Space reserved for final character sheet
Overview
[table][tr][td]Born: 1256 AD[/td]
[td]Size: -2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Age: 10 (beginning of 1267)[/td]
[td]Confidence: 1 (3)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Apparent Age: 10[/td][td][/td][/tr][/table]
Characteristics (Child)
[table][tr][td]Intelligence +2 (+0)[/td]
[td]Presence +2 (+0)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Perception +1 (-1)[/td]
[td]Communication +2 (+0)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Strength +0 (-2)[/td]
[td]Dexterity +1 (-1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Stamina +1 (-1)[/td]
[td]Quickness +1 (-1)[/td][/tr][/table]
Virtues
The Gift (Free)
Hermetic Apprentice (Social Status, free)
i Undefined House Virtue[/i]
Gentle Gift (Major)
i Major Magical Focus (visual images) (Major)[/i]
i Puissant Imaginem[/i]
Free Expression
Improved Characteristics x 2
Flaws
Turbulence Prone (Child) (Major)
-
(Inherited, Replaces above) Short-Ranged Magic (Major)
i Deficient Technique (Perdo) (Major)[/i]
i Exciting Experimentation[/i]
Magical Thing Companion
Visions
Overconfident
Godfrey is from England currently one of the Gifted students around Scholae Pythagoranis going untrained. Between his Gentle Gift and a lack of Masters (House Jerbiton really wants to keep him due to his Gentle Gift), he is a bit older than other apprentices. However his lack of training and discipline means his emerging magical abilities express themselves whenever he feels strong emotion (Turbulence Prone). He is artistically talented for his age (Free Expression) and blessed with more abilities than other children (Improved Characteristics). This leads to a certain amount of overconfidence in his abilities. One thing holding him back, which makes him a little spooky to other kids, are his visions which lead him to make cryptic statements that sound far too outside a child's ken.
One thing he's brought with him from his former life to the school is a statue that he was told was a bust of Aristotle. One thing that makes it different is that the bust actually speaks back to him -- at least when they're in private.
The only way two major Hermetic virtues are possible is if one is taught, and the other is inherited. Gentle Gift is essentially inherited and manifest already, and the major magical focus is inherited and not manifest.
Now, I don't have a problem with Godfrey desiring to gentle his Gift, and he could potentially do that here at the school (I haven't worked out the math). I would suggest that his Gift manifested before leaving and it was actually a standard Gift, which is a reason for him to leave and come to this school.
If you're fine with finding a way to Gentle a Gift, I can work with that. I've mostly viewed it as an inherent thing, though, because there's only one way (via a Criamon mystery, I think?) to Gentle one's Gift in the Ars Magica canon that I can recall. (I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though!) I figured a Magical Focus could be taught (or learned or practiced) as an apprentice develops his skill with Hermetic Magic.)
Does that work, having the Gift manifest/inherited while the Magical Focus is learned during apprenticeship?
There was a big discussion about this in the Ars Magica forum, that discussed Apprentices when it came out. Matt Ryan specifically stated that he didn't want to limit troupes as to what Hermetic Virtues can be taught. And leaving the possibility that the Gentle Gift can be taught is one of those things. Some virtues (Gild Trained and Skilled Parens) make less sense as a "taught" virtue.
Since this game is apprentice focused, I wanted to allow that freedom. Clement and Kaltheus both have the Gentle Gift. So they can teach it, as outlined in the Apprentices thread. Godfrey can accumulate half of the XP taught in a particular class taught by them into an Ability called Gentle Gift, and once it reaches the necessary SQ he knows it. That SQ will probably at least need to include the major magical focus. The Target level for a major Hermetic Virtue is 21, but will go up and down based on other Hermetic Virtues manifest, and may be reduced by the initial Hermetic Flaw taken when the Arts are opened and any other Hermetic Flaw acquired from either Kaltheus or Clement. Assuming the SQ is 21, it will take 5 semesters to learn the Gentle Gift. (2.5xp/teacher*2 teachers w/ Gentle Gift=5 xp per semester, 21xp /5 xp/semester=4.2 semesters). That's 5 out of 12 semesters.
Realms of Power: Magic allows magic characters to take a Ritual Power (p. 40). One of the "common magic powers" listed in the insert on p. 38 is "Grant (Major Virtue)", which can be used to grant the Gentle Gift either temporarily (until the character takes back the Might Points he used to grant the Virtue) or Permanently (which costs from his Might Score instead of his Might Pool; it's not permanent, but it takes a while to get it back unless the covenant is willing to let the character consume a lot of vis).
I hadn't followed any of the post-Apprentices launch discussion. Interesting. Well, then that works. Interesting that you can learn to Gentle your Gift during apprenticeship, but most don't do it afterwards even if it'd be a boon to running one's convenant. I had a character who lost his Gentle Gift and was looking for a way to re-acquire it. At the time, it looked like it would involve joining House Criamon or undergoing Original Research to do it.
Well, learn something new every day! We'll go with how you outlined it, then, and I'll modify my working post accordingly.
Ordinarily you can't really teach the Gentle Gift to magi with a lot of Hermetic Virtues manifest. Say a magus has a total of 6 points of Hermetic Virtues, that means that the SQ necessary is +3 higher for each point. Teaching the Gentle Gift would require a +39 SQ, or if a Hermetic Flaw is added, +30 SQ. Not many teachers can get to +30 SQ, and virtually no one will get to a +39 SQ; a Good Teacher and a single student has +14, so Teaching + Com would have to be 16 or 25.
Starting a bit late (relatively speaking), Godfrey's skills represent some members of House Jerbiton putting him into the Church as a way of keeping him occupied while they sought out a magister to take over his Hermetic training. As such, he was given a rudimentary education and taught how to help keep up a church -- this included cleaning it between masses, singing in the choir, and doing other tasks. It was here that his Free Expression virtue began to express itself as he took up to the occasional drawing or candle carving and demonstrating an intuitive and uncommonly good grasp of artwork.
Early Childhood (45xp)
Speak English 5
Athletics 2
Awareness 2
Folk Ken 2
Ages 5-10 (75xp)
Artes Liberales 1
Brawl 1
Charm 1
Craft: Wax Carvings 2
Music 2
Organization Lore: Church 2
Speak Latin 2