Character Development

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Base Camp
14

It's a Minor Hermetic Flaw. When you experiment, you roll two dice on the Extraordinary Results Chart rather than one, and the SG picks "the more amusing". That's not, it's important to point out, the same as "the worst one", and personally I wouldn't want the Flaw to greatly lower the frequency of the "Discovery" result, or it would be worse than Minor for someone who does a lot of experiments.

I'm biased, though, because I gave it to Viola last month as part of a Major Virtue/Minor Flaw package after a visit to the Realm of Magic.

Scott

15

...Can I have a Forge Companion and a Venditor? How about a Failed Apprentice lab slave? :slight_smile:

And what should we assume is the average source quality for post-gauntlet advancement, if we're going season by season?

16

If I'm going to bring Viola into this saga, I need to go back and change a few things. One of them is anything involving her familiar, which affected one critical Lab Total (I need to know whether and how much the familiar can learn Magic Theory), but as I recall, after Experimentation, the total was considerably more than she needed anyway.

The original, ArM4 version of VIola included the Faerie-raised Merinita Virtue, which, as I recall, allowed her to divide by two when sponting without using Fatigue.

The saga in question was then converted to ArM5. With sponting as her schtick, I was disturbed to learn that ArM5 had no cool sponting Virtues (except Life-linked Spontaneous Magic, which I curiously overlooked until recently). The troupe ended up to agreeing to a Major Focus in sponting. This is half of what Diedne Magic does, but without the Dark Secret.

When I reconverted her (from the ground up, because the time she'd played under ArM4 had given her far too many XP's), for the Andorra saga, the SG wasn't keen on the Major Focus. I offered just to take Diedne Magic, but instead he had me take this Virtue:

INNATE SPONTANEOUS MAGIC

Major Hermetic Virtue
To qualify for this Virtue you must have an extremely strong faerie nature. Examples include Faerie Blood, substantial Warping from a Faerie source, being bound by a Faerie Familiar, or the Inner Mystery of Becoming. All script variations for this mystery have one or more of these as a prerequisite. This and other new Arcadian Mysteries are available to Faerie magi outside of this group as well.
This Mystery taps into the power inherit in your Faerie nature, allowing you to handle magic with greater fluidity. When you cast a spontaneous spell without expending fatigue, you may choose to divide by five or by two. If you choose to divide by five, you need not roll a stress die, and cannot botch, just as normal. If you choose to divide by two, you must roll a stress die, and can botch.

This is obviously the same as the first half of Diedne Magic. He then had me initiate this as a Mystery:

POTENT SPONTANEOUS MAGIC
Major Hermetic Virtue
This Inner Mystery is an extension of Innate Spontaneous Magic, and uses your Faerie nature to bring your Magical essence closer to the surface. The rationale is that you are mostly a faerie being that, because of your human blood, has the Gift of Magic. Other magi are humans who would otherwise be mundane if not for their magical Gift, just as you would be a full faerie if not for the dollop of human blood that allows you to have the Gift for Magic. It is the Mysteries of Faerie Magic allow you to harmonize the two forces, and for this reason this Mystery is incompatible with Becoming. You cannot be initiated into one if you already have been initiated into the other.
Because your magic is brought even closer to the surface, you can get greater potency out of your Spontaneous Magic. This doesn’t work with Formulaic spells because the magic has to be quick and impulsive, and for the same reason it won’t work with Ceremonial Casting. Whenever you expend fatigue on casting a spontaneous spell, the lowest applicable Art is doubled before the whole total is divided by two. You still roll a stress die, and may botch.

And that gives the second half of the Diedne Magic Virtue--so it's two Major Virtues instead of one, but without the included Major Flaw of Dark Secret, so I think it balances, and it is based on the pre-existing rules. Therefore, I don't feel bad about those two, but one of her Mysteries included an "Ordeal" that resulted in the Story Flaw Faerie Friend, whichi to me is a bit cheesy, and I think I'll replace that one with a real Flaw, or something. Another Ordeal produced this house-ruled Flaw:

STRANGE MAGIC
Minor Hermetic Flaw
Whenever you roll a stress die for a magic roll, roll an extra die. If you roll a 0, you “botch” the spell as you would if you rolled a Weird Magic botch, but you get no Warping points for this botch, and it cannot trigger Twilight.

Harmless, but amusing, and I'd like to keep it. The "improvement" over Weird Magic is that the chance of having Weird Magic occur is 1/100, which is pretty pointless even for a minor Flaw--my original suggestion to the SG was to make the above rules the ones for Weird Magic, and maybe we could just do that.

Bleh...looking at her character sheet, I see that for some reason I ended up keeping, in essence, the ArM4 version of Faerie-raised Merinita, and which in effect (through a package of including Virtues and Flaws) gave her 13 points of V's and F's. I should probably fix that.

Any thoughts on all of this? OK, I'm babbling, but I need suggestions here. :slight_smile:

I might as well show the V's and F's she started with:

Major Hermetic Virtue
Faerie-raised Merinita
Strong Faerie Blood
Sidhe Beauty (+1 Presence, Eerie Beauty)
Natural Longevity (aging rolls start at 50 at -3)
Faerie Eyes (see in dark, Second Sight, strange eye color)
Faerie Lore
Innate Spontaneous Magic (divide spont rolls by 2 without fatigue)
Loose Magic
Weak Parens

Minor Virtues
Book Learner (+2 to book Study Totals)
Free Expression (+3 to rolls for new works of art)
Great Intelligence (+1 to Intelligence)
Inventive Genius (+3/+6 to Lab Totals for new creations)
Puissant Muto (+3 to Muto)
Student of Faerie (+2 to Faerie Lore)
Study Bonus (+2 to Art book and vis Study Totals)
True Friend (Constantine)

Major Flaws
Favors (to faeries in father's family)
Study Requirement

Minor Flaws
Clumsy
Driven (saving nature from the advance of man)
Small Frame (-1 to Size, 4-point wound increments)
Strange Magic (special “botch” die)

I suppose she could live without Free Expression, and perhaps Puissant Muto, but that wouldn't only bring the V's/F's down to 11. If I can get her down to 10, though, I can use one of the deleted Flaws--probably Loose Magic--to replace the Faerie Friend as the result of an Ordeal. Hm....

Scott

17

Curse you for making me read books again.

My opinions (keeping in mind that I'm not going to overrule a contrary consensus): A Forge-companion sure--as long as you can explain how you managed not to blow him up in the most recent disaster. A Venditor--fine in principle, but I can't see where you would have met one yet in the new location, and it might take some effort to make one useful if he's back at your old location. Are you wanting these as beginning Virtues, or something added later?

A lot of things listed a Virtues and Flaws can reasonably be added through play--Viola, for example, has what amounts to a Personal Vis Source--and I'm not sure how we should deal with these. Any ideas, anyone? Maybe they should come with accompanying Flaws, or maybe they should just take up a season of story in your past (but such a story likely got you XP's as well--in Viola's case, it took a season to investigate the vis source, a season for which she got only Exposure XP's, but that's still pretty cheap for 2-6 pawns of vis a year). Maybe we could limit such acquired Virtues, to, say, 1 point a decade, unless they're balanced by new Flaws.

As for the lab-slave...well, maybe you could convince someone to make him/her as a companion :slight_smile:. Or maybe make him as a "B-team" character, who can adventure when a story for your Verditius is stalled. It is a perq for the maga, but if you're willing to do some Beta SG'ing, I'm fine with that.

Scott

18

Oh, Source Quality....

For books, I'd say Quality 10 for Summae, or Quality 12 for Level 5 or lower, with Level 9 for Arts and Level 4 for Abilities. For Tractatus, use Quality 10, but limit yourself to two Tractatus on a given Art or Ability in a five-year period.

Teachers would depend on the Ability. How about this? Say, Com +2 and Teaching 5 for a professional, Com +1 and Teaching 3 for someone who's not really a professional teacher but is teaching a rare Ability. If you want a Teacher for any score over 5, it's going to be more difficult to find out. Note that you'll also have had to compensate the teacher in some way, depending on what you're learning and who you're learning it from, unless it's someone who would reasonably have been employed by a covenant (and that would likely cover, at most, Academic Abilities).

Scott

19

Portia Ennia filia Tacitus scholae Verditii

Daughter of a Venetian glassblower, it was no surprise to Tacitus when his young apprentice showed a great flair for glasswork. Tacitus himself is a weaponsmith and armourer of great skill; he turned his young apprentice's gift to craft labware for him, which she was more than happy to do.

Unfortunately, once Gauntleted, her cheerful demeanour and careless disregard for safety led to accident after accident. Much of the vis she made on commissions was spent on rebuilding her laboratory after experimentation disasters... twice. Both times she escaped unscathed, until most recently, when Portia's experimental disaster resulted in an explosion that caused the destruction of the entire covenant of Ingasia; the shockwave killed her apprentice, permanently damaged her hearing, and left her covered with burn scars. She was immediately assigned by Primus Stouritus himself, to the covenant of [xxx], on the very fringes of civilisation, where she could do as little harm to the House as possible.

She is embroiled in a Vendetta with Hagan of Oculus Serpentrionalis, foremost among German glassworkers, who resents the reputation of Venetian glassworkers and believes his work to be superior. No actions particularly started the vendetta; the two oppose each other simply because they are the two undisputed best at their craft, and neither has been successful at proving their work superior to the other's.

Maga Ennia prefers to be called by her birth name, Portia. She is accompanied by her best friend Galenus, a Caladrius introduced to her by Magus Aetos. Galenus' natural curiosity and compassionate nature make him the perfect match for his maga in the lab.

Age 45, Apparent Age 35, no Decrepitude
Longevity Ritual: -13
Warping: 2 (20)
Hubris: (in progress)

Characteristics:
Int +5 (brilliant) Per -3 (distracted)
Str -2 (slight build) Sta 0
Pre 0 Com +3 (amiable)
Dex +2 (craftsman's hands) Qik 0

Virtues and Flaws:
Free: The Gift, Hermetic Maga, Verditius Magic
Standard Virtues: Great Intelligence x2, Affinity & Puissant Magic Theory, Affinity & Puissant Creo, Minor Magical Focus: Glass, Inventive Genius, Good Teacher, Skilled Parens
Standard Flaws: Vendetta, Spontaneous Casting Tools, Bound Casting Tools, Proud (major), Reckless, Exciting Experimentation
Gained Virtues and Flaws: Hermetic Alchemy, Items of Quality, Philosophic Alchemy (minor), Lesser Elixir; Hubris, Poor Hearing, Disfigured

Abilities:
Speak Italian (Venezia) 5
Folk Ken (magi) 2 (15)
Charm (witticisms) 2 (15)
Guile (lying to authority) 2 (15)
Speak Latin 5 (75)
Artes Liberales (ritual magic) 3 (30)
Philosophiae (Verditius Runes) 5 (75)
Magic Theory (enchanting items) 8 (120) +2
Craft: Glassworking (lab equipment) 6 (105)
Craft: Blacksmithing (tools) 5 (75)
Teaching (apprentices) 4 (50)
Parma Magica (corpus) 4 (50)
Finesse (Terram) 3 (30)
Order of Hermes Lore (House Verditius) 2 (15)
House Verditius Lore 2 (15)

Arts
Cr 24 (200) +3, In 5 (15), Mu 5 (15), Pe 5 (15), Re 5 (15)
An 5 (15), Aq 5 (15), Au 5 (10), Co 10 (55), He 5 (15), Ig 10 (55), Im 5 (15), Me 5 (15), Te 10 (55), Vi 14 (105)

Spells
Heat of the Searing Forge, CrIg10 CT +32
Craftsman's Eye, InTe20 (senses all mundane properties of an object; used to detect craftsmanship flaws) CT +15
Laboratory of Bonisagus, CrTe35 (creates a complete laboratory with Superior Equipment, Superior Tools, and Spotless) CT +56
Laboratory of Verditius, CrTe45 (creates a complete laboratory with Flawless Equipment, Flawless Tools, and Spotless) CT +56
Glass That Breaks No More, ReTe35 (base 4, +2 Voice, +3 Moon, +2 Group/Room) Ceremonial CT +29
Ambulatory Laboratory, ReTe30 Ceremonial CT +29
Ward Against Heat and Flames, ReIg25 CT +15
Aegis of the Hearth, ReVi40 Ceremonial CT +28 (The Aegis has a Side Effect yet to be determined - either major side benefit or a minor side effect.)

Galenus, the Caladrius
Lab Total: Creo Vim 72
Gold: 4, Silver 1, Bronze 2
Int +3, Per +2, Pre +1, Com -2, Str -4, Sta +3, Dex +1, Qik +2
Athletics (flying) 3, Awareness (food) 4, Brawl (dodge) 2, Ignem Resistance (solar heat) 4, Magic Theory (enchanting items) 3 (32), Survival (wetlands) 3
Healing Gaze (CrCo40), Perceive the Afflictions of Mortal Flesh (InCo25)
During the season Portia spent improving his bond to make him impervious to fire, there was a disaster, resulting in the destruction of Ingasia, killing her apprentice and countless covenfolk. Galenus only survived due to Portia's Parma and his innate resistance to Ignem.

Talisman: Bronze Glassblower's Pipe (max capacity: 41, 5 used). Attunements: +3 Terram, +3 controlling glass
Venetian's Wrath, CrIgTe25 (creates a ball of molten glass that strikes a single target for +20 damage), 50/day, 38 Penetration. (Level 50; Lab Total 102)
(Experimentation-- No extraordinary effects or special/story event.)

20

In order to not hurt my brain too much, I just assumed vis made from making lab equipment for people, and vis she spent on enchanting her talisman and familiar, ended up as a wash.

21

That's fine with me--so she's coming in with none?

Shouldn't she have a Hubris score, or am I forgetting how that works?

Um...Warping. The magi in Magi of Hermes have an average of about 2 per year, so go with that (plus the Longevity Potion). You argue for a little more in this case--weirdly, it looks like lab explosions and covenant fires don't inflict Warping Points, but there's another result on the Disaster chart that does. Mind you, maybe she doesn't get out much, and that reduces spell-casting botches.

Did I mention your lab is in the basement? More like the sub-sub-basement.

Scott

22

A couple of things on the familiar:

I don't see any reason why you can't take "Lab Assistant" as a specialization to Magic Theory (yes, all familiars would have it--but they tend not to be very bright, and therefore need all the help they can get).

However, Int of +3 is, by the RAW, very, very high. Most magical animals have Cunning rather than Int, and therefore have Int -3 after being bonded. There are going to be some magical animals with Int, even positive Int, but it's hard to justify +3. Even for, say, Int 0, there should be a cost of some sort; for +3, the cost would have to be very high (since a familiar with Int +3 is like a normal familiar who's already earned 105 XP's in Magic Theory, and can furthermore still improve his MT score easily).

Also, note that Warping doesn't generally produce something you'd want as a familiar (see pg. 79 of RoP: Magic), so you might want to change Sunshine's backstory.

This is a really good example of why I think familiars are one of the few places were we really need house rules. The current guidelines are very loose. We know that most animals have Cunning, but also that some have Int. This implies that most familiars should have Int -3, while a few have Int much higher, but what's a fair way to determine which potential familiar has Int and which has Cunning? Hm...maybe there could be a little points system for choosing familiars that balances good and bad things (Int, relative independence, Might [as a proxy for overall power level], how easily the familiar can travel in mundane society, etc.). It wouldn't so much change the RAW, as provide a supplement to it.

Scott

23

All primates possess intelligence above and beyond the level of other animalia, and langur monkeys are particularly known for their intelligence even among the catarrhines.

Most primates and a few species of psittaciform should default use Intelligence rather than Cunning, IMO, as a biologist. (Granted, I'm a microbiologist, so take that with a pillar of salt :p)

24

OK, you can teach chimps sign language, so maybe they should have Int -3 or so, and your monkey is no chimp. That would still leave them with negative intelligence after bonding.

However, later today let me post my proposed list of positive and negative familiar traits. It would be a way to let you have higher Int if you want, as long as you balance it with something else.

Scott

25

Can I ask Portia to brew me a longevity ritual in exchange for a +2 An lab item?

26

You sure you want to ask someone who's guaranteed to experiment on your longevity ritual? :slight_smile:

27

Well, someone could always rebrew it without the flaws couldn't they?
Btw, in the long run - after a few seasons of gaming - Aetos might be able to increase a familiar's intelligence as well, but only if it is a bird (CrAn ritual).

28

Another character idea I had was for a Bonisagus trying to invent a way to instill the equivalent of a longevity ritual into a familiar bond (beyond just the standard bronze cord bonuses). Experimenting repeatedly on his own familiar, offering people cheap longevity potions if they let him experiment...

29

You might be able to do that down the road, once you've figured out the system better. I have said you could make two characters, after all.

Scott

30

To add some more to the magical animal/familiars debate:

The white wolves of Tremere are statted up in True Lineages as:

"Magic Might 10 (animal)
Characteristics: Int +1, Per +3, Pre +1. Com +1, Str +2, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik +2
Size: 1
Age: n/a
Decreptitude: n/a
Virtues and Flaws: The Visions Virtue [sic] occurs occasionally among these wolves.
Personality Traits: Loyal +2, Amused by Humans +1
Reputations: None
Combat:
Bite: Init +12, Attack +10, Defense +14, Damage +9
Soak: +7
Fatigue: 0, -1/-1, -3/-3, -5, Unconcious
Wound Penalties -1 (1-6), -3 (7-10), -5 (11-13), Incapacitated (15-18)
Abilities: [Area] Lore 6 (Pack Land), Brawl 3 (bite), Folk Ken 3 (Tremere magi), Hunt 6 (in a pack), Latin* 3 (hermetic terms), Stealth 3 (forests), Swim 1 (lakes), Survival 6 (forests)
*Cannot speak Latin without magical assistance, but some packs are trained to understand it by familiars which can.

Powers:
Theft of Voice, 1 point, Init +10, Mentem: the wolf can steal the voice of any human with whom it makes eye contact. The effect usually lasts until the next sunrise, although some individual wolves have variant powers, so that the effect ceases when crossing a stream, or entering a church, or by firelight.
Eyes like lanterns, 5 points, Init +5, Mentem: the wolf can paralyse a victim with terror. This requires the wolf to make eye contact, and the victim to fail a brave check with an ease factor of 9+. A victim who makes eye contact with several wolves may need to make several checks. The victim may make a new check each round if attacked, with an ease factor of 6+, so wolves tend to form a circle about a mesmerised victim and all pounce at the same time. Slapping or shaking the victim also allows a check, against an ease factor of 6+.

Equipment: None
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Vis: 1 pawn Animal, tail
Appearence: large wolf, white to gray in colour, that looks amused.

White wolves are far larger than normal wolves, and are extremely intelligent. Over the centuries, their human allies have assisted the wolves to modify their pack lands. These reserves about the Tremere House covenants are more confusing than natural forest, and often contain runs, pits, and enchated items that the wolves can activate."

Obviously, this was created before the rules in RoP: Magic (or even in HoH: MC) were written, and the characteristics are quite nice but qualities/inferiorities are non-existent (if occasionally implied, i.e. powers). I can take this several ways:
[]Keep the book stats, and just add custom virtues and flaws.
[]Keep the book stats, but add qualities/inferiorities (including where implied by the build) as well as virtues and flaws.
[*]Completely redevelop based on the RoP: M, but following a similar general theme.

I'm inclined towards the first option, but what does the troupe think?

One possible approach to the "how does your familiar advance" issue would be to say that there are fundementally two types of magical animal. One doesn't age (without explicit flaws), but needs to consume vis in order to advance. The other ages and dies as normal (although possibly a bit more slowly), but can advance using standard rules. Might also want to limit the qualities the second group can have; e.g. say that they can only have minor qualities. That should give at least a little bit of a reason a magi might want a creature in the first group. The first group tends to be animals who happen to be magical, whilst the second are magical beings who happen to have the shape of an animal. Most magi's familiars come from the first group, as they usually have more reason to want to bind themselves to a mage.

Admittedly, that doesn't even attempt to address the main intelligence vs cunning issue.

31

Aetos ex Bjornaer, second draft, at 35 (12pg)

Concept: a magus who lives for and with birds
(ideas: Tolkien’s Radagast, Hitchcock, St. Francis)

Int +2 Per 0 Sta +2 Str +0 Com -1 Pre +2 Dex +0 Quk -1

Virtues
Free: Hearbeast
3 Major focus birds
1 affinity animal
1 unbound tongue
1 pack leader
1 inoffensive + alluring to animals
1 Animal Ken
1 no gestures
1 sensory magic

Flaws:
3 Restriction (No bird present; assuming Heartbeast form counts as a bird present; that means in human form, magic doesn’t work unless the caster assumes bird form or can see/hear/smell another living bird with his normal human senses; magical items still work in human form).
3 Waster of Vis
1 proud
1 dutybound: Help birds in need, eat no fowl, mediate conflicts between birds when asked
1 Limited Magic Resistance: Corpus
1 story flaw: King of the birds. As a Lord of the birds, he is responsible for his vassals (the birds).

Early Childhood:
German (Bavarian) 5
Athletics (Climbing) 2
Survival (Forest) 2
Brawl (dodge) 1
Awareness (movement) 1
Swim (river) 1

Childhood (Years 6+7):
Animal Handling (birds) 2
Animal Ken (Birds) 2
Folk Ken (Hunters) 1

Apprenticeship (100 skills and 140 spells):
Latin (hermetic) 4
Magic Theory (Animal) 3
Parma Magica (Ignem) 1
House Bjornaer Lore (rituals) 1
Artes Liberales (music) 1
Magic Lore (magic animals) 1

Cr 6 Re 7 An 14 Ig 6

Spells at gauntlet:
Flock of the Ancestors CrAn 35
This spell creates 10 eagles. Aetos master told him they were his bird ancestors, but this cannot be verified since they have no memories of previous lives). Aetos believes that when the sun rises/sets or they are killed they return where they came from.
Base 10, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 group

Command the birds at hand ReAn35
When birds touch the caster, he can give them commands.
Base 15, +1 Texture, +3 Moon

Charge of the Angry Winds CrAu15
Eyes of the Cat MuCo5
Aura of Ennobled Presence MuIm10
Wizard’s Sidestep MuIm10

post gauntlet (still a mess layouting-wise)
Year 1: Reading to prepare
MT to 4 (20xp)
An to 15 (10xp)

Year 2:
Season 1: Get used to shiny new lab (sponsored by House V)
Season 2: Refine lab (gained: spotless, highly organized, infested)
Season 3: Create lab item – Golden Dove (Lesser Magical Item);
ReAn20
This golden dove is set on a pedestal in the middle of the lab. When commanded “Sing for the [insert name of the bird]”, it will start to twitter soothingly, calming the designated bird. This adds +2 to animal effects in this lab.
(Effect: Base 4, +2 Voice +0 cosmetic imaginem effect; +10 unlimited uses), 3 pawns of vis
Season 4: Attune Talisman
Exposure: MT 4(8)

Year 3:
In 4
Mu 4
Te 4

Year 4:
Season 1: Open Talisman (silver ankle ring set with a magnetite, a polished piece of basalt and the engraving of a lightning bolt); opened with 6+2 pawns of Vis; Attunement: +3 Animal
Season 2: Embed Perceive the Change (HoH: MC, 24); Attunements: Animal 3, Ignem +3; 2+1 pawns of Vis
Season 3+4: Embed “Adapt Talisman Size” (MuTe22) into Talisman
Adapts Talisman size to Eagle or human foot as needed; 3+1 pawns of Vis
(Effect level: base 1, +1 conc., +2 metal; +10 unlimited uses, +5 item maintains conc., +3 linked trigger)

Lab Total:
Mu 4 + Te 4 + MT 4 + Int 2 + Aura 5 + 4 shape and material bonus + 5 Talisman bonus + 1 Lab bonus = 29
Advancement: 29-22= 7 +2 from experimentation = 9 of 22
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2744053/
Discovery: 15xp MT, MT rises to 4(8) + 6xp (3 exposure seasons) + 15xp discovery = 5(4)
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2744053/
Season 4: 22-9-10-7 done! No special effects in this season
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2744058/
invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2744060/

Attunement for seasons 3+4: Animal 3, Ignem +3, +3 Perdo, +2 Intellego, +2 Auram
2xp Exposure: MT 5(6)

Year 5:
Reading more on Creo. Creo increases from 6 to 10: Creo 10

Year 6:
Season 1: Talisman opened for another 10 pawns of Vis; costs 13 pawns of vis
Season 2+3: Talisman Enchantment “Hot Bird Escort Service”
CrAn35;
Creates an attractive female bird that lasts as needed. Can also be used to circumvent the magus’ restriction flaw (a well-informed attacker can attack the created bird companion though).
(Effect level: Base 10, +1 Touch, +1 Conc; +10 unlimited uses, +5 item maintains conc.)
Lab total: Animal 15 + Creo 10 + Focus 10 + MT 5+1 + Int 2 +Aura 5 + lab item 2 + lab 3 = 53 +5 Talisman + 3 shape bonus
61-35 = 26 per season
3 new Talisman attunements: Animal 3, Ignem +3, +3 Perdo, +2 Intellego, +2 Auram, +10 harm lycanthropes, +1 Terram, +1 intellego
costs 5 pawns of vis
Season 4: Invents the spell “Conjure the Woollen Garb”, using a Bjornaer Labtext (I assume this spell is very common among the House)

Year 7+8: Dedicated to Bird and House Affairs (dictated by flaws)
Animal Ken from 2 to 4
Animal Handling from 2 to 3(10)

Year 9+10:
Increases by reading:
In from 4 to 10: In 10
Re from 7 to 10: Re 10

Year 11:
Season 1: Invent “Charge of the Unicorn” (CrReAn20), see spellswiki
Season 2: Invent “Speak to the distant bird’s mind” CrAn25
Allows you to say words directly inside a bird’s mind.
Base 3 (see Mentem), +4 Arcane Connection, +2 Sun
Season 3+4: Invent “Read the distant bird’s mind” InAn35
Allows a magus to read the surface thoughts of a bird he has an Arcane connection to
Base 10, +4 Arc Connection, +1 Conc
Exposure: MT 6(2)

Year 12:
Finesse (animal) 1
Parma (Ignem) from 1 to 3

This is when Aetos needs a longevity ritual.
My suggestion:
If she does that for him (he's willing to assist)
He could invent a ritual that increases an animal's intelligence to 0 in 2 seasons (CrAn35) and master it - never use a ritual that you haven't mastered!
He'd use the other season to invent bird healing spells for his winged friends and start the game at 36 (13pg).

32

I have to admit that part of the reason I took it as a major flaw was that I was struggling for major flaws to take that could be made to fit the character (although, having taken it, I'm fully prepared to play to it), and needed to take a major flaw to cope with the “no more than 5 minor flaws” rule. I'd certainly be interested in other suggestions, though.

I'll have a think about this. The "Skilled parens" Gregorius has makes me inclined towards his parens having his own sigil (but Gregorius definitely doesn't).

Alchimus won leadership of the pack after the familiar who had previously led it died. This lasted until Carolus, one of Gregorius' former fellow apprentices at the covenant of Apuseni, but who had gauntleted 3 years ahead of him, took his pack-member Ferox as his familiar 3 months ago. The Tremere-pack culture which expected any familiar in a pack to be its leader was re-inforced by the by the enhancements Carolus forged into the bond, and Alchimus was deposed. Gregorius had long been friends with Alchimus, and suggested to him that, rather than chafe under Ferox's leadership, he come with him to where he could lead his own pack again (albeit of vastly inferior wolves), and promised that he would bind him as his own familiar as soon as he was powerful enough to do so.

I'm going to say the Laquerius school: In any round, can take a Defense Total equal to or less than their Finesse score. If they land a blow that round, they may choose to inflict no damage and instead reduce their opponent's Defense total for the rest of the duel by the Defense Penalty. This penalty is visible in the shared illusion as a tether marked by the sigil of the laquerius.

"Doctrinae Tremendi" is me pinching the genitive of Tremere from durenmar.de/articles/naming.html . I hope it's right. My knowledge of Latin is about 1, specialised in the current location of domestic servants. Re-reading the Tremere chapter, I think that I was slightly mis-using "Tremere doctrine"; it's specifically the way they make war, rather than a general philosophy : co-ordinated groups of soldiers, using tested equipment and methods, travelling carrying their own gear and reasonably capable in swimming, hiking and repairing their own equipment. The basic intent, though, is that he genuinely thinks the order would be better if it was more like the Tremere, and will try to work to make it so.

General plans for the future of this character are increasing Rego Mentem and Magic Theory (will need to be 6 due to the Waster of Vis flaw) level to the point where he can bind Alcimus, increasing corpus (eventually up to the level he can use things like Seven League Stride), picking up some of the higher level tracking spells and probably learning some Animal and Perdo Imaginem. Also, Parma.

33

I think I'll start with a small amount from distilling. (Philosophic Alchemy is bloody brilliant!)

Oh yes. I just haven't gotten to calculating it yet.

Don't be a wimp. :wink: