Not to be pedantic, but the official ArM for a campaign is "saga". 
Although I haven't examined the character in great detail, I don't see any of the obvious "red flags" that would concern me.
We do already have a companion-level warrior as an NPC. What different role would you Varangian fill?
Scott
Nope, that's fine, if we already have a Companion warrior then I don't want to make too much overlap in roles.
I haven't had another idea pop into my head yet. I'll keep reading the story posts and thinking about what might be an entertaining addition.
Are you THE Jesse Heining?
The one who ruined Mage? Yes, that's me.
@MTKnife because 2 of my questions never got answered, you apparently got a other Merinata now, I have connection problems with this forum recently and Salutor apparently is against me joining I decided to not join.
[spoiler]Sorry Salutor if I missinterpret your critic at my character but 1. you telling me I'm not allowed to take a lost of 15 exp because its against the rules then 2nd you told me A flaw where the rulebooks tell me I should take it because of the apparence of the character is wrong because it might be actual no flaw and last you even told me a minor covenant Hook is only there for 1 character. Beside that you even told me that I have to take the Cabal Legacy Flaw where the actual flaw is that it is public known that the character is part of the specific MC … and this for a MC that nearly no one know that it is exist and even less people know a members of it.[/spoiler]
Just working on character stuff, I think I like the Gurnicus better as a Path of Strife Criamon. Same basic back story, really bad guy parens, whole education focused on violently casting spells, joined Criamon to avoid the homelessness clause, fully joined because the 'Zen' life helped him stay in control of himself, joined Path of Strife since he already saw himself as too deeply flawed to escape circular time. Moved out here to further remove himself from the world but uses a 1 league teleport spell to travel West more often than he likes.
If the table is violently against the core concept my other concepts are still on the table.
Is Lesser Malediction (Nameless) viable? I like the concept of someone who gave up their name in an initiation. It being a flaw means that not only does he not have a name, he can't be given a name, so nick names and such don't stick or people forget. I think this might be more viable at a table than on a forum, I assume everyone would just call him the Criamon at that point.
What disadvantages does not having a name present?
I suppose it would mostly be a social inconvenience. I'm john, that's joe, and this... this is a person.
Also he can't have a passport or any kind of identification. Which would make living in the more civilized places in Europe inconvenient.
It seems valid to me;
Compulsion (doesn't recognize names applying to him) seems like a valid personality flaw, and No one can remember my name seems like a pretty weak but ok story flaw.
Putting together two otherwise a bit weak flaws seemed legit.
Consider I could not have sex or have a Familiar already picked out for the same cost.
EDIT: I checked after posting but Passports do apparently exist at the time, they weren't as consistent as ours are today and were usually just for foreigners visiting a city or (appropriately) a port.
I like it and its no more or less powerful than many -1 flaws. I wasn't asking to say no, I just don't yet understand . I like the supernatural aspect that something has altered the character's essential nature.
The bit I don't like is where your chosen flaw dictates how other characters in the setting have to behave toward you, as in "No one can remember my name". That said, I'm ok with it - it's certainly unique and I can't think of a huge downside.
There is probably a bunch of ramifications like record keeping and such that it impacts which is good. One advantage is that your truename cannot be used in ACs. A downside perhaps lacking a name might have ramifications for memberships in covenants and some institutions.
Apologies, I did misunderstand what you meant. (And hey - the misunderstanding version would have fit perfectly well into the Bibracte setting, where evil quaesitors trying to take over the Order were actually a thing, for all that it wouldn't have gone down well at the covenant itself).
We set up the House rule before the Rules were clarified that familiars do gain xp without a penalty for Might as per humans, but I think it makes sense to keep the House Rule for consistency now it's in place (given there are previous familiars statted under it). That said, I think the transformation rules are applicable either way (but note the increase in xp cost for Transformation under the House Rules, so you'll have to dump quite a lot of time and vis into transformation).
Yes, subject to negotitation about quite how far down for how old, and which mysteries were available to them - so a Criamon a few steps down a path would be fine, a character in a custom mystery cult which immediately initiated all new joiners into Philosophic Alchemy (to pick a relatively extreme, but not entirely implausible-that-someone-might-want example) would be pushing it more.
I think it does work better as a Criamon - removes the concerns I had about whether the quaesitors would want someone with that background with their responsibilities, and if they did, whether they'd post them away from their oversight, and does seem to fit the Path of Strife quite well. I've nothing fundamentally against the idea of someone having been initially trained as an assassin - there are just particular groups it doesn't fit.
That's just crying out for Mistaken Identity as a story flaw.
I still need to go through and check things like the combat and casting totals, which I'm unlikely to manage before the weekend. I wouldn't expect that to lead to more than minor tweaks, however.
Did we ever finalise the Arrow-Boom point?
Other than those (and the fact that it's ultimately up to MTKnife to give the final thumbs-up), I think she's pretty much there.
Thinking about it more - have you considered the minor Virtue "Indescribable Face" from "Between Sand and Sea" (pg 52)? If you don't have that book - it comes in two variants. In one, you're just really forgettable, and no-one remembers what you look like without long association. In the other, you use a really memorable prop, and all most people can remember about you is your bizarre hat (say) - which you then stop wearing or swap out with another prop when you no longer want to be associated with it.
Seems to me like the combination of being a trained assassin and metaphysically not having a name is kind of a big advantage.
"We think the killer was... um... someone."
Since someone else switched to playing a Criamon, I'll throw away Albus and come up with something else.
Don't feel you have to do that if you don't want to - there's no reason we can't have multiple characters from the same house, and they seem pretty different from each other.
Makes me think of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber trained Quaesitors canonically used in the Schism war, lol.
ok, But Transformation rules are kinda bork if you can produce Vis as a seasonal activity. +50XP is one of the lesser qualities. So is a Minor Virtue, like Personnal Vis Source.
The third step (of 5) on the Path of Strife is the cool one (push and pull things away from you). I keep thinking there was a note in either Mysteries revised or HoH:MC that says you can reasonably do an initiation step every 3 years, it may have been 5. I know it takes a seasonal activity per HoH:MC (I read it today again trying to find the other passage). Do I get Adventure XP for that season?
In this case are you lot ok with an unconventional point distribution coming from apprenticeship? Latin was kept from him and the other apprentices so they were dependent on Latvian books their master supplied. Similarly with Magic theory so they couldn't invent spells (the bad master must have had other lab assistants). Arts low, supporting abilities high, because the 'apprentices'were only given a narrow selection of books and otherwise 'practiced' by slinging spells at eachother to get access to better food and books.
He would be past that by the time he joined the covenant (lots of reading and a kindly Criamon to teach Latin). But the book says you need specific stats to be a magus, which is false since hedges are allowed into ex misc without any more latin than what it takes to speak the oath and a Magic Theory of 0.
It doesn't actually matter what order everything comes in, he just has worse spells the way I did it. Lots of level 5-15 spells for getting past MR and mastering for fast/multi-casting.
Lesser Malediction is supposed to roughly replicate a Minor Flaw so there is another one it touches on.
Not having a name available to use as an Arcane Connection is a benefit, but flaws are allowed to have benefits so long as they are making your life harder in general.
So, how old is acceptable? I have him built up to age 28 (as far as I got by 4 when I left work). 35-40 is where I think I'd be happy with him and still have places to go and it seems reasonable for him to be at the 3rd station of his path by then. I can share the google sheet to someone via PM so you can see where I'm at.
Your post-apprenticeship rules, How many seasons is it reasonable to have a teacher 16xp is much better than 14xp for a Teacher Vs. a Summa.
That whole book sentence is confusing, It's you have a Q14 L5 and a Q10 L9 Summa for every Art and a Q14 L3 and a Q10 L4 Summa for every Ability?
Ya, Jesse having two Criamon of wildly differing world views will be fun, I'll brutally disassemble anyone who messes with you while your back is turned!
If you really want two Criamon, then all right... though Albus would think that stabbing people is pretty unapt livin'.
Otherwise I have a vague notion for a Guernicus who specializes in earth and water magic, could be useful with this whole Poseidon/Neptune thing. Or the previously-mentioned Tremere interested in the necropolis.
That is basically the point of Path of Strife.
I didn't really want it to be that much of a boon (I might make a Grey Man companion now though...). He just doesn't have a name, You remember what he looks like (shirtless, tattoos all over his body, covered in blood, beating down dragons with his bare hands), You remember what he did. But he never gave a name and no nick names seem to stick. You have to go "Hey you" every time you want his attention and he is always "and the rest" on our Gilligan's island.
Theoretically you could write down a name for him but he wouldn't answer to it and you would see it in the rolls and probably not put a face to the name.
Albus doesn't think that the Path of Strife is apt, though - "It would be immoral for me to kill, so I'll just get someone else to do it" is an immoral dodge, as far as he's concerned.
Incidentally, he also thinks that murdering the Primus is inapt.
That does, of course, open up the kind of amusing story discourse of characters who disagree on the means to their ends, as seen in dramatic television all the time ("You killed him for me? Why would you think I would want that?").
Adauli,
I missed your questions because I've got four people making characters in the same thread, and, while I try to post every night, I don't have a great deal of time in which to do it, which means I have to rush sometimes.
Could you please point me to your two questions? If not, that's OK, but I'm sorry to see you leave.
Scott