It is, IMO, good for building magical creatures, or mythic companions hedge wizards.
But it is very easy to abuse, once you ignore the basic safeguards in it. Mix things up and you got... Well, companions that are all x-men. Or an elder magus from thalassa's "tradition": 300 years old pg, with as many XP under his belt as a 450 years old magi, no warping at all, full health, and, assuming just 2 xp every year (like exposure), about 60 additional virtues points not compensated by any flaw (Greater immunity to Might Strippers, Fire, Steel + 07 others, 10 affinity + puissant, and 10 points left).
This makes the immortal magi of the Mysteries (which are cool!!!) miserable fools, and utterly breaks my suspension of disbelief.
As an example of what I meant for an hedge wizard build with it: andorra.wdfiles.com/local--files ... rd.chr.pdf
It is not fully complete (I had trouble designing a bad enough detrimental power), but you get the idea. Spont magic up to lvl 25 in MuTe or PeTe at the cost of 1 fatigue, plus 2 "fixed" powers (Jaged Spikes of Tellus and Unmake the Gift of Tellus) that he can cast at will.
Notes and comparisons:
The focus powers are wider than a "Create Fire" Ex Misc major virtue, since it covers 2 entire Te+Fo combinations. Yet, as you noticed, it burns fatigue, and cost him 2 major virtues.
The fixed powers are only minor virtues, but are absolutely not flexible. An Ex Misc virtue, OTOH, can be used at any range, duration, or target.
So, stating the obvious? I think the authors did a pretty good job overall.
I suggest maybe you skip Wealthy and take Educated, Veteran, Privileged Upbringing, and Arcane Lore? This is 70xp fewer, so maybe age another 4 years or so? Or package Veteran and Flight as two minor virtues gained through experience (you are allowed up to 3 points in a cycle, and they don't always have to be related).
For your mercenary company, I doth frown on the crossbowmen. This is the time and the place of the Almogavars!
And Mercenaries don't swear Oaths of Fealty.
70XP is quite a bit. Will have to see about that. Being wealthy is something I think fits too, though. The crossbowmen are there because they can fly, and as a consequence they are Lame. Lame and fast mountainous movement do not fit well together :mrgreen: so they will have to have abandoned their more auxiliary stuff for a more static battle role in pitched battle. Not what they would like to do, but it is a sacrifice they have had to do to learn Flight. The rest, yell "Desperta Ferro!" regularly, do not fear The crossbowmen will be few in number (maybe 5), with the rest being true almogavers with fairly high Athletics!
Basically, Oath of fealty stands for "I can be ordered around by the SG (current employer) as he sees fit" when he launches invasions and orders troops movements.
No, no flying crossbowmen. It is just too much. I say thee nay.
And being ordered around by your employer is part and parcel of being a Mercenary. I say nay to Oath of Fealty as well.
OMG! The crossbowmen do NOT shot while flying! They onbly fly to start the escalade assaults. Fly up the wall, clear a strip of wall taking advantage of the surprise and drop ropes for the rest of the almogavers to move up the wall.
The almogavers did use crossbowmen in their pitched battles, so this is far from an invention. They did not use many, but they were there.
Just checked the acquisition virtue rules. I feel somewhat munchin if I take all those XP-granting virtues. I am getting 60 additional XP to spend after discounting "virtue buying" expenses, so he will be younger, not older. I do not even need to maintain Lame as a flaw since I would have enough XP to remove it. I think I will still keep it since it is fitting: you get flying, but you sacrifice the sureness of your land srtide to get it. Classy.
On the other major flaw, age quicky or difficult longevity ritual? I guess age quickly would be better, no?
How about Major Malediction? You age quickly, because Longevity Rituals are not yet part of your knowledge. Later, when you get someone to makie one for you, Age Quickly becomes Difficult Longevity Ritual. You didn't change Flaws, it was Major Malediction all along. Just how it is applied adapted to your life circumstances.
Eh?
Otherwise, just Age Quickly.
Somehow I imagine this guy as having Fury as well...
I love how, instead of taking dump stats and trying to claim how these are a terrible, terrible disadvantage, you took Improved Characteristics and tried to make him a rounded, competent character.
What's Dire Caster?
Educated + Wealthy, it sounds to me like he's the son of some merchant, or a noble's bastard. This is good, IMHO.
I agree with Marko about Oath of Fealty.
Given his wealth, crossbowmen don't bother me, but, well, whatever, you can replace it with short bows if marko's still uneasy.
Serf's Parma (read A&A a long time ago), I'm not sure he can learn the lvl 15 inception. IIRC, it's something harsh, like AL + Int + small bonuses.
So, that's 2+5 = 7 + bonuses. It's conceivable he could learn the lvl 10, but the other would require 8 points in assorted bonuses. I don't think it's likely. Or did I miss something?
Good choice of enriched items.
"Dislikes Muslim men but really likes women +2" Reminds me of some guys here
My understanding is that 'learning' a formula (inception, reagent, or theriac) only costs 5 xp and has nothing to do with your level in the relevant Ability. However, making the formula is based on a lab score just like Hermetic spells, with the lab score being equal to Int + Ability + Experimentation bonus + shape/material bonus + lab bonus. The total bonuses can't exceed the relevant Ability. So he could 'know' the inception formula, but he wouldn't be able to create the inception.
I have never liked characters that are characteristic-minmaxed. In fact I do not like regular magi with positive Stamina either since a lab rat does not exercise regularly by definition. But that is me. Glad you like it
Fire caster, yeah. Even if Dire Caster also has a nice sound to it :mrgreen:
Yes, this was the idea. minor ascion of a noble family. Got carried away with the story of the Flame Brothers and did not detail his own background. mea culpa. Will correct this.
I still disagree with you all about oath of fealty, but will accept the table ruling
I prefer them droping naphta recipients instead. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: They are a background feature above anything else (and there are 5 or 6 of them at most) so no biggie anyway.
I will have to review the A&A rules myself, but yes, learning them is as fightmaster says. I recycled the Inceptions from another character (that was MUCH more oriented towards them) so it might be that I tried too hard and overreached Arnau's capabilities. An unusable inception is quite stupid, so I would take something else instead. Thanks for the pointer.
I will look into fury since it has 2 defenders already
OK, so a sword of quality (+4 attack) would be 12 QP. And an Ruby of quality for fire related spells (+6 bonus) 18 QP. Those are 30 XP. I think I will go for that and pass over modifying the character sheet, making him a year younger (27) and be done with it.
Sword of Quality is 10qp, that is grandfathered in and I have not had a chance to revise the economics system yet. So go with 10. When I do post a revised system, some stuff will be more expensive but you wind up with more vis at the end, so existing characters are all sure to be due a small refund.
City of Mallorca (historic name of palma de mallorca at the time). He can be around at any point of the island running errands and assaulting remaining muslim strongholds at any given time. I thought i had said it in the background.
City of Mallorca (historic name of palma de mallorca at the time). He can be around at any point of the island running errands and assaulting remaining muslim strongholds at any given time. I thought i had said it in the background.
I don't think a ruby IoQ can provide a bonus to fire magics.
The bonus is supposed to be related to the use a professionnal would have in his trade. I can't see a ruby be of any use for that.
Now, marko may rule to lift that, as some people do. But:
When I asked how did it work here(Because, it is was lifted, I'd have asked for a staff of quality to improve arachné finesse rolls with projectiles), it was ruled that the raw was followed.
If a ruby IoQ improves fire magic, I can't see flambeau not getting one on top of the Ruby Attunement of their talisman, to get +12 to fire-related effects. In fact, I can't see magi not piling on IoQ, since these would duplicate the effects of Talisman Attunement.
Hum... It seems to me that should be related to his triggers. So, displays of Sahir Magic? Islam-related things, like seeing someone do his prayer? Arabs in position of power?
It depends on how much of a racist you want to make him, in a way. Does he have a problem with arabs, ruling arabs, armed arabs, Muslims (not the same thing as arabs!), overt muslims, or just sahirs? This makes for widely different characters.
Hmm. Point taken about the IoQ. It just hit me when looking at the bonuses for the sword that I could do that with a ruby. Maybe I overdid myself. If the ruby is not acceptable, maybe a pyrite or flint of quality should provide a bonus to create fire instead? They were certainly used for the trade of starting fires at the time.
Fury vs Muslim magicians seems adequate, but it makes him very weak vs them. He wants to bring them down, so losing control of his actions in front of them do not seem like the best option. Displays of disrespect towards Christianity might be more adequate. he is a crazed fiery crusader in practical terms, so it tens to fit, I would say. Good catch there. Thanks!
The crossbowmen will be few in number (maybe 5), with the rest being true almogavers with fairly high Athletics!
They onbly fly to start the escalade assaults. Fly up the wall, clear a strip of wall taking advantage of the surprise and drop ropes for the rest of the almogavers to move up the wall.
Reminds me of some guys here 
