Character creation

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Covenant Adrift
141

Hello everybody. I hope to be playing with you. Here is the character I made; please let me know what you think.

Euphemia ex Criamon

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +2, Pre +3, Com +1, Str -2, Sta +1, Dex -1, Qik +0

Personality: Brave +3, Cheerful +3, Curious +3

Warping: 0 (0/5)

Confidence: 1 (3)

Age: 25

Virtues:
Affinity with Creo (Minor, Hermetic)
The Enigma (Free, Minor, Hermetic)
Gentle Gift (Major, Hermetic)
The Gift (Special)
Good Teacher (Minor, General)
Hermetic Maga (Free, Social Status)
Premonitions (Minor, Supernatural)
Second Sight (Free, Minor, Supernatural)
Strong Faerie Blood: Sidhe (Major, Supernatural)
Venus' Blessing (Minor, General)

Flaws:
Carefree (Minor, Personality)
No Sense of Direction (Minor, General)
Optimistic (Major, Personality)
Twilight Prone (Major, Hermetic)
Visions (Minor, Story, Supernatural)
Weird Magic (Minor, Hermetic)

Abilities:
Artes Liberales: 1; Logic (5/5)
Awareness: 2; Alertness (15/15)
Charm: 3; Being Genuine (30/30)
Chirurgy: 1; Binding Wounds (5/5)
Concentration: 1; Spell Concentration (5/5)
Dead Langauge (Latin): 4; Hermetic Usage (50/50)
Enigmatic Wisdom: 2; Twilight (15/15)
Faerie Lore: 1; Sidhe (5/5)
Finesse: 1; Precision (5/5)
Leadership: 2; Inspiration (15/15)
Living Language (Greek): 5; Storytelling (75/75)
Magic Theory: 3; Creo (30/30)
Medicine: 1; Physician (5/5)
Parma Magica: 1; Mentem (5/5)
Penetration: 1; Creo (5/5)
Premonitions: 3; Supernatural Threats (30/30)
Second Sight: 3; Faeries (30/30)

Arts:
Techniques:
Creo: 11 (68/78)
Intellego: 5 (15/15)
Muto: 0 (0/1)
Perdo: 0 (0/1)
Rego: 5 (15/15)
Forms:
Animal: 0 (0/1)
Aquam: 0 (0/1)
Auram: 0 (0/1)
Corpus: 5 (15/15)
Herbam: 0 (0/1)
Ignem: 0 (0/1)
Imaginem: 5 (15/15)
Mentem: 5 (15/15)
Terram: 0 (0/1)
Vim: 0 (0/1)

Spells:
Animal:
Circle of Beast Warding (ReAn; Level 5): +6
Aquam:
Cloak of the Duck's Feathers (ReAq; Level 5): +6
Touch of the Pearls (InAq; Level 5): +6
Auram:
Air's Ghostly Form (CrAu; Level 5): +11
Chamber of Spring Breezes (CrAu; Level 5): +11
Jupiter's Resounding Blow (CrAu; Level 10): +11
Corpus:
Bind Wound (CrCo; Level 10): +17
Curse of the Unruly Tongue (ReCo; Level 5): +11
Purification of the Festering Wounds (CrCo; Level 20): +17
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo; Level 10): +11
Spasms of the Uncontrolled Hand (ReCo; Level 5): +11
Imaginem:
Aura of Ennobled Presence (MuIm; Level 10): +11
Prying Eyes (InIm; Level 5): +11
Mentem:
The Call to Slumber (ReMe; Level 10): +11
Vim:
Scales of the Magical Weight (InVi; Level 5): +6
Sense the Nature of Vis (InVi; Level 5): +6

Appearance:
Euphemia catches the attention of everyone she passes; she is an exceptionally beautiful woman, perfectly-proportioned in every respect. She has bright red hair that, unbound, falls to her ankles, large; emerald green eyes, and pale skin just a shade shy of alabaster. She looks a little less than twenty years old.
The combination of colors of her hair and eyes is a clear indication of supernatural powers which any even vaguely superstitious person will recognize immediately, though they may not necessarily believe or care that Euphemia's coloration marks her as magical.
She typically wears loose, thin clothing, such as a linen, sleeveless, ankle-length chiton.

Notes:
Her mother, Luticia, is a sidhe who fell in love with her father and bore him Euphemia. Unlike most faeries, Luticia was not pretending to be mortal, nor did she grow tired of her husband and children; Euphemia eventually became the eldest of eight children, before her father partook of the Longevity Ritual.
Euphemia's parents raised her with loving kindness, giving her an idyllic sort of childhood full of happiness and contentment. Because of her mother's nobility, her own strange supernatural gifts, and her natural upbeat charm, the faeries treated her well, though her father insisted that she spend at least one of every four weeks living among mortals, so as not to stunt her emotional development.
Her father, Gregory ex Criamon, was her teacher in the Hermetic Arts. She inherited much of her magical "style" from him, particularly her Gentle Gift and penchant for Creo. He is only a middlingly-powerful magus, now 50, but he is a very good teacher, and he was, of course, more inclined to spend seasons teaching his daughter than most parentes are given to spend on teaching their apprentices. This was fortunate, for a lesser instructor would not have been able to open Euphemia's Arts.
Her upbringing conspired to make her a cheerful, well-rounded person, but she is also terribly naive and too quick to trust. Since no one she had to spend more than a few moments with ever treated her badly, she mistakenly believes that all people are naturally wonderful, and that deceit and treachery are rare.
Among other things, this disposition gives her a predilection to live in a sort of "story-world," and she is prone to escapism. This meshes with her propensity for Twilight and may even be the cause of it; her subconscious desires to escape stressful situations.
Her blood connection to Faerie mutes the social effects of her Gift, and it also gives her the powers to glimpse the future and that which is hidden. Unfortunately, it also causes her magic to sometimes "bleed over" into Faerie, pulling forth strange phenomena, such as a burst of flower petals or turning the ears on nearby animals bright blue for a few moments. She is also much more prone to Twilight than other magi, though she has experienced it only once.
While her spatial reasoning ability is better than most, she still can't navigate anywhere without signs and/or a map, and even then she might still get lost. There is nothing supernatural about this. Her talent for getting lost was the source of much amusement for her childhood friends.

Stuff I, the Player, Want to Do:
Learn Fertility Magic so my character can have magic babies and be a magic mama. It would also be acceptable to adopt Gifted children.
A nice lurv story. Especially to go with the previous item, as in, having magic babies with someone. (Or adopting magic babies with someone, if lesbian lurv is in the making.)

Edit: Also, resource management and strategy are fun, but they usually come with the Ars Magica package.

142

I see awareness and charm you could get before age 5, which leaves you 15 points short on your early childhood.

143

What about Second Sight?

144

I have never seen anything to indicate that supernatural abilities can be raised above level 1 before age 5.

145

Okie-dokey. I didn't know that was prohibited.

Let's take 5 points from Teaching and 10 points from Faerie Lore and put those into Charm.

146

I'm coming up 5 points short on spells, I would assume this person passed the gauntlet 3 years ago?

147

She has exactly 120 levels of spells.

Animal: 5
Aquam: 10
Auram: 20
Corpus: 50
Imaginem: 15
Mentem: 10
Vim: 10
Total: 120

Why do you think she passed the Gauntlet 3 years ago?

148

On spells I found out my spreadsheet wasn't set up to count that many- you are right.

I have 120 points into arts, 285 points in abilities. up to age 5 is 45 points, apprenticeship is 240 points split between arts and abilities, which means she has 120 points from elsewhere, you have her listed at age 25 and before the gauntlet she gets 15 points a year, after she would get 30 points a year, and age 25 means 5 years that are neither apprenticeship nor childhood where x+y=5 and 15x+30y=120, X=5-Y, 75-15Y+30Y=120, 15Y=45, Y=3.

reviewing I had your latin at 5 instead of 3, which clears up 25 points, which would put her just over a year past the gauntlet...

149

She has 240 XP in Abilities.

The first levels of Enigmatic Wisdom, Premonitions, and Second Sight are free, as is Greek 5, her native language.

120 XP from apprenticeship were applied to Abilities, plus 45 for Early Childhood and 75 for 5 years of later childhood. 240-120-75-45=0.

EDIT: Though, if starting with some extra years is okay, I'm totally cool with doing so... =P

150

As long as it is less than 7 the character still fits within the definition of "newly gauntleted" for purposes of introduction at the tribunal, so yes, that is fine- here are the abilities and "real" costs that I have...
cost level ability
0 5 Greek
15 2 awareness
30 3 charm
5 1 chirurgy
5 1 artes liberales
25 1 concentration
50 4 Latin
10 2 Enigmatic Wisdom
5 1 Faerie Lore
5 1 finesse
15 2 leadership
30 3 magic theory
5 1 medicine
5 1 Parma Magica
5 1 penetration
25 3 premonitions
25 3 second sight

151

Concentration 1 does not cost 25xp.

Okay, so 5 years would be all right?

I don't want to do too much, though. It looks like one character has 15 Warping Points from something; has Abigail advanced extra years also?

I mean, if nobody else has taken extra years, I don't want to be all superior or anything like that.

152

No, that's just sundry warping during apprenticeship. She needs at least one point, and then more warping score helps with stuff like the Becoming. Namely The Becoming.

153

Okay, that was an error in my spreadsheet where the calculation had been replaced by a constant- while it is okay to take additional years it might be best to simply post the character and get the game moving, and no, nobody else has advanced past the gauntlet.

154

All righty.

I'll go ahead and make a Companion also!

He shall be shamelessly built for benefiting the magi directly.

155

Now that I think about it, is it acceptable to make a Mythic Companion? (Specifically a Faerie, to mesh with my Faerie-blooded maga and Abigail's Merinita-ness. According to RoP: Faerie, Faerie Companions "Player Character Faeries Are Designed to Suit Game Play").

I'll switch out Euphemia's Visions for Faerie Companion, if that would help and/or be necessary.

156

You can play a faerie as a companion if you would like, it does not require your mage to take faerie companion.

157

Thanks!

I'll get to work presently.

Dumdeedum, I don't have to work for two weeeeeeks. merry whistle

158

... although I will note that my companion Galenos, and the magus Argyros, also have Visions

159

You're right, Hermetic Magi are much harder to create... I managed to pick some Virtues and Flaws so far; posting here so the don't get lost. Can't decide whether I want Great Int instead of (or in addition to) Clear Thinker.

ex Bonisagus:

Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre 0, Com 0, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: ()
Decreptitude: 0
Warping Score: 0
Virtues: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Cautious Sorcerer (min), Inoffensive to Animals (min), Secondary Insight (Maj), Clear Thinker (min) [, Great Intelligence]
(3 fewer botch dice on casting and lab, min 1)
(When studying Technique, +1 in 4 Forms; studying Form, +1 in 2 Techniques)
(+3 to resist lies, confusion etc)
Flaws: Chaotic Magic (maj), Unpredictable Magic (min), Disjointed Magic (min), Obsessed (study the natural world) (min)
(Spont spells only work as expected on 0, +1)
(Roll stress even if relaxed; roll for botch on non-fatiguing Spont)
(No gain from similar spells; no ench bonuses from pre-invested arts)
Personality Traits:
Combat:

Soak:
Fatigue Levels: OK, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20)
Abilities:
Arts: Cr 0, In 0, Mu 0, Pe 0, Re 0; An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 0, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 0, Vi 0
Spell Sigil:
Equipment:
Encumbrance: 0(0)
Spells known:

160

If necessary I can change. I confess that Vision is a cheap trick for lazy people like me in order to fill a Flaws slot :blush: