Lepos ex Miscellanea

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Loch Ness: A New Dawn
1

Here's a first draft of lepos at apprenticeship, will add post-gauntlet advancement later. I ended up going a rather different route than I proposed initially - Aquam and Terram, elemental self-transformation, speaking with elemental stuff, etc. The ex misc tradition has speech with the silent, minor magical focus (self-transformation), and twilight prone.

Lepos
Characteristics: Int +3 (Clever), Per +1 (Awake), Pre +3 (Captivating), Com 0, Str -3 (Slender), Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: -1
Age: 31 (31), Height: 150 cm, Weight: 40 kg, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Speech With the Silent* [Can convince the spirit of an elementally pure object to give information or move with a Presence + Charm roll against 9. Mystery Cults 69.and 73.], Minor Magical Focus (self-transformation), Skilled Parens, Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic, Affinity with Muto, Quiet Magic (Spellcasting Penalty: None for soft voice, -5 if not speaking), Affinity with Terram, Puissant Aquam, Puissant Corpus, Subtle Magic, Bound Magic, Twilight Prone, Small Frame, Meddler, Covenant Upbringing, Lycanthrope (Lynx, Soak: +3), Hermetic Patron

Abilities: Artes Liberales 1 (cermonial magic), Athletics 1 (running), Awareness 1 (alertness), Brawl 1 (Dodge), Charm 5 (seeking aid), Concentration 1 (spell concentration), Etiquette 1 (nobility), Finesse 1 (muto), Folk Ken 1 (men), Latin 5 (hermetic usage), Leadership 2 (laboratory work), Living Language 5 (expansive vocabulary), Magic Theory 4 (inventing spells), Scribe 1 (copying), Order of Hermes Lore 1 (personalities), Parma Magica 1 (Ignem), Penetration 1 (muto), Philosophiae 1 (ceremonial magic)

Arts: Cr 4, In 5, Mu 12, Pe 2, Re 5, An 0, Aq 6+3, Au 0, Co 9+3, He 1, Ig 0, Im 5, Me 0, Te 12, Vi 1

Spells Known:
Personal Veil of Invisibility (PeIm 15) +7
The Silent Vigil (MuCo(Te) 45) +36
Transform to Water (MuCo(Aq) 40) +30
Disguise of the New Visage (MuCo 15) +36
The Invisible Sling of Vilano (ReTe 10) +17
The Unseen Porter (ReTe 10) +17
Eyes of the Rock (InIm 15) +10

Eyes of the Rock, InIm 15
Allows the caster to see around himself even if he doesn't have eyes. Lepos uses this to see in elemental form.

(Base 1, +2 Sun, +4 Vision)

2

Granted this is a First Draft, but a couple of questions/observations.

You have two more points in Virtues than in Flaws, and (with Eyes of the Rock being lowered by 5 points) have 5 more points in Spells to spend.

Who's his Hermetic Patron?

Where is he from, and what's his Native Language?

3

Are you sure? Did a Major Flaw get counted as a Minor Flaw (or vice versa by me)?

4

If Meddler is Major rather than Minor, then it balances out. (I had it plugged in as Minor, but it looks like it's probably Major)

5

Here's Lepos mehcanically after 7 years. I'll get the remaining bits and bobs - background and tradition and patron and personality and talisman and such - up next.

Lepos
Characteristics: Int +3 (Clever), Per +1 (Awake), Pre +3 (Captivating), Com 0, Str -3 (Slender), Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: -1
Age: 38 (38), Height: 150 cm, Weight: 40 kg, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Speech With the Silent* [Can convince the spirit of an elementally pure object to give information or move with a Presence + Charm roll against 9. Mystery Cults 69.and 73.], Minor Magical Focus (self-transformation), Skilled Parens*, Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic, Affinity with Muto, Quiet Magic (Spellcasting Penalty: None for soft voice, -5 if not speaking), Affinity with Terram, Puissant Aquam, Puissant Corpus, Subtle Magic, Bound Magic, Twilight Prone*, Small Frame, Meddler, Covenant Upbringing, Lycanthrope (Lynx, Soak: +3), Hermetic Patron

Abilities: Artes Liberales 1 (ceremonial magic), Athletics 1 (running), Awareness 1 (alertness), Brawl 1 (Dodge), Charm 5 (seeking aid), Concentration 1 (spell concentration), Etiquette 1 (nobility), Finesse 2 (muto), Folk Ken 1 (men), Latin 5 (hermetic usage), Leadership 2 (laboratory work), Living Language 5 (expansive vocabulary), Magic Theory 4 (inventing spells), Scribe 1 (copying), Order of Hermes Lore 1 (personalities), Parma Magica 1 (Ignem), Penetration 1 (Muto), Philosophiae 1 (ceremonial magic)
Arts: Cr 6, In 5, Mu 15, Pe 5, Re 7, An 5, Aq 8+3, Au 0, Co 12+3, He 1, Ig 0, Im 5, Me 0, Te 15, Vi 1

Spells Known:
Personal Veil of Invisibility (PeIm 15) +10
The Silent Vigil (MuCo(Te) 45) +45
Transform to Water (MuCo(Aq) 40) +37
Disguise of the New Visage (MuCo 15) +45
The Invisible Sling of Vilano (ReTe 10) +22
The Unseen Porter (ReTe 10) +22
Eyes of the Rock (InIm 15) +10
The Sleeping Bear (ReAn 15) +12 [A circle-ring-animal version of The Call to Slumber. Lepos uses this to tranquilize himself when lycantrophy hits him.]

The last year is spent thus, 9xp lab exposure to MT:
Spring: Find familiar
Summer: Bind familiar (Mu 15 Co 15 int 3 MT 4 aura 3 = 40, cords 3/1/1)
Autumn: Open talisman
Winter: Attune talisman

6

Have you considered how you plan to cast The Sleeping Bear? If you cast it on yourself, it fails because that would be a Mentem effect, not an Animal effect. When you turn into a were-lynx and are now a valid target, you no longer have a mind nor control to cast the spell. So you're going to need to manage to delay it somehow or jump through some hoops to make it work. Could I suggest you make a circular ward instead? That would be the same Arts. But you could go to sleep inside the circle, and if you become a were-lynx you would be stuck there. It seems to accomplish what you want without all the difficulty. Plus, it would require someone actually messing up the circle to let the were-lynx free, whereas the were-lynx only needs to wake up from something like a loud noise to be free of being asleep.

7

The Sleeping Bear is shown above to be a ReAn, not a ReMe. And since (per HoH:MC p. 22) lycanthropes are affected by Animal and not Mentem, that looks to me like it should work. Assuming nothing happens to the circle.

8

I know it's ReAn. And it should be ReAn to affect the lycanthrope. But who is going to cast it??? It affects everything in the circle at the time of casting. So if he's casting it, then he's still human and it won't work on him. If he waits until he's a lycanthrope so it will work, he doesn't have his mind so he can't cast the spell.

9

My suggestion was going to be to make it a Sun Duration spell and just sit and wait until he turns into an animal and the spell puts him to sleep. But the problem with that solution is that lycanthropy goes from moonrise to moonset, while spells go from sunset to sunrise. There's no guarantee that there will be the right overlap. So, at some point the spell would end while he was still a lycanthrope. Now, if he'd planned it properly, he'd still be asleep at that point. But you're right, anything could wake him up and then things get dicey.

10

Oops. I did get a little confused by the description. This would keep the lycanthrope asleep. Still, that was never the primary difficulty. How does he cast it on himself? He either casts it and it fails or he can't cast it. I have two suggestions now:

I still think the circular ward is the best way to go if he wants to cast it himself.

But he does have a familiar. He could put an effect in the familiar bond. Just make sure it has a couple uses per day and it maintains the sleep. Then the familiar can knock him out as needed.

11

It is circle-ring - I should have written it more clearly, it's in the brackets. I planned to sleep in such a circle most nights. The familiar bond idea is nice, though - it also avoids issues with penetration etc.

12

Doesn't matter. It affects what's inside at the time of casting. Read Circle in ArM5. It fails when you cast it. Doesn't really matter that it lasts. Wards work differently, like you want. So you could do this as a ward.

13

Ah, I understand now, thank you. I had apparently misunderstood the way circle/ring works. I get what you mean by the ward now, I'll change it

14

Definitely consider the familiar bond option. It shouldn't be that hard to put in the bond compared to inventing the spell. It gives a lot of flexibility that the ward doesn't give. They each have their benefits and drawbacks, of course. I wouldn't definitely choose one over the other quickly.

15

Missed that. Good idea. Probably better than the ward.

16

On the seasons you spend on lab work, you can't put points into anything. Abilities, Arts, or Spell Levels. You lose those points.

17

Good catch. Got things mixed between this and the Even More Complex chargen option.

18

[strike]You should have exposure for a season of lab work...[/strike]
sorry, wrong game, I was thinking the complex creation rules...

19

I updated the CharGen thread and Wiki page to clarify, since this has come up multiple times. (And I should probably give it a look to make sure it didn't come out as too cranky, or for ultimate clarity.)