Dipping my toe into character creation

Games Discussion Ars Magica
21

I'll second those. The only reason to push an Art hard is because your long term story goal is to write the bestest Summae. Other than that, raw numbers are best left for My Pet Protector and similar games where story is irrelevant. {Not that it ever stopped me. :mrgreen: }

The second and third point against are: there's nothing that those xp Virtues give you that cannot be fixed by a year of downtime, and it's no fun being able to fix everyone's issue because you progressed faster than your pals.

Flawless Magic, FFM, LLSM, Magical Focus, Necessary Condition, Short-Ranged Magic, Study Requirement: define your character by his stories, not his stats. If you use the script, Luke, that L20q15 Art Summae will find its way into your hands, and just as you are about to die you'll find that wooden sprocket you needed to save yourself.

22

Of course, there isn't anything wrong with that as a character goal, and it's not quite the only reason. For example, the character may be really keen on inventing/casting one or more very high level effects associated with that Art. There are plenty of story motivations/opportunities inherent in why a character might be desperately keen to cast The Shadow of Life Renewed, for example. Also, being killer in an Art is a way for a character to excel at Certamen --- if she can finagle that Art being one of the duel Arts, of course. Pushing an Art Score high could even be an expression of some kind of religious/cult belief.

Anyway, my advice is that if your character is designed around chasing a game-mechanic, like an Art score, then be really clear (for both you and the storyguide) about why, in-character, the character actually wants to do this. It's not just giving her the Virtues that enable her to advance quickly. Also consider what the character thinks she will achieve by devoting herself to chasing an Art Score (or anything else) like this. She might well be wrong about what she will achieve, but even the most intelligent, Book Learner magus with Flawless Magic needs a reason to sit down and spend season after season after season studying.

23

Or play with Hermetic Architecture and those swell CrVi 99 enchantments, or cast Shadow of Life Renewed as mentioned above or..

What aspect of magic do you want to be a prodigy in?

Spell Casting? Flawless Magic is awesome. Or you could go with the Faerie Raised Magic and impress everyone by how you can invent spells without a lab.
Spontaneous casting? Diedne Magic or Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic (I prefer Diedne Magic myself) and high Arts, probably focussed on the Techniques. Maybe add Artes Liberales and Philosophiae for ceremonial casting.
Enchanting Items? Join House Verditius, study Magic Theory and Verditius Cult Lore, never leave your lab.
Magical Theory? Affinity and Puissant, maybe Inventive genius, to make a few breakthroughs.

And remember to leave room for the rest of your troupe!

24

Well, the various replies to this thread have actually given me not one, but three concepts for characters to make. I shall post them later, when I've done character creation for them, but first I have a question: What rules, if any, are there for being initiated into a mystery cult (say, Path of Strife for Criamon, or Hermetic Alchemy or Hermetic Theurgy for a Bonisagus, or Glamour Magic for a Merinita), and having corresponding virtues (lesser elixir, twilight mastery, glamour magic, etc.)?

25

Too much for us to detail here. If you get a chance, look at HoH:MC and TMRE.

Chris

26

Well, since the other two characters I'm working on are on hold until I better understand some things (namely, joining mystery cults at character creation, or buying certain virtues at chargen like Glamour magic), I'll go ahead and post the one I did manage to successfully make. Joda Magil Ex Bonisagus. I am not sure I did everything correctly, and knowing me, probably made a mistake, but hopefully if that's the case I'll just be gently corrected.

Joda Magil ex Bonisagus

Age: 20

Apprenticeship ages: 5-20

Virtues
Flawless Magic (Major)
Book Learner (Minor)
Life Boost (Minor)
Affinity with Intellego (Minor)
Affinity with Rego (Minor)
Skilled Parens (Minor)
Mastered Spells (Minor)
Puissant Magic Theory (House Virtue)

Flaws
Magic Addiction (Major)
Enemy: Lysander ex Criamon, Walker of Twilight (Major)
Mentor: Shoban Arterius ex Bonisagus (Minor)
Covenant Upbringing (Minor)
Ambitious (Minor)

Characteristics:
Strength -2
Intelligence +3
Stamina +1
Perception 0
Quickness +1
Dexterity -1
Communication +2

Abilities
Native Language (English) 5
Awareness 2
Latin 4
Hermetic Lore 2
Artes Liberales 2
Philosophiae 1
Magic Theory 4
Parma Magica 1

Arts
Techniques
Rego 10
Intellego 10
Muto 6

Forms
Corpus 6
Mentem 6
Vim 6
Auram 6
Imaginem 3

Spells
Whispering Winds (level 15) (Mastery 1: Still Casting)
Sailor's Foretaste of the Meadow (Level 20) (Mastery 1: Still Casting)
Whispers Through the Black Gate (level 15) (Mastery 1: Penetration)
The Inexorable Search (Level 20) (Mastery 1: Magic Resistance)
Eyes of the Cat (Level 5) (Mastery 2: Multiple Casting, Quiet Casting)
Despair of the Quivering Manacles (level 15) (Mastery 1: Multiple Casting)
Rise of the Feathery Body (level 10) (Mastery 1: Multiple Casting)
Strings of the Unwilling Marionette (Level 25) (Mastery 2: Penetration, Multiple Casting)
Sight of the Transparent Motive (Level 10) (Mastery 2: Still Casting, Quiet Casting)
The Call to Slumber (Level 10) (Mastery 2: Penetration, Multiple Casting)
Skewing the Vaults of Memory (Level 5, Base 3, +2 Range: Voice) (Mastery 2: Quiet Casting, Multiple Casting)

For the curious, the other two ideas were a Criamon magus centering around the path of warping and using twilight to give himself an edge in the form of the additional virtues and a general fascination with twilight, which resulted in said magus being not quite right in the head and being a tad warped as a result, but continuing to pursue greater power and enlightenment from twilight, believing true mastery of twilight to be the key to solving the enigma, and a Merinita magus who specializes in Glamour magic, spontaneous magic, and Arcadian travel. Of course, I'm rather stumped as to what to do for virtues and flaws for those two.

27

The points don't look right. You appear to be missing some early childhood points and have too many from apprenticeship. Also, without books on hand I'm not sure, but you may have more points to spend in Spell Mastery depending on how Flawless Magic interacts with Mastered Spells.

Chris

28

only 15 points (of 45) spent on childhood abilities.
155 XP on abilities in total
185 XPs spent on Arts (at a glance, given the affinities)
150 levels of spells

did I miss anything

29

For the childhood, he does have the Covenant Upbringing flaw, allowing early childhood points to be spent on Latin and Hermetic Lore. For the extra xp in arts and levels of spells, the Skilled Parens virtue gives 60xp and 30 extra levels of spells, all 60 xp went into arts, and the 30 extra levels of spells plus the default 120 makes 150.

30

Flawless Magic gives you the first level of mastery for free. To get to a mastery score of 2 normally costs 10 xp, but Flawless Magic doubles any xp spent, so in this case it only takes 5 xp from your Masted Spells virtue (these get doubled, too). It appears you haven't spent all those experience points, I only get a total of 20 experience of the 50 from Mastered spells.

You've selected two Story Flaws a major and a minor, by RAW (Rules as Written) this isn't allowed. Some SGs allow it, some don't.

I don't recommend taking an Affinity in two Techniques. I'm not the most experienced player in the world, but I thought I could enjoy such a character. I did not. That particular combination tends towards generalization. Being specialized, especially immediately out of gauntlet is, IMO, the most fun.

You should invest 5-15 xp in Concentration. At least 5 xp so you don't roll triple the botch[1] dice on a Concentration roll to maintain control of your addiction. Those 25th level spells will almost always fail a concentration roll in this character. Ease factor for a 25th level spell is probably 13 (12 with a generous SG). With an Int of 3, you have to roll a total of 10 to control your addiction, or you continue casting spells of the same level or higher or you cast any spontaneous spell extending fatigue. Next round you have to roll a 7, and then the next round it drops to a 4.

[1] Remember, without experience in an Ability if you use the Ability and you roll a 0 you roll triple botch dice.

31

Well, at this point, having been as clumsy as I was with making this character, I am wondering if it'd be a good idea to just start over again. That said, any advice for virtues for the other two concepts i described would be very much welcome as well. I notice though, that nobody raised any objections to him being apprenticed at age 5. Also, Hermetic Theurgy vs Hermetic Alchemy, both sound interesting, both seem to fit the character, but what are the summarized pros and cons of them both in actual play experience?

32

In your situation, I'd avoid a Mystery cult at character creation and see if that's something that can come up during play. I'm not a huge fan of mystery cults, though.
As far as the age of apprenticeship, well, everyone's different. If I were your SG, I'd ask you to explain why he was apprenticed at that age. A 5 year old doesn't know a whole bunch. But if he had Int +5, maybe. IF he knew Latin (Educated), getting better. Having The Gift manifest is a big deal, but there are any number of magi who would be cautious at opening his Arts and claiming him formally as an apprentice, kind of a big risk...

At the risk of sounding something of a spendthrift, but if you have access to disposable income, consider getting MetaCreator. It significantly eases the process of character generation. Although it doesn't do some things correctly (Mastered Spells with Flawless Magic) and does some things differently (Affinities).

33

I strongly recommend not buying any kind of mystery virtue (house or cult) as part of a character generation package.

Instead, earn them through play. The journey of getting initiated leads to stories, and telling the story of your magus' rise to power makes for a fun tale.

If you do want to ultimately pursue a non-House mystery cult, just inform your SG which one interests you. They can then write stories about it as the saga progresses, or weave it into the saga in some way.

If you want to pursue house mysteries for a mystery cult house, just worry about those. There's going to be enough story material for any one of those (Criamon or Merinita) without branching out into other mystery cults. If you really want to go on an initiation-of-erything trip, get your SG to check out Legends of Hermes...

For a prodigy, I would honestly recommend just going with a straight up super-bright Bonisagus magus and giving him a personality flaw regarding wanting to delve into hidden mysteries. A prodigy Seeker would probably get you a whole collection of what you want in terms of character type, and all the fun looking things in the various books are things you can work towards and earn in play.

34

that takes care of the childhood abilities then.
The master takes care of the spell levels, so XPs are at
155 XP on abilities in total
185 XPs spent on Arts (at a glance, given the affinities)

for a total of
340 XPs if i can still add in my head :wink:

so. 45 for childhood, 240+60 for apprenticeship (60 from the master, right? monk's parma)

NB! I haven't cared about spell mastery at all

35

+1. If this is your first character I would even avoid ALL books except for the core book. There is more than enough to chew there.

Cheers,
Xavi

36

IIRC Covenant Upbringing opens up Dead Language: Latin to you. But I don't think it changes the rules for character creation in another way. I think, technically, you still can't spend those first 45 points on it. Of course, since you could spend them on Living Language and Latin has essentially become that for this character, I can see it being OKed.

Chris

37

presence 0 I pressume?

38

Ok, let's try this again. I slightly tweaked the concept so that Joda Magil Ex Bonisagus (I'm not sure if the "Ex [House Name]" form of nomenclature is correct for any house, or just Ex Miscellanea, but noone's corrected me, so I've stuck with it) is a whiz kid at learning from teacher or book, and very, very good with formulaic spells, being able to pull things with them that don't come so easily to other magi. Also, the original Joda Magil, my first d&d character, was a conjurer, hence the heavy focus on Creo spells, because I still think like a conjurer. Anyway, here it is, my second attempt at Joda Magil Ex Bonisagus:

Joda Magil ex Bonisagus

Age: 22

Apprenticeship ages: 7-22

Virtues
Flawless Magic (Major)
Book Learner (Minor)
Skilled Parens (Minor)
Mastered Spells (Minor)
Great Intelligence x2 (Minor)
Affinity with Creo (Minor)
Apt Student (Minor)
Puissant Magic Theory (House)

Flaws
Magic Addiction (Major)
Blatant Gift (Major)
Mentor: Shoban Arterius of Bonisagus (Minor)
Warped Magic (Minor)
Ambitious (Minor)
Driven (Minor)

Characteristics:
Strength -2
Intelligence +5
Stamina +1
Perception 0
Quickness +1
Dexterity -1
Communication +2
Presence 0

Abilities
Native Language (English) 5
Awareness 2
Guile 3
Area Lore (British Isles) 2
Concentration 3
Artes Liberales 1
Latin 4
Magic Theory 3
Parma Magica 1
Chirurgy 2
Penetration 2

Arts
Techniques
Creo 10
Rego 7
Intellego 6

Forms
Terram 8
Vim 7
Imaginem 1
Mentem 2
Corpus 4

Spells
CrAq: Footsteps of Slippery Oil (Level 5) (Mastery 1: Magic Resistance)
CrAq: Creeping Oil (Level 15) (Mastery 3: Magic Resistance, Multiple Casting, Penetration)
*CrCo: The Severed Limb Made Whole (Level 25) (Mastery 1: Still Casting)
*CrCo: The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (Level 20) (Mastery 1: Still Casting
ReCo: Spasms of the Uncontrolled Hand (Level 5) (Mastery 2: Multiple Casting, Penetration)
CrIg: Palm of Flame (Level 5) (Mastery 1: Fast Casting)
CrIg: Heat of the Searing Forge (Level 10) (Mastery 1: Magic Resistance)
*CrTe: Touch of Midas (Level 20) (Mastery 1: Quiet Casting)
CrTe: Wall of Protecting Stone (Level 25) (Mastery 4: Fast Casting, Multiple Casting, Still Casting, Quiet Casting)
InTe: Probe for Pure Silver (Level 4) (Mastery 1: Fast Casting)
ReVi: Gather the Essence of the Beast (Level 15) (Mastery 2: Fast Casting, Penetration)

Spells marked with * are rituals.

A few notes: I realized, albeit entirely too late, that I forgot to put points into the Penetration ability, hence so many mastery abilities being Penetration, so in the end that'll just have to be something Joda picks up as he goes through his career. Other future plans involve finding and initiating into either Hermetic Alchemy or Hermetic Theurgy (I'm still torn between the two, so I've avoided pigeonholing myself toward one or the other), and learning/inventing some ritual spells to take advantage of the fact that his ritual casting score is so much higher than his normal casting score. Also, perhaps Philosophic Alchemy to distill other types of Vis, since he thinks of vis as the currency of magi, and would like to have an edge when bartering with other magi for things like lessons or books.

Anyway, let me know how I did this time, and I'll also be brainstorming another, slightly more complicated idea I had.

39

Maybe you could relax a little on abilities, or on art scores. This is a beginning character, after all, he'll have all the time in the world to grow up.
For exemple, drop Rego to 7, Intellego to 6, Imaginem to 1, et voila, you have Penetration 2

You could maybe broaden up your abilities, too. As he is, I am stricken with his utter lack of any social (or non-magically applicable) skill. This looks like a character who grew up in complete isolation, completely shut of from normal like and people, turned only and entirely on the hermetic side of the world, learning only skills that would be applicable in the hermetic world.
Now that I think of it, this is strange. You should check out your childhood abilities.

40

The mastery abilities you chose for the Rituals are useless and wasted - so you can take their points back and put them into something else like Penetration. You might even drop the Mastered Spells virtue for something else, better rounding out the character. What about Gild Membership (GotF)?

Cheers