoP:I pp.85-86. If that's the case, since the character no longer has a soul, the Blessings vanish - just as if the character had repented of his sins, though it's quite different!