anyone notice what happened to the link to our wikki? I'm looking for that and some other information (regarding companions having magic might) which seems to have vanished...
I added a link as an announcement.
If we are making a magical companion, what might and season should we be looking at?
I'm not sure allowing magical companions is the best idea. As we saw in Loch Ness: A New Dawn, they can cause a number of problems. For one thing, they can be vastly more powerful than non-magical companions. Though I suppose given the fact that companions can be much older in this saga, the learning penalty could play a much more important role. I'm still not convinced it's a good idea.
What is the general opinion of the troupe about magical companions? I take it silveroak is in favor. What do others think?
I am wanting to make an exiled Atlantean, as I have said before. Realistically with the character creation rules for magical characters the age is irrelevant- if you decide that a magical characters should be high power and summer season that means they all will have 360 xp plus whatever might they dedicate towards abilities. Companions would have might 15, grogs might:5, and they would have the threshold XP of a 21 year old character (magic characters do not get free language or age based xp), and the ability to exchange each magic quality for 50 xp (keeping in mind that a 'low might' inferiority can nearly double the number of qualities available), so a companion who was designed to be super-abled would have might 0 and an additional 1500 points in abilities (100 years worth), while the grog could have an additional 250 point in abilities, or just over 16 years worth. There are other drawbacks and benefits to being magical, but a low might score does make one inherently more vulnerable. Medium power and autumn characters would put the characters with a base of 720 xp (equivalent to age 45) and might 10 for companions, 3 for grogs, which means trading all might for experience gives companions 1000 more points in abilities (total of 1720 vs 1860 in the previous example) and grogs would have a bonus of 300 xp for a total of 1020 (equivalent to age 65).
If you want a less powerfull option than either of these, medium power summer magic characters (which to me seems like it is designed to be the default) gives a companion 360 points in abilities (age 21) and might 10 (exchangeable for 1000 xp, total 1360 or abilities equivalent to age:82 with 10 points extra) Low power puts grogs at might:0 and companions at might:5, exchangeable for 500 xp- right over 30 years worth of experience. Note that most magical characters will not take this route of a complete exchange, but it is usefull for comparing the effects of choices- also spring (120) points is the same as age:5, which essentially requires an exchange of qualities for abilities.
Well, as this was advertised as a high powered campaign, I have no problem with high powered characters. Nor am I worried about relative power level. For me the key is this: When making that high powered character, is that character going to be interesting? I think given the people at the table that I can trust the answer to be yes.
I think the question of whether we actually want a high powered campaign is a separate issue. Character builds and build methods are encouraged, sometimes even required in a high powered campaign that would be not be used in a more moderate story. Does this need to be revisited?
I think relative power matters, although not much. It's also a question of whether we want lots of magical companions, as that is a likely outcome. I'm not sure what to think.
It's more the style of the magical character that might be the issue in this game than power. Allow it and see what character is created.
If you decide it's not the right choice then veto it, or adjust the character. We're aware of the concern so should also be aware of the potential veto happening.
I like the idea of an exiled Atlantean, It'll move up some plots that I had expected to take a little longer. But that's okay. So let's see what you can do with a magical companion. Keep in mind my concerns and I think we'll be okay.
Let's go with a High-powered (Might 15) Summer companion.
As I understand it you changed the resources adventure option such that Procella can't have her ships during chargen. Can she still have them at the start of play?
What would be the ballpark cost in MP for a huge amount of lead and many small mirrors? How much?
Well enough so that I've got plenty for say a decade of creating tablets and holding images.
I've looked at covenants for costs but could not suss a cost for a large volume.
Or is this kind of thing just lab materials and its included?
Another question: how is the Lore regarding Atlantis being represented in Abilities? Is it a specialisation of Magic Lore (Atlantean), or a separate skill?
I apologize again for pulling the rug out from under you. But I had to stop power creep.
I have no problem with Procella starting out with some ships, and am sure that we can work something out.
Money should not be a huge problem for you guys, so I'm not terribly worried. How does 100 MP sound? (pulling a number from thin air - that's mostly for the mirrors.)
I was figuring that it would be AL: Atlantis, which is very hard to come by. Not that you can't take it. But keep in mind that even low values are hard to come by. However, Duncan (Magnus' brother) has been gathering information on Atlantis for decades. He would certainly have a few tractatus on the subject, And there are the odd tractatus scattered throughout Mythic Europe.
Really, I suppose I should call it AL: Lost Atlantis, since we have an exiled Atlantean. Without going into any detail, this will be a separate skill than knowledge of the places where current Atlanteans live.
Not that the Atlantean is aware of this at the beginning. He has area lore:Mediterranean, would he have enough knowledge of Atlantis (the regio) to realize that he hasn't found it when the island rises?
He would know enough to know that the sunken city of Atlantis is separate from the regio of Atlantis. As we get closer to introducing your companion I'll PM you with some more info.
Err youch. That's a lot more than I expected. The same buys a tower. I'll buy it as needs. I'll throw a few MP of silver at it and more when I start to use them more.
I was looking at prices and trying to think about mirrors of the time. Those seem relatively expensive to me. I wasn't sure what a 10 year supply meant (one a day, one a week, one a month?), so I estimated high. I'm willing to revise the estimate with more information.
Mirrors in the conventional sense (glass backed with refractory metal) were fantastically expensive in 1220 because the hot metal almost always shattered the glass upon contact. Lead backed glass was not a commonly used technique until low temperature lead forming was invented in the 1600's. Magic could easily overcome this problem using Muto to keep the glass from fracturing until the lead cooled, just an FYI.
Do you need a metal backed glass mirror or would a less expensive one made from polished metal (perhaps tin?) or obsidian do the trick? Both were common techniques from Antiquity till the Renaissance.