Character creation: Tytalus demon hunter/scout

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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After it turned out that character creation is a real obstacle for first-time players, I offered to create characters for people if they answer the five questions from this post.

One player gave me the following answers.

House: Tytalus
Role in Hermetic society: demon hunter
Role in the covenant: scout
Long-term goal: improve his House's reputation
Thematic focus: elemental magic

I created a character, but I'm not totally happy with it. I think it's because I'm trying to do too many things at once, and as a result he's not as good in any of them as a more specialized character (and those seem to be the norm). That's not necessarily a bad thing, in fact I like having characters that are not just another copy of an archetype.

Still, I'm curious what you can come up with when given these choices as a starting point - how similar are your characters to mine, where do you put the focus? To avoid influencing you, I'm not posting my design here.

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Elementalist Demon Hunter Tytalus

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +5, Pre -2, Com 0, Str 0, Sta +2, Dex 0, Qik 0

Free Virtues: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Self Confident (Free House Virtue)

Major Virtues: Elementalist (Hermetic), Greater Immunity (fire; including hellfire)

Minor Virtues: Sense Holiness and Unholiness (a Divine ability), Educated (by Benedictine order), Great Perception x 2

Major Flaws: Driven (restore House; Personality), Diabolic Past (Story)

Minor Flaws: Tainted with Evil, Lesser Malediction (visions of Infernal terror), Pious (second Personality), Warped Magic (Hermetic)

Abiltiies [360 XP]: Artes Liberales (logic) 1, Awareness (demons) 2, Concentration (casting spells) 2, Folk Ken (poesseed) 2, Infernal Lore (demonology) 2, Latin (church ceremonies) 5, Living Language (local dialect) 5, Magic Theory (Ignem) 3, Parma Magica (Ignem) 1, Penetration (Ignem) 2, Theology: Christian (demons) 2, Sense Holiness and Unholiness (demons) 5

Arts [125 XP]: Cr 7, In 2, Mu 2, Re 7, Ig 6, Te 6, Vi 6

Wizard’s Sigil: Scent of brimstone, accompanying his Wapred Magic

Spells:

  • Pilum of Fire CrIg 20 / +15
  • Immure the Foul Spirit of Hell ReVi 20 / +15 [new spell]
  • Hands of the Grasping Earth ReTe 15 / +15
  • The Earth’s Carbuncle Re(Mu)Te 15 / +10
  • Shadows of Fires Past InIg 15 / +10
  • Tales of the Ashes InIg 5 / +10
  • Demon’s Eternal Oblivion PeVi 10 / +8
  • Ward Against the Corrupted Beasts ReAn 10 / +9 [new spell]
  • Lamp Without Flame CrIg 10 / +15

Immure the Foul Spirit of Hell: This spell forces a demon that is in its corporeal form, or that is possessing a body, to stay in it. It prevents it from abandoning its corporeal body by taking its spiritual form. ReVi 20 (B5, +2 Voice, +1 Diam)

Ward Against the Corrupted Beasts: As Ward Against the Beasts of Legend, but for the Infernal Realm.

Roleplaying Notes:

This character was raised by a diabolist family, and was even taught the rudimentaries of Infernal Lore by them at a very young age. His family’s sins were discovered and they were executed, however, and and the young child was given to a local Benedictine monastery as an oblate. Though pious and quick to learn theology, he also showed an unnerving affinity to demonology and generally scared the poor monks [Tainted with Evil, and later the Gift]. When a stranger offered to take him from their hands, they gladly accepted.

He was then raise as a Tytalus, in an elementalist tradition, but he remains a pious Christian. He is devoted to prove his House’s rehabilitation and fight the devil, throwing demons back to the hellfire they deserve.

Character Analysis:

His Sense Holiness and Unholiness is of Divine origin, and affected as such on the realm interaction table. His Lesser Malediction is of vision of infernal terror - he still remembers the terrors of his childhood nightly, and also occasionally sees visions of other Infernal terrors, often leading him to places where diablists work or showing him their foul deeds once he is there [this is a way to get the Visions flaw without having another Story flaw, basically]. His parent’s childhood associates, including their demon masters, have not forgotten about him, and may attempt to re-rectuit him into their ranks, or have other diaboloical plans for him [the Diabolic Past can be interpreted as a Plagued by a Supernatural Entity of a powerful demon, if desired].

His original spell, Immure the Foul Spirit of Hell, traps the demon in corporeal form, so that he could fight and kill it.

His magic is Warped - all his spells seem to conjure up a hellish, fiery, landscape. At low levels, this merely makes the area around the spell’s effect warmer and drier. As the magnitudes increase, however, the area becomes a hellscape, complete with abyssal fire.

His Pilum of Fire appears cosmetically as a lesser version of the Ball of Abyssal Flames: as if a pit of hell opened up to swallow the target.

Gaming Notes:

He should probably develop the full BoAF, as well as other elemental spells such as Creo’ing walls that smash his opponents and so on. He also desperately needs to increase his Arts, and possibly his Penetration ability, in order to increase his Penetration, especially in Infernal auras.

Note that the character lacks other demon-fighting skills / magic. He may want to join a cult, such as the Donatores Requietis Aeternae, to change that.

Further Notes:

You should use Realms of Power: The Infernal if you can. Note the “Apotropic” spells”, described in it, including Plucking the Hair from the Billy Goat’s Chin CrVi 20 (create a temporary arcane connection to a demon), which can really boost your penetration.

If you do have access to this book, consider also lowering you Infernal Lore in favor of knowing the True Name of a demon or two. This could be the demon that is Plaguing you.

Developing Cthonic Magic will also be hugely beneficial, perhaps as Mystery granted by that Mystery Cult you would join.

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Interesting, a very different take from mine. I really like how Ars allows a variety of approaches for a given concept. I like the strong fire/diabolist focus, which is completely lacking in my version.

The scouting aspect does not seem very pronounced, it is covered by the two spells "Shadows of Fires Past" and "Tales of the Ashes", right?

I also have Sense Unholiness and DEO, both are really helpful for a demon hunter.

Just one question: Why the focus on Perception (two minor virtues)?

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I had a lot of trouble trying to fit in all of the requirements, as you said in your OP. This was the only way I could think of of cramming the elementalist theme in. The result still isn’t that great, especially as a starting character, as he doesn’t have the Arts to really do his shtick in most relevant circumstances, but he should be able to pull it off against weak demons in Magical auras, perhaps in low Infernal ones with a lot of luck / some raw vis.

For the Sense Holiness and Unholiness, mostly. The EF to detect posession is 15, and to detect a demon you need EF 0 but also to penetrate his MR. You need every help you can get…

It also helps with Folk Ken, to realize someone is Posessed.

Yes, but also his Perception and Abilities (Awareness, Folk Ken, and of course Sense Holiness and Unholiness).

I would have liked to have higher scores in all those skills, and to add also Hunt (corrupted beasts) to the mix, but there are only a few XP to throw around…

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While neither a scout nor a Tytallus, you could use my write up of Astrid ex Flambeau as a starting point si ce hse is designed to be a demon huntress.

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Note that Visions is both a Story flaw (limit 1) and a Supernatural flaw (no limits), so you can take Visions and a Story flaw. Presumably, the Flaw category would indicate how it should come into play – tormenting visions seem more appropriate to a Supernatural flaw, as opposed to Story-type visions which would tempt with information that would lead to Stories, of course.

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I disagree with that reading, if it is both story and supernatural, it is therefore a story flaw.

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I decided to see this not as a problem, but as an opportunity for development. It's possible to create highly specialized and highly competent magi who are very capable at one thing immediately after gauntlet. For a short campaign that is almost a requirement as you won't get the opportunity to really improve. For a longer campaign, trading ability for versatility seems reasonable. The character won't face the very powerful demon right at the beginning, they will have time for growth and they will feel that they need to choose in which area to improve because there's just not enough XP to do everything.

That’s a good point. Sense Unholiness is much more useful when you have the chance of hitting the 15 instead of just the 9 for the aura of a location.

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