So in my whole thinking about the school of magic I came to my thought about recruiting a magical race of humanoid animals as the allied covenfolk for the covenant. This of course then led me to looking up information in the books to see about the design and mechanics and nature of such thing.
It also led me reading the Realm of Powers: Magic book and trying to figure out whether they would be a Magic Human, Magic Animal, Magic Spirit or Magic Thing. Well, okay, my personal debate is whether they would be a Magic Human or Magic Animal. since the other options don't really apply.
I don't know much of their backstory yet, but I do know that they are basically animals given human-like form and intellect while still keeping much of their physical and social animal traits. As a magical species they possess Magic Might and a bunch of interesting powers, most of which I haven't even remotely thought about yet (though I am interested in such thing). Though they come in varying forms (such as wolf, cat, mouse, horse, bear, bull, etc) they are all considered one species, known as the Folk.
Basically, I am both wondering which type of form they would have and well any additional ideas on powers an stuff like that. I am also open and interested in conversation on them as a species, or interesting story and adventure points to consider about them if any of you are interested.
Broken Covenant of Calebais and Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults both have rules for how magi can magically alter animals (in ways that may well breed true) to be magical and have specific abilities. This bypasses the rules in Realms of Power Magic entirely (as they predate that book). If you're thinking about a race of magical animals that exist as a result of being magically altered by magi, there are rules for magi to magically alter a race of animals. (IIRC they're closer to the familiar rules.)
Sticking with the RoP: Magic plan, I say model them how you want and don't overly concern yourself as to whether or not you've chosen the "correct" type. The idea that NPC creatures should need to conform to strict construction rules is (In my opinion) flawed. These rules are a guide for creating balanced creatures not a set of physical laws that describe the set of possible creatures.
The Broken Covenant book is actually serving as a major source of inspiration for this idea. And I am totally not against the use of Mystery Cults for ideas on how to manipulate and twist animals to suit the nature of what I am doing.
The thing is, I'm having them be an already existing race not something created by the magi of the saga, at least in the present, who knows about the past. So I don't really need the direct mechanics for what rolls would be needed if my current players (for example) were making them. Though, having said rules would provide a lot of ideas for backstory event story seeds on how and why they exist.
Oh yeah totally, I agree, especially when they are not an actual player character. If they were to be played, its them as the occassional special grog that comes in for some nifty cute adventure before fading away to go and do covenant work. So they don't need to balance, but I would like them to make sense.
By the way, I figure I will give them the Magic Human virtue with Magic Might (Animal) to focus on their animal natures, despite them having Intelligence rather than Cunning. Additionally, the whole monstrous flaw that they get automatically for Magical Human represents their animalistic features, forms, and psychologies.
In a way they are basically Magic Kin, though none of the examples in the Magic Realms book cover Animal as a Form (despite the fact that the book says all ten forms are covered, and yes, I know the errata fixes that, but its still disappointing, hehe).
My plan is to do the time honored trait of borrowing from other magical creatures in that book when I want nifty powers and stuff. Like for example the Cat Lineage group power could let me work with letting them have a Regio power that only works when multiple Folk come together.
From a story perspective I was wondering if you (or anybody else reading this thread) had any ideas on interesting and nifty ways I could use them, develop them, or stat them out.
think for the use for which you want them, Magic Human is most appropriate. After all, Magic Animals suffer from being mute and lacking thumbs, unless you by Magic Qualities to negate these flaws. Magic Humans on the other hand have the integral Flaw of Monstrous Appearance, which can cover the animal features. If you want to differentiate them further, you can use the Magical Blood (Animal) Virtue, granting each 'type' a bonus from their animal features. This could easily be balanced by the Monstrous Blood (Animal) Flaw, and if bought as a Minor Magic Quality/Inferiority pair, would effectively be 'free'.
So basically, the suggestion is to use the end result and not the backstory origins. I mean I am not over thinking it, I figure that picking Magic Human and then moving on is probably the easiest thing to do, but its an interesting though exercise.
Basically though the being has animal qualities it is mostly a human being in terms of how it operates, which gives it Magic Human.
I'd suggest you make a magical template for the creature, which are also in RoP:Magic. Basically, the creature has whatever qualities and inferiorities you want it to have, and you prioritize these qualities and inferiorities into a set of guidelines to follow if you ever want to make a more balanced PC creature of the same type (or if the NPC you created becomes a PC through play, which I have seen happen a few times in games).
