Use this forum to toss ideas before you set your mind to a particular magus. Here we can as a group discuss each others concepts.
An initial idea, or rather more a brainstorming, I had:
I've wanted for some time to make a magus connected with the fourth crusade, which I think is one of the more fascinating events in the history of the early 13th century. The chance to play in the Tribunal of Thebes made me jump at the chance. I've also an abiding love of unpleasant and borderline evil characters, and a Tytalus has been percolating through my brain for a while.
My very rough initial concept, then, is of a magus born in Venice to a wealthy family (possibly even the infamous Dandolo who started the whole crusade), who was taken in by a Tytalus parens at around age 10 and apprenticed in the traditional austere manner. His parens went off on the fourth crusade, and he followed, witnessing the infamous sack of Constantinople and subsequently being declared excommunicate like all the other soldiers of the crusade. His troubles didn't end there: his parens was tried and Marched for using magic to interfere with mundanes while on crusade, and he was taken in by the killer.
Here's where the big decision I still have to make comes in. What house, exactly, was his second parens from? The fourth crusade would have occurred between the fifth and sixth year of apprenticeship, and so the March would theoretically have occurred in either the seventh or eighth, dividing his apprenticeship neatly in half between two parens' traditions. Would a Marched magus' apprentice go to the killer of his master - probably a Flambeau - or would it go to another member of the parens' house - in this case Tytalus? This is the part I want most input on, and the part that influences what house he ends up in.
After his gauntlet, he embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in an attempt to be rendered Reconciliate; due to some failure of piety on his part, he was not. Now, with the unlikelihood of his ever being re-incorporated into the church sinking in, he has embraced the sophist teachings of his first master; he believes that he should fear neither God nor his own magic -- as long as he can survive long enough, twilight will be his escape from damnation.
With that in mind, he has become a healer, combining his Tytalean training in necromancy (ReCo, obviously) and (potentially) Flambeau training in the PeCo-focused school of Apromor with Creo to become a dispenser of life and death, surrounded by luxury and cementing his excommunicate's damnation every day with fresh blasphemies and impious hubris.
Sounds like a interesting concept. Figure out a name and start a thread. Personally I am toying with a few concepts:
• A Mercere magus who use mutantum magic, is a a part of the Philosophers of Rome and makes a good living by supporting the local red caps with magic.
• A Bonisagus with a skills in elemental magic who tries to integrate the Elementalist magic and Plato’s teaching into hermetic theory.
• A hermetic Haruspexe who is a active member of the neo-mercurians
I like magi who have some sort of a project so I tend to imagine verditi magi as they have a standing project of becoming a famous magical item crafter.
Ack! I was working on an Ex Misc Tradition that was a 'front' for a Mystery Cult that had done just that! It's nowhere near close to being presentable to the group for discussion which is why I haven't posted about it yet.
Though I can easily switch gears, I had toyed with a very social oriented Mythic Redcap that I liked a large amount... and I had an idea for a Verditius this morning.
How about if you represent a front for a mystery cult and perhaps my magus as a happy Bonisagus is trying to unravel the mysteries unknowing that there is a mystery cult who has done that all ready? Could be a fun conflict but also perhaps something that spoils the saga...
He could always be trying to become a member / integrate more stuff into the cult's magic? That would actually make for some very interesting stories. The only thing I'd worry about would be the overlap and the characters feeling too similar. I'm slowly but surely working on the write up. Also, the Elementalist Magic, if integrated doesn't really change the power level of the saga like, say the Guagach Improved Voice Range or the Vitkr Runes. It's basically like any of the other summoning traditions, just with Elementals and what have you. Most of which can be accomplished with Hermetic Magic anyway... But again, when the write up is done the group can take a look and see what they think 
If I take that kind of magus I thought more of a magus who is trying to make a career in the house so that mean publishing his results. But yes there might be a similarity and I could take up on any other concept that I can think of so that’s not a big problem.
Muttonbone when you make up the background make sure that both blood family and parens are a piece of background and will affect you. For example your family might wish things from you or your parens might wish to have a word with you. The seasons that must be spent doing small quest during the seven years can be used as such amusements.
Max, I'm not entirely sure to what level you want the parens and family to be an influence; the two responses I've got from you seem wildly different. Your response to my PM seemed to imply that you wanted parental ties as fit in with the medieval paradigm -- "I brought this along as in the middle ages the familly where important to people and for me magi are no exeption" -- but your latest response seems like you want them to be active in our magi's lives. I had assumed they would take back seat to his own problems; yes, he's spending his family's money, and he has an Infamous Master, but they're just part of the problems he faces as an excommunicate hedonist who's disliked by both the church and the Order.
I admit that I am not entirely clear on that one. It is just that I have seen to many magi who don’t have any roots, their parents are dead with no family left and the parens is just a faceless nobody. You have four seasons of stories in your seven years of background (3 for excommunicate and 1 or hedonist), the stories dosen’t need to revolve around the flaws but you could if you wish make one of the stories tie onto your blood family or parens. It is your choice.
Hello!
My initial build/character idea is for a Tremere who is focused in certamen and Ramius style melee fighting + touch range battle spells / warding etc. Basically as well rounded of an augmented swordsman as I can come up with, to fit the modern militaristic view of the house.
Basically I see him as being a gifted child born to a mundane redcap father that was not a blood descendant of Mercere, and therefore wasn't wanted by the Mercere as an apprentice. His father got him apprenticed to a Tremere magus with the condition that as an honorary Magus he could maintain 'some' contact with his son. This was agreed. He was raised/trained to be an adept practitioner of Certamen, indeed trained to be a Certamen specialist, but on his own also chose to study more direct fighting/combat/soldiery. I was thinking of having him join one or more vexillations, but am unsure.
( 10 ) Minor Magical Focus: Certamen (-), Special Circumstances: Certamen (1), Lesser Potent Magic: Certamen (1), Performance Magic: Single Weapon (1), Subtle Magic (1), Puissant Magic Theory/Parma Magica (2), Venus' Blessing (1), Secondary Insight (3)
( 10 ) Hermetic Patron: House Mercere ( 1 ), Short-Ranged Magic (3), Reckless (1), Weakness: Pretty Maidens (1), Mentor: Exarch/Tremere Superiors (1), Fury (3)
Possible Initiations: Flawless Magic, Greater Potent Magic: Damage
Now I note there are three questionable purchases in this build that I would like your opinion on.
First is the 'Special Circumstances: Certamen'. This seems pretty straightforward, to give a +3 to most checks in Certamen.
The second is the 'Lesser Potent Magic: Certamen' which would bring form/effect bonuses somehow into the certamen, up to MT just like normal... only into Certamen totals instead of spells.
Third is the combination of performance magic: single weapon and subtle magic. The heinous flaws/hindrances of using performance magic with combat skills is blamed on having to do the ritual motions/gestures of the spell instead of responding to the opponent. The subtle magic lets you totally ignore the gestures without penalty while the performance magic lets you combine the action of the spell and whatever ability it is tied to into one simultaneous action. With both, the goal is to be able to fight/attack/defend with the single weapon skill unhindered while casting spells, due to the conjuctive use with subtle magic.
Thoughts?
I also have a concept I am fond of for a failed Pharmacopian apprentice who ends up as a Mage of some other variety. Essentially the character is a trained surgeon/physician of one of the great universities ( Perhaps Salerno ) who was recruited into the healing oriented Pharmacopian tradition. He 'failed' the gauntlet of the tradition however by being willing to employ violence to fulfill his idea of justice. For him I would see justice and seeing it done as being major motivators.
I have a couple of different directions I could take such a character however essentially the focus of his magic would be on craft magic, using it to augment and/or quickly produce the mythic herbalism/alchemy stuff ( like the formulas that produce doses of expendable items ) and/or do Rego Corpus surgery spells to perform 'instant' healing type of effects ( not as good as creo mind you ) using Rego and no vis. Obviously a build that 'must' be heavy on the finesse and/or other types of things tweaking his build to make those craft magic difficulty numbers acheivable. I have however spent a little less time dwelling on this build and refining virtue/flaw options for it just yet.
I personally like the potential for interpersonal friction between my Tytalus-in-all-but-name magus and a Tremere. Plus, we already have a healer/Co specialist, and two would create a lot of overlap between our skillsets/
Vortigern you see to have a strong concept so work along.
I am doing a elemental Bonisagus and I wish to make a few statement regarding the elemental magic virtue to see if my understanding of the virtue is the same as everybody else.
• Extra xp during character creation as per the rules in Hedge magic for elementalists. That is half of the xp spent on one of the elemental form is spent on the other three.
• If adding elemental requisites to a spell then ignore them for casting and inventing purposes (your lab total does not get lowered) but you still add them and get a magnitude increase if the add to the power of the spell. For example a spell that is a elemental ward get three extra magnitudes for protecting against all four elements.
• Bonus for similar spells carry across the forms. For example if my magus know a summon water elemental spell then he get a bonus on inventing a spell that summons a fire elemental.
I think that my magus will invent a ward against all the elemental forms and if I remember right you starts with the effect that has the highest base level and then add requisites.
That was my understanding of it Max. That said, after much thinking I'm going to go with my second idea, a Mythic Redcap. The reasons for this being: I don't want to have a character that is too similar to another players ( nobody's fault Max, we both just had the same awesome idea! 8) ), Writing up the Mystery Cult in an attempt to make my character more 'unique' from Max's is simply taking up too much of my time, I'm also worried about game balance issues with the Cult and some of the Mysteries.
I'm actually very much looking forward to playing a Mythic Redcap! I have a very cool idea in mind, I want to make him a 'fixer' of sort. You need something, he can get it for you... And with a fair amount more of subtlety than you silly gifted chaps!
That said, I'm looking forward to seeing where you take your Elementalist Max!
Salve,
I'm struggling to come up with a concept that you haven't already covered without overlap, so I've redrawn 3 or 4 times already. Forgetting the Criamon on the Path of Strife or Body, and the Tremere soldier, I'm going to toss out the idea of a Guernican Hoplite.
Acertelum's hermetic parent is a member of the Legion of Mithras. He specialises in Imaginem and deception, using masks (with potential to create a mystery based on Masks or treat solely as a potent magic) as focii to build a network of agencies. To differentiate his chosen path from the actual manifestation of his Gift, he'll have an affinity (or affinities) for Aquam and/or Herbam. His Gift manifested as a child whilst hauling in nests at sea, hence the affinity/affinities, and perhaps the nature of his magic is cyclic and related to tides. The imaginem and Mask fascination are related to how water changes images slightly. He may still have contact with his non-hermetic family who are sailors and fisherfolk.
His mater, Amanita, is well known and has enemies that he has inherited. I'm thinking here that she has an unrequited love for a Tytalan mage, Gnorizontas, who has become incensed at her stalking of him, magical and otherwise, possibly misunderstanding her intentions. He and his filii have sworn to destroy her and her line, and have already killed one Amanita's filii, though no proof is possible.
Let me know if this seems like a reasonable basis (particularly the enemies) and isn't imbalancing the story in any real way and I'll go into more detail.
As long as you are fine with it then fine by me. It is just that I like magus characters as there is so much more to tinker with... Perhaps give some hedge magic so you are not totally non-magical.
A rule that you must follow.
If you wish to have a spell that is not in any of the rulebooks then it must be found here: http://spellswiki.wikidot.com/
I'm quite fine with it! I can understand that sentiment completely Max, but I think that this will make for a very interesting character / stories. That said, I'm sure if he runs into an interesting Hedge Tradition that he wouldn't be adverse to learning a bit of it.
Question! I was thinking about giving the character a Personal Vis Source. That said, I'm sure you're aware of the < level 30 item restriction for the Redcaps. I was wondering if I would be allowed to use this vis during character gen to say he had purchased a few items that he couldn't get from the House. What I'm looking at is something to cast 'The Wizard's Mount' and 'Leap of Homecoming'. Also, how much would a personal Vis Source be generating per year?
Every magus get 5 pawns per year, lets say that there are 4 magi. 5*4=20, on tenth of that is 2. Use the normal Verditius rates for buying magical items.
Is that 5 pawns once the game starts? Assuming that, it gives me 14 to buy items with, unless of course those 5 pawns per season are given during the 7 years post Gaunt.
That said, I was always fuzzy on the Verditius pricing. It says 2x Vis Cost + Vis Cost. Now, since Verditius reduce the Vis cost of their items, how do we calculate that? Is the 'Cost' before the reduction, or after? Also, what would be the rough level cut off for lesser items, since they have to be made in a season, 35-40ish?