Character Development

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Base Camp
422

I didn't do it in detail, I just averaged the 10 source quality and tacked on seasons at the end for the familiar, seasons spent teaching and writing, and something else, I forget what. And the hubris, honestly I just picked a number out of my arse.

Just moved the brunt of my stuff into the new place, it's all in boxes in the garage still but it's MOVED! Internet is all hooked up (and is WAY faster!). Woo!

Flux, here in California, running water smells like nothing other than maybe a hint of rusty pipes. ...I like your way better.

423

I do like the character, for sure. It does though seem like he shouldn't come without complications. I'd say Favors or Dependent but you already have a Story Flaw (Rodrigo as a Dependent)--but in any case, if he's in your backstory, I may use him as a story hook.

Scott

424

You need a Reputation or two--esp. after blowing up a few labs.

Good. :slight_smile:

Scott

425

The business idea is fine as long as it provides basically pocket change. I just wasn't clear from the description exactly how lucrative it was.

Scott

426

I've posted a link to a document on the Bright Ones, Viola's mystery cult, in the same post as her character sheet. I've also added a post to House Rules with two Major Hermetic Virtues associated with that cult, Innate Spontaneous Magic and Potent Spontaneous magic (Viola was born with the former, and initiated into the latter), the two of which, combined, give that same abilities Diedne Magic.

I've also added a new Flaw, Extra Sleep, that I want to use for a magic cat I'm working on. Have a look at it, and let me know if any changes are necessary (in its main effect, it's similar to Poor).

Scott

427

OK, I'm not completely sure this is the final form I want, and I'm concerned about the abuse of Restricted Power (see my post in the Ars Magica forum), but here's a companion I've been making. Next I intend to make her somewhat less powerful (but not quite down to grog level) kitten. I still have to figure out how to calculate stats for different animal and human shapes (the stock rules in Mystery Cults work only for going from human to animal form).

Scott

The Cat (aka the Black Cat)

The Covenant of Andorra, like any sizeable human settlement, has many cats, but the covenfolk referred to one cat in particular as “the black cat”, or simply, “the cat”. Several of the older people insist they knew her when they were children, which would make her a very, very long-lived cat, hence suggesting a magical nature. There are even rumors that she’s the covenant’s original cat, having been brought here as a kitten in 807 when the covenant was founded—that would make most of the other cats her descendants.

The covenfolk also insisted that there was something just not quite right about this cat, that odd things seemed to happen when she was around, and that she’d occasionally been seen in some unlikely locations within the covenant. However, no one actually remembered her ever doing anything untoward.

Alas, shortly after acquiring the ability to shapeshift into human form, the Cat came into conflict with one of the covenant’s magi. Hence, when Viola left Andorra, she took the Cat and her most precocious kitten with her.

Species: Cat

Age: 419 years (appears as an adult in the prime of life, meaning late 20’s in human form)
Season: Summer
Decrepitude: N/A (Immortal)
Size: -3
Magic Might: 13 (Animal)
Confidence: 1 (3)

Intelligence: +2 Perception: +4
Communication: -3 Presence: -2
Strength: -6 Stamina: +1
Dexterity: +3 Quickness: +5

Virtues: Magic Animal; Arcane Lore, Gossip, Great Perception, Improved Characteristics, Perfect Balance (+6 to avoid tripping or falling), Puissant Awareness (+2 to Awareness), Sharp Ears (+3 to hearing), Personal Vis Source (hairballs, Animal), Piercing Gaze, Second Sight

Flaws: Covenant Upbringing, Dependents (kittens), Environmental Sensitivity (loud noises), Extra Sleep*, Magical Friend, Nocturnal (-1 to all rolls from dawn to noon)

Qualities: Ambush Predator, Crafty, Good Jumper (+3 to jumping), Skilled Climber (+3 to climbing), Thick Fur

Magic Qualities: Improved Abilities (x3), Improved Powers, Lesser Power (x6), Major Virtue: Shapeshifter

Magic Inferiorities: Minor Flaw: Restricted Power (Feigned Innocence), Minor Flaw: Restricted Power (Solace), Susceptible to Deprivation

Personality Traits: Cat +3*, Curious +4, Timid +2, Vain +3

Ability Specialty Score XP Notes

Covenant of Andorra Lore animals 5 75
Athletics jumping 3 30
Awareness at night 5+2 75
Brawl claws 2 15
Concentration shapeshifting 2 15
Folk Ken covenfolk 2 15
Hunt mice 4 50
Intrigue gossip 1 5
Catalan Andorran 3 30
Order of Hermes Lore personalities 1 5
Stealth stalking 4 50
Teaching kittens 3 30

Latin Hermetic 3 35

Finesse aesthetics 3 30
Magic Lore creatures 2 15
Penetration Animal 1 5

Second Sight invisibility 3 30
Shapeshifter goshawk 3 30 goshawk, Montpellier snake,
human

Powers

Clothes Make the Woman (Lesser), 3 points, Init. –7 (CrAn30, R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Group; garbs the Cat in an article of clothing made from animal products, with the quality of the clothing depending on a Finesse roll; -3 Might; total 45)
Feigned Innocence (Lesser), 3 points, Init. -5 (PeMe25, R: Eye, D: Mom., T: Group; causes a group of people to forget something the Cat did; -2 Might; total 35; Restricted Power [must roll on back and purr])
Moving Objects with the Mind (Lesser), 1 point, Init. +1 (ReTe10, R: Sight, D: Conc., T: Ind.; moves an inanimate object, with maximum size depending on type of material; -1 Might; total 15)
Oops (Lesser), 0 points, Init. +8 (ReCo[An]10, R: Sight, D: Mom, T: Ind; the target loses control of both feet, causing him to fall over; -2 Might, +7 Init.; Total 30 + 5 points of Improved Powers)
Shadow (Personal), 1 point, Init. +1 (MuAn[Ig]35, R: Per., D: Sun [ended at will], T: Ind.; transforms the Cat into a shadow, in which form she can move along any surface; -3 Might; total 50)
Solace (Lesser), 5 points, Init. -5 (Re[Cr]Me[An]25, R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind; calms and reassures the target; being curled up in the target’s lap is also an excellent opportunity to rest in order to recover part of the Might points spent; total 25; Restricted Power [must curl up in target’s lap])
[

Weapon Init. Atk. Dfn. Dam. Str. Load

Claws 0 +4 +6 +3 n/a n/a
Teeth +1 +5 +4 +2 n/a n/a
Dodge +5 n/a +9 n/a n/a n/a

Soak: +1

Fatigue Levels: Fresh / Winded / Weary (-1) / Tired (-3 ) / Dazed (-5) / Unconscious

Wounds: 2 points per increment

*New Flaw

Extra Sleep

Major, General

The character requires twice the normal amount of sleep. This may restrict her activities, such as travel, and reduces her number of free seasons a year by one.

428

Sorry. I fell a little behind. A quick question for everyone:

In character development I've assumed I can cast a mastered formulaic spell and another paired with it (not mastered but cast safely a while after) at most once each in an hour to craft armor. I'm doing once an hour because I figure I need some time between attempts to change around what I was doing. I figure I can do this 50 times in a season fairly easily, either with 5 free days within the season or roughly once every other day in the evening. I will finish when I am content that the armor is really spectacular and I'm not likely to be able to do better without excessive labor. (Technically, I could without excessive labor, but the idea is to be content.) Does this seem reasonable? By the rules I could do this a ridiculous number of times in a day, but that feels wrong. I've got something that can be totally broken so I'm trying to rein it in based on practicality and reason. I figure my punishment is that I've had to go through sets of 50 rolls per season by hand to check for 1's. Ugh!

Here's my revised starting stuff (at gauntlet), based on earlier comments:

Int +2, Per +2+1=+3, Str -3, Sta +1, Pre +2, Com +2, Dex 0, Qui 0

Virtues
Book Learner
Cautious with Finesse
Faerie Blood: Padfoot
Faerie Speech
Faerie Sympathy: Protection
Gentle Gift
Hermetic Prestige
Minor Magical Focus: Terram Magic Might Beings
Venus’s Blessing

Flaws
Busybody
Cabal Legacy: Terrae Cult
Optimistic (major)
Study Requirement
Small frame
Traditional Ward: Iron

Abilities
Artes Liberales (Ceremonial Casting) 2 [15]
Athletics (Dance) 1 [5]
Awareness (Searching) 1 [5]
Brawl (Dodging) 1 [5]
Charm (Seduction) 1 [5]
Code of Hermes (Precedents) 1 [5]
Craft: Bronzeworker (Household Items) 2 [15]
Craft: Clothier (Gowns) 1 [5]
Etiquette (Order of Hermes) 1 [5]
Folk Ken (Men) 2 [15]
Guile (Feigning Ignorance) 1 [5]
Intrigue (Gossip) 1 [5]
Living Language: Greek (Native) 5 [75+0=75]
Living Language: Latin (Reading) 3 [30]
Magic Theory (MM-Terram Beings) 5 [75]
Mystery Cult Lore: Terrae Cult (Initiating Others) 1 [5]
Organization Lore: Order of Hermes (House Guernicas) 1 [5]
Parma Magica (Certamen) 1 [5]
Philosophiae (Ceremonial Casting) 1 [5]
Spell Mastery: The Phantom Bronzeworker (Precise Casting) 1 [5] – Precise Casting x2
Spell Mastery: Wizard’s Leap (Safety) 1 [5] – Fast Casting
Stealth (Urban Areas) 1 [5]
Swim (Staying Afloat) 1 [5]

Arts
Intellego 5 [15]
Rego 10 [55]

Other (Raised as Abilities, but not Abilities)
Faerie Speech 5 [5+70=75]
Faerie Sympathy: Protection 1 [5+0=5]

Spells
Whispering Winds [InAu15]
Whispers Through the Black Gate [InCo(Me)15]
Wizard’s Leap [ReCo15]
The Call to Slumber [ReMe10]
Aura of Rightful Authority [ReMe20]
Swords to Ploughshares [ReTe10] <- I changed this to Range: Touch and added a magnitude for complexity from the earlier description
The Phantom Bronzeworker [ReTe20]
Demon’s Eternal Oblivion [PeVi10]
(5 levels left)

Familiar (obtained later)
Spirit of Terram: vrahos (sounds: vrah-hoss; spelled: βράχος)
Magic Might 3 (Terram)
Int 0, Per +2, Str +1, Sta +2, Per 0, Com 0, Dex 0, Qui 0
Qualities / Inferiorities / Virtues / Flaws:
Improved Powers x2 (-3 to Sight without Sight cost, the rest in Concentration/Finesse/Penetration)
Magic Spirit -> effectively has No Fatigue & Magical Air
Minor Power: Telekinesis w/ Rocks (don't fret the details, it's being upgraded)
Personal Power: Sight without Sight [4-1-3=0 points, constant, Imaginem]
Limited Movement
Personality: Rock Spirit +3*, Steadfast +1
Abilities: Awareness (Rocks/Stones) 1 [15], Concentration (Telekinesis) 1 [30] Finesse (Telekinesis) 7 [145], Penetration (Telekinesis) 1 [15]

Sight without Sight
R: Per, D: constant, T: Vision
This allows the spirit to see anything nearby even if blocked from direct sight, such as by a pile of rocks on top of it. Essentially built as seeing from the perspective of what it can see.
InIm20 (base 1, +2 Sun, +4 Vision, +1 constant)

Chris

429

With regards to restricted powers, my suggestion is that they're limited to powers stemming from a major quality, or at least multiple minor ones. Otherwise, as you note, it's theoretically possible to build a character with an infinite number of minor powers.

430

This is to create the bronze armour? If you're spending your season trying to make crafted armour rather than studying (maybe more spell mastery?), that seems reasonable to me, with the inclusion of the cap on absolutely stupid levels you'd previously had.

Sorry not to spot this before: a Code of Hermes score of 1 seems a bit low for a Quaesitor, even a hoplite at gauntlet - I'd expect pretty much every mage who isn't some Ex-Misc hedgie to have this level of knowledge.

431

Arya,

I'm probably being dense here, but how are you getting your lab total of 72 for familiar bond of the Caladrius on Portia's sheet in the Magi thread? I make it at most (if you bound/rebound it right before entering play):

27 (Creo) + 12 (vim) + 5 (Int) + 10 (MT) + 5 (Aura) = 59

Am I missing something (bearing in mind that Verditius mysteries don't affect familiars)?

432

Yes, this is to create my bronze armor. I could devote a few seasons to it. A season is roughly 90 days. That would give me roughly 900 attempts. Drop that a little for distractions (using the 15-day estimate), so perhaps 750 attempts per season. OK, let's see... Part way into my 3rd season of crafting I hit a point I'm happy with: Excellent+4 with a roll of 2x2x2x10+3(Per)+3(Finesse, might be 4)+8(Sympathy)+3(related knowledge) vs. 15+3x3(Excellent+4)+3(Finesse penalty)+1(aura) -> 97 vs. 28. Yes, without the cap that would have been Excellent+27, as mentioned before; that would have been really gross. But with the cap I can't pass +4. So, 3 seasons of crafting. I'll put that into the seasons.

I'll drop Swim and Philosophiae to add 10 points to Code of Hermes.

Chris

433

I don't know the specifics of the case. How about a laboratory bonus? Also, you can easily use non-standard lab procedures to add a point, maybe two. If you want to go far, which is possible, you get extra aging rolls.

Chris

434

Initial idea for a failed apprentice companion character:

Winfreda was apprenticed to the Trianoma magus Aulus Germanicus at the tender age of 7, and spent two years as his apprentice. Then one morning, she woke up to find she had no memory of the previous day - and no Gift. Aulus told her that she had horrifically failed at casting a mentem spell, but offered to continue to support and look after her, even if she could no longer learn to be a maga. Shortly afterwards, he took from the Verditius weaponsmith Tacitus a replacement apprentice named Portia.

Portia was miserable and angry at Aulus for taking her from her parens; Winfreda was miserable and angry at herself for ruining her life. They couldn't be said to have had a happy friendship, but even given the age difference a certain bond grew between them. Then Portia gauntleted, and Winfreda heard only occasional reports of her through the Hermetic news (gossip) chains, surely greatly exaggerated.

Then, one day (shortly before she appears in play), she had a strange fae visitor. It told her that she had not destroyed her own Gift; instead Aulus had included it as part of a bargain in return for the being granting the Gift to his own son. But now, Aulus had broken another part of the bargain, and it would give her the opportunity to regain her Gift - for a price. Consider it. Then, suddenly, it had left.

Panicked and horrified, she left in the middle of the night, running to Portia for protection and distance from her former pater.

Obviously, this would be intended as a lab assistant for Portia, although she won't want to be spending all of her time in the lab by any means, and with a Trianoma rather than Bonisagus pater she wouldn't be more than moderately optimised for it. Stats wise, I was planning to pick up a fair amount of stuff applicable to Trianomae. One problem I am having is making a Greater Immunity to Fire fit into the concept - if I/someone else doesn't come up with a bright idea, I'll drop it. Given she's going to be new to helping Portia, she doesn't need it to explain how's she's survived this long so far (although it might enhance her future life expectancy).

Blatently, she's going to have the Plagued by Supernatural Entity flaw. I've been thinking about the realm a bit. Divine is right out. I'm not sure the extent to which a magic creature or a faerie would have the power to fulfil the bargain; ritual powers can explicitly have effects that break hermetic limits, there's an example of a faery in The Lion and the Lilly (Candidus, pg 90) which may automatically have the power to fulfil any bargain it makes, and of course faeries love to bargain. However, I'm not sure whether faeries creating a magical Gift works. Demons could almost certainly fulfil the bargain via the False Gift; if it was a demon, though, it's not admitting it to either her or Aulus.

(I've discussed the rough outline of this idea with Arya over PM already, to get it to fit in with Portia's backstory.)

435

Experimentation. I don't know where the scrap of paper is that I wrote it all down on, I haven't unpacked much. But in addition to the experimentation die and the extra risk modifier from original research, there's also +2 lab general quality and +6 from Inventive Genius.

It should be 2 lower now because in modifying the character afterwards I dropped Vim from 14 to 12.

436

OK, I can work with that.

Scott

437

Any thoughts on the cat, by the way?

Scott

438

Do you get an attunement bonus from the season you use to bond with a talisman? I know you get one for each season later, but I don't think you get one for that first season. But I may be reading it incorrectly.

Chris

439

Yes, it says explicitly that you get one.

Scott

440

I believe you, but I still can't find it. Anyway, I know now. If you know where that line is, I'd love to know.

Chris

441

Right, I was being dense.