Thread to discuss Σοφια (Sophia), Callen's witch.
Character Sheet Placeholder
Creation of Mythic Companion: Faerie Wizard
Characteristics: Int 0, Per +1, Str -3, Sta 0, Pre +3, Com +3, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 25 (18)
Decrepitude: 0
Faerie Rank:* 4
Warping Score: 1 (9)
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: Affinity with Music, Alluring to Faeries, Cautious with Music, Curse-Throwing, Dark Magic, Dowsing, Dutybound (Obey the Oaths of a Faerie Doctor), Enchantment, Faerie Antipathy (Home), Faerie Background (Women, Men), Faerie Doctor, Faerie Friend (Songbird), Faerie Speech, Faerie Sympathy (Singing), Grant, Greater Charm (Curse-Throwing: Rabit's Foot), Missing Eye (blind rather than not present), Portage, Puissant Music, Rebellious (Major), Second Sight, Strong Faerie Blood (Faerie God: Aoide), Traditional Ward (Folk Charms), Ware, Weal, Wise One
Personality Traits: Protective +2, Rebellious +5, Truthful +3
Reputations:
Combat:
| Weapon | Init | Atk | Def | Dam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dagger | 0 | +4 | +2 | 0 |
| Dodge | n/a | n/a | +1 | n/a |
| Fist | 0 | +1 | +1 | -3 |
| Kick | -2 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1–5), -3 (6–10), -5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20)
Abilities: Area Lore: Lower Lotharingia 1 (Faerie Sites), Artes Liberales 1 (Music; Alphabets: Latin), Athletics 1 (Swim), Awareness 1 (Alertness), Brawl 1 (Daggers), Charm 1 (Seduction), Concentration 1 (Faerie Calling), Curse-Throwing 1 (To Vermin), Dowsing 1 (Vis), Enchantment 1 (Singing), Folk Ken 1 (Men), Grant 1 (Virtues), Intrigue 1 (Bargain), Language: French 5 (Walloon), Language: Latin 3 (Reading), Legend Lore 2 (Faeries), Medicine 1 (Diagnosis), Music 5+2 (Singing), Philosophiae 1 (Natural Philosophy), Portage 1 (Instant Travel), Profession: Storyteller 1 (Faeries), Second Sight 1 (Glamour), Survival 1 (Stealth), Ware 1 (Suppression), Weal 1 (Accelerated Healing)
Sympathy Traits: Home +1, Men +2, Singing +4, Women +2
Pretenses: Faerie Speech 5
Advancement
Background / History / etc.
TMK Tainted Virtues (by RoP:TI p.82) require Tainted Characters (RoP:TI p.96ff), which are really tough to play! I wait for the background story - as far as it can be told without compromising the character.
For that reason the rare Minor General Virtue All According to Plan (BS&S p.52) - usually reserved for the Thieves of Marrakesh - may be not only verrry useful, but necessary.
I don't understand, what the Flaw Offensive to Demons for such a character is for, and how it came to be.
You're misremembering or misreading. RoP:tI says "Tainted Virtues and Flaws also belong to another category, such as Supernatural, and characters who are not tainted may take them during character creation..." This is confirmed when you note that all Witches of Thessaly are given a Tainted Supernatural Virtue.
Separate from this, this is what the SG suggested because there had been worries that a Sahir would be too powerful, even though I see a recent post from a player saying otherwise.
(Out of time...)
I've reread the section in BS&S. I cannot find anything exclusionary to Thieves of Marrakesh. I can see how it could be read that way. However, I have two problems with that reading. First, things like Affinity with Stealth are listed there and are not listed with any more nor fewer restrictions. Second, the very section says that having these talents tends to lead one into the Thieves of Marrakesh rather than the other way around, so they seem to be necessarily available outside that group.
I'd rather take Cautious Sorcerer anyway, but I was trying to avoid Hermetic Virtues (with the one exception of Leadworker that explicitly originated from outside the Order).
Are you often going to have more than one botch die though? The main ways that happens are studying vis and experimentation which Cautious Sorcerer doesn't help with anyway. I don't think it even applies to Summoning, you are probably better off taking Cautious With Ability, which is General.
The Goetic Arts are Arts, not Abilities. Meanwhile, I'm more worried about generally avoiding 2 Warping Point Botches.
They still count as Supernatural Abilities. Though I suppose picking from four is rough.
Huh? Arts, including Difficult Arts interact with Virtues differently than do Abilities, including Accelerated Abilities. For example, Puissant Ability adds 2 to an Accelerated Ability.
I guess. I'd think accelerated Ability is still Ability. I think Careful With could apply. But I'm just cluttering your thread at this point, sorry.
Exactly. But the Goetic Arts aren't Accelerated Abilities. They're regular Arts.
I am glad that Sophia is not a Tainted Character!
I happily leave the corner cases of Virtues and Flaws (Tainted Virtues for non-Tainted Character with Offensive to Demons, All According to Plan for character not a Thief of Marrakesh) to @Xavi to adjudicate, who knows the game he wishes to run.
I assume that Sophia's Greek is her native language, (TSE p.41f Languages) Romaic Greek, not the Koine of the times of Alexander the Great? With Romaic Greek 6 she would also be able to speak Classical Greek at 4.
For the love of Hermes girl! Raise that Intrigue (Bargain)!!! That is a key ability for summoners that need to negotiate with spirits. I have no idea about what some of your virtues do (all according to plan, envied beauty) and I need to review the alluring thing and leadworker, but this can change somewhat that statement, I suppose. If they do not I would strongly suggest doing that.
Offensive to demons would be better left out and changed for something else, since I do not plan to use these much. At least not overtly. The infernal is more insidious for me than hordes of critters to be smitten. it will have an impact if you plan on summoning, negotiating and binding demons, though, so if this is the case you can keep it.
Ambition might be a little bit long in its planning time, no? Unless you become undead or something. 
I think that if we go for a less infernal character it can work as well. We can untaint the virtues if the troupe (and you) agrees. Commanding spirits can be magical without being game breaking. Binding depends. If you force the spirit against his will I can see it being tainted, but if you have the spirit agreeing to being bound it can be normal. Weren't untainted versions of those abilities in ROP:M or ROP:F?
What do you think?
However, I can sense from the character concept that being tainted seems to be the thing of the character, with the hedonistic approach et al. A grey character. In that case all the abilities being tainted makes sense and is actually really cool. So whatever floats your boat, but we can have the abilities not being tainted as well.
Cheers,
Xavi
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Neither, really. Byzantine Greek. Now we have modern Greek. Koine Greek is earlier, as you mentioned. There is an intermediate between the two. Romaic Greek, as far as I can tell, is a no-longer-used term for Modern Greek, referring to an earlier stage of modern Greek (ending somewhere in the ballpark of 1800. Despite what TSE says, there are several widely spoken "dialects" at the time of Ars Magica. There was Cappadocian in south-central Anatolia, Pontic on the southeastern coast of Black Sea, Yevanic by the Byzantine Jews, and the common/koine version.
I figured right now, since she focuses on magical spirits, 7+roll for bargaining with them would be a good start.
All According to Plan is in BS&S p.52. It's a botch mitigation Virtue, weaker than Cautious (something), but more broadly applicable.
Envied Beauty is in HoH:S p.56-57. It's essentially a variant on Curse of Venus.
Alluring to (Beings) is in HoH:MC p.86. It's somewhat like Venus's Blessing toward different things.
Leadworker is in HoH:TL p.143. That's the Hermetic Virtue I'd asked you about earlier.
OK. I'll drop it. She would be avoiding summoning demons as best she could.
No, not undead. Binding spirits to her. She expects the Order to ultimately fail. Right now she needs to become the most powerful sorceress ever and gather the pieces together so she can eventually rule when the Order falls. Some of that may well include locating nobles/royals without church burials so she can summon the ghosts their ghosts.
In canon only (Spirit) Summoning is always Tainted if it's Faerie or Magic, otherwise it's Infernal. Ablating, Binding, and Commanding area always Infernal.
Yes, that was part of how I built things. I was trying to include the taint within a character intentionally avoiding dealing with demons.
I am aware of it. And I know I liked it from the tremeres when I read it (and so I said OK to you when you asked), but can't remember what it does without looking 
Wow. so REALLY Major Ambitious. The personality you seem to be building sounds interesting! I am looking forward to her background.
I remember that it irked me when reading the abilities that summoning and associated abilities were always tainted. I might have been projecting my feelings here. If tainted works for you, go ahead 
Ars Magica sometimes uses language denominations no scholar would use for that language. The obvious example is Middle High German, always called High German in ArM5. If you know that: good for you. If you insist on consistently writing Middle High German onto your character sheets and have your SG figure out what it means in ArM5 context: bad for everybody.
ArM5 uses Romaic Greek as the name of the language of the common people in Greece, who called themselves Romai (later under Turkish rule: Rumi). So it makes some sense to call Medieval Greek Romaic Greek in ArM5. As it is just a name, be gracious to troupe and storyguide and use it as well.