Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Black Sheep [3-6 players] (FULL)

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61

My magus will be heavy rego and corpus, but not sure if I'll be staying with just the corpus aspects of necromancy or adding Mentem too. I'm thinking that a good rego may also help with covenant building.

I'm struggling with how specialised to make the magus, and how far to nudge the necromancer traits. I can make a true black sheep but also want it to be playable. :slight_smile:

The companion I'm pondering is a promiscuous redcap. Charming, friendly, and perhaps a dark secret or two. Somebody to gather intelligence and stories.
Still pondering this too. Certainly will have a fae blooded background and look younger than he/she actually is. An item which allows him/her to switch gender might be in the mix, so that Blessing of Venus and other traits can be exploited for a range of npcs.

62

Hmm, I was going Rego and Corpus as well. I thought as a necromancer you'd be Creo and Corpus like you said.

63

That leads to a question about the level of companions. If Redcaps are allowed as companions, are other 'enhanced' companions allowed?

64

Hmm. Necromancy is very rego based. Creo is only really useful for creating materials to work with. My initial post had rego and Creo was a suggested inclusion from Pralix which I took on board.

65

Redcaps are companions by default (well I thought they were as they're trivial compared to magi). I've stayed away from the magical human stuff from other books as I don't really like it when it's exploited and we're sticking close to the core book.

66

Ah, I must have misunderstood.

In any case, I'm going with a minor magical focus on teleportation, so there's unlikely to be a lot of overlap in spells.

67

I agree that they're trivial compared to magi. But I"ve always felt that they're generally rather better when compared to other companions.

68

could be an opportunity to share a bit too? If we find effects that we both want invented then we create a few each and swap lab texts.

69

Yea, though on that note, anyone else think it unfair that the Tremere can't have an additional magical focus due to their free focus with certamen?

70

Yup. Always thought that was a bit harsh on Tremere characters, but would also note that it's meant to be a signature of the House. If another is allowed then suggest that it also match to the goals / lore of the house as well.
Just a suggestion. Cool with whatever.

71

Zharkune, aka Necromancer Zhar, Follower of Bonisagus

Background
Zhar knows he has a questionable past, although much of the specifics has been expunged from his memory by the Order, and what remains he hopes is correct.

From what he can recall his diminutive stature would have set him apart from his parents and siblings even if he had not been Gifted, he was clearly born a runt, and the combination of both this and his gift meant his family was quick to find any excuse to billet him away from them. When his town's grave digger and embalmer both expressed a keen interest in the young boy his parents watched him depart with great enthusiasm. The two morbid practitioners took the boy in and began training him in many and varied arts. Beginning with ceremonies and embalming, Zharkune had been found by a cult who worshiped the dead.

A few years passed and of the details he remembers little. Zhar knows that he was an adept servant to his surrogate family, and knows that he once was far more skilled in the rites of embalming and preservation, and that much of that skill was destroyed when his memories were removed. He does not recall the details at all of when his Hermetic master destroyed the cult. His master - Seeker Cercin, Master of Bonisagus told Zharkune that he found the tiny child serving the intertwined families of the embalmer and grave digger, and that their cult activities were so profoundly evil that they were cleansed from Christendom.

Seeker Cercin tried to raise Zharkune as a proper Bonisagus, allowing his natural talents in magical investigation and experimentation to flourish. Zhar knows his master was a kind woman and was proud of the growth in his hermetic skills. She was however profoundly displeased when Zhar found his interests turning to the dead and the spirit world. Cercin initially forbade the interest, but Zhar would not be persuaded.

Later in his apprenticeship Zhar was kidnapped by a member of the original cult who strangely survived the earlier cleansing, and his master was required once again to destroy the cult and erase sections of Zhar's memories. After that hateful event Zhar made an effort to understand and empower himself in the areas of the dead, to better find his way and potentially prepare himself for the secrets that fate seems determined to thrust upon him. Cercin relented her objections, and guided Zharkune toward the creative aspect of his interest - all the while asking he remember what risks come from his interest.

The lost fragments of his mind frustrate him, and eventually he wishes to find a way to fill out some of the gaps - be that with restorative magic, or interrogating he living and dead host involved in the events long ago. He is determined to prove that Necromancy does not need to be reviled by the Order, and find his past along the way.

Stats
Stats are draft, I'm still considering switching out a few V&Fs to suit how intense to make him. Switch in Blatant Gift instead of Dwarf so that even magi find him disturbing?

Characteristics: Int +3, Per +2, Pre -1, Com 0, Str -3, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik -1
Size: -2, Age: 23

Virtues and Flaws
Puissant Rego (no calc), Affinity Magic Theory (no calc), Affinity Rego (no calc), Book Learner (Book Quality: +3), Deft Form (Corpus) [Form: Corpus], The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Inventive Genius (Invent Lab Totals: +3), Major Magical Focus (necromancy), Personal Vis Source (Corpus), Puissant Magic Theory*, Dark Secret: Lost memories and hidden deeds, Driven (Necromancy to be accepted by the Order), Dwarf, Hermetic Infamy (Necromancer), Susceptibility to Infernal Power

  • Free from House
    (no calc) means its a selected Virtue but I have excluded it from the XP calculations so that Metacreator correctly spends XP. MT is 50 xp * 1.5 = 75, which is score 5. Rego is 70 xp * 1.5 = 105, which is score 14.

Abilities
Artes Liberales 1 (cermonial magic), Awareness 2, Concentration 2 (spell casting), Embalming 1 (Humans), Finesse 2 (Targeting), Folk Ken 2 (peasants), Guile 1 (fast talk), Italian 5 (specific dialect), Latin 4 (hermetic usage), Magic Theory 4+2 (Rego) (4), Order of Hermes Lore 1, Parma Magica 1 (Mentem), Scribe 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1

Arts Cr 2, In 3, Mu 1, Pe 0, Re 11+3, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 8, He 0, Ig 0, Im 1, Me 7, Te 0, Vi 0

Spells

  • Charm Against Putrefaction (CrCo 10)
  • Conjure the Remains of Man (CrCo 25) Creates a human corpse for a month
  • Whispers Through the Black Gate (InCo(Me) 15)
  • The Walking Servant (ReCo(Me) 35) Animates a corpse for a month
  • Disguise of the Transformed Magus (MuIm 5) Change three sensations of the caster
  • Disguise of the Leprous Vagrant (MuIm 15) Change three sensations of a person
  • Dangerous Sling of Vilano (ReTe 15) Damage increased to +10.
72

I've never seen it as a problem. Sure, a Focus is the quick way to a more powerful magus, but it is far from essential. I don't see it as crippling for Tremere magi, or any other magi for that matter. It makes the Tremere different, which is IMHO a good thing.

There are many good designs that don't require a focus, particularly if you go for a generalist, where a focus doesn't help much.

Note that Potent Magic (from TMRE p.31) is another interesting and colorful to specialize a magus. I've never been able to try it in play, but sometimes I would have liked to (but the SG wasn't keen on it).

73

Not to throw sand on your shoes, but . . .

We don't have a covenant yet. Can we have a Redcap in our party?

74

I like the background. It avoid the usual stereotypes while still explaining his interest in the dead. :slight_smile:

Magi still wouldn't find him disturbing even if he had Blatant Gift, since the parma blocks the effects of it just as well as for a normal Gift.

Wondering whether a Corpus vis source might be more useful to him than Rego. He'd probably end up with more vis, as Form sources produce a bit more in many sagas, and it could also be used for healing.

Driven is major, right? It would help if it was indicated.

Embalming and Scribes should probably be labelled as Profession skills.

I'm not sure he would have been able to learn this spell during apprenticeship.

CrCo learning total = Cr 2 + Co 8 + Int 3 + MT 7 + Aura 3 = 23

75

Good question. what is the standard for personal vis sources? How much will they be worth, and will you get less Te than Fo?

I'm sure he had it that way because that's how Metacreator displays them.

I think the question there is whether his focus applies to his starting spell learning total (in which case it would be Cr 2*2 + Co 8 + Int 3 + MT 7 + Aura 3 = 25. Many sagas I've seen allow you to apply a focus to your learning totals for initial spells.

76

I don't, for whatever it's worth. Despite making them the villain of my piece, I really like the House. And while they can't specialize with a focus, they can Affinity/Puissant a pair of favored arts. In my other game I play an aspiring Flambeau demon hunter with that combo in Perdo Vim and Flawless Spells and I do fine.

77

Rather, the question is whether creating a human body is considered necromancy. I didn't count it for this spell, which explains the discrepancy. I certainly considered the focus when checking the total for The Walking Servant.

78

Regarding Houses and virtues and flaws, I have a question.

Members of Ex Misc have free set of: 1 minor hermetic virtue, 1 major non-hermetic virtue, and 1 major hermetic flaw.
In the Societaes book (most of which we're not using), there's a sidebar for Ex Misc members from other houses, which basically says that you build yourself as a member of that house, but can't advance or access special stuff from them.

I'd think I'd rather do that, but if you want me to go the full Ex Misc I think I have a justification for the set and a decent idea. After arrival in the new tribunal, i'm introduced to a strange wizard. He looks me up and down and says, "Well, you don't deserve this, but perhaps someday you will. Come with me." I'm taken into the woods and a bizarre ritual is performed upon me. On completion I find that my magic has been crippled in some significant way, and I have new virtues.

This is more or less the process described in the mystery cult book, so I'm basically just flat out stealing. As for what virtue/flaw, I was wondering if you'd let me take strong faerie blood, as the ritual forces a heritage I didn't know I had to the surface (or maybe infuses it into me?). The resultant flaw would be Chaotic Magic. Not sure about the minor. This would give us an entry into fae stories, potentially.

If you don't like that there are other options, but honestly I don't love the other major virtues.

79

I think that makes the most sense for your character.

80

It's creating a human corpse. Why wouldn't that be relevant to necromancy?