but it's all XPs, so the bonus gained until then is never truely lost
I'm sorry but i didn't get it.
These are valid Characteristics according to the Rules As Written. However, there's a clear stereotype here: Characteristics That Have Been Minmaxed For A Magus. Ars Magica is much more about story, saga, and characterization than many other role-playing games. I suggest that you mix it up a little and make your character more believably human, rather than Someone Designed For This Game. Your choice in the end, of course.
Free Study is good if you are learing from Vis. The way I see it, you study from Vis if you don't have any other options. If your saga uses the rule that a tractatus only costs 2 pawns of vis, it seems likely that you will normally have better options. If you can find out from your storyteller how hard it is to trade for a tractatus, and it turns out that buying a tractatus if fairly easy, I would probably skip this virtue, If you don't have a summae on the subject, it can be useful to study from vis, and if you can't get a tractatus, you don't have any other choice. But if you have raised your Art to 16, it would take you 4 pawns of vis to study from vis as well as requiring you to risk botch dice.
You may want Personal Vis Source. Your lab projects you are using for research use vis, how much vis your saga has may slow down your research quite a bit.
If your lab projects are going to be working with animals, I would get Inoffensive to Animals. The other alternative is starting with a spell such as "The Gentle Beast" without the size modifier but with a duration longer than concentration. It may seem a no brainer to use the spell rather than a virtue, but neither Animal nor Rego seem to be Arts you want to specialize in, and such a spell would be L25.
If your storyteller uses the rule that you can use Confidence points in Twilight Avoidance/ Twilight Comprehension rolls, Self Confident may be a worthwile investment
Both Visions and Enemies are Story Flaws, and if I recall correctly so is Fostered Aprentice. In RAW, you really are only supposed to have one story Flaw.
One-trick pony who will never leave the lab. Overkill by half for a munchkin.
5 points in Story Flaws, way too many.
Why have Stamina 3 if you'll never leave the lab and cast spells?
With a negative Quickness, you'll be outclassed by every magus.
You never said how you want to play him. It's just a bunch of dead numbers as it stands.
Agree very much.
Thanks for you comments. Like i said, it's my first time playing Ars Magica and i'm usually playing in a D&D optimized group so i guess that where the min/max came from. But i'm curing myself!
Here is the way i would like to play him.
First, him and three other magi start the saga by creating a new covenant. At the beginning, i don't really intent to do lots of original researches and experimenting, maybe not at all. My point here is that you don't go for the nobel prize just after your PhD. He knows that his knowlege is still weak and that he needs to learn more, to broaden his knowledge in order to have an overview of the Arts since he is a magic theorist, not an experimenter. Thus, the first part will be dedicated to getting summa about topics he is weak at and write summa or tractarus about what is good at, so mainly Magic Theory for trading. This is also good for the covenant development since it will increase the quality of its library.
Then, little by little, he will start to do more and more original researches. Like i wrote before, i would like to proceed them. 1) Seek secrets/clues in the outside word 2) Use it to conduct Original Research in the lab. Thus, he will definitely have to go adventuring in the outside world even if he doesn't necessary like it.
For the immortality research thing, i don't like the way to get it by becoming an other kind or being. Like i said, he will want to obtain it by pushing the limits of Hermetic Art. Thus, i think a good roleplaying way to go there is to increase his CrCo lab total because it's the Arts combination dedicated to improving the body and then, try to increase his characteristics to make himself more "pure", thinking that being pure is related to being immortal. And then, i guess he will realize that this in not working and that there is a gap he can't pass. Thus, he will go for original researches.
I thought that goes well with the Driven/Ambitious flaws.
For the Flaws, you are right, i have to change some. Maybe Enemies (Major) for a general one.
A note, first: There's usually a tradeof in the rules: Either you become something else, and cease to change, or you accrue warping.
So you'll have to consider whether your immortality belongs to the first or second category, unless you want to have immortality and the ability to change, in which case you should both have your troupe's approval and consider the ramifications, both philosophically and on the setting
That being said, some suggestions, non exclusive:
- Since he doesn't intend to do any kind of transformation, one possible way for him is to first integrate Unaging into hermetic theory, so that every magus is this for free. Next step would be suppressing the accumulation of Decrepitude from rolls that would have decreased his characteristics. Or rather, accumulated decrepitude could convert into Might: as time passes, he doesn't age, doesn't die, but become more and more magical/faerie/infernal. I like this.
- He might want to search for a way to put longevity rituals into familiar bonds: Since effects in the bond don't cause warping, this'd greatly improve magi's lifespan.
- He might search for Corpus bonuses (Co/5) to apply to aging rolls. Small, but natural and warping free.
- He might search for a way for his familiar to "eat" some of his warping, which would improve life expectancy (poor bjornaer, though).
Thanks for this ideas.
I'm almost done with my character. For the flaws, i was thinking about "Study Requirement" which would explain why he starts with low Art scores. But before making my choice, i'm trying to think about some requirement exemples like those on AMp49 for "Study Bonus". Now, my main concern would be Rego. One idea i have is having a fire and a low water drop on it. Not enough to extinguish it but enough to reduce it. So in a way it's a control over a fire. But maybe it's far-fetched and wouldn't be ok for a score higher than 15, so if you have ideas...
For Vim, the covenant is on a lvl 5 magic aura so it should be fine until lvl 25 i guess.
We have a lake, small mountains and a forest so Herbam, Aquam et Terram should be fine and i think that a garden with a gardener grog should be good for Herbam and Creo.
I searched for a topic about this but couldn't find one. So i'm open to any suggestion, especially for Rego.
I see study bonus / study requirement as needing a place that exemplifies the art, rather than necessarily is the art.
For example, I would allow a volcano caldera as a (very high) ignem study bonus, despite being primarily terram-y.
For Rego, anywhere that exemplifies order or control makes sense. The example given is a Law Court. Following that theme for higher levels, you could start including Tribunals and Grand Tribunal. You could include prisons or slave markets. Courts for supernatural entities may be the higher levels - perhaps a gathering of dragons or a council of elder trees in a magical forest where they gather to discuss matters of importance and dispense justice amongst their own.
The key here is getting access to those high level bonuses probably requires an interesting story. Getting access to study in a library is easy. Getting access to study in a law court is harder. Getting permission to study in a Grand Tribunal session harder still (not to mention they only happen every 33 years). Getting permission to study from the dragon-king while he holds court atop a craggy mountain requires some serious effort.