Character Development

The_Fixer · January 24, 2012, 10:23am

Remarks and suggestions:

Might very well be wrong, but isn't Faerie-Raised Magic a mystery virtue?
As a merinita, your Faerie Magic score is 1, not 0
Don't know if it is efficient, but maybe Touched by Faerie could be useful for you.
Inspirationnal might be a great virtue for this character, probably more appropriate than Book Learner.
Sanguine Humor Blessing might be awesome, too. I don't remember if it is applicable to what you seek, though, but you should definitely give it a look.
Same thing goes for Faerie Sympathies. It might be quite interesting for you to develop some.
Have you considered a Magical Focus? Potent Magic might be even more appropriate, with its assortiment of required items.

amul · January 24, 2012, 9:00pm

I don't see how it could be. The virtue is about growing up with faerie magic so constantly in your life that you learn to think about magic like a fae. It's listed as a Major Hermetic Virtue, in the virtue section, and not in the mystery section.
Noted. Thanks.

3 From City &Guild? Touched by (Realm) is trumped by Faerie Magic in this case. All it does is align you with that realm.

Hrm...no, I want him to be the opposite of that. He's supposed to be one of the mystical voyeurs of the world, destined to watch great events unfold. He documents the world as it happens, not influences it (at least, in his mind. He can't write the histories if he doesn't win, though this is far too modern a realization for him to ever have).
...and now I have some reading to do.
Can't find this. Is it in HoH:MC?
Yes, I'd really like a magical focus for Luminus, but Major Magical Focus is a Hermetic Major, and I couldn't decide what a good minor one would be. Potent Magic has never seemed useful to me.

The_Fixer · January 25, 2012, 9:44am

Twas serf's parma
Idem. So it seems I got the name wrong. Some kind of virtue to craft wondrous items. Might be interesting for you, or not. Given your following answers, I guess not.
Have you considered Visions and/or Premonitions?
RoP: F. Serf's parma again, but it has all kind of uses (from charms to skill bonuses) in a given specialty. IIRC, it might be very appropriate for you.
Hum... Something like "Assessing Great Events", applying to any Intellego effect with more than 1000 targets involved (like, Group *100 or Boundary, to watch a forest fire or the weather over a region or survey a forest) might be appropriate as a Major. For a minor, what about "Watching over the Crowds", like above but limited to Corpus, to use divination on armies, cities, camps, etc?

amul · January 25, 2012, 10:30pm

From these comments, it sounds like you have a much more interesting concept for my character than I did originally, Fix. I'm curious to hear what your understanding of my character concept is before I go tweaking any further.

The_Fixer · January 26, 2012, 9:03pm

loooooooool

I'm just following along based to what I understand from what you're telling me! If there are interesting ideas around, they ultimately come from you!

From what I understand, this is a character that, at the start, perceives important events around the world, chronicles them, passing them into legend, possibly depicting them into magical paintings, or using these to that end (like a painting of Europe that shows important events). This is a character that would be a great ally of faerie and would wield great influence here, for quite evident reasons.
A cross between Uatu the Watcher (from Marvel Comics) and Destiny of the Endless. He watches, he chronicles, he doesn't interfere... Does him?

So I'd say a mMF in "Watching over the Crowds" (1), a Faerie Sympathy in Crowds (3 or 1), maybe another in Stories, Sanguine Humor's Blessing (3) (Either coupled with an animal companion to be attuned to the natural world, or with a Mentor for recall/comprehend information), Premonitions (1), an Affinity in Intellego (1), minor Potent Magic in "Watching over the Crowds" (1), and Visions flaw.

IMO, potent magic can be really good and flavorful for you if you incorporate it into a painting (say, using ruby powder for color). Between the base +3 and the S&M bonus, you can easily have yet another +6 to your CT, which is quite good for a minor virtue.

If you later initiate Arcadian Travel (to Faerie, the land of stories! Go there, watch it, explore the various versions of a given story) and Story Magic (influence the events! Shape the future! Avoid the destiny you've foretold!), develop more Faerie Sympathies, you'll become quite the lord of stories

amul · January 27, 2012, 9:12am

(I am waiting on Arya's input on the newest version of the character sheet, and Fixer's many excellent ideas, before I go back and edit a 3rd time.)

I still can't find Faerie Sympathies anywhere in my books.

After re-reading the Merinita stuff in HoHMC, I understand their application better. There's a really strong temptation to pick a mMF instead of Good Teacher, and just focus on illuminations. I want to pick up Arcadian Travel (and I would really like to pick up Flexible Formulaic Magic, but that might be a bit powerful) before entering play, SG willing.

Fixer makes some really excellent arguments, but they all sound like things that I'd like to happen in-play. Folk Mysteries should definitely happen in-game, for example.

The_Fixer · January 27, 2012, 9:31am

It's in RoP: Faeries. in the last chapter, IIRC, the one about characters touched by Faerie.

Checking the ToC online... Found it! Page 100!

And yes, IMO, the last bits (arcadian travel, Story magic and additionnal sympathies) are suggestions for later, of course! For when you have multiple sympathies and wander faerie as one of its rightful lord. MWAH AH AH AH AH!!!!

amul · January 27, 2012, 9:46am

Ah. Therein lies the problem. I don't have RoP:F. ~pout~

The_Fixer · January 27, 2012, 10:22am

Can't promise anything, since it's quite long, but I'll try to post a resume of what you can do with it

Arya · January 27, 2012, 2:41pm

I have the beta test Word doc for RoP:F but my common sense check doubts that those can be distributed after the beta test is over

Faerie Sympathy is Rhodri's big shtick, so it's possible you may want to avoid too much overlap.

Jonathan.Link · January 27, 2012, 2:48pm

PDF copies are $15 from e23. I've purchased almsot all my Ars material as PDFs. I have them on a couple of computers at home, my work computer (via Dropbox) and my iPad (again via Dropbox to distribute then converted stored via the iBooks app). PDF search FTW.

amul · January 27, 2012, 6:36pm

PDFs are great for char-gen'ing after I've read a thing, but not so much for when I'm first reading stuff. Still, I need to get the other Tribunal books too, and this would be a good way to do it.

Yeah, I've seen the craft totals he generates with it.

The_Fixer · January 27, 2012, 10:01pm

Yeah, these can be easily abused, although they come at the cost of warping.

In case you don't know, note that Rhodri, by the rules, shouldn't have these levels in his sympathies: These are limited to Warping for sympathies gained through play, Warping +1 for minor virtues, warping +3 for major virtues, so he should have at most a score of 4 (which is already quite good)

amul · February 2, 2012, 7:25am

So...at this point the question becomes:

Good Teacher or mMF? What mMF? While I like Fixer's take on the character, I don't feel like that is an At-Gauntlet concept. That's the goal I'm reaching toward. At Gauntlet, he's just a Merinita who is very interested in drawings, and their potential usage as a tool for disseminating information.
Which (and how many) Mystery Virtues can/should Luminus pick up during his 8 years of PG advancement? Arcadian Travel and the Folk Mysteries now all sound really interesting.
Aside from PG XP, is there anything else Luminus needs to do to enter play?

Arya · February 2, 2012, 3:12pm

Good Teacher can be easily learned later if you're Gently Gifted, but not so much otherwise. Between Tabanus, Sophia, and Cygna, I think we're at critical mass on GG magi, so I'd say start with Good Teacher. A focus is no more difficult to learn either way.
No more than one minor. You'll deduct a season of time for it and give yourself the requisite flaws or whatnot is indicate on the script.
Nope, just PG advancement. Get your character sheet and backstory finished and then we'll figure out advancement qualities.

amul · February 4, 2012, 8:42pm

Rough outline of Luminus's post-gauntlet activities, subject to SG approval:

PG1 - Parma, Penetration, Finesse, CoH
PG2 - Faerie Magic, Merinita Lore, Intellego, Rego
PG3 - Vim, Magic Theory, Mentem, Imaginem
PG4 - Craft:Painting, Folk Mysteries, Mentem, Imaginem
PG5: Muto, Perdo, Intellego x2
PG6: Creo x4
PG7: Regox4
PG8: any 4 forms currently at zero
(contacts Liliana about learning Arcadian Travel)

Nix'ing Gentle Gift gives me an extra Major non-Hermetic virtue to select. How does Ways of the Roads or Greater Immunity sound? Not sure which greater immunity. I was thinking either smoke, iron or fire. Something that would help him stand in the middle of a mundane battle and paint undisturbed.

Arya · February 4, 2012, 9:52pm

You need a background story before you get advancement qualities

Irencillia doesn't have access to very high quality texts, so you'd be more likely to start with more "stuff" to make up for it.

...How do you feel about a Crown of Hermes (the mental construct lab)?

The_Fixer · February 4, 2012, 10:13pm

IMO, smoke is not worthy of a greater immunity.

Is Ways of the Battle possible? It's not a type of land, but it seems roughly okay to me (you gain on battles, lose on everything else)

What about a Death Prophecy? Somehow, I think it fits well with this story-based character, and it would sure help him survive.
Otherwise, take a greater immunity to Iron.

Arya · February 4, 2012, 10:53pm

Nope, terrain type only. And wouldn't fit the character anyway.

Death Prophecy won't help you survive. Trust me on this

Immunity to Iron shouldn't be a greater immunity-- no one uses iron weapons by the 12th century, unless they're hunting faeries. It always bugged me they used that as an example, because it's nowhere near common enough for a greater immunity. Immunity to steel weapons would be suitable for a greater immunity, but doesn't seem to fit the character at all.

Why not three minor virtues? Deft Form is always great, Book Learner would give you a LOT of mileage in your PG advancement (though Independent Study fits better with Faerie-Raised Magic), and Alluring to Faeries would certainly be... interesting

amul · February 5, 2012, 4:17am

I just grabbed the Normandy book. Gonna read that, pick a covenant from there, and use that inspiration for the rest of these details.