They aren't core book only, as requested. But since it sounds like you're OK with that, here are the several that are nearly complete. One of the main things to do between rough and final drafts is to write up the non-standard spells fully.
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Criamon: Path of Seeming
Age: 25
Int +3, Per +1, Str 0, Sta 0, Pre 0, Com 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Virtues & Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; ; Affinity with Enigmatic Wisdom, The Enigma, Font of Knowledge, (Land) Regio Network, Puissant Enigmatic Wisdom, Skilled Parens; [Major Personality Flaw]; Predictive Stigmata, [Minor Personality Flaw]
Area Lore: [small region where apprenticed] 1 (Navigation), Area Lore: [small region where born/raised] 1 (Navigation), Area Lore: [another small region] 1 (Navigation), Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting), Athletics 1 (Hiking), Awareness 1 (Nature), Charm 1 (Magi), Concentration 1 (Spells), Divine Lore 1 (Regios), Enigmatic Wisdom 7+2 (Labyrinth Meditation), Etiquette 1 (Hermetic), Faerie Lore 1 (Regios), Folk Ken 1 (Magi), Font of Knowledge 4 (Area Lore), Infernal Lore 1 (Regios), Intrigue 1 (Hermetic), Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic), Language: [native language] 5 ([native dialect]), Language: [something neighboring the native language] 1 ([a nearby dialect]), Magic Lore 1 (Regios), Magic Theory 3 (Spells), Mystery Cult Lore: House Criamon 1 (Path of Seeming), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1 ([Tribunal where apprenticed]), Parma Magica 1 (Infernal), Penetration 1 (Intellego), Profession: Scribe 1 (Latin), Stealth 1 (Natural Areas), Survival 1 (Regios), Swim 1 (Underwater)
In 10, Im 5, Me 5
Tongue of the Fishes but in general (InAn 20)
Whispering Winds (InAu 15)
Intuition of the Forest (InHe 10)
Eyes of the Eagle (InIm 25)
Thoughts Within Babble (InMe 25)
Eyes of the Treacherous Terrain (InTe 15)
Piercing the Faerie Veil (InVi 20)
Piercing the Magical Veil (InVi 20)
Play Notes: This mage is focused on using Enigmatic Wisdom to explore different places and look into their history, their present magic, and maybe even their future. Labyrinth Meditation (HoH:MC p.60), which takes only a Diameter to complete and doesn’t require a labyrinth, plays a big part in this, as does Intelligence +3. Those dramatically boost all rolls against various lores. If you don’t have the right lore, you can pick up another couple lores each day very temporarily with Font of Knowledge and still have that boost. Given a little bit of time and these great lores, (Land) Regio Network can allow you to move yourself along with the rest of the troupe across Mythic Europe with ease, using Piercing the Magical Veil to assist you. As you delve into the Path of Seeming, the great Enigmatic Wisdom score will substitute for both Magic Sensitivity and Second Sight without penalties from misaligned Auras since Enigmatic Wisdom is not a Supernatural Ability. Delving a little further you’ll be able to see into objects’ pasts. As for the future, that comes from Predictive Stigmata and analyzing them with Enigmatic Wisdom. With so much coming from Enigmatic Wisdom, casting spells is actually a secondary thing for this mage. The spells selected provide a wide variety of useful information for exploration. But this mage is very vulnerable in combat. Be sure to travel with shield grogs.
Customization Ideas: Select a Major Personality Flaw and a Minor Personality Flaw to suit your vision for the character. There is room for 5 more points each of Virtues and Flaws.
General:
- Ability specializations can be changed freely. But you probably don’t want to change the Magic Theory specialization, as this mage has little experience in Arts.
- You need to choose a type for your regio network. You should probably choose something land-based like caves, as you don’t have a lot of magic for mobility to handle swimming or flight so well. Swimming or flight would also likely be problematic for everyone with you.
- Do not take Disfigured for your stigmata, nor Vow nor Pious to represent following an apt path. Starting with any of these will cause problems with initiations on the Path of Seeming. Twilight Prone can be similarly problematic, but only at the very end of the Path of Seeming.
- Most likely you will not have room to take another Story Flaw since you already have Predictive Stigmata.
- So many points (90 before multiplying by 1.5) are put into Enigmatic Wisdom that picking up Arcane Lore can account for 50 of those, allowing 50 points to be placed anywhere, not just into Arcane Abilities
- Puissant Font of Knowledge, and to a lesser extent Affinity with Font of Knowledge, is a good portion of getting an extra use each day out of Font of Knowledge. With how integral Font of Knowledge is to this build, this could be very helpful.
- Consider removing some spells to get Touch versions of spells like Shriek of Impending Shafts to give your shield grogs better defenses so you’re all more likely to survive.
Personality/Style:
- Depending on what you are interested in investigating, Magical Fascination or Obsession could represent a deep desire.
- While you don’t want to use Vow or Pious, as mentioned above, Compassionate, Dutybound, Humble, Noncombatant, or Soft-Hearted can still represent different parts of your personality putting you on a path of apt action. Similarly, Optimistic or Overconfident could represent other aspects of faith in your path of apt action.
- Depending on your reason for exploration, Driven or Higher Purpose could provide the internal motivation toward it.
Skill/Talent:
- You could decide you want to communicate with people a lot when exploring. Raise Presence and Communication by dropping other 0s. Take the Gentle Gift. Be warned that Disfigured will cause some problems immediately as you start initiations on the Path of Seeming.
- You might go the other direction, amplifying the disquieting nature of the Gift brought to the fore by your stigmata. Take the Blatant Gift. Perhaps lower both Presence and Communication to raise other things.
- If you want to be able to explore Divine and Infernal things better, strongly consider Sense Holiness and Unholiness. That is something your Intellego and Enigmatic Wisdom will never be able to handle well. If you do this, note the difficulties with the Ability. You might include Affinity or Puissant or build up Penetration and change it specialization. Raise Perception by lowering some 0s.
Story Flaws:
- If you drop Predictive Stigmata, Plagued by Supernatural Entity, Supernatural Nuisance, Faerie Friend, or Magical (Being) Companion could provide an external driving force, pushing you toward the exploration you do.
- If you drop Predictive Stigmata, Indiscrete could come from not being deceptive on your path of apt action.
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Flambeau: School of the Founder
Age: 25
Int +2, Per 0, Str 0, Sta +2, Pre 0, Com 0, Dex 0, Qik +1
Virtues & Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Major Magical Focus: Fire; Deft Ignem, Puissant Ignem, Skilled Parens; [Major Personality Flaw]; Deficient Aquam, [Minor Personality Flaw]
Area Lore: [Chosen Tribunal] 1 (Navigation), Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting), Athletics 1 (Running), Awareness 2 (Alertness), Brawl 2 (Dodging), Charm 1 (Magi), Concentration 2 (Spells), Etiquette 2 (Hermetic), Finesse 1 (Fast Casting), Folk Ken 1 (Magi), Guile 1 (), Intrigue 2 (Hermetic), Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic), Language: [native language] 5 ([native dialect]), Magic Theory 3 (Spells), Organization Lore: Cult of Mercury 1 (Members), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1 (House Flambeau), Parma Magica 1 (Vim), Penetration 1 (Ignem), Profession: Scribe 1 (Latin), Stealth 1 (Natural Areas)
Cr 8, In 1, Mu 9, Re 1, An 1, Co 9, Ig 8+3
Bind Wound @ Personal (CrCo 5)
Flesh to Flame (MuCo(Ig) 35), Mastery 1: Fast Casting - Base 30, +1 Diameter
Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20), Mastery 3: Adaptive Casting, Multiple Casting, Penetration
Ball of Abysmal Flame (CrIg 35), (using Mastery from PoF)
Vision of Heat’s Light (InIg 20)
Body of Darkfire (Mu(Pe)Ig 10) - Base 4, +2 Sun
Fire Flies (ReIg 5) - Base 3, +2 Sun
Leap of Flame (ReIg 20) - Base 20 teleport to AC
Play Notes: You can throw 4 copies of Ball of Abysmal Flame each round for a lot of damage, or you can switch to 4 copies of Pilum of Fire if you need the penetration. While this mage can sling fire quite well, even generally better than the one-trick pony in the core book, the spell Flesh to Flame is really integral to the character. At the moment casting requisites will be problematic to transform along with your clothes and other items on you, though you could solve much of that with Virtues mentioned above. Turning into fire makes the mage very hard to hurt. Deft Ignem means the mage can cast Ignem spells without voice or gestures in that form without trouble. So now you can fling fire from a safer position. More importantly, you can fly and teleport as a fire, which provides a lot of versatility. Body of Darkfire allows you to be a lightless flame if you need to be more stealthy. It should be noted that these spells will not end when Flesh to Flame ends, though Body of Darkfire won’t be of any particular use in human form; but this does mean that you can fly in human form. Finally, Vision of Heat’s Light gives some ability to see in darkness if you’re being stealthy or to see certain invisible enemies.
Customization Ideas: Select a Major Personality Flaw and a Minor Personality Flaw to suit your vision for the character. There is room for 5 more points each of Virtues and Flaws, which could include a Story Flaw.
General:
- Ability specializations can be changed freely. If you end up lowering Intelligence to +1, make sure you don’t change the Magic Theory specialization.
- If you want to start younger, at 23 years old, lower any three of Awareness, Brawl, Concentration, Etiquette, or Intrigue from 2 to 1.
- A lot of people like Greater Immunity to Heat and Flame. That certainly fits thematically, but it might be too stereotypical for you. Flesh to Flame already lets you touch fires without being hurt, so you don’t need Greater Immunity to Heat and Flame to use Touch-range spells on fires without getting hurt, though it wouldn’t require you to turn to flame.
- Similarly, you might find Deficient Aquam too stereotypical. Deficient Aquam could easily be changed to another Minor Hermetic Flaw.
- Affinity or Puissant in Creo, Muto, or Ignem would help increase your most important Arts quickly. If you want to focus more on blasting with fire, focus on Creo or Ignem. If you want to focus on manipulating fire, focus on Muto or Ignem.
- Spell Mastery is important, but you want to focus it on just a few spells to get a lot out of it. You could freely swap all of the Mastery from Pilum of Fire to Ball of Abysmal Flame without changing how anything currently works. Whichever you choose, build more spells that are similar to that one so that you can work better with Adaptive Casting. Taking Mastered Spells would also give you more points of Spell Mastery to work with, or possibly just freeing up some of the 35 points already in Spell Mastery to be reallocated.
- If you get any extra experience, such as reallocating points due to Affinity or Puissant or Mastered Spells in the previous points, strongly consider placing them in Muto, Animal, Herbam, and Terram so that casting requisites don’t inhibit Flesh to Flame when you want to transform along with your equipment.
- Later on consider using MuIg or ReIg to develop spells to make fires harder to put out, make them so they won’t burn certain things, etc. You can use these on yourself with Flesh to Flame, as demonstrated with Body of Darkfire, Fire Flies, and Leap of Flame.
- Later on also consider a spell to put out fires so you can stop accidental fires you have caused.
- As the original Adaptive Casting had actually been free and automatic for everyone, not even taking up a Mastery option, you might talk to your troupe about making the errata’d version generally available if you don’t want to be in the Cult of Mercury.
Personality/Style:
- If you want to build upon the fiery idea of Ignem, consider Personality Flaws such as Wrathful, Fickle Nature, or Obsessed. Consider something like a Lesser Malediction where your touch slightly burns things, not enough to damage but enough to cause a smell and leave marks behind. Or perhaps Environmental Sensitivity because your body really doesn’t like the cold.
- Perhaps you want to become known as the greatest master of fire ever. Personality Flaws like Ambitious or Driven would be appropriate. Consider Affinity with Ignem to improve your Ignem more easily.
- Or maybe you want to be more a warrior for good who happens to use Ignem; Personality Flaws like Driven, Higher Purpose, or Vow could work well. Consider Flaws like Infamous to represent a reputation for painful violence despite your good intentions.
Skill/Talent:
- If you want to improve your speed in combat, both for initiative with your fire and for fast casting Flesh to Flame, you could raise Quickness to +3. Either lower both Intelligence and Stamina to +1 while dropping any one of the 0s to -1, or lower just one of Intelligence or Stamina to +1 while dropping any of the 0s to -2.
- If you want to be the go-to wizard for Ignem and be able to earn vis by writing books, get Good Teacher and raise Communication to +3. Either lower both Intelligence and Stamina to +1 while dropping any two others by a point, or lower just one of Intelligence or Stamina to +1 while dropping any of the 0s to -2 and any of the others by a point.
- If you want to focus on blasting your way through things, you might lower Intelligence to +1 and any one of the 0s to -1 to raise Stamina to +3. While Life Boost can be one of the most powerful Virtues for blasting through things, it’s actually not quite as handy here as you might think with all of the Multiple Casting that will happen combined with the doubling from Spell Mastery’s Penetration and your Major Magical Focus. For example, raising Stamina by 1 and 45 points in Spell Mastery to get to 5 gives you 5 more points of penetration in every one of six attacks in a round. Or raising Stamina by 1 and putting 19 experience in Creo to get to 10 gives you 5 more points of penetration in every one of four attacks as well as increasing Lab Totals. They cannot match a single shot from Life Boost, but they’ll provide a lot more penetration and other utility in general.
Story Flaws:
- Enemies could be a group you have fought in the past, where many of them remain.
- Hermetic Patron could be a Flambeau archmage renowned for fire who sees your talent with fire and wants you to be their successor.
- Indiscreet could parallel being associated with fire. Just as fire is so obvious, giving away its position with light, smoke, heat, etc., you too give away your position socially and in other ways.
- Being so associated with fire, you could have a salamander as a Magical (Being) Companion.
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Flambeau: School of Apromor
Age: 25
Int +2, Per 0, Str 0, Sta +1, Pre +1, Com +1, Dex 0, Qik +1
Virtues & Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Flawless Magic; Affinity with Perdo, Minor Magical Focus: Dispelling, Puissant Perdo; [Major Personality Flaw]; [Minor Personality Flaw]
Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting), Athletics 1 (Running), Awareness 1 (Alertness), Brawl 2 (Dodging), Charm 2 (First Impressions), Concentration 2 (Spells), Etiquette 1 (Hermetic), Folk Ken 2 (Magi), Guile 2 (Feigning Innocence), Intrigue 1 (Hermetic), Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic), Language: [native language] 5 ([native dialect]), Magic Theory 3 (Spells), Organization Lore: Cult of Mercury 1 (Personalities), Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1 (House Flambeau), Parma Magica 1 (Vim), Penetration 1 (Perdo), Profession: Scribe 1 (Latin), Stealth 1 (Indoors), Swim 1 (Not Drowning)
Pe 14+3, Aq 5, Me 5, Vi 5
Curse of the Desert (PeAq 25), Mastery 1: Multiple Casting
Winter’s Icy Touch (PeIg 10), Mastery 3: Multiple Casting, Penetration, Resistance
Hiding the Ill-Bred Bard (PeIm 15), Mastery 1: Quiet Casting
I Was Never Here (PeMe 5), Mastery 1: Quiet Casting
Calm the Beating of the Heart (PeMe 10), Mastery 1: Quiet Casting
Soften the Gift’s Touch (PeMe 25), Mastery 2: Quiet Casting x2
Demon’s Eternal Oblivion (PeVi 10), Mastery 3: Adaptive Casting, Multiple Casting, Penetration
Dreadful Bane of the Fae (PeVi 10), (using Mastery from DEO), Mastery 1: Lab Mastery
Sap the Griffon’s Strength (PeVi 10), (using Mastery from DEO), Mastery 1: Resistance
Play Notes: While this mage cannot travel really easily, there is a lot of flexibility otherwise. Opponents can be knocked unconscious or killed. It is worth noting Winter’s Icy Touch will work on beings up to Size +3, and Curse of the Desert will work on beings up to Size +4 (potentially more if they have little fluid in them, but this is a good, conservative Size). Might stripping is also available against all but the Divine, and the penetration is enough that two Might-20 beings or somewhere around a single Might-35 being could be completely stripped of Might in one round. Invisibility is available. There are also several PeMe spells that can be particularly useful. Soften the Gift’s Touch will let you bypass problems with the Gift on an individual basis (see Trust Me, HoH:TL p.73) so that this mage can function socially, and the other PeMe spells could be cast with some penalty to make them more subtle, too. It’s also worth being aware that this mage can spontaneously cast a PeVi 5 spell without Fatigue, which is enough to consistently dispel a level-15 spell at Voice Range, or have a 50-50 chance of taking down a level-20 spell at Voice Range.
Customization Ideas: Select a Major Personality Flaw and a Minor Personality Flaw to suit your vision for the character. At least one more Minor Flaw must be chosen, probably a Hermetic one. Beyond that there is room for 5 more points each of Virtues and Flaws, which could include a Story Flaw.
General:
- Ability specializations can be changed freely. If you end up lowering Intelligence to +1, make sure you don’t change the Magic Theory specialization.
- If you want to start younger, at 23 years old, lower any three of Brawl, Charm, Concentration, Folk Ken, or Guile from 2 to 1.
- Don’t take the Blatant Gift if you want Soften the Gift’s Touch to work, as the spell isn’t strong enough for that and any stronger will quickly start to warp people you may not want to warp.
- Spell Mastery is very valuable. You can take Mastered Spells. You can raise Winter’s Icy Touch to Mastery 4 for 10 points (doubled) to be able to knock most opponents unconscious in a single round. You can raise Soften the Gift’s Touch to Mastery 4 for 18 points (doubled) to get Still Casting and either Multiple Casting or Stalwart Casting. You can raise Curse of the Desert to Mastery 2 for 5 points (doubled) to get Penetration. You could do all of those, use the remaining 17 points to cover points already spent above, and divert 17 points into other Arts or Abilities.
- Independent Study is very useful with Spell Mastery after character creation, as Spell Mastery is almost always improved with Practice or Adventure; so it pairs particularly well with Flawless Magic.
- If you want more spells, take Skilled Parens. The extra experience can be used as noted with Spell Mastery above, or could be used anywhere else. A very useful thing might be to spend 21 or more points to raise Rego to at least 6 and use 15 levels of spells to pick up Wizard’s Leap (ReCo 15) while choosing Fast Casting as the Mastery option; this would give you much more mobility and a good defense in combat. Alternatively, 6 points in Vim to reach 6 and 15 points in Intellego to reach 5 would allow you to start with Piercing the Faerie Veil (InVi 20) or Piercing the Magical Veil (InVi 20) for some investigative magic. You could even do both if you drop I Was Never Here.
- Consider dropping I Was Never Here to move the 5 levels to Winter’s Icy Touch to have a Sight version of it instead, which can be more subtle while giving you a lot more range.
- As the original Adaptive Casting had actually been free and automatic for everyone, not even taking up a Mastery option, you might talk to your troupe about making the errata’d version generally available if you don’t want to be in the Cult of Mercury.
Personality/Style:
- If you want to build upon the death idea of Perdo, consider Personality Flaws such as Wrathful or Hatred. Consider Deficient Creo as a Major Hermetic Flaw or something like a Lesser Malediction with plants withering around you.
- Maybe you want to build upon similar ideas but more dissociating and breaking; consider Personality Flaws such as Rebellious or Secretive. Consider Chaotic Magic or Weird Magic to represent your magic itself being rebellious when you haven’t mastered it.
- If you want to build upon the idea of the mastering of the intricacies of magic showcased by the Magical Focus and Flawless magic, Personality Flaws like Ambitious and Magical Fascination would fit. Consider Weak Spontaneous Magic or Ceremonial Spontaneous Magic to represent only working with more controlled magic.
- Or maybe you want to be more a warrior for good who happens to use Perdo; Personality Flaws like Driven, Higher Purpose, or Vow could work well. Consider Flaws like Unbearable to Demons to represent how you come across to your enemies.
Skill/Talent:
- If you want to really excel at fast-cast defenses, Dimicatio, and the like, lower Intelligence to +1 to raise Quickness to +2. Then lower either Strength or Dexterity to -2 to raise Quickness from +2 to +3. If your troupe accepts that Fast Caster applies to fast casting, pick that up. Later develop PeVi counterspells and choose Fast Casting as a Mastery option.
- If you want to be more social, lower Intelligence to +1 to raise Communication to +2. Lower Strength, Dexterity, and Quickness each by 1 point to raise Presence to +2 and Perception to +1. Perhaps choose Piercing Gaze, Venus’s Blessing, or something similar.
- If you want to be the go-to wizard for Perdo and be able to earn vis by writing books, lower Intelligence to +1 to raise Communication to +2. Then lower either Strength or Dexterity to -2 to raise Communication from +2 to +3. Pick up Good Teacher.
Story Flaws:
- Enemies could be a group you have fought in the past, where many of them remain.
- Supernatural Nuisance could be due to general enmity from those you hunt.
- Curse of Venus or Envied Beauty could represent a darker, more cursed side, of being social while having the Gift.
- Hermetic Patron could be a Guernicas who wants you to become a Hoplite and is helping you along that path.