Donner the Giant's Dog

OK, here's my first attempt at making a magical creature. I really could use some input on this especially on how he might be improved. His base is the Hound from RoP: Magic page 31.

Donner the Giant’s Dog
Familiar to Alexei
Might: 10 Season: Summer

Size: +2
Str +1/+5
Sta +2
Int -1
Per +2
Pre -2
Comm 0
Dex +1
Quick +2/0

Personality Traits: Hound +3, Curious +2, Playful +2, Loyal +3, Brave +3

Virtues: Improved Fatigue, Keen Sense of Smell, Long Winded, Sharp Ears, Tough, Unaffected by the Gift
Flaws: Magical Friend, Environmental Sensitivity (Hearing)(?)

Magic Qualities: Gigantic (Size +2), Personal Power (1), Personal Power x2 (2), Lesser Power (3), Improved Damage x2 (Bite), Improved Attack (Bite), Improved Soak x3 (Tough Hide)
Magic Inferiorities: Susceptible to Deprivation, Minor Flaw (Weakness, playing), Reduced Abilities

Abilities: Athletics 5 (Distance Running), Awareness 4 (Keeping Watch), Brawl 5 (Bite), Hunt 4 (Tracking by Scent), Survival 4 (Forest), Leadership 2 (Other Dogs)

Combat:
Bite: Init +2/0, Attack +12, Defense +9/+7, Damage +7/+11
Soak: +11
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0/0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-7), -3 (8-14), -5 (15-21), Inc (22-28), Dead (29+)

  1. Runt MuAn
    Shrinks Donner down to a more manageable size of 0. Doing this drops his wound range down and lowers his Strength by 4 but raises his Quickness by 2.
    Base 4 R: Personal D: Sun +2 T: Individual
    Power level = 10 Mastery points = 3 (25-10/5)
    Mastery Points spent: 2 to reduce cost, 1 to increase speed +1
    Power cost = 0
    Penetration N/A (8)
    Init: +1

  2. My Master needs me! ReAn
    Donner can instantly appear near his owner when called. The power does not grant Donner any knowledge of where Alexei is or if he needs him or not. Alexei will have to enchant powers into their bond to communicate over distance, otherwise Donner travels on his whim. Due to his natural Size, Donner must shrink to Size 0 before he can use this power.
    Base 35 R: Personal D: Momentary T: Individual
    Power level = 35 Mastery Points = 3 (50-35/5)
    Mastery Points spent: 2 to reduce cost, 1 for Finesse 1 (Landing near Alexei)
    Power Cost = 1
    Penetration N/A (3)
    Init: -2

  3. The Inexorable Hunter (RoP: Magic page 31)

edit I had Might at 8 because of his Size, but his Size is 0 and was increased by a Major Quality.

IIRC, didn't I do you a template a long time ago? I seem to recognize at least traces of it (the size shrinking power), but I don't know if it's the same thing or if you've had to start again from scratch.

You know, with Donner, alexei can probably get revenge for the whole Rahere thing.
Given their respective size, to Donner, Stultus would probably look like a brightly colored, squeaky chew toy... :smiley:

And he has bells on. We just need a catapult to play fetch

You made it! I thought it was Jebrick. Yes I definitely borrowed from the concept because I lost the original you sent me. I started from scratch but kept the idea, especially the shrinking power.

If you have that copy and could post it here I'd like to compare it, this version is my first attempt and likely has plenty of room for improvement.

Regarding revenge for Rahere, to be honest I see Rahere playing the part of Moe to Donner being Curly. NyukNyukNyuk!

Some things that I'd like to do with him either in redesign or in the Familiar bond and enchantment process:

Somehow using Scents as an Arcane Connection. He technically alreay does, the tracking power is at AC range. If that's the case, then Alexei could use that in two ways.

1st, Donner could go wherever the AC is, his Teleport power typically only takes him to Alexei, but that could be more of a preference than design limitation. So he gets a sniff and then poof. Once Donner's there, Alexei can Port there with his own spell of Leap of Homecoming, using Donner as an AC.

2nd, Alexei could maybe make a power for Donner in the lab where he solidifies an AC from a scent he's picked up. It might be a bit gross, but it could work.

Another power would be a fear producing power. I want him to look and act like a giant puppy, but when he turns on the fierce face he is downright terrifying. Something like a bark and a growl that forces a Brave roll. That'd be easy enough to enchant I suppose, but if it could be built in before the Familiar process that could be good.

Alexei's best lab total for this is Rego Corpus, which is 45, and just makes it for Donner as he is now with his Might and Size.

Scents being an AC, I don't have a problem with. But, as best I can tell, the Duration of such an AC is probably only hours... Is that a reasonable understanding, it's like "Air from a specific place."

I'd agree, it'd be very powerful otherwise. It still offers possibilities, but they could certainly land Alexei into trouble. I'll check out the Magi of Hermes book, the Flambeau Ranulf I believe has a spell or item that can preserve a brief connection long enough to get it to a lab. If I were to go with that power I'd likely need to enchant it as a power once he's bound.

One question I have is on the Virtues and Flaws. I matched the Virtues and Flaws from the Hound, and then added the Flaw Magical Friend and the virtue Unaffected by the Gift, I paid for that with Environmental Sensitivity Hearing, but would I need to? From what i read it seemed that Virtues and Flaws don't need to be balanced necessarily, it's the Qualities and Inferiorities that need to balance. The Magical Friend is Necessary for Social status, but maybe not the Sensitivity?

For a player-character magic animal, V&F's do need to balance. And you need to subtract size from might.
And the scent thing, I was gonna use that for Cidito, but it was suggested that I make it into a full on magic power lest it get out of hand. I reccomend it, Donnar would generate a large catelogue of perpetually sustained AC's.
Oh, and don't forget your Natural Qualities :slight_smile: Free perks :wink:

OK, let me see this.

It didn't seem I needed to have the virtues and flaws match, there were a few examples, such as the Hound and the magical horse Aeolus that didn't match their V&F, but did have to match their Qualities, if the Qualities went over their Might that is.

So I set his Might at 10 and his Size at 0, and then took the Major Quality of Gigantic once, which raised his Size to +2. That's where I got confused, I wasn't sure if his Might would be reduced by that or not, I'm fine if it does.

The Scent thing as it is now is designed as a Lesser power, it costs him Might to use it also I think. I took it right from the Hound example they gave and it has a range of AC, so it's usefulness could be questionable, the Penetration would likely be too low to affect many things. Then again, if i teach him the Penetration skill, he'd posses an AC already with the target and might be able to get a decent benefit from it. Plus I imagine if I had another AC from a target, such as a lock of hair maybe, I'm sure the power would work.

I think I'll definitely spend some time making an item or an enchantment into the bond that allows Donner to transfer an AC he's got through smell so that it can be fixed later on. I also need to work out some buffs for him and protection. I can go nuts with that, since he has Magic Might he can't be Warped by my spells, only by effects from other Realms.

Now what about those Natural Qualities you mentioned? Fixer do you have the original Donner? That was such a good creature it seemed, I only managed to get a small bit of that one's abilities.

the might is based on his size. So start from zero size with 10MP. Get Gigantic which makes him +2 and MP 8. If you need more MP I think you can get a virtue that will increase it.

Actually, you do not have to purchase Gigamtic. For magic animals, you can arbitrarilly pick a size, no cost, and simply adjust your base Might score.
However, I did not notice that you did purchase that quality. In said case, I would say Base might is unaffected.

As for the V/F balance, I should metion that the examples are a) character guides and only partially complete, and b) horribly inconsistant with each other.

He is basing it on the Hound in RoP:M which has gigantic. A hound of virtue would be anywhere from size 0 to size -2 ( terrier of virtue :open_mouth: ). So a mastiff is normally size 0. To make him bigger I'm sure you would need to buy a virtue to increase his size.

Teriers are my very favorite breed. SFW, for the most part, although it does mention masturbation.

So do I have to change the Might? Not only that, are there some alternate ideas on how i can build him? i want to get the build down before I do the enchanting, the best lab total i can pull off without experimenting is 45, which is decent I'd say, I can get some of the cords pretty good.

Virtues and flaws must match, fix that.
And being based on Magical Hound, it's stated explicitly that the Magical Hound needs to be fleshed out with additional Flaws.

If you want his eventual aid in the lab, you may want to keep his Magic Might down. Makes it real hard for him to learn things (like Magic Theory) otherwise.

I may have stated this elsewhere, I'm almost sure I have, I don't subscribe to the idea of requiring vis to learn for familiars. Other magical creatures, sure.

(( Oh cool. :slight_smile:))