Character Creation for Gaxxian (OOC)

To discuss the creation of all of Gaxxian's characters (magus, companion, grogs, familiar, apprentices). This includes the concept, drafts, background, advancement, lab work, etc.

Final versions of the characters will have their own topic.

Ok then, let's go :smiley: I will start with the Virtues

Virtues
Free Virtues

  • The Gift
  • Faerie Magic
  • Hermetic Magus
    Those come for free, so nothing to add here
  • Faerie Background (HoP:Faerie pg. 112)
    This one fits well with this character

Minor Virtues

  • Skilled Parens
    Yeah, that one... but it's a very good one, and having an old magus as parents, it has sense
  • Affinity with Herbam
  • Puissant Herbam
    Since i want an Herbam specialist and she is a dryad child, those 2 seems like a no-brain pick.
  • Unaging
    Seems a good way to represent the strength of fairies in her blood
  • Cautious Sorcerer
    I cannot avoid to link a tree related character to a serene and clear-headed mind. And i find that this virtue helps to show that in-game letting the maga to avoid great botches even doing hard things
  • Good Teacher
    Linked with the above, somebody serene that is able to teach with patience and repeating as many times as is necessary, seems logic to also have this one. Her methodic ways to express her knowledge seems logic to also apply to her books. So i find this virtue both fitting and fun (to the irony that she will be socially ackward too)
  • Minor Magical Focus: Wood
    A Magical Focus with something Herbam related seems appropiated, and since Trees is a Great Virtue, Wood should work (i never understood those two, since Wood seems to apply a lot more than Trees... but whatever)

Major Virtue

  • Strong Faerie Blood: Dryad
    No surprises for nobody i expect xD Since dryads are closely related to Nymphs (they are tree nymphs after all), i'd say to just use the guidelines for Nymph Blood (RoP:Faerie pg. 108)

Other Virtues that i have on the table too:

  • Method Caster Works well with the idea of serene and methodic personality
  • Performance Magic: Music Not the most useful, but it kinda seems very fae related to me xD
  • Cyclic Magic (Positive): Spring & Summer Good to show her nature connection
  • Ways of the Forest Another one good for a dryad related character, but the virtue isn't the best
  • Personal Vis Source Thats both good and can be fun. With a more literal approach vision... maybe she grows some flowers in between her hair, that when turns fruits contain some Herbam vis? It's cool and seems original
  • Deft Herbam One to show her innate skill with Herbam. Better than Performance Magic for that, but with less flavor :stuck_out_tongue:

Now, with the flaws...

Flaws
Minor Flaws

  • Faerie Upbringing
  • Sheltered Upbringing
    I think that those two just describes her past perfectly. Both are also Personality flaws, so those are covered here :slight_smile:
  • Social Handicap: Expressionless
    I like this one a lot. It helps giving her an unnatural flair and can be a lot of fun to play
  • Small Frame
    Small = cute. Also yes, our Flambeau is cute

Major Flaws

  • Weak Spontaneous Magic
    I think that works well representing the innability to adaptation from her faerie origins
  • Faerie Heritage
    I think that this one could be very helpful when somebody want to make an adventure with my character... it gives a lot of possibilities outside of what i may know. That means... freedom for the SG! :smiley:

Other Flaws that i have on the table too:

You know what I think might also be worth really considering? Nature Lore (Forest). Feels incredibly apt for such a character. Maybe Inoffensive to Animals too. Just food for thought is all!

I actually think it's an extremely underrated virtue, and super fitting, but finding space for it outside of an Ex-Misc build is extremely hard.

But overall, I'm a fan of where you're going and I'm looking forward to seeing her all finished!

@Vortigern Those look like some super interesting grogs, well done mate!

2 Likes

You know what I think might also be worth really considering? Nature Lore (Forest). Feels incredibly apt for such a character.

I like a lot Nature Lore, but i personally prefer to gain House Mysteries in-game... although treating with Merinitae, pretty sure that sometimes you can learn mysteries in exchange for ham, wine and cheese xD

Maybe Inoffensive to Animals too. Just food for thought is all!

Yeah, i considered that one too. But i find my character closer to vegetal lifeforms than animals (and luckily, the flora doesn't care about the Gift :stuck_out_tongue: )

I actually think it's an extremely underrated virtue, and super fitting, but finding space for it outside of an Ex-Misc build is extremely hard.

Yeah, i mean... its a Major virtue that gives you a +3 in the chosen terran and makes that normally not-specially aggressive animals doesn't attack you, but the others still... xD As a Minor virtue, it would be cute because character background... and even then, as a magi you have Intuition of the Forest. But as a Major? Uhm... its too hard to pick, tbh.
That remembers me, that "Voice of the (Land)" (RoP:Magic, pg.47) it's a much better one and it's minor.

But overall, I'm a fan of where you're going and I'm looking forward to seeing her all finished!

Thanks a lot! :slight_smile: I'm looking forward too xD But i'm waiting for feedback from the others first (mostly, i still have doubts with some the minor virtues).

Despite that, tbh at this point i've already have a preliminary complete character (and lab) sheet... and i'm painting the lab blueprints with AutoCAD while i wait xD

I'd like to see a numeric spread of your choices in one array/set.

So far everything you have looks solid and interesting but more than you can fit into one build, and things could be arranged in several (very different) ways.

All in all though I concur with Nithyn that I think your concept is solid and adds something very different to the Covenant/group, and so those are good things!

1 Like

I'd like to see a numeric spread of your choices in one array/set.

You mean like this?

Virtues
The Gift (0), Faerie Magic (0), Hermetic Magus (0), Faerie Background (0), Skilled Parens (1), Affinity with Herbam (1), Puissant Herbam (1), Unaging (1), Cautious Sorcerer (1), Good Teacher (1), Minor Magical Focus: Wood (1), Strong Faerie Blood: Dryad (3)

Flaws
Faerie Upbringing (1), Sheltered Upbringing (1), Social Handicap: Expressionless (1), Small Frame (1), Weak Spontaneous Magic (3), Faerie Heritage (3)

1 Like

Exactly that. I will say that re: Magical Foci I tend to prefer Foci be defined in terms of the actions they cover rather than (seemingly) targets. But that is my personal preference! There are certainly a ton of Foci in RAW that are defined by their targets. I would then dig in only slightly on the Minor Magical Focus: Wood and ask what you would envision that covering and if we could clarify that in the description somewhat? What would qualify as falling under a Focus of Wood and what wouldn't? What would you define as (only trees? More than trees?) Wood for these purposes, and what would not be Wood?

Not that wood couldn't be defined in such a way to make a suitable subset of Herbam as a whole I suppose. I'd be curious for how the rest of the Troupe thinks about Wood as a Focus definition?

Everything else I think I give two thumbs up on.

Wood is very weird, but its the book example xD In the books Trees appear as a Major Focus, and Wood as a Minor. But aren't Trees made of wood? :person_shrugging: So, i must understand that it refers to "dead" wood, but even then... how many times are you affecting Trees and how many Wood?

I also thought about picking a Focus on Hawthorns, since those are my mother's trees. But I feel that it's a focus so narrow that would be used once or twice each 10 years xD And for that, maybe I'd choose some other virtue...

So... yeah, I can't think of anything better... I accept ideas D:

Do you have firm ideas about what you want her to be able to do? Any "big projects" in mind with Herbam?

Let me take a look at something and I think I have an idea to pitch to you, but in the interim I think real direction here should come from thinking about your character goals.

Do you have firm ideas about what you want her to be able to do? Any "big projects" in mind with Herbam?

No :sweat_smile:
Her immediate goal would be to find a place into the world for herself. That would be her lab and garden. And it could include an enchanted Tree to help her in lab work (like The Tireless Servant but with Herbam). Thats would be her biggest project...

Then, it depends of what she learns from the world and the people around her. I have some ideas if nothing happens, but none of them revolves around Herbam in itself.

The first thing that came to mind was Ranulf from Magi of Hermes and his Major Focus: Unnatural Fires. You could probably convert this to Herbam as Unnatural Plants rather directly. And then reduce it to a Minor in some way if/as desired. That would allow for very "strange" plants as it were, much as Ranulf makes very unusual use of Ignem.

Or I think something else thematic might be something along the lines of "Plant Health" to cover healing, growing, or destroying plants ... but not more esoteric uses.

Thoughts?

1 Like

It's very interesting.... i like a lot your idea about "Plant Health" too (but i would change the "destroying plants" concept to "pruning plants" :stuck_out_tongue:). It could be called "Minor Focus: Green Thumb" xD
I love it!

Edit: Yet, the more i think about it, more it seems like a Major Focus... D:

I would define Plant Health likely as a major as well. But I'd define it as healing/harming, curing/diseasing, and growing/withering any plants.

You could take a subset of those, or also restrict the plants it applies to, to bring it down to a minor.

Like ... Tree Health, since her interest in Forests and her Dryad lineage for example.

Or instead of Unnatural Plants, Unnatural Trees perhaps to be spells/effects which create or transform Trees in unnatural ways or give them distinctly unnatural properties.

I would define Plant Health likely as a major as well. But I'd define it as healing/harming, curing/diseasing, and growing/withering any plants.

Yeah...

You could take a subset of those, or also restrict the plants it applies to, to bring it down to a minor.

Like ... Tree Health, since her interest in Forests and her Dryad lineage for example.

That would work, ofc. But the most useful plants to affect with it are the small ones xD But the thematically appropiate ones would be the big ones...

Or instead of Unnatural Plants, Unnatural Trees perhaps to be spells/effects which create or transform Trees in unnatural ways or give them distinctly unnatural properties.

I like how that sounds, but my issue is that "Unnatural" ends being a very vague term. That invariably leads to too many discussions about when it applies and when it doesn't xD

I prefer something more specific... what about Minor Focus: Animate Plants? It cover ReHe, but just partially, since it only covers living plants and just animating them, not making them move like throwing a tree above somebody or like that.

I think with animation as a focus you could go broader than "plants" and say "Animating Plant Matter" so that it would cover things made of wood or plant fibers as well as whole plants etc. and it would still be a Minor, but that is just my opinion. 8D

That would be the icing xD But i would be happy just with my version :stuck_out_tongue: I will wait for more opinions on the matter.

Well... meanwhile, with what i have the character sheet (just finishing the Gauntlet) would be something like...

Alba Ex Merinita
Age: 25 (17)
Warping: 0

Size: -1

Personality Traits

  • Naive +3
  • Serene +3
  • Curious +2

Sympathy Traits:

  • Trees 0
  • Loyalty (negative) 0
Characteristics
  • Int: +3
  • Per: 0
  • Pre: +1
  • Com: +3
  • Str: -3
  • Sta: +3
  • Dex: -2
  • Qik: 0
Virtues & Flaws

Virtues
The Gift (0), Faerie Magic (0), Hermetic Magus (0), Faerie Background (0), Skilled Parens (1), Affinity with Herbam (1), Puissant Herbam (1), Unaging (1), Cautious Sorcerer (1), Good Teacher (1), Minor Magical Focus: Animating Plant Matter (1), Strong Faerie Blood: Dryad (3)

Flaws
Faerie Upbringing (1), Sheltered Upbringing (1), Social Handicap: Expressionless (1), Small Frame (1), Weak Spontaneous Magic (3), Faerie Heritage (3)

Abilities
  • Artes Liberales (Geometry) 1
  • Awareness (Smell) 2
  • Concentration (Spells) 2
  • Faerie Lore (Faerie forests) 2
  • Faerie Magic (Charms) 1
  • Language: High German (Swabian) 5
  • Language: Latín (Hermetic) 4
  • Magic Theory (Herbam) 4
  • Music (Sing) 2
  • Organization Lore: Order of Hermes (House Merinita) 1
  • Parma Magica (Vim) 1
  • Penetration (Herbam) 2
  • Profession: Scribe (Copying) 1
  • Second Sight (Invisible things) 3
  • Stealth (Natural areas) 1
  • Survival (Forests) 3
Hermetic Arts
  • Creo 8
  • Intellego 4
  • Muto 4
  • Perdo 2
  • Rego 9
  • Herbam 12+3
  • Ignem 2
  • Imaginem 3
Spells
  • Wall of Thorns (CrHe 20): ArM5 pg.135
  • Probe Nature's Hidden Lore (InHe 4): ArM5 pg.136
  • Hunt for the Wild Herb (InHe 5): ArM5 pg.136
  • Intuition of the Forest (InHe 10): ArM5 pg.136
  • Shriek of the Impending Shafts (InHe 15): ArM5 pg.136
  • Converse with Plant and Tree (InHe 25): ArM5 pg.136
  • Pass the Unyiending Portal (MuHe 5): ArM5 pg.137
  • Piercing Shaft of Wood (Me(Re)He 10): ArM5 pg.137
  • Evening's Confort (CrIg 5): MoH pg.30
  • The Welcome Addition of False Sunlight (CrIg 15): Covenants pg.96
  • Traveler's Foresight (InIm 5): MoH pg.125
  • Faerie Flute (MuIm 4): MoH pg.125
  • Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10): ArM5 pg.147

17 spell points left

As long as it only covers animation and not direct control (example: walking trees yes, picking up a tree/log with Rego directly, no) then I think it is a sufficient subset of Rego/Muto Herbam?

16 feels... excessively high for a character just out of apprenticeship. 10 before modifiers has always been a good rule of thumb in my experience. Other than that, I like what I see?