Companion: Ivan son of the Dragon

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Oppidum of Héviz
1

I'd still need to put together some of the stats and all for him, but my idea is the child of a poverty stricken noble woman who was ravished by a dragon that had changed form. She was cast from her dead husband's home by her sister-in-law and her husband, and managed to survive in the forest with her strange son.

He could see and do things a mortal man couldn't do and when he sought answers from the various wise-people he received a prophecy that he would live to kill his (real) father.

While Ivan is aligned with the Magic Realm, his father may have been corrupted since then (or not, either way is fine). He'd have a few supernatural Virtues, Death Prophecy being one of them. I decided to go against some of the more blatantly supernatural, and give him more abilities that are perhaps unusual or extraordinary, but not overtly supernatural. It's the fact that he has the death ward that is his real legacy of the supernatural. I'm thinking of taking Ageless as well, which is supernatural but not so overtly (he could just go to a different town and no one would know).

Once I tabulate the virtues and flaws I'll have a better idea, he's got 6 virtues already which is considerable, and doesn't leave much room for other things.

2

Here's what I have so far, and just his first 5 years for abilities.

Name: Ivan son of the Dragon
Age: 30 Size: 0 Confidence: 1/3 Decrepitude: 0

Int: +1 Str: +4 Pre: -2 Dex: +1
Per: +1 Sta: +4 Com: 0 Quick: +1

Virtues:
Wanderer (free)
Warrior m
Death Prophecy M
Second Sight m
Improved Characteristics x2
Great Characteristics x2
Tough m

Flaws:
Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Dragons) M or Supernatural Nuisance (Dragons) M
Driven M (Kill his father)
Magical Air M
Disfigured (Has scaly patches and his eyes are strange) m

Abilities:
Awareness 3
Survival 2

3

Here's an update, up to age 30. He's not bad, but not much better than a combat focused Grog. The main benefits is that he can't die (have to work on that Death Prophecy).

I'm up for suggestions on what he might do. He could be made older (a lot older because of Death Prophecy), but I don't necessarily want to over do that. Making him young gives plenty of options for improvement, for example, he doesn't have any Magic Lore because he had no virtues for it. He might have specialties in hunting dragons, but a lot of that is assumptions.

Name: Ivan son of the Dragon
Age: 30 Size: 0 Confidence: 1/3 Decrepitude: 0

Int: +1 Str: +4 Pre: -2 Dex: +1
Per: +1 Sta: +4 Com: 0 Quick: +1

Virtues:
Wanderer (free)
Warrior m
Death Prophecy M
Second Sight m
Improved Characteristics x2
Great Characteristics x2
Tough m

Flaws:
Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Dragons) M
Driven M (Kill his father)
Magical Air M
Disfigured (Has scaly patches and his eyes are strange) m

Abilities: 0-5 years
Awareness 3 Dragons
Survival 2 Forest
Magyar 5 Heviz Dialect

Abilties: 6-30 +50 xp for Warrior
Second Sight 3/5 Illusory disguises 30
Great Weapon 5 Dragons 75
Ride 3 Combat 30
Brawl 3 Punch 30
Athletics 3 Running 30
Chirurgy 3 Own wounds 30
Bows 5 Crossbow 75
Folk Ken 3 Hungarian 30
Stealth 3 Sneaking 30
Swim 3 Rivers 30
Hunt 3 Dragons 30
Single Weapon 1 Parrying

Gear:
Leather Scale armor (Full) Soak 5 Load 5
Poleaxe
Crossbow
Knife
20 Bolts
Sling Bag
Animal traps
Bedroll
Tent

Combat: Init Attack Defense Damage
Poleaxe +2 +11 +6 +15
Punch +1 +5 +4 +4
Crossbow* +6 +12 NA +7 Range 25

*Taken from Covenants pg 18, Historical Crossbow

Soak +12

Wounds:
Light 1-5
Med 6-10
Heavy 11-15
Inc 16-20
Dead** 21+

**Death Prophecy Virtue

*Edited 5 xp in Second Sight.

This character is now finished, I decided on Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Dragons, his father)

4

Here is a death prophecy I used. "You shall not die except by violence in the presence of True Faith." Now to be fair this character had True Faith, so it wasn't anywhere near as cool as it sounds. Other good Death Prophecies "You shall die by taking an arrow through the eye", "You shall die of Old Abe", "You will be eaten by dragon", "You will be murdered by angel who will promptly fall afterwards", "You will die only when the whole world burns and every other living thing begs for a death that never comes. This happens to be in thirteen years. Have fun.", "You will be killed by a falling whale."

5

Well, since he has the same amount of xp as a grog, and only Death Prophecy as a major virtue that a grog couldn't have, no real surprise there. And there's not much you can do about it.

I would go with Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Dragon), because Supernatural Nuisance tend to imply that you either meet dragons often (surely there aren't that many !) or that one specific dragon is following you around and annoying you just for the fun of it (don't dragons have better things to do ?)

According to Lords of Men Crossbow is a skill of its own, separate from Bows. Covenants does not make that distinction, I guess

6

Plagued makes more sense, or Enemies. Basically a Major Story flaw which encompasses his enmity with dragons. Maybe enemies is better, as long as it's understood the enemy (main) is a dragon possibly his father. The impression I got for dragons in the Tribunal is that there might be a lot, it depends on the campaign. So there could be the main one (dad) and then his suboedinates.

I can switch it from Bows to Crossbows, no problem. I think I'd prefer the Lords of Men version, but whatever is in use. In Lords of Men I think he's strong enough to reload it and fire every round.

Should I go with a more mystical approach and take even more Supernatural type virtues? I was thinking lesser immunity: venom, and unaging for example.

7

Shouldn't the son of a Dragon have Mythical Blood (Zmey)? Of course that is a Hermetic Virtue, and not a Supernatural one, but something similar should be possible here. A Supernatural virtue like Whistle Up the Wind/Thunder & Lightning or something?

I'd like to see him a bit more Supernatural, honestly.

8

In all honesty I'd like to make him a full on Mythic Companion, but not at the expense of a Magus slot being taken. In AtD they do have example Virtues for the dragon born, and those definitely make him (more) supernatural. Greater Immunity; fire, plus a personal power of some kind. I was thinking I might go that route, and Jebrick mentioned the Mythic Blood of the Zmei, but that's a Hermetic virtue.

Taking a bunch of Major Supernatural virtues though really eats into things that can give him decent stats. The one that seemed the most Mythic was being unkillable (mostly). There's just no quit in him, and he'll be made to suffer also. I have this idea that the first dragon he 'kills' literally chokes to death trying to eat him (or he cuts his way out from the inside).

9

You could rename the virtue Giant Blood into Dragon Blood and keep the mechanical aspects (dragons are very big, after all); right off the bat that saves you your two Great Characteristics, and the increased wound range might let you drop Tough as well. Exchanging Second Sight for a Personnel or Lesser Power Virtue from RoP:M, or for Magical Blood, is also an option: Second Sight is not particularly 'dragony', after all.

You could also drop presence all the way to -3 and drop one Improved Characteristic virtue if you need more points. Changing Warrior to Berserk, although it will cost you some xp, is also a way to 'improve' his combat scores.

10

That would be as unbalancing as a Fae who could improve people's artistic skills, or someone who could produce fatigue reducing thearics. Or someone who was nigh unkillable unless faced with a Vis user. Basically what I'm saying is if you don't do anything else for the sake of POWER! Do it. Pending GM approval.

11

I don't know what you mean here.

But at any rate I'm going to keep him the way he is. I think he'd be very different from any of his other brothers and sisters who might have more overt powers, such as water breathing, fire immunity or the burning grasp they describe in the book.

For his Crossbow Ability, would he change it from Bows to Crossbows? Also which stats would we be using, the ones in Covenant or Lords of Men?