Cerebus

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi there,

Has anyone put together stats on Cerebus? (the Greek guardian, not the Aardvark)
I wonder if you've given him any supernatural powers, or kept it strictly to the strictly bestial nature of a mighty canine and/or serpent?
Why? Why not?

Thanks,
eric

2

Cerberus, the hound of Hades, usually a three-headed dog (but sometimes two-headed, and sometimes a venomous serpent) is generally presented as pretty much just a dog. You could take the Wolf Mount from ROP: Faerie (p. 80) and adapt it. You may want to bump a further Size point, and I don't see that Cerberus would have Survival or possibly a lower score. His awareness is probably higher, with three heads probably indicating watchfulness (which is not absolute, of course - I seem to recall some hero sneaking past him invisibly, or suchlike). Three heads probably means extra attacks, too.

I'm pretty sure no one has done the faerie Cerebus, the Earth-Pig Born.

3

Maybe treat the three heads as a trained group in combat...

4

Thanks.

I was considering the possibility that each head could have a supernatural power.

This passage on Wikipedia got me thinking:
"Servius, a medieval commentator on Virgil's Aeneid, derived Cerberus' name from the Greek word creoboros meaning "flesh-devouring" (see above), and held that Cerberus symbolized the corpse-consuming earth, with Heracles' triumph over Cerberus representing his victory over earthly desires.[148] Later the mythographer Fulgentius, allegorizes Cerberus' three heads as representing the three origins of human strife: "nature, cause, and accident", and (drawing on the same flesh-devouring etymology as Servius) as symbolizing "the three ages—infancy, youth, old age, at which death enters the world."[149]"

One could have PeCo effects (corpse consuming, rot, etc.)
One could have a control over Darkness (symbolizing the eternal darkness of the underworld.)
And one could have.... not sure. Sleep?

Also, it's been a while.... Where will I find the "Beasts of Virtue?" I seem to recall a bestiary in the RAW somewhere. I'd like to see what is listed under Hound.

5

Realms of Power:Magic has many Beasts of Virtue in the magical animals chapter.

Or you can download the "book of beasts" from http://www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/ArM5Beasts.pdf with the mundane hound stat on page 4.

6

Gribble's advice is good. Other beasts with multiple heads (the Waimie, I think) do this.

The biggest challenge boss monsters face in Ars, as in most tabletop RPGs actually, is that they only get one action in opposition to the entire player group. If you give Cerberus multiple attacks, or allow him to attack as a trained group, you can immediately make him way more challenging than another big monster.

7

Thanks. Trained group sounds like the way to go.

I'm looking to give the creatue a a PeIg power akin to "well without light." I posted some questions about how the mages might work against the effects here:
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/peig-vs-crig/11015/1

8

Definitely make Cerberus a trained group of 3, I'd also have the beast's size up to +1 or +2, just because it should be able to devour a corpse or three. I did something similar to this in my campaign with a giant octopus, which counted as a trained group due to having so many limbs. I actually wonder how being a single-being-trained-group would really affect combat compared to a normally trained group? I think its a neat idea, but in actual play, I'm not sure how it'll turn out.