Sorry about the threadomancy, but as I get further into the Transylvania thread I'm getting concerned about Marius and Draganna. They were both designed (mostly) to meet Marko's/Carmen's preferences for the covenant - lores, languages, etc. What I'm realizing now that Vocis is knee-deep in Tremere intrigue is that he's looking for something else - a mundane expert on the Order itself, presumably represented by Order Lore and Code of Hermes. Neither Marius nor Draganna, as currently constructed, can fill that role. Marko, what are your thoughts on this?
I would just have one (selfish) request on this. I tried to make Solomon the clear "expert" on the Code of Hermes within the covenant...going so far as to look at every other character sheet to make sure he had the highest score at 5 during character creation. I would prefer that a background NPC that is not really even going to be played not show up and know more about the Code than him.
Not a problem, at least from my perspective. I'm just looking for something to demonstrate that one of them has been taught the Tremere's spin on how the Order works and can then (perhaps unwittingly) teach that to others. I'd be happy with an Order Lore of 5 and CoH of 4, plus the understanding that we're never going to consult an NPC professor on legal matters except as an absolute last resort (i.e. Solomon and everyone else with decent CoH is dead, in Twilight, or in another Realm).
They were not tailored to my specifics. They were based on your own demands. Marius was contructed within the parameters for power and balance that you asked for, I based Draganna on having skills different than Marius. And making her a werewolf with entrancement powers like her uncle Dragor.
The character was never finished, just a rough draft. I can fiddle some things.
Sorry, you're right. I was the one looking for lores. My bad. 
Revising and developing the concept a little...
[hr][/hr]
Draganna Tesla:
Characteristics: Int +3, Per -1, Com +2, Pre +2, Str -2, Sta -1, Dex +0, Quik 0
Size: -1
Age: 44 (30)
Season: Summer 1235
Decrepitude: 0
Warping: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues: +3 Entrancement, +1 Essential Virtue-Good Instructor, +1 Good Teacher, +1 Book Learner, +1 Linguist, +1 Piercing Gaze, +1 Privileged Upbringing, +1 Second Sight; Scholomance Training (+1 Arcane Lore, +1 Educated, +1 Hermetic Experience)
Flaws: -3 Driven (excellence), -3 Lycanthrope, -1 Close Family Ties, -1 Continence, -1 Temperate, -1 Small Frame
Personality Traits: Driven +5, Temperate +3, Loyal +1, *Good Instructor +3 (bonus when teaching by instruction)
Reputations: Talented Instructor 2 (Hermetic), Werewolf 1 (Hermetic)
Combat
Dodge:
Dagger:
Soak: +0
Fatigue: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, ko
Wounds: -1 Lt (1-4), -3 Med (5-8), -5 Hvy (9-12), Incap (13-16), Dead (17+)
check my math!
Abilities: South Slavonic 5 (Serbian, sharp words), Transylvanian Tribunal Area Lore 2; Artes Liberales[sup]1[/sup] 4 (grammar), Awareness 1 (details), Brawl 1 (dagger), Concentration 2 (Study), Dominion Lore 1 (auras), Entrancement 5 (questioning), Faerie Lore 2 (vampires), Folk Ken 2 (women), Guile 2 (straight face), Infernal Lore 1 (dragons), Intrigue 3 (gossip), Leadership 2 (intimidation), Magic Lore 3 (regios), Magic Theory 3 (teaching), Mythic Europe Lore 3 (sequence of history), Order of Hermes Lore 4 (Tremere), Penetration 3 (entrancement), Philosophiae 3 (metaphysics), Profession-Scribe 4 (composition), Second Sight 4 (spirits), Teaching 5 (languages), Arabic 4 (classical), Aramaic 4 (Assyrian), Chaldean 4 (ancient), Coptic 4 (modern), Farsi 3 (Persian), French 4 (Norman), Greek 6 (Romaic, Classical), Hebrew 4 (written), Latin 6 (classical. Hermetic)
[sub]1 alphabets include Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic[/sub]
Equipment:
Encumbrance:
Enchanted Items
Background:
[tab][/tab]Dragana Tesla is the daughter of Rajko Tesla and Illiyanna Ivororvich. Her uncle is Dragor Ivorovich and the Ivorovich family has a long history of service with House Tremere. They also have a family history of lycanthropy and vampirism. She is a werewolf, but not a vampire (uncle Dragor is a damphir though). She started being taught the family trade by uncle Dragor when she was seven, developing her abilities in Entrancement and Second Sight. When she was 23, her uncle got her into the Scholomance. She learned much in her time at the school, demonstrating a proficiency for languages and aptitude for teaching others. After graduation, her uncle migrated to serve as a Tremere agent in Normandy. Dragana was given a position as a language teacher for the next fourteen years, valued for being able to teach Tremere magi and agents to speak new languages fluently in a mere two seasons (base 3, Com +2, Teaching 5 (languages), +6 single student, +5 Good Teacher, +3 Good Instructor; equals 25xp per season to a single student, 22xp to a pair of students, or 19xp to a class of up to 30 students). In 1234, she as recruited by Vocis along with her colleague Maris to serve teaching positions at the prestigious and ancient Covenant of Andorra.
Chronology & Development: Born 1190, taught family ways starting at age 7 in 1197, began Scholamance training at age 22 in 1213, gained three minor virtues over the course of that time (costing 60xp, as per Advancment for Companions), finished training in 1220 at age 30 and started on Longevity level 40 costing 50xp, taught for ten years at the school before transferring to Andorra under the authority of Vocis in 1234 at age 37; the seven years of training and fourteen years of teaching each count as three "cycles" in which Book Learner is applied three times for a total of +105xp.
Never thought about it, but Entrancement on a wolf looks great. 
Why is good instructor a personality trait?
I assume because it was done as an essential virtues, from ROP:magic, but it has been done wrong. It looks like it should be an essential character trait and modify com, replacing it with a +3 in appropriate circumstances.
Yeah, Silveroak is right.
But IIRC, marko ruled that essential traits add to teaching. Which could allow Quality scores in excess of the maxes in Covenant.
And not a beef against you, marko, but, more and more, I'm becoming tired of seeing just about every teacher be not even good but very good to the best there is, with positive com, good teacher, and a bit more. It stretches my suspension of disbelief, gets boring after a while, and, when applied to background NPCs, tend to make the great PC teacher not one of the best, but an average among averages. What is wrong with teachers that have "just" a positive Com, and XPs in a lot of interesting skills, like OoH Lore, House Tremere Lore, some tribunal lores...
Is Tesla a PC? If she is not she should not have story flaws.
Well, I'd go as far as saying that background NPCs, being unimportant characters, should be grogs only, but that's me 
I raised that point many months ago (I think before the great Marko computer crash) but was told specialists were different. Being a n00b, I chose not question that. But I do agree with you Fixer.
Not every teacher. Just these teachers from the scholomance.
And is is not my ruling. It is the way the text in the book states things. There are two ways to apply it, it is an "either-or" sentence" One is to positively affect rolls with a particular characteristic in certain situations, like Initiative +3 or Good Aim +6.
or
Gives the character a beneficial Personality trait.
Draganna uses the first one, gaining a +3 bonus to Communication when instruction (but not writing). I figured it was a more original way to go about it that a super high Com score and Puissant Teaching/Affinity with Teaching.
And that makes only three uber teachers. Fausto was a presence already, working for Vocis. These two teachers were recruited from an uber elite academy, again by Vocis and tailored to his specific requirements.
specialists are different, and they do not neet to have full states. Just a name and their specialist scores.
But Draganna is a Companion. I just killed off a companion (Moe) to make room foe her and others. I was planning on moving Alexandro along next, seeing as we now have Arnau.
However, Draganna is intended for Vocis, so if Fightmaster wants me to scrap her, then so be it.
But I must say you guys are getting really conservative and narrow. This is not intended to be a low powered or even moderate level saga. High power. I throw dragons and daimons at you 
Draganna is designed as a PC, yes.
Save that, reading your quote, it affects positively rolls, not totals. So it shouldn't affect Teaching.
And "only" three über teacher? That's sounds like "We have only 3 einsteins, that's nothing"
Marko, IMHO, it's quite different to have 3 PC über teachers (Meeting of the geniuses!) and a PC plus 2 background NPCs, because every exceptionnal "standard" NPC make the exceptionnal PC all the less exceptionnal
Note that background NPC teachers can be powerful teachers without having all the "right" virtues and stats. They just need to have a good enough score in Teaching. And they can easily be older than PCs! Especially for XP sources, what do we care if the guy is 50? All the better!
Not that NPCs can't be great. My concern is just that when even unimportant people are the best, no one is.
In my defense, I made up Bashir before I knew that. 
"And when everyone’s super … no one will be."
Virtues that purport to represent education, such as Baccalaureus in Art & Academe, can't actually be mimicked without some ridiculously high teaching totals. In other words, teaching is a bit broken in the game.
If you presume that a character has two seasons where he works to pay tuition and spends the other two seasons in study, a Baccalaureus requires 30 xp per year, or 15 xp per season. If you presume that this teaching happens in an environment with more than two students, which is very reasonable, the teacher needs to provide a SQ of 15, of which 3 is the standard amount leaving a SQ of 12 to come from Com, Teaching + Virtues. If you presume that every teacher at university is a Good Teacher, then Com + Teaching needs to be 7. In short, all teachers at University in Mythic Europe must be incredible teachers, just by dint of the setting... Why would teachers involved with the Order of Hermes be even less gifted?
It's not an issue about being conservative (from my standpoint anyway), it's an issue of having NPCs that outshine the PCs. Now, if Draganna is going to be a Companion (vice NPC specialist) then it's all good.
My question is, whose Companion character is it?
My understanding is that every player is allowed 1 magus/heroic companion (or two for those of us playing a master and journeyman) and 1 companion. A look at the companion list on the wiki shows that we have:
Alexandro Pedro Perez, Carmen's Brother & Companion, is the Captain of the Andoran Guard (Played by Marko I believe)
Arnau d'Orfes, Sahir Hunter and Mercenary captain (He's actually a Mythic Companion so Xavi could still make a companion)
Bashir ibn Kamal, doctor and surgeon (Played by Trogdor)
Bernhard der Blutig, Forge-Companion and cousin to Vulcanus (Played by Fightmaster)
Donna the Weaponsmith (Played by Silveroak)
Johan VanHalen the IInd (played by Marko)
Ludwig, sarcastic goblin with a culinary flair (Played by Ryu, who left)
Micaela, otherworldly apprentice to Vocis (Played by Callen, who left, now Fightmaster)
Selim ibn Ahmed, a Jann-blooded Bedouin (Played by me)
Stephanos Hephaistoi, venditor (Made by me, but scratched after Ryu left)
And then the Redcaps:
Tiana (Played by Ryu, who left)
Fedora (Played by Vibria)
So it looks like Ryu had two companions before he left, and I think Marko already has two companions. Fightmaster has two sort of (with Micaela) but there’s not a lot we can do about that since Micaela’s player left and having an apprentice seems important to Vocis.
As far as I can tell, the only two players who don’t already have companions are Fixer and Xavi.
So my question is, are we following the rule that each player only has one companion, or do we just let people make as many companions as they have the time to stat up?