Companion discussion thread

Except possibly as a cosmetic effect of a Power of some kind, I don't know what would do the silver-tongue thing.

Should probably have higher combat stats, and IIRC, you want Music to be higher than Enchanting Music, due to the mechanics, but I can't remember off the top of my head why.

True. you need to play the music well before making it enchanting :slight_smile: I would switch it Music 4, Enchanting music 2.

Is Composer of Power the Creo, Rego power?

Being that the blood is Loki, it might be something with fire. I think I was thinking of Odysseus when I first made him. Also a very intelligent "trickster". I'm not sure if I've ever seen a "god" as a Blood of heroes. I'll pull up Hrólfr Kraki saga to see if anyone might fit.

I looked this up (since Cygna has Enchanting Music) and, unless there's something in one of the supplements I'm not remembering, you don't. You just need to roll against your Music score to be sure you perform well (singing, playing the harp, blowing the flute, what have you) well, but there's nothing in either description that makes one result dependent upon the other. You just need to perform well to pull off the Enchanting part, but your Enchanting Music result isn't capped by your Music roll.

In practice, most of the pagan gods end up as Magic or Faerie beings anyhow. He's not descended of an actual god, since there's only one of those in Mythic Europe; he's descended of some magical entity that roamed around Scandinavia, that impressed the mundies such that they called him a god :slight_smile:

Fire seems a good idea. I was thinking mostly of Low Key Lyesmith when I revised the character sheet.

It was already a Mythic Companion; Renaud was Blood of Heroes before I asked if I could play a Redcap.

Granted, moving to Loki as the source of his blood instead of Odysseus is a pretty big personality change-- honestly I just found Homer interminably tedious and I don't have a good feel for playing an Odyssean descendant. Odysseus was only somewhat interesting in the context of trying to get home. What did he do during the war? Cheated at dice. Which, while fun, isn't the basis of heroism IMO. I love the ambiguity in the Loki figure (who was a demigod, but then, so were most of the Greek heroes). Loki brought about the destruction of the gods, but that was necessary so humans could thrive. And sure, he killed Baldr, but all he did was sit around and look pretty, so that guy had it coming.

Loki could be fire, or guile/intrigue, that kind of things.

Note, though: as far as I can see, Composer of Power is useless to him, since, it allows one to create a "song allows the character that learns it to replicate the effect of a single Power that the composer character knows" (power being, afaiu, a Power virtue from RoP: M.
=> You should either drop it, or select one or more appropriate power.

Erp, that completely didn't work the way I thought it did.

He should get some kind of fire power, though (pun unintentional).

I don't see him having much up close combat ability, though. He prefers to get other people to fight his battles for him.

Well, I see 2 ways to do this:

  • Either a Lesser power (minor virtue), such as the ability to breathe fire at will:
    Breathe Fire (CrIg 10)
    Base 5, +1 touch (he doesn't need to actually touch someone, but he can only affect people at arm's reach, so this'd be okay for a non-hermetic power, I figure), does +10 damage.
    Fatigue cost 0 (10 levels used to reduce it), Init -3 (5 levels used to reduce it).
  • Or a Focus Power (major virtue) allowing him, at the cost of 1 fatigue, to duplicate any Creo or Rego Ignem spell, with a Penetration of 05.

Yes, RoP:M potentially means the introduction of SuperHeroes to Ars Magica...

I need to brush up on my Loki but IIRC, he is like the Norse Prometheus in that he stole fire and gave it to men. That is why he is associated with fire. But he is a trickster figure in the stories. You could play off of that angle but he is a nasty fellow. Loki is a shapechanger

Whether Loki is nasty or not varies a lot tale to tale. Resultingly I think of him as being severely moody :slight_smile:

And nowadays we call that bipolar.

In one Ars campaign we had, we drew plenty of comparisons with Mercury/Hermes and Odin. And of course plenty of serious Norse mythology discussions draw parallels between Loki and Odin that they could be one and the same. Not saying definitely of course. We had stories though where a character prone to visions was seeing a being that alternately looked like Hermes, Odin and Loki, with traits of all three.

Hum... He could have a Personna, then. This is a great power for a trickster.
You could throw out composer of power, and swap it for it.

So....as I understand it, someone should make a Companion for Viscaria, and I should make a companion for someone else?

I've been contemplating a poor, very young landed nobleman with a Death Prophecy as a companion. Possibly some other virtue as well which ensures that he will always manage to return to his castle (Servant of the Land perhaps?) Sort of apprentice-like, in that there's much which could/should be taught to him, but he's considered an adult by the world. Not just an adult, but Lord of his fiefdom. He frequently runs away from the poverty of his castle and his noblesse oblige, into the world of magic and dragons. He'd be sort of a stowaway on the magi's adventures.

Or, I'd like to play Varkos (RoP:M, pg 75) as a companion. ~giggles~

My original concept of companions for another magus didn't work out as I would've liked. So, if you want a companion, feel free to make one. If you want to attach him to a magus, feel free, with that player's permission.

I think that was the original idea. I created Wilhelm to be a companion for zlorfik's magus Silviatos, and Jonah had made Ivor MacBride to be a shield Companion for Fiona (he has since been taken over by jebrick, I think).

Interesting. Almost like an adventurer in spite of himself? I'm thinking he might not have the Heir Virtue, but possibly a Gentleman (or possibly Knight)? But if he's Lord of his fiefdom, he would have the Landed Noble Social Status Virtue?

In theory, you could make one for me, and me, one for you.

Problem is, I have the concept (a noble faerie warrior, proud and arrogant, turned into a human by a miracle after insulting too much a pious man and his god, she seeks to regain what she lost), but I'm not sure I have the time.

I was originally thinking a Landed Noble, and a poor one, assuming his family dies (perhaps in the adventure where we meet the companion), and now he is technically the Lord, but has a small retinue of loyal, aging retainers who are trying to get him to take his duties seriously.

However, by the rules, a Poor Landed Noble has to spend every season maintaining his fief, or else it collapses completely. So, now I'm thinking that maybe he's the Heir to a Poor Barony. His father struggles to keep the fiefdom alive long enough to pass it on to his own son, and despairs of the boys wandering ways.

In the first version, there's a tasty bit of conflict that could arise as the church accuses the magi of bending the boy's innocent mind to their will. In the second version, the father fears that the magi are heretics meaning to damn the boy's soul and steal his land. However, in this 2nd version, the father is too busy trying to keep his lands alive to be able to do anything about it (save, perhaps, plead assistance from wandering adventurer parties)

In any case, the family would have been too poor to train the boy to be a knight, though he could possibly claim the title if he had access to the training.

I've no thoughts to the boy's temperament yet, nor his skills. I thought it'd be interesting to locate the appropriate historical records and see what to make of that. Having a hard time discovering the feudal layout near Bibracte in this period, though.

A quick pass at Renaud as non mythical Redcap. I need another flaw. Comments welcome

[size=150]Renaud[/size]
Characteristics: Int +1, Per 0, Pre +2, Com +2, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 35 (35), Height: 5'10'', Weight: 180 lbs, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: Lone Redcap, Social Contacts (Scholars), Luck (Luck Bonus: +1 to +3), Warrior (50/50), Well‑Traveled (0/50), Educated (50/50), Standing stones Regio Network, Black Sheep, Reckless, Compulsion (Gambling), Carefree
Personality Traits: Reckless +3
Reputations: Unreliable (Redcap) 2, Gonard 2
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +0, Attack ‑‑, Defense +2, Damage ‑‑
Fist: Init: +0, Attack +2, Defense +2, Damage +0
Kick: Init: ‑1, Attack +2, Defense +1, Damage +3
Soak: 0
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, ‑1, ‑3, ‑5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: ‑1 (1‑5), ‑3 (6‑10), ‑5 (11‑15), Incapacitated (16‑20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: French 5 (Poetry), Engish 5, Single Weapon 4 (Sword, Short), Area Lore: Normandy Tribunal 3 (personalities), Prof: Troubadour 4 (Baudy songs), Church Lore 2, Athletics 2 (grace), Brawl 2, Survival 2, Area Lore: Paris 2 (Taverns and Inns), Awareness 3 (alertness), Bargain 3, Charm 3 (being witty), Etiquette 3 (nobility), Folk Ken 3 (townsfolk), Leadership 2, Music 4, Guile 2, Scribe 2 (neat writing), Carouse 2, Order of Hermes Lore 2 (personalities), Latin 5, Artes Liberales 2 (rhetoric)
Equipment:
Encumbrance: 0 (0)