That table is just a portion of the same table for animals in general.
Hi,
Congrats!
Tangentially, I find it a bit disturbing that it has taken two weeks and 22 posts for an accomplished Ars Magica veteran to stat up a dragon... with a little help from his friends.
(Not a slight about said veteran!)
Anyway,
Ken
The only thing I might suggest is a low level reputation to represent the Order's knowledge of it.
The actual beast is functionally more or less unchanged my first post, the discussion was all about "how much weight do I give to the rules?" and "what's really the most most most proper way to do this". I see it to be more a function of having options worth quibbling over than it is a function of how very hard it is to do.
Done
Still, I agree with Ovarwa that the critter creation rules are way over-complicated. Specially the way each realm works differently, and then you have mundane beasts. I would really like for a more streamlined, universal version of the system, particularly one that differentiates the creation process according to the role the character will play in the story, for example playable characters (or "normal" NPCs), familiars, and general "monsters". This is a game which is very oriented towards stories, after all.
The way it is now, unless I feel like doing the accounting for the fun of it, I just end up winging it. Which means in my case all those different design rules are just not used, and that seems a pity when so much work went into designing them.
It does seem a pity that all of that work went in to rules that we ignore. For my tastes, I don't feel that it's the complication itself that makes them less fun as much as it is the rules having a focus that I just don't care about. The realms of power magic book rules have an accounting system so that the number of magical powers a magic thing has ties directly to its might. It then has ways of exchanging magical qualities for virtues and flaws where everything is accounted for. It looks to me like it was made to create magical characters to use as PC's. When I want to make an NPC antagonist I want to make what's important for the story and ignore the rest. I'd be much better served by Just a power creation system and some direction on creating attributes, abilities, combat stats, and ways to make the creatures interact with the PC's in meaningful ways.
It seems to me that what I want is all there in the RoP:magic book, the rules for making new and interesting powers are, IMO, good. (although mastery points because they are explained within a few virtues spread throughout the magical qualities section as opposed to explained in their own section, and to some extent that they exist at all are a constant frustration). To fit my preferences, Chapter 4 of the magic book just should have been organized with the primary emphasis "here are ideas and example powers you can use to create creatures that are fun for your PC's to interact with" and then have short concise sections on "things to keep in mind when creating a creature when you don't wish to end up with a story about a creature steamrolling the PC's or vice versa" and "some accounting rules if you wish to craft magical creatures for use as PC's".
It might be because I read the Faerie book first, but I actually just assumed the creation rules for magical beings was FOR player-characters (and companions, familiars, et cetera). I remember the RoP:F book providing lots of sample faeries listed as 'not suitable for players'.
I couldn't agree more with this Erik. I love so much of the content in RoP:M. But the rules for making creatures just boggle me. Every time I sit down to make a creature, I just get lost in the number-crunching minutiae. The few times that I've completed the process, the creature I ended up with is close enough to the rough sketch that I started with, that I was left quite defeated. It's hours of work for little-to-no gain. If one is creating a Magical PC or NPC that's going to be a long-running character in the stories... I can see the need for precision. If one is making a beast for a single encounter, then make it simple and fun to create.
So... a bestiary that you can scale up or down. A list of abilities or powers that you can swap in. That' probably enough.
Again, I love all the other material in RoP:M, but the character generation system seems like a punishment to the GM, not an aid.