I set myself up for that, didn't I?
Right, time to dig out RoP: Faerie again, I guess.
The final outcome of this thread would be a great article for Peripheral Code, if all you contributors are willing to let me publish it.
Faerie nuff! Shall we try making a companion character from each of the traditions? One trick will by finding sympathy virtues which are both useful, plausible and thematic. I think a bigger problem for effectiveness is getting your casting total high enough (although this is less a problem for the Enchantment Method).
WIP of one the Wise Folk:
Owain, the Cunning Man
The nooks and crannies of the Welsh mountains hold many secrets, and the Dominion can only spread so far. Stories are still told by the valley-dwellers of the fey, both good and ill. Owain is one of the Wise Folk who knows the knacks of the fey, and how they can be used by mortals. He lives alone, scratching out a meager existence by distributing charms and wards against misfortune and malice, but rarely appreciated by the villagers around him, no matter how much he warns them about the harms the faeries may inflict. He has a particular soft spot for children, and is vigilant against the many faeries who prey upon them. After an unfortunate encounter with a particularly nasty faerie, his wife was transformed into a mouse, rather diminishing Owain's prospects of having children of his own. Since then, Owain has been notably melancholy.
Virtues: Wise one, Empathy (Major), Ware, Weal, Woe, Faerie Sympathy (Major), Faerie Background (Free).
Flaws: Meddler (Major), Poor (Major), Missing Eye, Animal Companion, Pessimistic, Arthritis
Sympathy Traits: Children (+5), Traditions (+3), Mice (-3)
Warping: 2
Spells:
Ward against Child Snatchers (Empathy/Ware, 25)
R: Touch (+1), D: Focus (+1), T: Ind
Ward the target against anything associated with one of the caster’s positive Sympathy Traits, with Faerie Might no greater than (the base level of this effect + 20).
Protects a child against child-snatching Faeries of up to Might 25.
[Query: Does a child-snatching faerie count as associated with Children, or should this be considered something opposed by one of the caster's positive Sympathy Traits? 'Opposed by one of the caster's positive Sympathy Traits' isn't a category I've seen, but 'opposed by one of the caster's negative Sympathy Traits' is, so...]
Ward against the Prejudiced Parents (Empathy/Ware, 20)
R: Per, D: Focus (+1), T: Ind
Protects Owain from all mundane harm, except from Children, Traditions and Mice.
Heal the injured youngling (Empathy/Weal, 15)
R: Touch (+1), D: Season (+2), T: Ind
+9 bonus to recovery rolls for a child.
OR prevent a child's wounds from worsening.
Another version of this spell (Heal the downtrodden mouse) has been helpful to Owain on a number of occasions.
Slay the child-snatcher (Empathy/Woe 25)
R: Voice (+2), D: Focus (+1), T: Ind
Slays a child-snatching faerie until Owain casts another spell. This incapacitates the Faerie, so that Owain can bring iron or folk-charms to bear, to cause more lasting harm.
Note: Can only be cast immediately if in a trance-like state (for example, if Owain has spent all night awake, guarding a child.) Must penetrate to have effect, which will be difficult.
I haven't completed his characteristics and abilities yet; but even with a very focused approach, it's hard to see how his casting total could get much above 25: Stress die + 5 (stamina) + 6 (Empathy) + 6 (power) (+ aura).
Query: Do Methods and Powers get specialisations?
The methods and powers in RoP:D clearly do, but there's no description of any specialisations in RoP:F, just that they are learnt like Supernatural Abilities. I would say yes, they should.
Faerie Traditions - now with divine traditions, it's nice and clear anyone with True Faith can learn the four abilities associated with the tradition without needing the virtues. RoP:F doesn't make it clear what you would need to get the abilities without needing virtues, and indeed says in one paragraph you need to buy at least a major virtue for a method and a minor virtue for a power to cast faerie rites. Would a Gifted faerie wizard be allowed to learn all four abilities without needing virtues?
Learning Faerie Abilities, p.116, seems to suggest that the "equivalent" of The Gift/True Faith for learning Faerie Abilities is Faerie Rank at 5+. This is waived when learning the favoured abilities of your tradition.
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Not exactly a faerie wizard, but an example of a character built around faerie methods and powers can be found here.
You should choose vulnerabilities for his powers
I'm planning on Doing an Ollamhain as a mythic companion NPC I'm planning for a character that can create challenges for a group of magi to deal with.
I do keep meaning to write up a traditional Persian Yatus, represented by the Borrowers tradition. Throw in some advancement ala Magi of Hermes and I could have the starting character join the Order of Suleiman later on...have to decide whether to make him Gifted or not though.
Could you provide a source for this Vulnerability? I'm not doubting you, I'm just too blind to find it.
I'm also trying to put together an Ollamhain.
See RoP:F page 124 under the heading Faerie Powers for vulnerabilities.
Conal, an Ollamhain (Faerie wizard)
Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre +5, Com +2, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size:-1
Age:29
Decrepitude:0
Warping Score:4(0)
Confidence Score 1(3)
Virtues and Flaws: Wise One; The Gift; Faerie background (free), Faerie Blood (Nymph), Faerie Sympathy (Minor) – love, Great Presence x 2, Potent Sorcery(men), Special circumstances (in a forest) ;Faerie Friend, Infamous, Lecherous (major), Lost Love, Necessary Condition (performing music), Small Frame
Personality Traits: Lecherous +6, Loyalty -3, Brave +1,
Reputations: Abandoner of women 4
Combat: Dodging Init 0, attack n/a, defence +3, damage n/a
Soak: 0
Fatigue levels: OK,-1,-3,-5,Unconscious
Wound penalties: -1 (1-4), -3 (5-8), -5 (9-12), Incapacitated (13-16), dead (17+)
Abilities: Irish 5 (filthy language), Awareness 2 (forests), Brawl 2 (dodging), Charm 2 (first impressions), Folk Ken (peasants) 2, Faerie Lore (Irish fae) 3, Leadership (intimidation) 2, Music (harp) 5, Survival (forests) 2
Faerie Methods/Powers/Arts: Enchantment 5, Beguile 3, Dream 3, Portage 5. Beguile is vulnerable to someone wearing a branch of Holly, Dream to someone wearing Hawthorn, Portage to someone wearing Mistletoe.
Faerie Sympathy Traits: Trees +4, Loyalty -4, Love +1
Equipment: Traveller’s clothes in a dull green that blends into forests, a harp, a small travelling pack.
Conal is a gifted member of a Faerie tradition, so has scores in the favoured method and powers without needing the corresponding Virtue. He is a nympholept – as an adolescent, he left his betrothed to go into the woods to pick her a beautiful flower, but met a beautiful nymph and could not bear to leave her (his mildly lecherous nature being greatly inflamed by the nymph’s promises). He stayed with her, his own personal Circe, learning a little of the fae and of their magic but when he left, he was a grown man and his sweetheart had married another man and had several children, badmouthing him to their entire community. The nymph tries to woo him back periodically, and so far he has resisted.
Favourite effects:
Unable to see the forest for the trees – Beguile 15 – makes a person unable to distinguish the difference between any tree, causing someone to become horribly lost in a forest. (Base 3 make a major change to someone’s perception, +2 voice +2 sun duration)
Talking to the trees – Dream 20 – asks a tree about its memories of the past day while the wizard sings (base 10, +1 touch, +1 duration while)
Leap of the trees – Portage 20 – like Leap of the shadows (RoP:F p128) but the target goes from one tree to another.
He will develop effects allowing someone to divine the future of their love by Dream magic, but needs to increase his Faerie Sympathy first.
Note: Rival Magic page 11 says that Potent Sorcery may be taken by anyone with a supernatural ability, and the sample character in the book with it is a Muspelli who has a focus of Men, and uses it to boost her Entrancement and ritual magics. Special circumstances is also used by a Muspelli in this book, and seems to be valid for hedge magi.
Originally I considered having “plagued by the supernatural” as a major story flaw and adding Fragile Constitution to his list of minor flaws, but decided to add “necessary condition” to enforce him singing or playing the harp (as per tradition – The Contested Isle says the bards look down on people who use music rather than poetry) and have the story flaw “faerie friend” and have the nymph still interested in him but in a friendly way.
Also crossposted to my blog at magioftom.wordpress.com/
Where do you get your sympathy traits from? That's what currently has me stomped.
Faerie Background gives one positive and one negative sympathy for free, with initial values equal to the warping score (4).
Faerie sympathy (minor) gives one positive sympathy trait at an initial score of 1, which may be increased with xp to warping score +1.
Faerie Blood increases the max score of all sympathy traits by +/-1.
Right?
those are the ones I was seeing - I was hoping there were other ways. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Those are the only ways at character creation - in play you may get more from meeting fairies, experiencing warping, getting temporary traits from other player characters...but for character creation it's tough. If you want to be able to cast a spell above level 15, you need to take faerie background and have a massive positive and negative accompanied by a big warping score.
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That's what I thought. I was hoping I'd missed something.
Actually, there is one tiny way around this - Faerie God blood gives you 1 point to spend on faerie sympathy traits, or 2 points if you take the extra minor virtue of Faerie Legacy. These can be stacked with the points from a Major or Minor sympathy virtue, so you could get the +4 or +5 needed for decent level spells without needing a matching negative trait, just. It's still a lot of virtue points - the matched positive and negative of Faerie Background is the only way to get them for free.
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And virtue points are the limiter here, since I'm trying to put together a non-mythical Companion version.
What about a Celtic variant of the Supernatural Virtue Elysian Ecstasy in TSE (page 126)?
Excellent idea. I don't think I'll be using that, but thank you for the suggestion