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.
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)
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?
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.
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.
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)?
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.
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
I just grabbed the Normandy book. Gonna read that, pick a covenant from there, and use that inspiration for the rest of these details.
I always took this as Iron = Steel. Makes more sense, IMO.
There was a recent discussion on this on the forums, and the distinction is apparently quite blurry.
I totally agree that it doesn't fit the character, though.
For Death Prophecy, either you're too strict, or the GM that left you such a bad impression was. It is a major virtue, after all 
For exemple, he might have a Death Prophecy that he'll die the day he writes down the greatest epic either, or when he
I like your idea of Faerie-Raised Magic.
Possible alternatives would be a focus, minor or major, as discussed above.
A combo of Minor focus + Alluring to Faeries would be great (they recognize him as their future lord 
), and I'd add Intuition (He knows the way stories and events flow, a little like Elan in OotS) could be great for him.
Yes, I always assumed that this meant anything that included iron, since it is a Major.
Yeah, I think that Death Prophecy shouldn't be played like D&D's Wish. It should be a legitimate path to reckless characters that manage to get away with things, who periodically get very, very shy. They're a great archetype for Mythic Europe.
I had forgotten about Deft Art, or that he'd taken Art of Memory. The notion of him wandering through other people's Memory Palaces, with a sketchbook in hand, is VERY exciting.
This is possibly the first time I've ever seen a virtue like intuition suggested for one of my characters that fits the theme with an appropriate level of Epic-ness.
I'm writing up his backstory now. He was apprenticed to Caprican of Merinita, at Oleron. It's like the wrote the covenant for this character.
Stupid actions will get characters killed. If there's a Death Prophecy, then the universe will contrive itself to align with the consequences of character actions.
Essentially, the way to stay alive is to think about what you're gonna do before you do it.
Stupid, sure. But the point of Death Prophecy is to either be able to consistently pull off 1-in-a-million chances, or to miraculously survive when they don't work.
I don't know about 'consistently pull off 1-in-a-million chances'. Miraculously survive seems more viable. I can't imagine it is intended or should function as 'nigh invunerability' for a major virtue. I think of it more as... you're not dead-dead. You can sure as heck end up mostly-dead (and if you tempt things you will). e.g. you survived getting a few dozen ball of abysmal flames from the most powerful Flambeau around, but you end up scorched with a injury-flaw or three of burn damage and unconscious for a few days/weeks/etc. Doing things that would get you killed might not get you killed, but you shouldn't get off freely for it.
Agreed, and yet there still should be a sense of "permitted recklessness," like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, or the cheerleader in the 1st season of Heroes.
Yeah, this is the part I'm not okay with. That kind of behaviour doesn't make for good stories on film, and it certainly doesn't on the tabletop.
~shrug~ It's your saga.
@Arya: Your game, your rules. Just, if I may? Should you face someone taking it, you should warn him beforehand, since you're effectively house-ruling on this.
Hum... In fact, if it doesn't helps you survive things which would have killed you otherwise (which is the virtue's entire point), you should probably make it a minor flaw, since it means death is coming for the character.
Agreed, and it works that way, anyway, its only effect being, just as you're saying, that you don't die. Period.
Invulnerability is Greater Immunity.
You're not tougher or anything, and can still be wounded, suffer near-fatal wounds (near being the important part here) and be bed-ridden for entire seasons. This doesn't encourage reckless behavior at all, since it doesn't help you avoid wounds at all.
So, for exemple, the dragon wrathes you in flames... And your companions later recover you, burned beyond all recognition, unable to lift a finger without crying in pain, but, amazingly, still alive. Barely. And quite in need of intensive care.
We had a RL exemple here. A worker got a 10-tons slab fall on him. And stayed under it for 3 hours. And survived. And walks again.
It is very mythic, very appropriate for all kind of characters, being able to represent both extraordinary luck, inhuman will to live, destiny or an external soul, and not at all game breaking, since you still get the wounds.
Take Sauron or the Nazgul, for exemple. They're all good exemple of (very powerful) characters with a Death Prophecy: They can be beaten, crippled, lose most of their power (this happened to sauron a couple of times), but they can't die until their time comes. Yet they will die, there's no escape from it.
In fact, this is rather cheap for a major virtue, since most SGs will usually go to great lengths to avoid killing a PC, effectively granting this virtue for free. With it, if a character suffers too much damage, the SG doesn't have to cheat in order to keep him alive (but out of commission for a while). In a lot of ways, even a simple affinity is much more powerfull. In fact, I've never seen anyone take it, much less any munchkin.
While I do go to great lengths to not kill a PC, I prefer to retain that right, not the player. I think Arya is concerned that such a virtue grants a carte blanche to do whatever. It is a reasonable concern. It is conceivable that a player might make a character unplayable (for the player) if he pursues a reckless course of action. He might develop so many flaws that he is difficult or not fun for the player anymore. Then what?
So, I think this virtue is actually expensive, because SGs generally try and preserve a PC, unless the PC does repeatedly stupid things. If a PC is reckless, then all bets are off. And I wouldn't even be moved by the Death Prophecy. Prophecy is wrong, and in the Medieval Paradigm, prophecy is dangerous business.
Yup, this.
Though rather than disregard the prophecy, the stars would align in some fashion.
"When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."