Much as with Blair, I'm going to only keep my character sheet on the wiki; I find it much easier to make complex changes in wiki pages than forum posts!
I've only so far got to the stage of working out a few flaws and virtues; there are many other thoughts flying around in my head though. Primary arts probably Creo, Intelligo; Auram, Terram.
Dušan's parens is a member of the Burning Acorn Vexillation. I don't think it's reasonable to expect him to be a member yet, but he will hope/expect to be one in the fullness of time.
Questions (so far):
Is "When Not in Human Form" a reasonable Weak Magic Resistance condition; given that he's a shapeshifter
Is a Minor Magical Focus in "rain" too broad? (The canonical one is "storms" but I'm primarily interested in the drizzle/light rain/persistent raining-all-day end of the spectrum, rather than big spectacular effects. Also rains of fire/stones/frogs)
Is Foreign Upbringing allowed? Grogs p80
HoH:TL p122 details that the Burning Acorn have a breed of "partially-fae horse that does not react badly to Gifted riders, and can see in the dark". Would it be possible to have one of those? I thought about putting this in as a virtue/flaw, but there doesn't appear to be a faerie equivalent of Magical Animal Companion (Faerie Friend isn't quite the same) to suit. OTOH it might arguably be a Resource that could come out of my BPs.
I'd be fine with it. It might be little questionable when compared to the description of the Flaw, but as a shapeshifter I think it qualifies as being potentially exploitable.
ArM5 p.46, second example under Auram: Rain. Sounds good to me.
Foreign Upbringing hedges really close to being a flaw that isn't a flaw. If we view it fro the peer group of Magi, the only way this works is if he is from the Theban Tribunal and hasn't learned Latin. I don't see this from a Tremere magus as they oppose the Thevan tribunal's adoption of Classical Greek.
I don't see rain as overly broad. It isn't as useful as storms or wind, which are valid minor foci.
As far as House resources that is well spelled out by True Lineages. I think this qualifies as a specialist. Does he rate high enough for such assistance?
I see it working for an African or a Cuman or a Sami or something like that. It makes room for the disallowed Outsider as a Minor Flaw instead of a Major Flaw.
What I meant is the Major Flaw Outsider is disallowed for magi because it's a Social Status and you can only take multiple of those if there is a statement that they are compatible. So Hermetic Magus excludes Outsider. But what if your magus really is an outsider? How do you handle what would otherwise be a Major Flaw but now isn't available at all? Grogs provides a new option: Foreign Upbringing. It's not a Social Status, so it's open to magi. So we can now represent Outsider for a Hermetic Magus with the Minor Flaw Foreign Upbringing and be by-the-book.
I get that it is allowed by RAW if certain requirements hold. From a story perspective it doesn't hold with House Tremere. Conformity and acceding to authority is their thing. They want their magi to mesh well with the order.
It would work if the Tremere themselves were outsiders in Loch Legan (or at least our part of it). For example, it would be a perfectly valid flaw in the Theban tribunal, I think, and I would expect a lot of Tremere to potentially have it.
I don't have the tribunal book, so I don't know what it says on the subject, but if there aren't really any Tremere around or the like, then it could be valid.
That's an interesting way of looking at the flaw; and not one I'd considered before. But if you do look at it that way, then it makes the analogous but nicer "Covenant Upbringing" flaw (ArM5 p52) as frankly a virtue for nearly all Magi, most Consors, and nearly all Grogs.
I've always interpreted "Covenant Upbringing" as a flaw that's actually a flaw because of the effects on relations with the mundanes around the covenant more than the other inhabitants of it; and I don't think "Foreign Upbringing" is any less a flaw -- from Dušan's point of view the locals in Loch Leglean look funny, worship funny, speak funny, and have a very odd social and political structure.
Presumably the 75 BPs the SG is allowing for each magus are in practice for a Tremere dedicated house resources.
However that aside the house support available in HoH:TL doesn't entirely cover the question. If you're regarding it as a specialist (or as HoH:TL states it "a highly-skilled but non-magical person" then that's only available secretly; which isn't really compatable with actually riding the horse. If you think it's a "tame magical animal" that's only availalble to "Skilled Magi", but would also suggest that Magical Animal Companion would be appropriate for it. As a third approach "a team of horses" is available to younger magi suggesting that a single horse might be below the appropriate level there. To some extent this is going to depend on the actual rarity and value of these horses within the specific saga. If it's deemed that this approach is the best one then I'll put the points into Ride on the assumption that Dušan has trained with one and can hope to have access to one in the future.
Not having the Grog book... How is it a flaw if Dušan views the locals like they are barbarians ( which they arel ikely to be)? For the Grog, it is his interactions with the other gorgs which is much more of a tight knit social group then the Magi.
It's a Flaw because of how others view him. The covenfolk, even when they're used to magi, think he is particularly odd. Even without the immediate interaction penalty from the Gift, his behaviors will make him seem odd to locals as well.
Rain is in the list of examples for Minor Magical Foci, so I would say no. However, by expanding it into "anything that falls from the sky" is, imo, kind of pushing it, but not so far as to disallow it. Close, leaning over the line, but not crossing it.
For magi, I would say no, simply because they tend to be so much more widely-travelled than grogs. If a magus meets another magus from Damascus, he would be all like, "Cool! What brings you to the other side of the world?" A grog from Damascus winding up in the backwaters of Scotland would, I think, have a much harder time adjusting than a magus would.
Both Animal Companion and Magic Animal Companion are Minor Story Flaws, so I'd be fine with it.
That seems reasonable. I was leaning in that direction after the discussion above.
I think I've got my ambiguous-reading-goggles on or something. Do you mean "take whicever of Animal/Magic Animal Companion you think is most appropriate and work it out like that" or "work something up as if there were a hypothetical Faerie Animal Companion flaw". I think I could work with either option .
Either way, would it be possible to combine that with the Mentor story flaw; representing relationship with his parens?
Removing Foreign Upbringing and adding ? Animal Companoon and Mentor to my wikipage would make a complete set of virtues and flaws.
Eagle Owl and white (Coeris) Wolf. I don't think I'll have the points for a third level in Shapeshift, but I can't think of an appropriate third form at the moment either.
I've updated the wiki page to end of apprenticeship (age 9+15 = 24); except no spells yet.
I'm not sure how many years post-gauntlet I want yet; there are some obvious gaps to fill... Also I'm a bit torn over familiars / talismans. Being without a familiar appears to be quite a power nerf; but from an OOC point of view it's nicer to encounter / bind one during play. Talisman-wise I'm not sure how worthwhile it is attuning one if the character isn't powerful enough to put serious effects into it yet.
I'm going to come back tomorrow and fill out at least soem post-gauntlet and some spells.
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