I'm creating a Hummingbird familiar using the rules for Beasts of Virtue, which includes the need for some positive essential characteristic about the hummingbird. Problem is, I don't actually think very highly about hummingbirds, so I need some suggestions.
I'm currently tossing around Flightly, or something to that effect, meaning that it's always moving, never flat-footed or surprised, but I'm not in love with it. Anyone have any better ideas?
Secondarily, besides the required abilities, what skills does it make sense for a hummingbird to have?
Done and done, but there isn't much guidance there more specific than Birds; none of the sample birds really seem to match hummingbird vibes. I've got the required skills, added some virtues that made sense, but going from "slightly more agile bird" to "hummingbird familiar" to "The epitome of what it means to be a hummingbird" is where I'm faltering.
They have a level of control that is insane. They are the only bird that can hover. They can also fly upside down. One could focus on always being in control. Being unflappable (I'm pretty pleased with that pun).
An ability about not being able to moved against one's will, mentally and/or physically, could fit. As it is magical, this could mean hovering in gale force winds if you wanted to go that way.
Since the only thing that comes close to a hummingbird in Europe is a type of moth, I would suggest it is a Fairie creature (because anything can exist in Arcadia). Or Fairie adjacent, so give it Fairie characteristics.
In my South American thing, the Diedne came back as the worshippers of the Left Handed Hummingbird (Yes, thanks Kate Orman)
My other choice would be that they see time differently to humans.
A hummingbird familiar may let you crack one of the implicit Limits of Magic, which is that, in universe, spells work on time with quanta, not time as a continuum. I called this the Cosmic Metronome on my blog and suggested a Bjornaer Great Beast might be able to break out of the universe's six second click tracks for magical effects, the same way time dilated regiones do.
One of the limits of Hermetic magic is that you cannot cast a spell faster than once every game round, six seconds. There is a slight change you can make with fast casting, but all that does is puts you in a different part of the six second round. Also, you can multicast, but that just duplicates your spell - it's not truly casting different spells in the round.
Time in Mythic Europe is in indivisible chunks and magi can see and test that. That is, time has a quantum and it's huge: six seconds, unlike in our universe where it exists but its negligibly small (roughly 10 ^-43 seconds, called Planck Time.) This first came up when I was trying to work out ways for House Tremere to overcome the Parma Magica by massed fire.
That is, game rounds are observably real in setting. No faerie, demon or angel uses powers more than once per round. Magi can cast spells which perfectly track the click track of the passing rounds. (Sorry, a click track is a podcasting / music thing like a metronome: a conssisten timekeeping sound,) Time for magi, is in precise pieces.
There is, however, one occasion this doesn't work. If you are outside a regio looking in, and it is time dilated, you can see that spells are apparently being cast at faster than once per six seconds. On my blog I suggested that some Bjornaer Great Beasts might experience time the way speedsters in comic books do: effectively carrying a regio-like time dilation with them, making them able to break the once per round rule. A hummingbird familiar might do something similar. Even if it doesn;t affect spell casting it may affect speed of thought, give a tendency toward boredom and depression, and create a social barrier, as it does for Quicksilver and the Flash.
Although people referenced it through Huitzilopotchtli, the reason that hummingbirds are regarded as fierce is that they are extremely territorial and will viciously attack interloper hummingbirds. You can google some Youtube videos of their fights (although, they're pretty brief in person.)
If you're playing in Mythic Europe you probably want a sunbird instead (their range extends into the Middle East).
This just isn't true. Even the core rules say in multiple spots you can pull off at least 2 different spells per round in two ways. The rules allow magi to get multiple different spells off in the same round, and this is allowed to apply to powers of beings.
On top of this, that there is an ordering of effects, such as beating a spell with a fast-cast spell or not, or taking a wound before making your own strike. That necessitates quanta, if they exist, to be smaller than 6 s.
There are also things that could be done in less than 6 s, like Labyrinth Meditation.
You might want to read up on this more before making unsubstantiated comments like this. This is not what Planck time is, even if the value you report is correct for it.
So, that's incorrect. To complement what callen has said:
It's possible to fast-cast several times - it just complicates the rolls. The fast cast spell doesn't need to be the same one
Failing to fast cast on time means no more spells that round (although you may, if you want, finish casting that spell. There is nothing that says if you pull off your fast cast spell, you can't cast a regular spell too.
Multicast isn't incompatible with fast casting that round.
Yes, a magi with high finesse and high spell mastery can be scary and try to cast 8 spells per round if they dare.
