I will wait for more comments if the falconer is a good idea for this group.
Is falconry just 'animal handling' or should I include 'Profession: Falconry'?
Is 'Skinchanger Eagle' stretching the commonalities and conflict too far?
p.57-61 of Lords of Men have you covered. There's a Profession:Falconer, also a minor social virtue: Falconer, on page 61, and definitely includes Animal Handling as the other very important skill.
I thought so and was downloading already from warehouse23...
Falconer virtue sounds a bit problematic. As much as I like additional xp, I suppose being employed by a local noble could be problematic for joining the covenant? In addition I was seeing him more like keeping civilization at bay as far as possible since he had to flee Constantinople...
I would take it for my upbringing and xp, but that seems inappropriate as it wouldn't be my current social status.
As the senior Eagle in the covenant, I suppose a comment from me is expected 
I cannot see anything bad with the falconer idea, but I think there are a few things missing to make it good. While useful and interesting traits, neither eagle shapeshift nor falconeering in themselves answer why he would want to adventure or how he would survive it. There will be other skills which make him a character to invite for adventuring and to contribute to survival.
Considering compatibility of characters,I don't think being a skinchanger, or that skin being an eagle, is overly important. There is of course a certain tension between the bjornaer and more superficial skinchanger, but tension can be found anywhere. Much more important, I think, is the character's faith, life goals, ethics, etc.
In other words, if you want to play the falconer, go with it. It can be good, and we do not really know before we see it in play.
The muslim medic, seemed to be a very playable character. Medical skills are always useful, and he had his religious and ethical convictions which provide some interesting tensions to play on. I see absolutely no reason to scrap it, if you want to play it.
The feral upbrought shepherd boy, would make me worried though. I fear it is very hard to make a feral upbrought character who is not uni-dimensional, and which becomes monothonic and boring after a few sessions. OTOH, its being hard does not imply that you cannot do it, and I shall be happy to see my worries smothered.
What the troupe is short on, is martial abilities, I think.
Let me tell a little about Michael. Of course all is still forming and the backstory not written yet, not even fully thought through.
He grew up in Constantinople as the eldest son of the falconer of a well respected local noble. He was fascinated by the birds surrounding his childhood at a very early age and his father taught him about his profession. He flew - just before the fall of the city - when he was around ten because of a very bad dream. None of his relatives would listen, so he was on his own, although not quite - the raven of his father came with him. Since then he avoided civilisation and was more with the birds of the mountain - and of course the raven.
He learned to survive, he learned to hunt with the birds and with the bow, he learned to speak to the birds. The raven gave him one of his feathers so he could even learn to fly with birds. Now birds twitter a new bird arrived...
In stats there will be Falconry, but more Animal Ken and Animal Handling. There will be hunt, survival and the bow, athletics (climbing) and awareness.
I am not too sure about the life goals and ethics - he had a long time on his own and would probably need some guidance in that regard.
I was under the impression that there was a) too much overlap with Ioannes and b) too much Creo vis to be needed by magi (and as a Saracen interacting with local mundanes only, ...)
I'll scrape that one.
Not sure how much I will contribute to that, sorry.
Hi eldarin!
Just to chime in that Magical Animal Companion is a Flaw, not a Virtue, and it would conflict with Visions, as they are both Story flaws (Visions is both Story and Supernatural)
True, silly me. I knew, but apparently forgot that important fact...
Anyway, so only one story flow? I'll figure it out. Can we make a positive (read virtue) version of a companion?
Well, it's not a terrible flaw! It's actually highly desirable if you can build exactly what you want, though I would think IonianD might have him be played by somebody else while in scene. Think QPaC used this to build Raven's Familiar. The flaw is simply a way to drag the Companion into stories about the Companion's... Companion 8)
There is a "Magical Mount" Virtue in RoP:M p.40, which doesn't work quite the same way (Cunning instead of Int) but has up to 25 Magic Might! Still, all of the virtues I looked for from the RoP books were shot down, so good luck! Still, it might give you ideas to suggest a new Virtue to the SG.
I don't mind having him/her played by SG or someone else. So it would be perfectly fine as a flaw (I guess I'd drop Visions for it if the one story flaw is strict). Just if it looks like taking a flaw that looks like a virtue I'd be fine to pay a price... I think RoP supplements were excluded, weren't they?
(ST EDIT) Yes please. Too many story flaws, ST can't handle more than one per person (and not even once per story at that)
About to start traveling today. This may or may not go haywire, but if it all works I'll have reliable Internet access in a couple days. (28thish)
Prometheus will try to build up a network of agents (HoH:S 140ff.). Will this be handled as seasonal work, i.e. instead of lab work? Or as part of stories? Or both?
[tab][/tab] Hullo! Been thinking about something that came up in one of the adventures, took me a while to formulate a response and I would like your thoughts on this, before I make a ruling or something.
[tab][/tab] In Perama caves, Scylax spontaneously casts a spell. This is a 'Ward' but with personal range. From what I read (barring exotic wards etc) there are two sets of wards: one is the total protection afforded to an individual, like Ward Against Wood (AM 139), Halt the Piercing Shafts (MoH 50) and Ward Against Rain (AM 128), or some protection like Ward Against Heat and Flames (AM 145). All of these have a high base, resulting in a high casting level; the second category is the Circular Wards against 'whatever' that fall under the Ring duration with Circle target and a modular level of effect, usually depending on the level of might the opposing entity that is warded against has.
[tab][/tab] I am very wary those two things can cross pollinate. I think its a matter of balance: Circle (lower casting but immobile and can be bypassed) vs Personal (mobile, almost complete but higher casting). What do you people think?
I read it very differently. If I understand it correctly, there is one baselevel for wards against mundane phenomenae and one baselevel for wards against creatures with might. The former is typically exemplified with range Per, while the other defaults to Circle/Ring, but I cannot see anything forbidding boosting range, duration, and target in either case.
The low level of the ward against might is off-set by the fact that it needs penetration. It is easier, though, to ward against a creature with might 1, than a mundane creature, but maybe that's intentional. Supernatural beings respond more strongly to magic, for better /and/ for worse.
Are there other guidelines which I have missed, maybe?
As the I control the magus who cast the spont that prompted IonianD's post, I will defend the status quo! (Let Core rules stand!) 8) I do not fully understand IonianD's concerns... as far as I can see, the parameters of these wards are fully integrated into Hermetic Magic, so that it's up to the magus's particular set of skills how he varies them (when Sponting or inventing spells). Vim Wards are effective only against supernatural beings with Might. Low level wards are effective, high levels are nearly impossible because of Penetration issues, why is this a problem? Perhaps I misjudged the parameters?
Immobile Wards have clear strengths and disadvantages, as do mobile ones.
Co, He have a Base 15 to ward against mundane materials of their Form, Te is the same for weapons (Base 5 + 2 Metal = 15), Aq is lower (5), but water is not inherently dangerous, against poisons/acids it would need to be higher most assuredly. Auram is 5 (possibly 10 against lightning), Ignem is 4 (Ward against Heat and Flames is 10 for 15 Protection).
Sorry I am throwing all this out there semi-randomly, but I am not entirely clear on the point being brought up, and I perceive no particular problems with the RAW rules at the moment.
[tab][/tab] My concerns are multiple. I can understand how a Ward would not allow something 'outside' not affect something 'inside'. But since its personal, how close is close enough for example? If I treat it like parma, the claws of a beast cannot affect the individual (unless it passes the Ward with penetration etc) but it would certainly able to hit you with a sword, club or other instrument as I see it. Where does the ward end? Should I treat it like Protection from Evil from DnD? Just some questions...
[tab][/tab] On the matter of the adventure, we will face the issue when we face it, carry on. No fishies appear....
There are a handful of examples of wards against mundane things in the various books. In core you have Ward Against Rain (p. 128), Break the Oncoming Wave (p.124) and ward against heat and flame (P. 143)
Page 95 of Magi of Hermes has an example ReCo ward.
Honestly though, I would just treat new ward spells like Parma.
I think this depends on the exact form used for the ward. If an An ward is used, it is not effective against a metal sword, so if the fish can wield a sword, it gets through. If it is a Vi ward, however, the sword may be deemed to be propelled by magic, and by analogy to parma, warded against. Personally, I think magic is most interesting if we allow all the various spells (forms) to be subtly different, so that magi with different specialities have different strengths and weaknesses.
Anyone else using primarily mobile access (Android for me)? If so, do you have any suggestions for a good phpbb client?
Based on the suboptimal mobile experience with phpbb I wonder if anyone ever thought about running the saga in say a combination of Slack (https://slack.com) and GSuite (https://gsuite.google.com)?
I will be on vacation the next two weeks. I guess I'll have internet access at least on a regular basis.
I'll try to finalize Prometheus fully. There is anyway only languages and build points left. Still thinking about using some Vis for a familiar, but that is not crucial. I could think of rat, mouse or snake, but have no experience whatsoever in magical creature design. So maybe I should leave that to in game.
I'd like to discuss the possible effects of Mentem magic on abilities. I posted my questions and there is apparently no full picture in the books, so I think we need an ST or troupe decision and potentially a house rule.
Should this go here or in a separate "OOC: House rules" or even "OOC: Mentem effects on abilities"?
I would go on and try to line up my and external opinions, references to books and potential solutions either here or in whatever thread it belongs.