Character creation discussion

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Via Experimenta
179

Thank you all for having me. All I have so far is a name, a concept, and a scrap of backstory. I'll have to look to see which House fits her best.

Morticia of (House tbd) is, basically, obsessed with death. Ever since she saw her family killed before her eyes, and knowing that it could have been her if that magus hadn't showed up when he (or she, haven't decided yet) did, she would have joined them stood in queue at the Pearly Gates.

I picture her as a necromancer. Early on, she would learn the healing spells, to know exactly how the body works. She would also be strong in Mentem, for the conjuration of spirits. Her eventual, long-term goal, possibly a life-long quest, is to conquer death. Not necessarily to keep them from dying, but to ensure that they don't have to stay dead. By far her strongest Art would be Corpus, though.

(eta) By the way, I'm off Wednesday, and we're expecting scattered thunderstorms, so I'll probably be staying in, which would (theoretically) give me time to work on Morticia.

180

Provided Tellus has no objection, welcome to you. :smiley:

Have you considered that perhaps her strongest Art may not start as being Corpus? Depending on what her pater or mater's specialty was, her teaching may have had little to do with death and Corpus.

One twist on the concept might be a Verditius necromancer -- she wants to build automata to host the spirit of the dead, instead of focusing on their body. Just a wild thought. Hubris and all that can make for a Frakenstein-type maga. :smiling_imp:

(Of course, feel free to ignore this idea. It's your character, but I just thought I'd share this idea that just popped into my head.)

If she wants to keep her work private from the other magi and/or the covenfolk, the secondary site (a partially-restored Roman tower) might suit her well eventually (once she is accepted as a member) for her sanctum. Sorry, the basement of the main site is already assigned to my magus. :laughing:

181

I only had to tweak Clement's background a little. Here it is (it's also on the wiki):

Background
Brother Clement joined the monastery at Laach Abbey at the age of 10, convinced he had a calling from God to take up the cloth. His family was not wealthy, peasants in fact, and after the accident that left the boy lame they realized that sending him to the abbey would mean having one less mouth to feed. His lack of nobility and his apolitical dedication to God have prevented him from moving very far in the ranks of the monastery, but his happy, clear-headed outlook allow him to get along well with the other monks. Although smart and a good communicator, he has always had trouble speaking, suffering from a stutter that gets worse when he is stressed. Thus the quiet and often silent life of a monk suited him perfectly, and learning to read and write allowed him to share involved discussions in theology. That is the reason why, much to his surprise, he has recently been promoted to head librarian of the abbey.

Clement first met Brother Abelard (Aedituus) in 1180, when they worked together in the scriptorium. While Clement thought it a little odd that the other had been released from his monastic vows to join a convent of scholars, he appreciated Abelard’s dedication to the faith, as well as his stories about growing up in an abbey.

Appearance
A man of average stature, with brown hair and eyes, Clement is only remarkable by the fact that he limps heavily, for his left legs was crushed when he was young and it never healed properly. This does not prevent him from doing his share in the abbey's garden, but means he takes a long time to get from one place to another.

Although he stutters when speaking, for some reason this impediment disappears when he prays aloud or sings.

182

Joining an ongoing saga is an Art, both for the SG and the player. As an SG, it's difficult to integrate different characters sometimes. He tried to enter Canaries at a time where Peregrine had basically put it on hiatus, and I wasn't putting a lot of effort in over there, because things were stalled. And then he appeared in Bibracte around the same time as here, and I was too busy, things were on hold over there. Some bad luck. But it's certainly more common that someone will show interest, do a whole bunch of things, and then once it gets real, they either lose interest or other commitments get it in the way.

Sure, but really, she's here primarily to spy and pass the information on to Edward De Tours... :smiley:

183

I think I'm going to make Morticia a Bonisagus, because it seems like overcoming Death sounds like a hella major research project. My thought processes basically went along the lines of, think of every House and see which ones might fit. I did this, from memory, at work, because i was leaving a lot of messages and leaving the messages is automated now.

So, I'm looking at Bonisagus for her.

Any house rules or stuff for chargen? How far out of gauntlet should she be when she starts?

The saga is set in the Rhine Tribunal, I believe, so I can have her be either in a Guild or have a Guild Enmity, or both, maybe.

184

We have already 2 of the 4 magi who are Bonisagi, but that's not really a problem, because both have different fields of research (Titus is interested in regiones, while for Petronius it is portals). We do have a Criamon who will do research on ghosts and the divine realm, so I'd be careful about that aspect of things.

We have a thread where we discussed potential House Rules. But overall we want to keep this saga pretty much vanilla. The few HR we came up with are described on our saga wiki (which I had forgotten to metion previsouly), more specifically here.

A few items of note would be:

  • Wards (including the Aegis) must penetrate, which makes Wizard's Communion almost essential (a variant named Ritual Communion is widely available for the purpose of ritual spells, with D:Sun and (level-10) effectiveness).
  • Requisites will be strictly enforced for translocation spells, because that's one of the rationales behind Petronius' research on portals. I would think that the need for requisites for other purposes (like shaphechanging spells) would also be strict, but we haven't discussed it specifically.
  • Spell mastery has been changed to be slightly less powerful in some cases (multicasting) and equitable between the various special abilities.

As for the origin of your maga, it doesn't have to be from the Rhine, so feel free to pick another Tribunal. And as far as experience, all the magi are currently between 3 to 10 years out of Gauntlet. Post-Gauntlet advancement is 30 xp per year, with spells costing their level in xp, and other lab work costing 10 xp per season.

That's pretty much it!

185

Possible Story Flaw I want to run by the troupe: Plagued by Supernatural Entity - a ghost of some kind, obviously. Now, actually summoning/controlling a ghost is going to be beyond her capability for now. But perhaps a ghost was amused that she would, oh, set up a Ring of Warding Against Spirits in a graveyard or something, and decided that she needed observation, coaching, subtle manipulation away from success, or something.

Does that sound like something that would be acceptable? And, if so, would creating/running the ghost be something someone else would want to do or is that up to me?

186

It would need to be sufficiently powerful to actually cause problem for a maga, so how likely would it be to just be a run-of-the-mill ghost? One option would be that it's the ghost of a magus, in some way liked to something that happened during her apprenticeship.

Or perhaps use the other similar Story Flaw Supernatural Nuisance, to say that ghosts in general find something fascinating (or offensive, or some other thing) in her.

As for stories, you would be the one who would come up with ideas for those, or sollicit another player to prepare one for you. Wouldn't need to be the same player each time, once the paramaters of the flaw are defined.

187

Okay, here's my first draft of Morticia of Bonisagus, at gauntlet (three years ago). Cut&paste from metacreator .rtf.

I've decided to make her Italian, a survivor of of the Siege of Ancona in 1167.

Morticia
Saga: Via Experimenta
Characteristics: Int +2, Per 0, Pre ‑1, Com +2, Str ‑1, Sta +2, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 24 (24), Height: 5'6'', Weight: 158 lbs, Gender: Female
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift, Good Teacher, Adept Laboratory Student (Lab Text Bonus: +6), Cyclic Magic (Positive): +3 At Night, Hermetic Magus, Puissant Magic Theory*, Major Magical Focus (necromancy), Book Learner (Book Quality: +3), Second Sight, Puissant Rego, Affinity with Rego, Blatant Gift (Interactions: ‑6 with normals), [strike]Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Ghost of some kind)[/strike] Supernatural Nuisance (ghosts), Driven (To overcome Death), Nocturnal (All Rolls: ‑1 between dawn and midday)
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +0, Attack ‑‑, Defense +0, Damage ‑‑
Fist: Init: +0, Attack +0, Defense +0, Damage ‑1
Kick: Init: ‑1, Attack +0, Defense ‑1, Damage +2
Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, ‑1, ‑3, ‑5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: ‑1 (1‑5), ‑3 (6‑10), ‑5 (11‑15), Incapacitated (16‑20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Artes Liberales 2, Awareness 2, Bargain 2, Charm 1, Code of Hermes 2, Concentration 2, Folk Ken 1, Italian 5, Latin 4, Magic Lore 1, Magic Theory 4+2, Medicine 2, Parma Magica 1, Second Sight 2, Stealth 1
Arts: Cr 4, In 4, Mu 0, Pe 3, Re 8+3, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 8, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 7, Te 0, Vi 3
Equipment:
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Spells Known:
Awaken the Slumbering Corpse (ReCo 25) +21
Charm Against Putrefaction (CrCo 10) +14
The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (CrCo 20) +16
Physician's Eye (InCo 5) +14
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10) +14
Ring of Warding Against Spirits (ReMe 10) +20
Rise of the Feathery Body (ReCo 10) +21
Whispers Through the Black Gate (InCo(Me) 15) +13
Wizard's Leap (ReCo 15) +21

188

Why Good Teacher? Why Adept Laboratory Student? Those two strike me as being slightly in-congruent with the overall character, although the Adept Laboratory student might be a bit less so. A good researcher doesn't have to be a good writer, she might be interested in researching, but not so interested in sharing the results of said research.
I notice no OoH Lore but Code of Hermes score of 2, but of course, that can be rectified with post gauntlet advancement..

189

He's more than welcome.

On a slightly related note, RL is trying it's very best to eat me alive.

Verditii make some of the best necromancers in 5th ed.

mind you, so do merinita, though probably corporeal necromancers more than spiritual ones.

Non-traditional, certainly. But I must admit I can picture it easily enough.

190

I picked Good Teacher more for the added Quality to book-writing than for the Advancement Totals when she's teaching, mainly because she's going to be writing and sharing her discoveries along the way. Adept Laboratory Student and Book Learner I picked because I see her learning more from book and lab texts than from a teacher, especially as she starts to traverse the paths that sane magi dare not tread.

I had missed that she didn't have Order of Hermes Lore (I thought I had given it to her), but that's remediable. She should know who in the order is interested in death as well, so she knows who to chat up.

191

Question: does Second Sight have to penetrate? And if so, how do we determine the Penetration?

192

It doesn't need to penetrate, AFAIK. Just makes no sense to me that it would need to. As per ArM5 p.67, there is already a roll vs Ease Factor of 6 + the might of the creature or magnitude of the Hermetic spell. That same page also says "The Magic Resistance, if any, of the concealed creature does not interfere with your Second Sight."

193

That's what I thought, I wanted to be sure before I wasted spell levels on Reveal the Lingering Spirit.

194

Okay, here's the current (1184) version of Morticia. Let me know if I missed anything or should have something I forgot.

Morticia
Saga: Via Experimenta
Characteristics: Int +2, Per 0, Pre ‑1, Com +2, Str ‑1, Sta +2, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 27 (27), Height: 5'6'', Weight: 158 lbs, Gender: Female
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift, Good Teacher, Adept Laboratory Student (Lab Text Bonus: +6), Cyclic Magic (Positive): +3 At Night, Hermetic Magus, Puissant Magic Theory*, Major Magical Focus (necromancy), Book Learner (Book Quality: +3), Second Sight, Puissant Rego, Affinity with Rego, Blatant Gift (Interactions: ‑6 with normals), Supernatural Nuisance (Ghosts), Driven (To overcome Death), Nocturnal (All Rolls: ‑1 between dawn and midday)
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +0, Attack ‑‑, Defense +0, Damage ‑‑
Fist: Init: +0, Attack +0, Defense +0, Damage ‑1
Kick: Init: ‑1, Attack +0, Defense ‑1, Damage +2
Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, ‑1, ‑3, ‑5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: ‑1 (1‑5), ‑3 (6‑10), ‑5 (11‑15), Incapacitated (16‑20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Artes Liberales 1, Awareness 3, Bargain 1, Charm 1, Code of Hermes 2, Concentration 2, Folk Ken 1, Italian 5, Latin 4, Magic Lore 1, Magic Theory 4+2, Medicine 2, Order of Hermes Lore 3, Parma Magica 1, Philosophiae 1, Second Sight 2, Stealth 1
Arts: Cr 4, In 4, Mu 3, Pe 3, Re 9+3, An 3, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 9, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 8, Te 0, Vi 3
Equipment:
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Spells Known:
Awaken the Slumbering Corpse (ReCo 25) +32
Charm Against Putrefaction (CrCo 10) +15
The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (CrCo 20) +17
Eyes of the Cat (MuCo(An) 5) +8
Physician's Eye (InCo 5) +15
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10) +15
Ring of Warding Against Spirits (ReMe 10) +30
Rise of the Feathery Body (ReCo 10) +23
Whispers Through the Black Gate (InCo(Me) 15) +18
Wizard's Leap (ReCo 15) +23

195

This could be interesting. I imagine that Aedituus might find conversations with Morticia about medicine and their experiences with Second Sight to be interesting. He might view her interest in overcoming death as blasphemous.
Welcome aboard!

196

It'll be interesting to see her background and personality traits. :slight_smile:

I would make it clear in her stats that the Driven flaw is major, since this is one of those personality flaws that can be either major or minor.

197

One thing I would like to do with Morticia's flaws is tweak how Nocturnal is portrayed. As it's laid out in the book, it's more of a "Not a morning person." What I would like to do is have her be truly Nocturnal. Active at night, and sleeping/dormant during the day. Whatever penalties a character normally takes at night, she would take during the day and vice versa (except for her Cyclic Magic). This would also mean that she may well be a little groggy in most Council meetings, and would minimize her interaction with the others (there would probably be a window of a couple of hours either side of sunrise and sunset when Morticia and the others would be up and around).

What do you guys think?

Also, I'm almost ready to start her intro story. Would I do that as a "Chapter 5: Awesome Thread Title of Awesomeness" thread, or something else?

198

works for me