[Character Creation Challenge] Master of debate!

Hmmm....Baccalaureus is compatible with Hermetic Magus, Mendicant Friar and Priest virtues. Do redcaps (including lone redcaps) count as a specialised case of Hermetic Magus (I think they do) or not?

I can see Harco allowing a redcap the time to go to one of Italy's fine universities and spending their summer break delivering messages, but others might feel this doesn't fit with their saga. Anyway, the 90xp to Latin and AL is useful for allowing you to put xp into other abilities or starting at a younger age, but not vital for the concept to work.

If we were expanding this to companion level, I'd make my redcap a great writer and use the polemic rules from Transforming Mythic Europe and have him be a redcap who is agitating for a greater role for House Mercere.

Unsportingly, I'll participate in my own challenge!

Dorothea, newly gauntleted lone redcap

Little is known about Dorothea's youth; sometime in her teens she fell in with a Goliard redcap of dubious reputation, who took her as a lover and eventually as an apprentice. Unlike her former master, who recently died in mysterious circumstances just as Dorothea was gauntleted, Dorothea is utterly professional and always, always keeps her word, something for which she has started to gain respect in the Order at large. She understands power struggles like few others, has her fingers in many pots, and with a tug here and a nudge there, she can exert more influence than most senior magi. Worn out by a life on the road (and a serious illness in her past), Dorothea is looking for a covenant to provide her with comfortable accomodations and a longevity ritual in exchange for her excellent skills as a negotiator and spymaster.

Int +3, Per +3, Pre +3, Com +3, Str -3, Sta +1, Dex -3, Qik -3
Personality: Busybody +3, Calculating +3, Professional +3, Selfish +3
Virtues & Flaws: Lone Redcap (includes Well-Traveled), Affinity with Intrigue, Mentored by Demons, Busybody, Corrupted Abilities, Vow (always keeps her word)
Reputation: Always keeps her word (Order of Hermes) 1, Selfish mercenary 2 (House Mercere)

Abilities: Area Lore - her Tribunal (covenants) 1, Artes Liberales 1 (rhetoric), Awareness 1 (social cues), Bargain 1 (magical resources), Charm 4 (discussions), Code of Hermes 1 (politics), Etiquette 1 (hermetic), Folk Ken 1 (magi), Guile 4 (vs. the powerful), Latin 4 (hermetic usage), Leadership 4 (debate), Intrigue 15 (hermetic), Order of Hermes Lore 1 (who's who), Speak Own Language 5.

Design notes: Dorothea is designed for HoH:S debate rules, around the philosophy that Attack is somewhat more important than Defense if you are really good, and that at a sufficiently high score it's better to focus in one ability rather than branch out over three. Lone Redcap provides many xp (125xp on top of the 225 that a grog would get out of 15 years including the Well-Traveled bonus); Mentored by Demons adds 50 more xp but more importantly allows Dorothea to break through age limits, to reach a whopping 15 in Intrigue (thanks to Affinity, which effectively provides 200xp!). Corrupted Abilities, despite being a Flaw, adds an additional +3 to her rolls (and a chance of free xp) when she is acting selfishly, which she usually is (I've purposefully left vague to which abilities it applies). Vow provides a +1 positive Reputation, not much but better than nothing. I really like the fact that Intrigue is such a versatile ability, allowing Dorothea to hatch deep plots, hire agents, engage in smuggling etc. (see C&G and HoH:S), so she is quite useful even outside of debates.