unaging
it sounds odd, but when you look at character creation, the ability to get higher ability scores at advanced age is balanced by the risk of lowered stats at those ages. With unaging that balance disappears, allowing you to take abilities in the 9-12 range.
It's pushing things a bit, but there's "All According to Plan" on page 52 of Between Sand and Sea. That lets your reroll one botch die once per session, subject to the player describing a contingency plan that averted the disaster.
The virtue is intended for thieves of Marrakesh, but I don't think there's any fundemental reason no-one else could take it. I've seriously considered giving Poena "Just an Instant", another minor virtue on the list, and most of Blackthorn probably has "Sees in the Dark" (at least if you assume the relevant part of the 4th edition book still applies).
Now that is a useful Virtue. Like, really really useful. And Minor too!
Savantism from Grogs p84 is the flaw you want for a truly one-track character. With a +3 in your specialisation instead of +1, it allows for great super-specialisation.
May I present: Simon, the swordsmith.
Characteristics: Int 0, Per 0, Pre 0, Com 0, Str +3, Sta 0, Dex +1, Qik 0
Size:0
Age:22
Decrepitude: 0
Warping score: 0 (unless you take the faerie option)
Virtues: Affinity with craft:weaponsmith, Puissant craft:weaponsmith, faerie blood (dwarf)
Flaws: Savantism, Temperate, Uninspirational
Abilities: Native Language 5, Awareness 2 (weapons), Area Lore: covenant 2 (craftsmen), Athletics 2 (climbing), brawl 2 (dodging), Craft weaponsmith 6+2 (swords), Faerie Lore 1 (dwarves), Leadership 2 (workshop)
Simon gets native language 5 as normal, all other character generation xp is halved. He put 70xp in craft, which gets to 105 (or level 6) with affinity. With a characteristic of +3 (using City&Guild, I'm using strength for a weaponsmith), skill of 6 +2 affinity +1 dwarven blood he gets 9, 12 when making swords. He is capable of using Leadership to tell people what to do in his workshop, but is at a colossal penalty if he ever tries to inspire people with his limited social skills.
As he has faerie blood, this design can be increased with Faerie Background from Realms of Power:Faerie p112 to increase his warping and take a positive and negative sympathy trait. Looking at Dwarf blood on p107, a sympathy of weapons is perfect, and the most common negative sympathy trait for such a character is theft. As faerie sympathy replaces specialisations, at values up to 3 this only makes his craft skill better with non-sword weapons, but will increase his brawl skill while wielding a weapon.
Great darkwing! Thanks, that's the spirit!
Magic Blood from RoP:M.
Grogs with animal features or lesser powers offer tremendous opportunities.
Archer or scout grogs with wings are just an opener. The possibilities are endless!
Looking at the realms of power books:
Divine - all the good virtues are major, and all the Methods require major virtues - if you want a divine grog, best to stick to relic, supernatural abilities like sense holy/unholy and premonitions, and lesser purifying touch, all of which are in the core rules.
Faerie - faerie speech is a minor virtue, and The Cradle & The Crescent lists faerie speech and faerie sight as virtues suitable for those with djinn blood. Faerie speech means your grog can be an interpreter and guide wherever there are people without magical resistance. Faerie sight allows you to see through illusions and also determine arcane connections - in combination with the Profession: Apothecary rules in Grogs to allow you to extend the lifespan of arcane connections, you could have a powerful ally for your magi.
Magic - Essential virtue potentially allows a +3 to something core to the character concept, which is a heftier bonus than puissant (ability). True Aim (one of the examples listed) on a magical huntsman could be amazing. Regio network allows a character to travel through regiones, which could be very powerful - it certainly brings the "Hidden Ways" or "Regio" boons for a covenant to life.
The really abuseable part for grogs is the "Items of virtue" section. In the book Grogs it allows a grog to lose 5 xp in character creation and have spent a season enriching an item. Seeing as these often give abilities equivalent to minor virtues, a grog with these can quickly have enough virtues to rival a companion - at a cost of warping.
Example of a grog with magical items: Stephen the autocrat
Characteristics: Int +2, Per 0, Pre +2, Com +1, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size:0
Age:25
Decrepitude:0
Warping Score:1(5)
Virtues and Flaws: covenfolk; educated, student of magic; obese, proud; Also 4 powers from magic objects - Inspirational (cinquefoil), tough (clam shell), Puissant Leadership (topaz), Greater purifying touch - flux (pennyroyal), ; Delusion (devils attempt to undo his healing) (from pennyroyal), Fragile constitution (from warping)
Personality Traits: Proud +3, Loyal +2, gluttonous +1
Reputations: None
Combat: Dodging Init +0, attack n/a, defence +0, damage n/a
Soak: +3 (from clamshell of virtue)
Fatigue levels:OK,-1,-3,-5,Unconscious
Wound penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), dead (21+)
Abilities: Native language 5 (local accent), Area lore: covenant 2 (covenfolk), artes liberales 2 (arithmetic), awareness 1 (alertness), carousing 1 (drinking), charm 2 (first impressions), etiquette 2 (nobles), folk ken 2 (covenfolk), guile 2 (embezzlement), Latin 5 (accounting), leadership 5+2 (covenfolk), Magic lore 4+2 (magic objects), profession: autocrat 5 (harvests)
Equipment: Fine clothes, an accounting roll and writing kit. Magic objects - enriched cinquefoil under his tongue, jewellery with a clam shell and topaz of virtue set in them, and an enriched stalk of pennyroyal.
Each year for the last 4 years, he has enriched an item, so after 1 year he gained warping point, then 2 the next year, then 3 the next, then 4 this last year. So far he has gained one flaw from his warping. If he stays with these four items, he will gain another flaw in five years, and a minor virtue after seventeen years.
Ceremony is minor and very useful for a grog's employer, if said employer is a "real" divine caster.
A few considerations:
- Items of Virtue that are only sporadically in use don't warp the user, do they?
- Essential Virtue (Minor) does not help you if your relevant characteristic is already +3 (or more).
- Does Faerie Speech require penetration, or does it act on the interpreter alone? I thought the latter, but I am too lazy to check.
- Ceremony has one really great use even if used on its own by a "largish" (half a dozen, say) group of grogs: it boosts prayers for Miracles (which are admittedly a bit of SG call).
RoP:M p 125 says "Secondly, an enriched Thing of Virtue confers Warping points as a Constant Effect of Low Power" which is where I got my 1/year figure from.
Faerie speech - it acts on the interpreter, so it isn't magically resisted.
RoP:I has some amazing minor virtues.
"Mentored by demons" - 50xp, can take ANY restricted skills (Martial, Arcane, Academic) AND ignore age limits on skills. This virtue allows a grog to min/max their abilities to their hearts content.
"Aptitude for sin" +3 when committing a particular sin - I can see "aptitude for theft" really boosting a spy or thief character, and "aptitude for murder" being popular with violent munchkins.
"Enticer of multitudes" means your grog turb captain can be amazing at encouraging people to loot, pillage, burn the place down - all very useful if you're a destructive covenant.
"Infernal blessing" - being under spells with a Forsaken duration is good, but runs the risk of being dispelled or of losing it all if your character suddenly falls under the sway of a great preacher. As such, this is an amazing virtue for a grog but only average value for a companion.
"Amorphous" can be taken in a minor form, which might be really useful for infiltrating grogs.
Some of the minor flaws are interesting - "manufactured ignorance" is entertaining and offers a minor lucky break a session. Corrupted abilties is a flaw with a +3 to sin with afflicted abilities, and -3 when using neutrally or for good - I'm thinking of an archer who is amazing at murder and poaching, but terrible in a battle for self-defence.
Sure, but that's only if they are constantly in use, they way I read it.
Faerie Speech is explicitly resisted, iirc. I'll have to try to find that statement later; I'm far from my books now and don't remember which book. It came out well after RoP:F. But it is consistent with a number of Virtues in RoP:F.
Edit: Found it. This is what's missing from RoP:F.
A winged grog - we once had one of those, in a previous saga.
The player had the most rotten luck with the dice, and the grog was gravely wounded in the first combat, and by Botching multiple Recovery rolls he barely made it...To the second fight, where the same thing happened - except the grog eventually died during Botched Recovery.
The player ended up playing the bandit who shot his former grog since the covenant recruited those bandits due to lack of manpower.
Well, unless you meant a combat-with-a-club grog I think that a virtue which actually allows that grog to have martial abilities could also be handy!
Like let's say Warrior. The 50 extra xps are also quite welcomed into his main weapon ability.
So I'd say exceptional combat grog virtues should be Warrior, Affinity with , and either Cautious with for you, botch-fearing people, or Puissant with for a more dying in a blaze of glory kind of combat grog. I'd also go with Puissant over Cautious if only just because a Puissant-ed version of this concept would surely beat the Cautious-ed version on a one-to-one combat. And because good, useful grogs cause a lot of impact (and following stories) in my troupe when they die.
Hi,
Wings do not protect against bad dice! But Magic Blood can provide a power that involves no dice, such as a fatigueless +5 damage CrIg Piddly Pilum of Fire, or personal invisibility (also great for scouts and archers) or whatever! Pick your level 10 spell fatigueless, or lvl 25 with fatigue. Combat medic, short range teleporter...
There are other dice, of course. 
Anyway,
Ken
You might also like virtues that provide Ferocity or similar, for combat situations.
Oh, good catch. I never read that bit in ToME, because the "A Note on Faeries" says it is for people who don't have Realms of Power:Faerie. I do have the book, so felt no need to read a recap of the rules. sigh
On the other hand, it's still very useful for your grog to speak to other mundanes. The fact it is blocked by magic resistance lets you know if anyone's carrying a relic or has another means of resisting magic, if they suddenly can't understand your interpreter grog. (Yes your interpreter grog can't use the power to speak to your magi, but your covenant has someone capable of teaching Latin, right?)
Forgive the double post, but I've worked out another one: The animal grog with a very long lifespan. The rules are in grogs p136-149.
Now, at their starting an animal gets 120xp to divide between its 5 abilities and a level 2 in its own language. (by comparison, humans get Native Language 5 and 45xp, or 120xp and no languages if they have feral upbringing).
The table on p138 shows that birds are long-lived, with starting age 8 and beginning aging at 55. Therefore a bird who is 47 gets (120 +(15x39)) or 705xp. This is enough to have 7 in 5 abilities (for a hawk this is athletics, awareness, brawl, hawk and survival) - so you can have a super-agile bird who is an amazing hunter and can spot clues a mile away. Team them up with an animal trainer who has covenant experience (from grogs) or educated virtues, and they can teach latin so your hawk can follow instructions better.
Even more extremely, Fish and Serpents start at age 25 and begin aging at 170. A snake (or maybe a whale if you're a covenant on a ship) can have at age 146 (120 +(15x102) or 1950 xp, enough for 12 in 5 abilities - so you can have a snake with awesome stealth who can infiltrate anywhere, or a whale who can face any aquatic hazard and slap any cheeky sharks with a brawl attack.
Unless your hawk has somehow overcome it, such as by becoming a familiar and so now learning Abilities like a human, how would it learn Latin? I don't remember the name of it, but animals have a very limiting Flaw, don't they? Now, if you can get past this Flaw, yes, you can have some very old animals with a breadth of Abilities.
"Restricted Learning" on Grogs p83 says you can only apply experience to your 5 core abilities by yourself, to develop or improve any other you need teaching or training. This is where an Animal Trainer who knows human languages, and can train his animals to respond to commands in different languages, comes in handy. They can also add other abilities, in case you want to teach your animal Legerdemain to steal items with.
You can imagine it - "No Archmagus, take the hawk that responds to Latin commands, you won't get the others to co-operate without magic!"