I'm going through Lion of the North in prep for my upcoming Loch Leglean saga, and I am stumped by the praeco, Caitllin Suil Uaine of House Merinita.
In her description (p. 76-78, complete with character sheet), it mentions that her faerie nature has extended her lifespan to ten times that of a normal human, so that she appears 30 when she is actually 300. (She is half-human, half-faerie). However, I don't see a Virtue that allows that on her sheet, and I have no idea how to pull this off in 5e. I had originally thought Unaging, but recent discussion on the board changed my mind.
I have the 4e book, so I should be able to translate most anything from 3e to 4e, then to 5e, but this one has me scratching my head.
So. Is this "flavour text" doable under 5e rules? Was it possible under 3e? (I don't have the 3d rulebook, and I'd really rather not buy any more books until either I get a job or somebody gives me money). Is this something that I should apply liberal doses of handwavium and not worry about?
Perhaps. Do you have Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults? If so, check out Becoming in the Merinita chapter. If instead of assuming the entire suite of steps you take only the first then (IIRC) you become unaging while still retaining a mortal coil. Alternatively, she may have been transformed into a Faerie being altogether.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Although time is more an issue than money.
Yep. Found it...p. 93. Looks like it would be Transforming the Body: "The maga does not age and never suffers Fatigue." It goes on to say that "her apparent age and appearance become fixed on the cusp of two different phases of life," for example, puberty-to-adulthood. So, instead of looking like she's 30, I could have her looking like she's maybe 18. I can make this work, methinks
"When in doubt, point and shout." As long as I don't fall into the trap of having my prep-work turn into procrastination, I should be fine. I'm actually half-tempted to say screw it and start making things up as I go along
That's the style I did when I was running my table-top GURPS Fantasy campaign...total seat-of-the-pants, practically no prep work week to week, and I'm told I was pretty good.
I'm hoping to have the announcement go live this weekend.
In Ars5, there's this idea that no NPC should ever do anything a PC can't do. That is, everything is playable. Even God does whatever is good for the story. Hermetic magi particularly: every Hermetic should be playable in some sense.
The NPC you are talking about was written before that idea became popular. She would not be written in that way in 5e.
Becoming, as one of the other posters said, is the closest you'll get.
The other stinks too much of some old-style RPGs, and reminds me of some WW NPCs ...
For the record, IIRC, it was never the author's intent to do just one part of Becoming, they're intended as a whole suit of rituals. But she could perfectly have Become a Faerie (done the 3 rituals) and still play the part of the magus (which, IMO, perfectly fits a fae)
Now, for this specific case, I'd say any method allowing her to still be alive is fine, it doesn't need to be faerie-oriented, so long as she's been there 300 years and looks 30. She could just as well be a Living Corpse using MuCo spells to retain her youthful appearance.
She doesn't even need to be the same person. You could have 2 or 3 consecutive maga adopting the same appearance and name as part of some secret magical tradition, a little like The Phantom, but without the masks and costume
As I recall, she was crazy powerful with her Arts and spell casting totals at the time. This was like the first book after 3rd edition ended and before 4th ed came along. 3rd was for the most part rather low in power, with 20 in one Art being truly impressive. Then she comes along with her Arts (20 being like the lowest she had, as well as having a few in the 30s) just blew me and the gamers I was with away. Now she's still on the high end of power no doubt, but if any other magus in 5th were 300 years old they'd have Arts even higher most likely, plus access to powerful Mysteries.
Tales of Mythic Europe offers a clever way of getting a character a very high age without getting them very old: spend a substantial amount of time in a regio where time moves much slower. Age is determined by one's birthdate after all, and doesn't take into account temporal shenanigans. It's certainly conceivable that a powerful Merinita maga would have access to such a regio, although for better or worse this wouldn't give her time to raise her skills to such extreme levels.
Yeah, her lowest Art is 25 Terram, most being in the low- to mid-30s (34 Creo, 36 Imaginem, 35 Mentem). And the scary thing is, under "Spells Known": "Most spells to level 60-70, all faerie spells known to House Merinita." Which basically makes her the Chuck Norris of NPC Magi.
I might wind up just jotting down her Characteristics, Abilities, Arts scores, a couple of Virtues and Flaws, and "Don't ask...just...don't" under Spells.
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