Realms of Power: Faerie (Character Creation questions)

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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  1. Can Faerie characters (created with the rules in Chapter 4) use the Ranges, Targets and Durations in Chapter 6 (Faerie Wizardry)?

  2. What does exactly mean "up to 20 points of Virtues paid with Flaws at a rate of two Virtues per Flaw" (pg. 45)? Does that mean that we have to choose up to 20 points of VIrtues and a maximum of 10 points of Flaws?

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Yes they can - any Faerie power can use those Ranges, Targets and Durations. Those parameters exist to match the powers of Faeries in stories more closely than the ones used for Hermetic magic.

Yes. A Faerie character made to replace someone's Magus character is treated in a similar way to a Mythic Companion (as used in RoP:Divine, RoP:Infernal and HoH:True Lineages) who get two Virtues per Flaw.

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Thanks a lot!

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Salve, and sorry for resurrecting this thread, but my question fits perfectly here:

If my Merinita character wants to design a Creo Animae ritual spell (HoH: Mystery Cults p94–95) to summon a specific Faerie using Language(storytelling) Charm Magic (HoH:MC p100) as descriptions, and using the Faerie Characters generation rules (RoP: Faerie p45), does anyone know of an official system to convert Ability and Virtue costs into spell levels? Or if not, what would you use as a reference to calculate these yourself?

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There isn’t one. And there probably shouldn’t be one.

IIRC, the various Hedge Tradition that can grant Virtues, do so at different levels, because so traditions are better it than others. As they should be.

If I had to do that kind of calculations, I would go to RoP: F (since you’re designing a faerie), and see what I could use/retrofit from there.

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Thanks for your reply. I went through Hedge Magic, but didn’t find anything useful. Not even in the Elementalists chapter. But then I scanned Tales of Power in which a Merinita mage uses three Animae spells. The spells are detailed and there is even some extra info on Animae creations.

The one I’m most interested in is Bring Forth the Lord of Knives (p123) and the character itself (p124). From the spell cost it looks like they follow the rules in Houses of Magic: Mystery Cults (p94). A simple Creo Herbam spell, without any extra costs for the stats and Virtues.

On p124 of Tales of Power they even confirm that a Faerie created with Animae can be made permanent using Ritual Magic.

Somehow, this feels overpowered.

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I think the key point that stops it being too overpowered is that the magus doesn't have that much control over exactly what they summon - certainly not to the level of being able to dictate specific Virtues and Flaws (see pg 91 of HoH:MC - "A Muto spell transforms a mundane thing into a faerie, usually something appropriate to its nature, while Creo simply summons a faerie associated with the Form, and the maga has very little control over what".)

It's not completely clear how this interacts with the reliable spells Patronus has in Tales of Power, but my take on it is that the spell always generates a consistent faerie, but Patronus only had limited control over what that faerie actually was when originally designing it.

I don't think Charm Magic lets you overcome those limits, although as a SG I might consider allowing Charms to give the spell a little more direction - if you use a "Winter" charm with a CrAq Animae you'll probably get something ice or snow themed.

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