Character sheets

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Ad fons (at the spring)
41

Yes, I summed abilities and arts XPs with spell levels, but the maths are right. My 90 is the 60 abilities + 30 spells, just as the hermetic apprenticeship 360 is in fact 240 abilities + 120 spells.

The 150 is for the 5 post-apprenticeship years, not spells

So the 660 is actually 510 abilities + minimum of 150 spells (120 base + 30 skilled parens). His spell levels are ok (IIRC, he's at 155), he's just got a problem with abilities and arts XP.

Falls, if I were you, I'd just give him 5 more years pre-apprenticeship (final age 31), this'd give you 8 more XP to spend and that's all. Waaaay easier than redoing things.

42

This post will be used for my regularly updated character sheet, so I've pruned it a bit.

Krispin ex Miscellanea
Male, Size 0
Age: 32

Krispin has a slight frame, a reasonably well-kept brown beard, and kind gray eyes. He wears a simple brown or gray robe with no outer markings, a well-made belt with pouches for herbs and tools, and carries a large walking staff. The son of a Flemish apothecary, he was frequently prone to strange, often symbolic visions, which interfered with his father's training and generally made him a nuisance. His parens took him first out of compassion for his situation but then trained Krispin as a healer and root-cutter when his distaste for violence became apparent. As Krispin's power matured the visions diminished gradually, though they still manifest from time to time. His Gentle Gift and desire to heal (using herbal remedies and mundane skill, primarily) made him popular among the covenfolk during his later apprenticeship as his skills grew.

Wizard's Sigil: The scent of herbs, which varies as appropriate to the spell. Lavender often figures prominently.

Personality Traits: Compassionate +3, Friendly +2, Pacifistic +2, Fastidious +2
Reputations: Hedge Wizard 3

Characteristics:
Int: +3, Per +1, Str -2, Sta +2, Pre 0, Com +1, Dex 0, Qik -1

Virtues and Flaws
Virtues:+0 Gifted Hermetic Magus, +0 Mythic Herbalism, +0 Root-Cutter, +1 Minor Magical Focus (Healing), +3 Gentle Gift, +1 Affinity with Mythic Herbalism, +1 Enduring Magic, +1 Skilled Parens, +1 Life Boost, +1 Affinity with Corpus, +1 Deft Corpus.

Flaws:-0 Deficient Perdo, -3 Restriction (in a place where there are no plants or plant materials), -3 Compassionate, -1 Soft-Hearted, -1 Ability Block (Martial skills), -1 Hedge Wizard, -1 Visions

Abilities
General Abilities (specialization) XP / score
Area Lore - Ad Fons (personalities) 2/0
Awareness (alertness) 15 / 2
Animal Handling (horses) 5 / 1
Charm (first impressions) 5 / 1
Chirurgy (setting bones) 30 / 3
Concentration (reading) 15 / 2
Folk Ken (magi) 15 / 2
Low German - Flemish (storytelling) 75 / 5
Order of Hermes Lore (personalities) 5 / 1
Profession (Apothecary) (finding ingredients) 30 / 3
Profession (Scribe) (copywork) 5 / 1
Ride (keeping calm) 2 / 0
Stealth (natural areas) 5/1
Survival (winter) 15 / 2

Academic Abilities (specialization) XP / score
Artes Liberales (ritual magic) 5 / 1
Latin (Hermetic usage) 50 / 4
Medicine (physician) 5 / 1

Arcane Abilities (specialization) XP / score
Finesse (Herbam) 5 / 1
Magic Lore (traditions) 5 / 1
Magic Theory (Corpus) 31 / 3
Parma Magica (Corpus) 15 / 2
Penetration (Creo) 5 / 1
Total: 60

Supernatural Abilities (specialization) XP / score
Mythic Herbalism (healing wounds) (5 + (68 x 1.5)= 107) / 6

Magical Arts XP / score
Cr 55 / 10
In 45 / 9
Mu 21 / 6
Re 15 / 5

An 10 / 4
Co (43x1.5) / 10
He 30 / 7
Im 3/2
Me 21 / 6

Spellbook TeFoLevel (Casting Score, not including Aura)
Whispering Winds InAu15 (+11)
Bind Wound, CrCo10 (+32)
The Chirurgeon’s Healing Touch (as ArM5 p.129, but heals Medium Wounds) CrCo25 (+32)
Restoration of the Defiled Body CrCo25 (+32)
Gentle Touch of the Purified Body (as ArM5 p.129, but heals Medium Wounds caused by disease or poison) CrCo25 (+32)
Restoration of the Mangled Body CrCo25 (+32)
Probe the Secrets of the Flesh (as Revealed Flaws of the Mortal Flesh, but gives any and all useful information about a body) InCo15 (+20)
The Inexorable Search InCo20 (+20)
Trap of Entwining Vines CrHe15 (+17)
Intuition of the Forest InHe10 (+16)
Call to Slumber ReMe10 (+13)
Supple Iron and Rigid Rope MuTe5 (+6)
Wizard's Leap ReCo15 (as HoH:S p.36) (+16 - more like +12 if casting requisites are used)

Equipment
Simple gray robe, boots, walking staff, belt with pouches for herbs and the like.
Saddlebags full of stored herbs and basic posessions.
His old mare, Halfrid by name, and a mean old mule he spends more time fighting/cajoling than getting useful work out of.
A slightly ostentatious gold torque embedded with a sapphire (kept in sanctum, for now)

43

Wasn't that MuTe10?

44

Probably, yes.

Fury is right about Supple Iron and Rigid Rope being MuTe10. Maybe you could downgrade one of your boosted healing spells?

Oh, and about this:
Mythic Herbalism (healing wounds) (5 + (68 x 1.5)= 107) / 6
67*1.5 = 100.5 + 5 = 105 / 6. Saves you 1 XP :wink:

45

Otherwise, everything's fine :smiley:

46

Not to split hairs but do remember, Fixer, that affinities round upwards not downwards so 67*1.5=101 (100.5 rounded up) + 5 = 106/6 (for the same 1xp savings) :wink:

47

I'll do without the 1 exp savings :wink:. I've been known to boldly split hairs (or infinitives, on occasion), but I don't mind doing without :stuck_out_tongue:. Also (apparently I forgot to note this on my final draft) that version of Supple Iron Rigid Rope has D:Diam, which I trust makes all right in the world again. That spell, with those parameters, is sort of a good luck charm for me :wink:.

48

You might find xp a more precious commodity than vis so dont knock a 1 xp savings when you can get it. :wink:

Just toss 1 xp into one of your Arts or Abilities and be that much closer to your next level. :slight_smile:

49

Sorry, can't edit to add this last minute thought so I post again to say:

Actually even with the adjusted calculation above, the final score notation should be: 106/6(1) or if you decide not to spend the saved xp elsewhere than 107/6(2).

50

Heinrich ex Jerbiton & of Saxony

================================

As of 1220/1221

Age: 22 (born 1198-);
Place of Origin: Saxony
Religion: Roman Catholicism
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 150#
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Right-handed

Personality Traits

pride -2
humorous +1
prone to hyberbole -1
respectful +1

Artes

CR 6 + 3 (Puissant)
IN 7
MU 4
PE 0
RE 3
An 1
Aq 1
Au 1
Co 3
He 1
Ig 1
Im 5
Me 7
Te 1
Vi 5

Characteristics

Int +3 - inquisitive
Per +1 - visually-detailed
Str -1 - lighter-framed
Sta +1 - mild runner
Pre +1 - Humble but comely
Com +1 - forthright
Dex 0
Qik +1 - forward-leaning

Virtues

The Gift
Hermetic Magus
Gentle Gift
Mystical Choreography
Puissant Art (Creo)
Apt Student (House Special)
Free Expression
Improved Characteristics

Flaws

Deficient Technique (Perdo)
Ambitious
Higher Purpose
Soft-Hearted
Cabal Legacy

Abilities

German - 5: Poetry
Charm - 1: Wittiness
Awareness - 1: Alertness
Saxony Lore - 1: Politics
Folk Ken - 3 : Townsfolk

Artes Liberales - 3 : Ceremonial Magic
Latin - 4 : Poetry
Magic Theory - 3 : Creo
Parma Magica - 1 : Perdo
Finesse - 2 : Grace
Philosophae - 1 : Moral Philosophies
Concentration - 1 : Spell Concentration
Etiquette - 1 : Peasants
Penetration - 1 : Vim
Magic Lore - 1 : Regiones
Code of Hermes - 1 : Mundane Relations
Dominion Lore - 1 : Divine Arts
Hermetic Order Lore - 1 : History

Spells

IN/Me Frosty Breath of Spoken Lie - lvl 20
IN/Me Perception of Conflicting Motives - lvl 15
IN/Vi Invisible Eye Revealed - lvl 15
IN/Vi Piercing the Magic Veil - lvl 20 (Wiki/Net Grimoire)
CR/Me Memory of the Distant Dream - lvl 20 - +3 bonus (Puissant)
CR/Me Silent Conspiracy - lvl 15 - +3 bonus (Puissant)
(Wiki/Net Grimoire)
RE/Me Call to Slumber - lvl 10

WIZARD'S SIGIL: an existing (or spontaneously invented) art or craftwork comes to a target's mind or is characteristic of an inanimate effect.

Appearance

Heinrich proudly - and a bit garishly - mixes styles from Saxony, Jerbiton with a dash of Constantinople (Byzantine). He does not skimp on wardrobe.

Background

Heinrich came from a well-enough off merchant family in Saxony and had a gentler childhood relative to others given the milder Gift. He is of a family that practices a prideful connection of salt-of-the earth ways, community connection and ancestral heritage.

He apprenticed with his parens - Augustus - at Oculus Septentrionalis and studied and enjoyed mundane ways in the increasingly more worldly port of Lubeck. Heinrich is especially curious about a young and growing Hanseatic League. He is a member of the Apfelgild.

Equipment

-Fancied magus robes
-journal book, ink & pen
-dagger
-mundane trinkets: coins, tokens

furnishings: sanctum and lab include
-tapestry
-an Eastern Roman icon
-blank papers
-ever-present bottle of wine and jug of beer

[color=blue]I haven't made many ArM characters. I've borrowed a couple from the 5th Edition Net Grimoire. And I'm really hoping the spell 'Piercing the Magic Veil' will be a spell that'll work getting us into magic regiones. Points seem to add up but I'm standing by to tweak and make any changes to errors seen. Thanks!

51

Ok, so here are the problems I see...

First, you have 3 personnality flaws instead of 2: Ambitious, Higher Purpose, and Soft-Hearted. You also need to define your Higher Purpose if you keep it.

Second, you can't take Perdo, a Technique, as a specialty for your Parma Magica. It must be a Form.

Piercing the Magical Veil should work perfectly, at least according to the Raw (p158)

And are you some years out from apprenticeship? If you were apprenticed at 7 (already a young age), you've got too many arts/abilities/spells to be 22 in 1220, and should be 23, just 1 year out of apprenticeship.

Other than these, everything's fine IMO

52

Oups! Forgot: you've got 40 points instead of 45 of childhood abilities, and only 115 points of spell, where you should have at least 120 :blush:

53

Where does it state this prohibition explicitly in the RAW? The Parma Magica Virtue write-up on page 66 of the core rules only lists "protection from any specific Form" as on of any possible number of specialisations. Like any other character aspect open to specialisation, my understanding is that those listed are merely suggestions.

54

Whew,

Thank goodness you folks are detail-oriented. What s Raw?

-I think I'm at for childhood 5+5+5+30 and I thought I'd save 5 spell points to save for a bigger level spell when art and ability takes me to the next magnitude.

-Apprenticeship years has always thrown me. I was aiming for 2 years out of gauntlet (with a commensurate +60xp past the base 240xp in arts and abilities/120 spell levels). How old should I be? :blush:

-Great! I'll lose Ambition. Man, now I don't even feel like organizing my lab. :slight_smile:

-Oooh, good question by Boxer on Parma. But it makes me wonder if I might'nt want Parma - Mentem instead.

55

Any specific Form - Animal, Auram, Ignem ....
as opposed to any specific Technique - Creo, Intellego...

The two are kept separate throughout the entire book.

The scope of specialising Parma in a technique would be far to broad if you compare it to a specialisation in, say, corpus.

56

Parma Magica - Mentem it is. Thanks, all.

57

All you have done is reiterate what I have quoted from the book. This does not however answer my question to Fixer as to where it explicitly states that one cannot specialise his/her Parma ability in a Technique.

The ONLY thing mentioned in any of the passages referred to in the core book index is that Parma [b]adds[/b] to the Magic Resistance granted by a mage's Form scores. This only means that there is a certain modicum of protection provided by one's Form score which is additional to that provided by one's Parma score *5. It DOES NOT explicitly mean that ONLY a particular Form can be chosen as a Parma Magica Ability specialisation.

My Tabletop Verdi has had his Parma specialisation in Intelligo since his character was generated and not once did my normally rules-strict SG ever blink twice at it or ask me to change it to a Form.

All I ask is for a concrete book and page reference where it says such is forbidden, otherwise it's not RAW.

not Raw, but RAW. It stands for Rules As Written. :wink:

58

Ahhhh... thanks!

59

Hum... I see Awareness 5 + Charm 5 + Folk Ken 30. Did I miss something?

Ok.
As I see it, and unless I missed something, you're currently 1 year out of gauntlet, with only 115 points of spells.
For another year, you need to add 30 XP/spells to your character.
As per the age, IIRC (noble's parma here), the minimum age to start apprenticeship is about 8 or so, which would put you at a minimum of 8 + 15 + 1 or 2 years post-aprenticeship = 24 or 25.

Of course, this means you need another suitable flaw to replace it. Curse of venus? :wink:
And also to define your driving goal...

As per form vs technique on the parma: If the intent was as boxer said, they'd just have written any specific art

60

Perhaps, but firstly that is nothing more than speculation, not an citable rule from any of the books. Secondly, (and again) any specialisations listed under any of the abilitities or virtues (where such are listed or warranted) are merely a small selection of suggestions, not the only ones which are allowed.

I personally see no problem with choosing a Technique for one's Parma specialisation since in the end as a human, not all TeFo combos will even have applicability as spells cast against the magus. as with the Perdo example that began this debate, only Perdo Corpus, Mentem, Imaginem and Vim would be of any threat. Thats four combos out of 10. Other TeFo's would have even less such as my Verdi's Intelligo (Corpus, Mentem and perhaps Vim but unlikely).

At the end of the day, unless its specifically forbidden within the RAw, its only a House Rule or the decision of the SG him/herself.