Keldric ex Merinita

I amposting this for him (it was a pm) because he hasn't got access to the game yet.

Dear Kimbal, I'm posting a copy of this on the forum so the others can see it.
I am VERY unhappy about your character for two reasons.

  1. No sources are given for many elements that are definitely not in the
    core book.
  2. This is not a character, it is an exercise in munchkinism. It has no feel, no atmosphere - it is just about power (a good example are your characteristics).

Therefore, either you start from scratch and end up with a character that is a person more than a rules exercise or you find yourself another game. I am not saying this in a polite way because your character is everything I do not want in my game.

Presence Pre +5 , you need the Great (Characteristic) Virtue x2 for this anyway.
And one too many minor virtues , i think.

Please don't be offended if i suggest that deliberate munchkinism was probably not the intent.
High stats do not always a munchkin make.
Metacreator has a few quirks (i have barely started using it myself).

If you don't want mystery virtues , leave the slots blank to introduce later.
This looks like the kind of physically challenged character who would incline to Dreams.
Athletics (in armor) 1 , with Str -03 does look a tad munchy though.

(First off, you don't need to contact Atlas to post here, you need to go into your User Control Panel -> UserGroups and add yourself to Play by Post Players)

In a large enough tabletop gaming group, there's room for one min-max'er, not sure if the same will prove true for a PbP game. The bigger problem to my mind is that the character concept isn't very well-fleshed out, and I'm not sure if this is a problem with your use of metacreator (and default specialization options), or if you're just not familiar enough with the char gen rules/conceptual framework.

Early Life, for example, indicates the skills that sort of came naturally to you during infancy. Athletics 1 (in armor), for example, makes little sense. Why was a toddler dressed in armor?

I'm guessing you thought you were raising those skills to 1 (5 xp). As it actually stands, there's no way an apprentice, even a Merinita, could pass his gauntlet with this skill list and magical ability. Your skill list is going to take a major hit -- right now, all you actually have is:

Athletics (in armor) 1
Awareness (alertness) 2
Charm (first impressions) 1
Folk Ken (discern lies) 1
Guile (fast talk) 2

Artes Liberales 1
Concentration (spell concentration) 2
Finesse 1
House Merinita Lore (initiating self) 7+2
Latin (reading) 3
Magic Theory (inventing spells) 2
Medicine 1
Parma Magica (Mentem) 1
Penetration (Imaginem) 1
Philosophiae 1
Volshebnii Mechtateli Lore 1

With Latin 3 and no Prof:Scribe, your character cannot read and can barely speak the language of the Order. Once you discover how many actual skill points you have to work with, those combat and Chirugy skills are probably going to go, anyway.

You have also selected Perdo, Aquam, and Corpus spells with no ranks in those arts. You've taken the Focus Power: Master of Vim, but this only applies to Magical Beings, and you've not taken a virtue which suggests you are one.

MetaCreator has, in other words, done rather badly by you. I suggest you sit down with the books and the Ars Magica Abilities Worksheet available through the Atlas Games ArM website, and gen this guy with a pen and paper.

It seems like your basic concept here is a Merinta Dream Mage, who is so crippled physically that s/he turned to the world of the subconscious in order to find a place that s/he could live a full life. That's a cool concept (and suggests some much more interesting flaws, perhaps having to do with his/her mangled body), but it doesn't really seem like someone who would take up the challenge of restoring a winter covenant from uncertain doom.

However, I think the difference between where the character stands as metacreator gave him to you, and what would be playable in this campaign, is actually the missing chunk of background you need to make this character interesting, as well as functional.

If you took a physical disability flaw, that would give your character a reason for those low physical stats and a reason why s/he'd want to seek solace in the dream world. However, your Parens would still insist on teaching you to interact functionally with the rest of the Order of Hermes (if only so that you could meet Mystagogues who would teach you these additional mysteries you crave). Edit: I also note that, given your incredibly low physical stats, you'd be unlikely to perform any of the ordeals or quests necessary to self-initiate.

At the end of the day, though, you're still going to end up with a character unlikely to investigate the disappearance of a winter covenant. Even assuming we found somebody alive enough to be dreaming, you wouldn't be strong enough to handle what was waiting inside them.

I admid I hadn't thought about a todler in armor, I just used the specialization I normaly use. Good point on that one.
Initially I had 2xGreat Presence virtues, but I removed them and Metacreator didn't adjust my stats

I have to disagree about most of the rest.
It doesn't say anywhere that you need certain requisites to pass Gauntlet except for (Parma 1, ALib1, Latin1)

Latin 3 (reading) allows you to read, (in the book The Broken covenant of calebais #69 the character Althea has Latin (read))
since it gives you a total of 4 for reading purposes, enough to read a book.
You don't need Prof:Scribe to read.

I am aware of selecting spells with no ranks in their arts, but they are lower level spells, and as long as their level
is less than MT+INT+3 it is not illegal, I'll have time to raise them afterwards

Focus Power:Master of Vim, applies to any character that picks that virtue, the fact that is in the book RoP:Magic, doesn't
imply that it is restricted only to those characters, and it doesn't say that it is anywhere in its test.

The whole point of self-initiation is that you are your Mystagogue, you don't actually need to follow another's initiation script but
you can invent your own

Right now the character is quite weak, but give him a year or 2 to himself and he'll be able to stand on his own.
Also the idea was to use Focus Power: Master of Vim to modify spells with "mirror of oppositon" type spells,
but as I said at the time this won't be feasible until I can aquire another Focus Power Virtue, in order to be able
to spontaneously cast lvl 25 MuVi spells

Kimbal ,
I am home most of the time and have all the Ars Magica books.
If you need me to look up references , i'm happy to do so.
I can give you my email , use PMs or a chat program , whatever is convenient for you.

I told Kimbal that his character is too exotic for me (I've alwaays found many Merinita mysteries hard to understand; and this dream specialty has the potential to ruin my saga).

Your pardon , i wasn't trying to undermine your decision , but provide help with whatever character he is creating.

I'm posting this so that everyone can follow the conversation.

About the virtues, I only want to take spell timing right away, seems more than fair that there will be some off-limit virtues.
a little about background:
Keldric can trace his lineage back to Mercere himself, somewhere along the line one of Mercere's descendants was taken as an apprentice for a Bonisagus,
this apprentice enjoyed female company and was adamant to make the most of the numerous errants on which his master send him.
One of this "flings" resulted in a very weak and fragile looking baby, everyone thought there was something very wrong with that baby but they couldn't
put their finger on it, so when a few years later a strange man came one night and offered to take good care of the child in exange for setting the mother
up for life she didn't offer much resistance.

Kelemor ex Merinita took the child deep into the Pirineic mountains where he had his home. He trained the child the best he could, and when he couldn't
he paid others so that he would get the proper teaching. With time the child became fascinated with the misteries of the house, it's history and what made it so special, Kelemor was delighted with that and did his best to encourage his young apprentice to follow that path.

Clothing: Varies continuously due to his fondness of altering the appearance of his clothes
Apparent age: 20
Height: 170 cm, Weight: 60 kg
Long brown hair, just like a noble of the time.
Sigil: smell of almond blossom

so far so good

About the Focus Power, can I keep it or you want me to change it?
Also the question regarding Mutantum Magic:
in HoH:TL #107, it says that half your starting spells can be "tamed"
versions, those that mean 1/2 spell levels or 1/2 the # of spells?

You cannot keep Mercere powers (or powers related to House Mercere) if you are from House Merinita.

They are not Mercere powers
"Most characters with Mutantum Magic belong to House
Mercere and consider themselves Mutantes, and all of
them must be descended by blood from the Founder or
one of his ancestors."

the only requirement for that virtue is that you can trace
your lineage back to Mercere, some virtues say
only X house like leper Maguc HoH:S #93

Well ,join another game then. The description said not to quote rules at me.
Marko Markoko from the Andorra saga is a nice guy and someone with a big heart for people with exotic characters.

Don't get me wrong, I was quoting the rules at you because I thought you had misinterpreted them.
If you don't want me to take that virtue then I won't take it.
I haven't complained about anything so far.

What about the MuVi stuff & Focus Power?

Just go and play elsewhere.
You prefer a different style of roleplaying than I do. Yours is not wrong. But it is wrong for my game.

For the sake of fairness

Early life are skills learned why a toddler, but, IMO, this need not be reflected into specialisations. Not only do we grew up and change, but this would mean that no noble son with a martial childhood (brawl) would be able to have a "Dagger" or "Gauntlet" specialty for his Brawl skill.

As per the Focus power, there's a version available to normal humans, which uses fatigue instead of might.

IIRC, reading is governed by Artes Liberales. Prof: Scribe is to write good books IIRC.
The objection against Latin 3 and speaking still stands, though.

IMO, great idea and character concept :smiley:

Just a little rant :blush:
I maybe wrong, but this screams potential absuse. The whole "inventing your whole script"? It could be done well by a some (like, I discover hidden mysteries of the universe by putting myself through mystical ordeals induced by a trance in a magical regio), but could also be the incredible munchkin machine (Spend 2 seasons, gain a major virtue!). Which is why I'm uncomfortable with it.

On mysteries, I think a lot like Timothy Ferguson, in fact

Exact.

I am, admittedly, very new to the game system from a certain perspective.

Call that a stylistic difference. Were I running the game, specializations could only be changed when raising levels.

I'll have to double check that when I get back to my books. Artes Liberales strikes me as really broken and over-encompassing compared to the entire rest of the skill system, so I spend more time mocking it than trying to understand it.

If it was a mystery cult (particularly a very small one) and not a mystery house, I would agree with your "potentially cool rp flavor," but given the nature of the ArM setting, I'm of the opinion that trying to make aloof loner characters in an rpg is counterproductive to the aims of the game, if not the aims of all "tabletop" gaming. Characters should have reasons for interacting with the world, not avoiding it. If you want to make a loner character concept, go write a story, don't join a game.

I guess that I made a major assumption about that particular aspect of char gen, then. I apologize for the adamancy of my error.

Everyone seems to forget two very basic points about The misteries

1 They depent on a dice roll on teh experimenttion table, and as most of you are aware statistically speaking
your more likely to get a bad reasult than a good one.

2 Acording to RAW the GM can assign up to a -5 penalty to the initiation rite for inapropiateness

Also in order to get a Major Virtue yuo are going o need to take a Major Ordeal or something similar,
its not a freebie.
A well designed laboratory rat based on experimentation, can do wonders in a season. But there is a HUGE risk.
same as with this type of advancement