I'm preparing to run an apprentice-hunting story for my alpha storyguide's character.
However what he finds is going to be a set of gifted twins, who completely refuse to part.
They'll probably become player characters if they are apprenticed, so I want to give them reasonable virtues/flaws. I'm picking 3 virtues to represent their link.
The True Friend (PC) virtue.
Special Circumstances bonus that relies on each other. Either touching each other or being within voice range [I'm leaning towards touching, but I'm not certain.]
A minor supernatural virtue "Twin Link": "You and your twin [who must also have this virtue] share a supernatural bond. For any season in which you gain non-exposure experience your twin gains 1 point of experience in one of the abilities or arts raised."*
*Note that supernatural abilities must reach a score of 1 in a single season, and as such experience gained through this link won't allow them to be learnt from 0.
Do these seem like reasonable virtues to link the twins? Is Twin Link too strong for a minor virtue?
One thing that you may want to look at is having the twins share something much like the familiar bond, with Gold (magical) / Silver (emotional) / Bronze (physical) cords. Even if each cords only has a strength of 1, that would mean some interesting interactions. In time, they may be able to strengthen their bond.
The down-side could be that whenever one of them gets wounded, the other suffers the equivalent of a long-term Fatigue Level loss to reflect the pain. And perhaps because of their magical link, they cannot ever bind a familiar.
Special Circumstances seems fine. Another way to express something like that might be to give them a Wizard's Communion-like power that only work with the other twin. So they could essentially generate lots of penetration by working together.
Then throw in a reciprocal True Firend virtue into the mix and call the package "Magical Twins". Whether this is a Minor or Major Supernatural virtue would depend on the exact final mix. I'd lean towards Major -- makes for a more interesting situation.
I'd stay away from giving each other bonus xp, as this seams a rather bland way of expressing such a link.
Hmmm, we did nothing that fancy for our twins. We merely designed them with characteristics none too distant and a lot of virtues in common. In order to look alike we made all but two characteristics the same. Both took Mythic Blood with the same power, and both took same background virtues like Well Traveled.
While a bond something like Familiar Bond seems both cool and even apporpriate, the rules as such don't support it and it could be required to have a Breakthrough discover this.
That range is equivalent to arcane connection, which makes it hard to have any actually useful powers through it without spending several virtues building them; limiting the characters, especially as they're potential magi.
Hmmm, a thought: I have the concept that these twins could be "joined at the gift"; rather than just unwilling to part [haven't decided which it is yet]. Which of these would be more appropriate for the major hermetic flaw Restriction:
A) Must have touched within the last week
B) Must have touched within the last month
Or can someone suggest a better way to represent "joined at the gift" magi?
Restriction/Necessary Condition (maybe both) or the Flaw that i don't remember the Name but make Lab and Casting totals be halved on one condition.
Other good way to make one Magic Power is with Mythic Blood Power of course, and maybe one that make one Invissible Tunnel between the twins. I'ld say that the Range can be Special anyway.
That opens up a number of interesting spells, as described in the Wizard's War section of Hermetic Projects - Things like Mind-reading (range:touch) for the standard Twin Link, or Fingers for Eyes (Sense the room that your target is in), and so on. Of course, if it only works on your twin that's a significant limitation on the power. (I'd houserule that if it only worked between the two twins, it would have a hefty penetration bonus, and was always on, or something like that.)
That opens up a number of interesting spells, as described in the Wizard's War section of Hermetic Projects - Things like Mind-reading (range:touch) for the standard Twin Link, or Fingers for Eyes (Sense the room that your twin is in), and so on. Of course, if it only works on your twin that's a significant limitation on the power. I'd houserule that if it only worked between the two twins, it would have a hefty penetration bonus, and was always on, or something like that.
Or you could use Mario's recommendation, and have it use the "My Twin" range - same as R:Personal, but only works on 1 unique person (your twin, obviously.) Makes it easy to use and learn and have penetration, but (obviously) is limited in who it can effect.