Greater power gives 50 spell levels with which to construct the power, a base cost of the magnitude/2 or level/10. so a level 25 spell would have a base cost of 3 might points, not 1 (you divided twice)- the calculation on p.44 is for non magical beings with a greater power which use fatigue since they have no might points. Yes, I realize you have no might points, but you are a magical being.
So you have a base cost of 2.5 round up to 3 for a level 25 of a base cost of 2 for a level 20, but you can also use your leftover 5 or six levels of magnitude on mastery points, giving you 5 or 6 mastery points- see under "improved powers" quality what can be done with mastery points, but one effect is that 1 mastery point can be used to decrease the might point cost of a power by 1- so for a level 20 effect you essentially use 30 levels out of your 50 level budget to get parching wind at 0 might cost. or for level 25 you spend 40 levels out of your 50 level budget to get curse of the desert at 0 might cost. Assuming you don't want to spend the remainder on a trivial power, each remaining magnitude or mastery point can be spent to either increase the initiative by 1, be translated into 5 xp for finesse, concentration, or penetration, or can be used (subject to SG approval of the effect) to use a spell mastery effect for the ability at one effect per mastery point.
At this point since the cost is 0 it really does not matter if we translate this to fatigue as per the virtue instead of leaving it as the description in quality, and while it is technically being bought as a virtue it is a virtue I would expect you to convert to a quality relatively early in your experience as a magical being.
Also worth noting that you are keeping Gifted as a virtue at this point, though I expect that will be transformed soon as well, or lost- this will probably arise as an issue later in the game.
Service to the red will be spent 1 season per year in fighting the Black- details may vary, ussually during the summer.
Ok. I think I understand.
So Argentius has been transformed (Transformed Being virtue) into a Magical Human.
So does this mean that progression for Argentius follows the RoP:M guidelines or does he still progress through his Hermetic studies? If it's a choice I can make, I'd like to keep Argentius functioning as a magus character, but I'm also willing to roll/role with it as we go. I'll need your guidance of course. We're in deep waters, no pun intended.
Noted on the Service Task: Fight the Black, 1 season a year, usually summer.
For the Greater Power, it feels fitting to the story and character that Argentius would manifest a way take vengeance on betrayers, particularly given how helpless he felt in the moment of his death.
Now the question in my mind is this: Curse of the Desert or Parching Wind? Curse seems intended as a killing spell. Parching Wind could also accomplish that... eventually. Swarms of desert beasts or sandstorms could come later depending on how this develops.
Seems smart to use the 2 (or 3 depending on which effect is chosen) ought to be used on Penetration and Initiative. For Penetration, does it add 5 xp to the Penetration Ability improving that for any spell cast (or power in the future)?
You will advance as a magical being, but with might 0 this is essentially the same as advancing as a magus- but anything that strips might will kill you instantly until you get your might higher (which will slow your advancement), so you will likely want to look into the advancement rules for magical beings in order to do things like improve your might and convert some of your virtues into qualities.
I’ll do some reading and then ask questions.
I assume this means no familiar for this character at this point? Lol
That is correct, magical beings cannot have familiars.
Ok, I've been doing some reading this evening and starting to get my head around this. Talk about stretching my ArM understanding!
Gaining Might Score: I'm not sure how this is done. I can see a minor quality called "Improve Might Score" which can be taken repeatedly.
Is that the mechanism?
If so, is it then possible to use the 0 Experience cost conversion method to gain a few Might points? Swapping one Minor Virtue for a Minor Quality?
Can one also take a minor inferiority at this stage, to start with a Might Score?
Or is this a "You start with Might 0" and need to spend Experience to gain a Might Score?
Yes, you will essentially gain the improved might score to raise your might. However it is very clear that you do have a might of 0 with no qualities when you are transformed, so you will require a season of study or transformation during which you can incorporate any number of 0 xp effects.
So at this point of the transformation, this is what I think is applied to Argentius:
Might Score: 0 (Corpus)
Added Virtues:
Transformed Being (Human) (RoP:M p 47)
Remove Strong Faerie Blood, Replaced with Greater Power virtue (from example on p. 47)
Greater Power (Major, Supernatural) (RoP:M p 44)
Power: Parching Wind (as per ArM 5e spell p 123, PeAq 20)
Might Cost: 0 (2 Mastery Points)
+1 Initiative
Penetration (10xp), Concentration (5xp)
Notes:
20 spell levels on Parching Wind
10 spell levels to reduce cost to 0
20 spell levels converted to 4 master points:
5 pts to Initiative (+1)
10 pts to Penetration (10 xp)
5 pts to Concentration (5 xp)
Note: Expect to transform this to a Quality fairly soon.
Magic Human (Special) (RoP:M p 45)
Appearance Change: Skin has darkened and become more weathered. Argentius's "beauty" remains but it's as if he has dried up, "desiccated" as it were. He appears to be thinner. He also has spear wounds on his body (chest, thigh, arms) that are open but not bleeding.
Flaws:
Servant of the Red (Major, Story)
Task(s): 1 Season a year (usually summer) dedicated to the Red, fighting against the Black. Specifics to come seasonally.
Curse for failure to give season of work: TBD
Qualities:
Improved Powers (effectively from Strong Faerie Blood Transformation, buying down the Might cost)
Inferiorities
Monstrous Appearance (Major)
Reputation w/ Servants of the Red: TBD?
Essential Trait +3: TBD
(Not exactly sure where to go with this one. I could see his crafting being essential to his nature, so perhaps a trait related to that.
Update on Characteristic changes: In looking back over this, I was misreading the change to the characteristics (like the +1 from Magic Human). I had missed that Magical Human Special was different from Magical Blood. Same thing for Monstrous Blood. It's Monstrous Appearance the inferiority that applies, not the flaw.
Monstous appearance is intrinsic to magic humans and is not considered an inferiority., and you can have no qualities when first transformed.
You will also start with no reputation- at least with servants of the Red. Whatever hermetic reputation you may have earned in the first draft of your life still remains.
Your essential trait will be tied to your identity as a magical being, not your past life, so possibly something like "destroyer of life" or "implacable avenger"
Got it. I'll adjust my notes accordingly.
I'll work on the essential trait but I like the direction you're recommending.
I'll await your next step for moving Argentius back into the story. In the meantime, I'll start thinking about the next couple seasons of study/transformation and update the spreadsheet.
The next step will be that he inexplicable returns to the covenant at the end of the Spring season, in time to depart for his summer mission.
If I can play devil's advocate here, for a moment? Being able to have a familiar is a function of being an hermetic magi with your arts opened. He hasn't lost his Gift (yet, anyway). Even if the Gift gets converted into a magical quality at some point, Gifted happens to be a Major Magical Quality that allows a magic character to get its arts opened as an hermetic magi (RoP:M 37). Further, for magi transiting to immortal characters with Might using a mystery as an example, in TMRE the familiar isn't automatically lost. Living ghosts and daimons can retain existing familiars who become ghostly or daimonic as well, at the side of the magi, and similar for alchemically transformed magi. I don't think anything spells out that an immortal magi that didn't have a familiar at death couldn't bind a new familiar - although this is probably beyond the reach of a daimonic one which usually no longer has a lab, and possibly beyond the reach of at least the ghostly one if he doesn't also have the spirit familiar virtue. My thinking is that he probably retains his ability to bind a familiar until/unless he loses his Gift (which would make this discussion moot), but you could probably apply the extra vis cost from TMRE p. 134 on creation of the familiar bond, if you allow a new one to be made.
Part of the issue here from a less crunchy perspective is that it could be seen that he is now a familiar to the Red.
If Argentius is a familiar to the Red, does that end any issues he might have with Acclimation?
First being might 0 there are no issues with acclimation.
I also said "from a certain perspective", not that he was literally a familiar to the Red (for one thing a magus can only have 1 familiar, for another the familiar link provides protection from acclimation because the magus is presumed to not have magical might, which does not apply to the Red.
Beyond that however is the fact that Argentius has just become a magical being and simply speaking does not know what all the rules and circumstances may or may not be. At minimum he would need to do some form of research into whether a familiar is a possibility and if so what might be required.
That helps clarify the situation.
Is there a possibility of some storytelling/roleplaying with the transformation process?
It might be helpful to roleplay any interaction Argentius might have with the Red even if just to flesh out the backstory/exposition a bit more.
Question: what happens with Second Sight as a result of the transformation?
It's a free supernatural ability that came with Strong Faerie Blood. While Strong Faerie Blood transforms into the Great Power, does this become one of those virtues that needs to transformed/converted into an appropriate quality?
As it was associated with faerie rather than magic I would expect it would be lost, as was the strong faerie blood. Regaining it as a magical ability should not be overly difficult.