Performance Magic: Archecy sounds like the right way to do it.
Range: Bowshot is equivalent to what, Voice? Sure, a bow can fire considerably longer than the 50 paces a shouting voice can reach. But you must also hit with the arrow, right? Is acces to this range sufficient material for a Minor Virtue?
Since it is cool, I would grant the range "for free". It is not like it is an overkill range or anything
If you want to go for a "pure" shooter, you can make the use of the bow a necessary condition.
Cheers,
Xavi
Gwen is such an amazing character - you've taken some liberties with the rules, but not to crunch numbers and create a munchkin supermage - the result is awesome!
Of course, Gwen could never be a Flambeau and won't go dragon-slaying any time soon, but she is a CHARACTER, a unique and beautiful jewel, someone to remember.
I feel tempted to use her (after making her male and doing away with her small frame) - archers that could pull a longbow were so strong that their bones developed a signature "deformity" - barrel-chested men.
Hi,
If it adds the arrow's damage to the casting score/total, it becomes a solid/excellent minor virtue; the arrow must strike true for the spell to work at all, and the target must therefore be something that can be damaged (and that the magus is willing to damage), but the benefits are nice.
Anyway,
Ken
Oops, sorry, got you confused with another poster. I do agree with you concerning your last quote there, which is why I said what I did. That doesn't mean I find powerful characters irksome, if it's genuinely within the character concept, and it's an interesting person they've created. By their nature Magi would always seek to increase their power and mitigate their weaknesses (who doesn't, right?), but what I was talking about is the specific situation wherein a player goes to unreasonable lengths to make their PC invincible. I was referring to the person who stated a particular magus stacked up all of their wards every time they went down to the kitchen for a cup of tea. While this can be explained as the character's paranoia and may not be the player's personal flaw, I have played with people who do everything in their power to craft an "unkillable" magus, to the point of abusing the rules (stopping just shy of actual cheating), with every character they make. I find it kind of tiresome. Often it seems forced and not genuine--who opens every door from behind the doorframe, like a cop doing a forced entry? Or who uses a staff to probe the floor for traps everywhere they go in Mythic Europe? This kind of behavior, when it continues incessantly, slows down play to a grinding inch-by-inch slog, and as a SG I find it irritating. As a player too.
Getting off-topic here. Coming back around. There!
I really like the idea of the Magic Archer. Gwen has a fascinating concept and background, and extremely cool set of abilities. As far as getting around wards it seems to me that this is just a natural consequence of the myriad possibilities of Hermetic magic. If one can create wards against all Forms then it follows that your arrows will not work against them, unless they can overcome the Level of the wards. The answer is enchant your arrows with stronger spells, I suppose. That's how it works. This represents a fairly severe limitation to the character concept, but one that can always be overcome with dedication.
Better yet: Enchant your arrows with a PeVi spell.
Unless I'm wrong, a touch range Wind of Mundane Silence will dispell any spell of a level less that (a stress die + the level of your spell +15).
That means a level 35 spell will dispell any level 30 or less ward. That is, most wards 
AND you can also use your arrow to dispell other things 
If that behavior is undesirable talk to the player.
If he persists and that behavior is not what you see on your saga (including your other players) then stick a bad reputation at level 4 on him for being a total cowardly paranoid and make every magus they find taunt him for it. Not aggressively, but smiling under their nose and acting on a condescending way, as if talking to a kid that just discovered that you can move a stool with Rego. That should strike the message home.
If that is what you want, that is. IMS that behaviour is not normal to that extreme, but that is because people have a higher defence bonus that the rest of your mages, so they might expect to survive a trap, even if not unscathed. And the magi cast Sun duration Detect Bad Stuff (TM) spells before going into a zone that is supposed to be dangerous. They are not unkillable, only fairly immune to a random arrow or ruffian killing their archmage since that is not the kind of stories that we want to tell.
Cheers,
Xavi
There's no denying that this sort of behaviour can be irritating. However, it is important to think about why the player is doing this. In some games and with some SGs, there really is a fair possibility of your character being ambushed from behind every door, and there often seems no way for the players to know whether their characters are in a "dangerous" or "safe" area.
I have played in (non-ArM) games where the SG has told us to stop making our characters act like paranoid lunatics. But then when we did we would just get ambushed by "random" encounters.
My advice to deal with this sort of problem is to make sure that the players understand that the storyguide will not ambush the players, and that the storyguide follows through on this promise. Explicitly discuss this with the players, don't just assume that they know this.
For example, say, for your story it actually is important for a character to be ambushed on his way to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. If so, tell the player to make some kind of (achievable) Awareness Roll (or something similar) to check if his character notices the impending ambush. Make sure that the players always have a clear opportunity to steer their characters out of trouble. If the storyguide makes sure that there are always clear opportunities for the players to keep their character safe, then the players won't be forced to make these opportunities by having their characters act like crazy people.
I am, sadly, familiar with SG's and gaming groups that do this. My current troupe, whom I've played with for over 10 years now, despises this "Killer DM" style of play as much as me. We don't play this way, with one exception, and he is no longer allowed to run stories. Also, none of the players act this way IMS, I was referring to ultraviolet's post about the annoying habits of ultra-paranoid mages.
Again, this is why a certain someone no longer gets to SG IMS. In saga after saga the players in his stories got bushwhacked regardless of how careful they were. My sneaky, conniving and utterly crafty Flambeau maga (she was a Perdo specialist, but that's another story) went to a warehouse at night to meet with a nobleman's representative. She and her grogs cased the warehouse for hours, from all sides, scouted every shadow and nook and cranny. She posted a guard outside to warn her of any approach and sneaked inside. We weren't allowed even a single Per roll before we were surrounded by a horde of heavily armed men-at-arms, who had apparently been hiding perfectly silently for hours. This kind of thing happened all the time. So...no more stories for him.
I don't run stories like this. It's important to give the players a real sense that they control their own destiny. That doesn't mean they control every situation, but their care and preparation have meaningful effects. I like to drop a variety of hints and subtle warnings along the way, and I like to sprinkle red herrings in the mix as well. This way you build a sense of tension and maybe even a little fear, as well as prompt the unwary to start paying attention. Red herrings (like the crow that seems to be watching the group as they make their way through the forest that turns out to be just a crow) can make players start to jump at shadows. The more real the suspense is the more everyone enjoys the experience, IMO. This also tempts players to perhaps let their guard down a little. I've had players make tense, suspenseful journeys through a haunted wood where nothing bad happens, for the sole purpose of conveying that not every walk through a faerie forest will necessitate a faerie encounter. It could happen at any time.
Absolutely.
On the other hand, I think that you shouldn't force the players to think of everything that their character would reasonably do. For example, if an expedition of grogs is leaving a snowbound covenant for three days it is unfair to have them suddenly trapped in an unexpected blizzard on the first day out of the covenant (unless it is a supernatural blizzard, I guess). The grog characters would reasonably have looked at the weather and probably noticed that a blizzard is something that might occur, and so packed accordingly. So, I think, a good storyguide would allow the troupe to assume that the grogs were somewhat prepared for such an event, even if the players didn't actually think of it.
The more of this sort of common-sense latitude the characters are allowed, then the less the players are forced into "I search the road for traps" mode.
All our non-magi characters and people that do not have a major supernatural background (like fae dudes et al) are assumed to have the "common sense" virtue for free. Magi are too freaky to have it, though. We do what Richard just described all the time. If you need a rope and you packed for an expedition, well, you do have a rope without having had to pack it specifically. Same for cooking pots and a blanket for the night et al. Makes for more enjoyable stories if you do not have to have a 14 page WORD document handy with everything you carry in the pack mule.
Cheers,
Xavi
Us too. In fact, we don't make people keep track of money, you either have none, a little, or a lot, depending on your character type and relevant v/f. Only magi ever really have "a lot." And we assume there is a standard "grog pack" with the usuals. Pretty much the only things we insist a player state they're taking or leaving behind is vis and magic items, but even then I let it slide if they forget to tell me at the start they're bringing their vis.
Nitpicking over minor, inconsequential details like "you forgot to pack a spoon" is another irritant of mine, but we don't do that sort of thing IMS. Now if you're off to go exhume the body of the Dread Pirate Roberts you do need to tell me you're bringing shovels and maybe a pick or two, unless one plans to use magic for this foul deed.
For me it's not just whether the detail is minor or not, it's what the character would reasonably do. In fact, in some ways, it is especially the major details that the players might forget but the characters would not realistically forget. A player might very easily forget to ask the SG whether a rope bridge looks like it will take their character's weight before stepping on to it. Most characters on the other hand, are not likely to make this mistake --- the character might well mistakenly think that a bridge will hold her weight when it won't, but she won't accidentally walk onto a bridge that she doesn't think will hold her weight.
To use your example, there's no way I would need the players to explicitly identify that most characters were bringing shovels (or similar) on an exhumation mission. The characters would have to be insane or deeply stupid to not bring these items. Although bringing something extraordinary, like the covenant's Wand of Hole Digging, might require player forethought.
I believe I was the one saying this. My major beef is precisely that the game slows down to a grinding halt, and many story avenues get short-circuited, since much danger and challange is removed.
However, this isn't really relevant, since the saga died. But I was moving towards saddling the problematic magus with a poor rep as well.
But I don't seem to have these problems with my new groups, nor do I as player have problems with "forgetting the spoon". Hooray, things work.
My main contribution was to point out that training in the bow would pretty much begin about the same time as a young apprenticeship, but given your barrel chested comment, you seem to have that in hand. I'd still recommend Bernard Cornwel'l's Arhcer's Tale for a litel bit of a longbowman in historical fiction. An anachronism he points out that you may or may not want to keep, it wasn't called the longbow until the end or after the 100 yrs war. War bow would work.
- Basic wood arrow with feather fletching would not be able to hold enough vis to hold the one enchantment, penetration, trigger effect, and multiple uses (if wanted) to do that. Though, at least
- Assuming some precious substances worked in to raise the vim allowed without ruining the arrow's ability to fly, that's a lot of vis for one arrow.
- Such a necessary item to make the character seems to detract from him being a bowman and more a device user.
HOWEVER, if he wanted to specialize as a renegade mage hunter, he could take the unusual tack.
First use something like the bowshot range, maybe even equivalent to touch (which for minor virtue can work). Specialize in Vim or have it be one of his major arts. Then a modified Winds of Mundane Silence that uses individual target and bowshot range (so even better chances of penetration) can blow wards and parma out. Of course, this would no longer be a true School of Owen, but it would be interesting for a unique character. Though if it caught on with others, it could get tiresome. 
I haven't crunched it all out, but I think a Vim specialist with a magical focus of destroy or lessen magic would have a good shot (pun originally not intended, but kept upon review) against both magi and creatures with any might. Of course, everyone of a magical nature would feel SOME discomfort around such a character.
Don't forget metal arrowhead, that's a bit more capacity.
True, though an arrow of mage-slaying should be expensive and difficult to make.
Agreed. We're looking at the various contingencies this type of character would encounter. Against a magus with no Shriek of Impending Shafts or ward vs. wood/metal a good bowman doesn't need any magic at all. It's the "what happens if..." that starts to get tricky. Without cramming a half dozen effects into every arrow he uses, this archer character you're postulating would of necessity be only one element of a multi-pronged approach to hunting renegade magi, since his one ace would be useless if the wizard he's hunting has an effective defense vs. arrows. It's a cool concept, but without magic he's still only a very good bowman. That's not a bad thing. But magi are the tip of the power pyramid (for player characters, that is) in ArM, and should remain so.
True of all cool character concepts, but most troupes seem to be self-regulating in this regard. If not, the SG need only wave her arms and say "Only one mage-slaying magic archer per saga, please, thank you." And it's definitely a cool concept, one I would explore further.
I may yet explore that one further, but thought I'd also throw out suggestions for more a "purer" Owen style fighter. IE, no special made virtue for bow and spell use. Here's incomplete but useful thoughts and ideas:
Attributes- mandatory +2 str, +Dex, +Per would be good, and should still have +int, though not necessarily +3
Virtues- obvious Owen freebie, obvious Puissant (Bows), Keen Vision and/or Sharp ears for distance tracking, Perfect Balance to allow precarious but advantageous shooting positions
Spells
In addition to the usual defense stuff any Owen magus would take, the spells chosen here would take advantage of the ranged combat capability:
True Sight of the Air(5th ed p. 15): Both to remove penalties from natural and magical obfuscations. For SG's who want to take the mechanics all the way, in a natural fog, as opposed to magical fog being resisted by the quarry, the magus will only see a roughly person shaped fog of appropriate density as the fog within the area that constitutes the quarry's personal zone is not penetrate by the intelligo spell.
Rise of the mists(CrAu): Several versions, but the basic would be level 10, base 2 to create normal fog, +1 touch (fog naturally occurs on the ground, so no problem there), +2 day, +1 to increase to 10xBoundry size. As a formulaic spell, designed to give an oblong shape. The magus will generally cast it so that the center is somewhere between him and where he believes his prey to be, and the length goes along the line between the magus and the prey. There's no need for him to see the prey at the time, he's just deciding the shape of the fog, which he will sense in the area that's around him. A finesse (not the roll) to add in a formulaic spell is to have the mist creep up within an hour. This version would be used when the magus knows where the prey has been sleeping and plans to follow him/her after awakening, whether in town or woods. Benfits Both attack and tracking benefit from this, where the magus use TSotA above. In such a case, the magus can keep the quarry within sight without himself being seen. Once the magus does attack, the quarry will at best only know the general direction of the attack. Level is low, but a large area can be covered. Down side Quarry with magical resistance will be forewarned that something is up. Since the fog itself is magical, parma, might, and aurum scores will resist. At the beginning of the magus' career, this means the quarry will register that it's defense is constantly pressing against something magical and put 2 and 2 together. This may be offset for low resistance quarry as the magus naturally increases his creo and aurum scores. If the magus doesn't create a finesse version as described above, the suddenly appearing fog will also give forewarning. Finally, it can be countered by the same method the magus is using, but that is not a "defense" that is regularly given consideration.
Other versions
- Level 15 to increase the size again will ensure a large area of coverage, an area of 100 boundries.
- +2 magnitude (very unnatural) to have the fog move with the magus and reform at his will. Even if the quarry gets a bit out of sight, he or she will still have a ways before leaving the fog bank.
Sight of the Wounded Quarry's trail (InCo): Call it level 20. Base 2, +2 day, +4 vision) Human remains, including blood and hair glows an unusual color in the sight of the magus. I'm going with a base of level 2 to locate pieces of humans without an arcane connection, but this one is of course per saga. Both useful for tracking after wounding and getting arcane connections to use one's self or best with penetration specialist companions.
Disconcerting Roar (CrIm) Level 20 (+2 (within 100 paces of sight), +2 day, + 2 moves with target, +1 ten times human volume). This would be an original created by the magus a little pass his gauntlet. It involves some finessing and is situation specific. Specifically, it applies when the quarry has no magic resistance or is accompanied by any person or animal without resistance. It will be the result of serious research on the magus' part. It will create a roar of the caster's choice (initially as loud of the sound of a waterfall that the spell will allow). The roar will be centered on a point within 20 paces of a person or animal the magus targets with the spell and will move according to how that target moves. The spell will be disconcerting to the quarry (THEY don't know it's the sound of a waterfall that came out of nowhere) and will provide distraction and aggravation, also likely confusing communication within a group. This will be a nasty piece of work that should throw people off and demonstrate original thinking on the magus' part, hopefully only to himself.
I few things come to mind every now and then and eventually I add them on.
I don't see muto being so focused on here, necessarily. Mainly the one spell below. For some reason, I have it in my head that the string is from cured sinew or some animal product, if I'm wrong, adjust requisites accordingly.
More Spells
Sting the Bow ReHe(An) 4- touch, mom, indiv - Cast on a bow with the string looped on one end (now it's an individual item) the magus touches the spell and the bow is instantly strung. As with all other rego spells that do things that a mundane craftsman, or in this case bowman, can do, no intermediary steps are involved. Depending on the grittiness of the game, their should be two benefits. First and foremost is time. Even someone fully trained in archery would probably take multiple combat rounds to get that monstrosity of a long bow strung. Second is more story related, but the spell involves no stress on the bow or string beyond what's there once it's strung. Mundanely stringing the bow will likely involve bending the bow further than absolutely necessary, or bending one spot harder than need be. No intermediary steps means no unnecessary stress. As the spell is so specialized, no additions to the level for intricacy and generous story guides will allow the same spell to string or unstring at the casters choice. (base 3, +1 touch, +0 for requisite)
Immaculate Care of the Bow- ReAq 20- touch, sun, indiv- The spell protects the wood and the string of the bow both from soaking or losing too much water, a major foe of bowman. It is essentially an aquam ward, but instead of keeping all water out, it regulates the water that enters and spreads through the bow to the optimum level. For this reason, it does not protect against impact damage- say from a jet of water striking the bow, but that water will run off the bow without being soaked in. Full immersion for more than a diameter may begin overwhelm the spell, but if it is drawn out in time, the spell will remove any excess water that is in the wood and string before significant damage can be done. In addition to long term care, this spell can be a big deal once rain starts. Most mundane archers would not be able to continue to use their bows for any amount of time outside of some shelter in constant rain. (base 5, +1 touch, +2 sun).
Yield of Hercules- MuHe(An) 10- touch, sun, indiv- Both the ease of pulling and holding the string back and the tension created from the pull are increased to unnatural levels, especially when considered in relation to each other. One possible comparison for this, for those in the know, is that the bow is the equivalent of what you can get with modern craftsmanship, the use of pulleys included. However, I have no idea how much of an improvement that would be personally. This effect comes from modification of both the wood of the bow and the string. This is your bow equivalent of Edge of the Razor. It should definitely increase both range and damage, but not attack. The force is increased, which increases how far it goes and hard it hits, but not how well it hits. I'm not sure how much of an increase to venture, so for now, I leave it to individuals. One other effect might be to increase the range of people who can use the bow. For instance, in a gritty game that only allows people who have been trained since childhood to use a long bow, a person of as low as +1 str with no training may now use it. In a less gritty game where strength is the only requirement, perhaps allow someone with as low as 0 strength to be able to use the bow.