Characters development discussions

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: House Loyalty
241

Here's the draft of my character:

Borealis of Bonisagus

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

Virtues: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Puissant Magic Theory (free); Book Learner, Cautious Sorcerer, Major Magic Focus: Weather, Puissant Auram, Puissant Creo, Skilled Parens

Flaws: Continence, Difficult Spontaneous Magic, Fragile Constitution, Mentor, Temperate, Twilight Prone

Born in the Harz mountains, he had an exploring childhood:
Language: Low German 5 (Saxony accent)
Area Lore: Harz Mountains 2 (villages)
Athletics 1 (climbing
Awareness 1 (the sky)
Stealth 1 (hiding)
survival 2 (mountains)

As a child he watched things in his parent’s house, chatted to the neighbours, and fought with nearby kids:
10 xp in Awareness (now 2)
Concentration 2 (staying awake)
Charm 2 (first impressions)
Folk Ken 2 (villagers)
Music 1 (singing)

He had an experienced master when apprenticed who already knew much of the arts of teaching, so he learnt many interesting areas:
Latin 4 (Hermetic usage)
magic theory 3+2 (auram)
Artes Liberales 1 (ceremonial magic)
Parma Magica 1 (mentem) - these are the minimum requirements for a Hermetic magus
Code of Hermes 1 (Rhine peripheral code)
15xp to take Concentration to 3 (maintaining spells)
Finesse 1 (auram)
Infernal Lore 1 (powers of the air)
Magic Lore 1 (beasts
Medicine 1 (diseases)
Organisation Lore: Order of Hermes 1 (Covenants)
Penetration 1 (auram)
Philosophiae 1 (natural philosophy)
Profession: Scribe 1 (copyist) – should be exactly half my 300 xp from apprentice + skilled parens
Arts: Cr 10+3 In 4 Mu Pe 4 Re 4 An 0 Aq 0 Au 10+3 Co 4 He 0 Ig 0 Im 0 Me 0 Te 0 Vi 0

Spells: Charge of the Angry Winds CrAu 15
Wings of Soaring Wind Cr(Re)Au 30
Incantation of Lightning CrAu 35
True Sight of the Air InAu 15
Bind Wounds CrCo 10
Purification of festering wounds CrCo 20
Revealed Flaws of the mortal flesh InCo 10
Gift of the Frog’s Legs ReCo 15

Hans was taken from a small village by a member of Fengheld who gave his parents a handsome sum of money for their inquisitive and slightly sickly child. He spent every winter in his parens’ lab coughing and sneezing as it took him forever to get over trivial illnesses. His master (who had wanted to focus on training an apprentice to further develop the elemental arts) taught Hans wisely, and let him learn a little medicine and corpus to help him understand his ailments. His wise mentor made sure the boy learnt about the magical and infernal creatures of the air, as well as the magical arts, so that his apprentice would not perish the moment he tried to explore the skies.

On passing his gauntlet through a mixture of answering questions about magic and casting spells involving wind, he took the name “Borealis”.

242

Only weakness I see there is Magic Theory, which seems too low for a Bonisagus with a skilled parens.

Continence and Temperate? Sounds like a monk.

You say "fought with nearby kids" but no score in Brawl?

243

Wait, I wrote that in the background because I was taking Brawl... the character should have Brawl 2 (dodging), or the character comes up a year younger than planned (I was aiming for apprenticeship age 10, gauntlet at 25)
checks original character sheet
How did I fail at copy and pasting that?

244

That balances it. We had no way to know, since his age wasn't there.

245

Here is an updated version of Alice, keeping the background nearly the same, though switching from Blackthorn to Voluntas and switching the original parens from the School of Boreas to the School of Ebroin. Age has not changed (5+7+15=27). V&F changes were centered around dropping "cold," but that's it. The spells that changed are all from the core book. She'll bring along a Rego summa instead of a Perdo summa.

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

Affinity with Rego, Affinity with Vim, Book Learner, Cautious Sorceress, The Gift, Hermetic Maga, Life Boost, Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic, Puissant Concentration, Puissant Magic Theory, Skilled Parens

Covenant Upbringing, Driven (Major - Protect the Order from enemies within and without.), Limited Magic Resistance (Corpus), Mentor (Firminus of Flambeau), Study Requirement, Unimaginative Learner

Youth:

Area Lore: Voluntas (History) [5]
Athletics 1 (Dancing) [5]
Awareness 1 (Alertness) [5]
Brawl 1 (Dodging) [5]
Charm 1 (First Impressions) [5]
Folk Ken 1 (Men) [5]
Guile 1 (Slippery Truths) [5]
Language: English 5 (Northumbrian) [75-75=0]
Stealth 1 (Indoors) [5]
Swim 1 (Not Drowning) [5]

Between then and apprenticeship:

Area Lore: Stonehenge Tribunal 1 (Hermetic Sites) [5]
Concentration 1+2 (5) () [10]
Etiquette 1 (Hermetic) [5]
Language: Latin 5 (Hermetic) [75]
Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1 (House Bonisagus) [5]
Profession: Scribe 1 (Copying) [5]

Apprenticeship:

Area Lore: Durenmar 1 (Tractatus) [5]
Area Lore: Rhine Tribunal 1 (Hermetic Sites) [5]
Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting) [5]
Code of Hermes 1 (Investigative Procedures) [5]
Concentration 2+2 (Spells) [15-10=5]
Finesse 1 (Craft Magic) [5]
Intrigue 1 (Hermetic) [5]
Magic Lore 0 (1) (Regio Entrances) [1]
Magic Theory 3+2 (Spells) [30]
Parma Magica 1 (Corpus) [5]
Penetration 1 (Perdo) [5]
Philosophiae 1 (Ceremonial Casting) [5]
Ride 1 (Conjured Mounts) [5]
Single Weapon 1 (Heater Shield) [5]

Creo 5 [15]
Intellego 5 [15]
Muto 5 [15]
Perdo 4 [10]
Rego 8 [36/1.5=24]
Animal 5 [15]
Vim 15 [120/1.5=80]

Mastering the Unruly Beast (ReAn 25 / +15)
Rise of the Feathery Body (ReCo 10 / +11), Mastery 1: Fast Casting
The Call to Slumber (ReMe 10 / +12), Mastery 2: Multiple Casting, Still Casting
Unseen Arm (ReTe 5 / +10)
Unraveling the Threads of Vim (PeVi 20 / +22), Mastery 1: Adaptive Casting
Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 20 / +28), Mastery 1: Adaptive Casting
Suppressing the Wizard’s Handiwork (ReVi 25 / +25)
Sustaining the Demanding Spell (ReVi 35 / +26), Mastery 1: Adaptive Casting

246

@callen Looks ok to me.

I'll switch the library from Perdo to Rego.

247

Great. I'll go about changing things in the character thread. Could you change the thread's title from "Alis" to "Alice" (slightly different origins).

Then I need to run a bunch of spontaneous spells by you. Thankfully, most are just variations of canon spells.

248

On to some preparations... Here is a start:

20 pebbles, each with Lamp Without Flame (ArM5 p.140) and Unseen Arm (ArM5 p.155) on it.

4 50' ropes, each with Supple Iron and Rigid Rope (ArM5 p.154) at D: Concentration (MuTe 5) and variants of both Object of Increased Size (ArM5 p.154) and Unseen Porter (ArM5 p.156) on it.
The Object of Increased Size variant is D: Concentration and to shrink it instead of grow it. What magnitudes would shrink what amount?
The Unseen Porter variant has no height limit, though still within Voice to control it. Add one magnitude for that?

3 animals: 1 fell pony, 1 running hound (rache), 1 barn owl
I'm working off of The Wizard's Mount (ArM5 p.117), so a normal animal except undisturbed by the Gift. The biggest Size is +1, so no extra magnitude is needed for size. I'm also shifting to D: Concentration. For the pony and the hound, that's CrAn 25. For the owl the base is a magnitude lower, so it's CrAn 20. (I'll deal with spells cast on them after we're all set with creating them.)

Once these are set, I'll post more. Too much at once just gets overwhelming.

249

Does Borealis look ready to join in? I need to come up with what my character brings bookwise - I will take a Creo summa, I have scribe (copyist) 1 so can copy 120 spell levels.

250

Yes

251

@darkwing I've created your character's topic. Even if a few details need to be adjusted, go ahead and have your magus arrive at the in-character discussion -- Tandaline is waiting for Borealis to arrive before she starts. You can make up any reason why your character is late to the meeting.

252

I don't want to fill the season's thread with questions, and it looked like this was the best place to ask.

How much of the season we're spending copying books remains?

How much free time is available each evening after copying books? I figure 10 hours for copying 1 hour for meals, and 8 hours for sleep leaves a maximum of 5 hours. So we probably have 4 hours we could use for preparation each day. Does that sound reasonable?

253

This is a nice map for @darkwing 's question:

254

High German (Franconian)

The scene is taking place in late Spring. You are copying until the end of the season. The Gauntlet and following ceremonies already took up the 10 days of distractions in the season.

As for free times during the day, you are forgetting a whole lot of routine tasks that quickly add up -- such as getting dressed and taking care of personal hygiene, getting around from one place to another (you are not sleeping in the Great Library, nor can you eat there), speaking politely to people you cross path during the day. And 1 hour for three meals is rushing around.

So you can expect to have perhaps 2-3 hours available in a day for preparations, and it is about 4 weeks before the end of the season.

255

Yes, I'd put 1 hour in for random stuff, but I'm fine with more. I'll work with roughly 2 hours/day for 4 weeks. Thanks.

256

Here is a quick breakdown of what Alice will be casting spontaneously:

  1. Some enchantments on her armor and shield (all published)
  2. Supple Iron and Rigid Rope on some plus a telekinesis spell (roughly core) plus a shrinking spell (need to write this up, growth is written in core) on some ropes
  3. Lamp Without Flame and Unseen Arm on some pebbles
  4. Unseen Arm and a variant of Object of Increased Size on some pebbles
  5. Variants on The Wizard's Mount to make a fell pony, a rache, and a barn owl. And then a number of spells on them that I'll list out separately.
  6. Some spells to shrink food and water and preserve the food, mostly for herself and the fell pony.
  7. Probably some similar shrinking stuff for some other things I'll think of soon.
257

I see. Let's take these one at a time and see how it goes before moving on to the next. I think there is enough meat there that we should use a seperate topics to handle casting all those spells, as well as their later maintenance.

258

Is everyone still healthy? Been a week without replies.

Anyone interested in making a companion suitable to be a mundane liaison for the magi? Or do you prefer for me to handle this either as a one-shot or recurring character?

259

I posted a couple times (updating to renew or whatever it's called) in that thread for spells being cast, as that's what Alice is mostly up to right now. Did I miss the reply?

260

Sorry for the lack of answers. I don't have any other questions for Tandaline that come to mind. I was relying on email notification for anything new and should have told You so.