Sounds cheesy, for a Personnal Power. Take it instead as a Focus Power, which are the ones supposed to have that degree of flexibility.
Anyway, IMO, it'd be Muto, not Rego.
If you have a trouble with concepts, may I suggest you look at Grogs?
Grogs is cool. The guy who wrote the Almogavars section sucks, but the rest is awesome 
A wealth of new Minor Flaws & Virtues!
Hmmm... I had a whole plan for how Micaela would want to somewhat latch onto Mercuria. But it seems Mercuria has ceased to exist. 
I'll have to figure out some new routes to follow.
Hey all, new guy here who's also relatively new to Ars Magica. Still trying to work up a character concept so I would love some opinions. I've got three somewhat vague concepts floating around in my brain right and would love to know what you think:
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Solomon, a Guernicus former Benedictine monk. His monastery was "infiltrated" by a succubus who started seducing his fellow monks but Solomon noticed her due to his burgeoning Sense Holiness and Unholiness power and fled the monastery taking up refuge at a local covenant where his Gift was discovered. He is a Quaesitor who "specializes" in identifying and rooting out magi who have been influenced/corrupted by the Infernal. His Sense Holiness and Unholiness virtue also by happenstance makes him pretty effective within Dominion areas (cities) since he isn't negatively affected by the aura. Heavy on Intellego, Mentem and Vim magic.
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A Criamon on the Path of Strife (no name yet). Found just outside a Criamon covenant/monastery as an infant. Spent his entire life growing up with the Criamon, but when it was time for him to join them on their Path (probably Path of the Body) his true nature as a Faerie came out and made him unfit to live life aptly. Crushed, he chose to serve the Criamon in the only way he could, on the Path of Strife. WOuld be more interesting if there was another Criamon in the covenant whose problems he could solve to keep the other Criamon's hands (and soul) clean. Strong Faerie Blood (probably Sidhe), with some sort of Malediction/Geas or personality flaw (lecherous?) that prevents him from living aptly along with the Faerie Heritage story flaw from RoP:F. Heavy Corpus and Rego with an emphasis on making himself physically more powerful and resistant while using a mundane weapon (along with his mystery abilities) for combat.
[strike]3) A Flambeau weather wizard. Still a rather vague concept, but the idea is a magus of the Sebastian school who uses weather control for military support (ie. making sure the weather is good when his side wants to lead a charge, or ensuring the weather is horrible for the opposing force making their logistics difficult). Obviously a major focus on weather with heavy Creo and Aurum.[/strike]
Oops, just noticed that this is what Carmen is, so strike that concept...
Carmen is not School of Sebastian. She is School of Julius of the Lineage of Delendos.
And redundancy is not a bad thing.
Idea - School of Pietro (Minor Magic Focus in Lightning), and Mythic Blood - Pietro of Flambeau. Pietro was a Tytalus magus who forced his way into House Flambeau. Eventually an archmagus and leader of their war council. He is fecund and sired several gifted offspring. He is also Carmen's mentor. Excellent link opportunity.
Criamon, I sorta think that requires more familiarity with the system.
A Gurnicus Quaesitor would be useful. Sense Holy/Unholy does not attune your magic to the divine. Just that power. And I am not permitting Holy Magic at this time.
I'm working on a Verditius...because I want to explore the Verditius within the confines of a saga. They are...elusive to me, in many respects.
So...tenatively his name is Quain, call him Q for short, and you have a good idea of how I see his role. And as I'm relatively occupied in other sagas having him here as a utility player for interaction, or to fulfill the requests of the "secret agent" redcaps seems appropriate. I don't intend to be too involved with the overarching saga, but look forward to inter-PC interactions as they might pop up.
My tentative concept is that he has (or is it of?) Primogeniture Lineage and is the grand filius of the current Primus of Verditius. If Marko wants to do some devilishly political stories with that, that's cool, otherwise, it's his raison d'etre for coming to Andorra and serving Redcaps. Eventually his hubris may take him away, but he will be...raw A freshly gauntleted Verditius. Or at least that's where I see him right now. My concepts have a tendency to flux a lot before I finalize them...
I'm open to suggestions as to the types of devices the players might see as useful for their characters, which I can then incorporate into the crunch of the character...
Hmm, I'll think about it, but I generally prefer not to be too similar to other characters.
Possibly. I do have a pretty good understanding of the rules from a theoretical standpoint, it's just that I haven't had a lot of experience actually playing the game. I actually think it would be helpful because the mysteries help focus the concept a bit more.
Ah, yeah, I was remembering wrong. It just means I don't receive warping for living in a Dominion aura (for some reason I was thinking it was the other way). And yeah, I knew you weren't permitting Holy Magic, which is why his background will be that his Gift was identified by a "regular" magus and thus he learned Hermetic Magic.
Three ways to go...
He could work for House Mercere but not join the covenant but still be available to them, the other way around, or be part of both.
Being part of Verdi's true lineage and primogenature hooks are maybe a bit beyond a part-time character.
We have an underexploited tie to the Confraternity of Valdarius. Dimir Taar (Fixer) is half-in&out, mixing it with spirit magic and being a regular member of the house.
Confraternity of Valdarius is similar to the Confraternity of Roland, but better 
Other ideas for a background Verdi...
A Verditius Quaesitor? Reclusive? Mercurian Verdi?
Not nixing the primus idea. Just questioning how feasible it is for the role you wanna play.
Well, it is a Primogeniture Lineage is a minor story flaw. You can do a lot with it, if you want, or not. This one, unlike other minor story flaws appears to offer little tangible benefit for the player. So it can get activated as often as the SG wants. And if its activation yanks the character from the saga, I'm ok with that.
Quain is trying to avoid interaction with his House. He understands his place in the House, such as it is. There is a new Primus (canonically speaking) and there is political pressure in the house over Verdii or Lemnos being the domus magna. Quain may be far along the line of the primus spot. Consider he's probably the youngest possible "contender" and that his pater may have siblings of a sort, and they may have filii of their own. Maybe his pater isn't the oldest of the filus of the current Primus, for that matter and he's pretty far down the line. So the character of the political stories is pretty different. Unless and until Vendetta's start knocking off people in the line of succession... Or something. Bottom line, I few it as a minor thing and it tells you what kind of stories I'm interested in other than the overarching saga. If you activate my story flaw, I'm all in, you'll have me at hello, or something. 
I'm just asking that you not activate it too often, since it's a minor flaw, or if you do, provide some more tangible benefits which most minor story flaws do...
I see him as either working for House Mercere, or working for Andorra, either one is acceptable for me.
Individuality is in personality and personal character. But I understand your instincts. I'd still encourage a Flambeau magus though.
As for a Criamon, though I let players make what decisions they will, I am still a bit leary.
But play whatever you think will be the most fun.
The choice is yours. Roll with it 
Post the character in a new thread, titled (name of character) - development. That's your worksheet to work out ideas and have discussions with the troupe. When complete, I will instruct you to post again in a new clean thread for me to sticky. The development sheet will be kept as a worksheet for future development and a record of seasonal activity.
If you have been reading along, you may know this already. But I also want to repeat describing the process for the benefit of others.
The choice is yours. Roll with it
Post the character in a new thread, titled (name of character) - development. That's your worksheet to work out ideas and have discussions with the troupe. When complete, I will instruct you to post again in a new clean thread for me to sticky. The development sheet will be kept as a worksheet for future development and a record of seasonal activity.
If you have been reading along, you may know this already. But I also want to repeat describing the process for the benefit of others.
I think I'll go with the Guernicus. I know you don't want Holy Magic in the game, but how do you feel about True Faith?
That works. But the troupe needs to okay it.
My one worry is True Faith opens up Holy Methods and Powers, even if the character doesn't know any yet. I'm not sure that's what was intended with the regulation. Of course, Mark can control access, but he could even if you had a Holy Method or Power anyway. I have nothing against it myself; it just seems contrary to my understanding of the agreed-upon regulation.
I would, instead, just use Supernatural Vrtues/Flaws associated with the Divine. For example, Second Sight from the Divine.
Holy Methods and powers are banned for magi much the same as Goetia is. If he takes True Faith, it will be the no frills as-is from the main book.
But I am not keen on Divine aligned supernatural abilities other than Sense Holy/Unholy.
I just looked it up now. True Faith gives you magic resistance than cannot be suppressed. That can be quite a disadvantage.
Hello all. I'm kicking around an idea for a Tremere signaller/illusionist with Shadow War experience. I'm guessing he'll be in his late 40s, probably from Iberia or Provencal. I've read all the current posts for the saga and have a few questions for which I couldn't find answers.
- Are we assumed to learn all spells from lab texts (with full lab scores), as opposed to inventing them ourselves (with half lab scores)? This seemed to be the way amul was handling Pythos's spells.
- If we invent our spells, do we need to pay vis/BPs for lab texts, or can we spend a season (or more) writing them up?
- If we invent our own longevity ritual, do we need to pay vis/BPs for it?
- Should we design familiars using RoP:M or just make them mundane animals with Might?
- Can we start the saga with an apprentice?
I'll post a little more background info once I familiarize myself with medieval Provence and Iberia.
Yeah, I think I'm going to scratch True Faith and just go with Sense Holiness and Unholiness and Pious. Those should get me what I'm looking for.
Wlcome to Andorra
At first, most of your spells should come from the main book. A few of your initial spells at Gauntlet may be customized, things your parens taught you and such. As you progress after gauntlet, you can presume to have access to spells from other books or places such as the Net Grimoire (non-cannon spells from alternate sources such as websites are subject to troupe scrutiny). Fully unique original spells (other than a few at gauntlet) should be invented from scratch. For the most part. Other players (such as myself) are allowed to give you some new spells (as a handwave, we are presuming a specific design such as "Lancea Magica" is being circulated around the Order).
BP's don't come into play until the end of development. Accumulated vis is for use in lab projects. As for writing out spells, this is treated as a normal seasonal activity.
You spend your own vis on it, and/or after development you can buy one.
I am not worried about aging points as long as you are on Longevity by age 40. Mayby some apparent aging as you decide. You only need a minimum level 20 for this. What you can do then is after development, buy a Longevity potion that is at a much higher level and roll with that in play.
A little of both perhaps. An animal with no Might but still possessing "Inherit Magic", such as a Supernatural Virtue or Flaw or a Warping Score, can be made a Familiar.
If the critter has Might, use RoP: Magic rules to design what it was like before becoming a Familiar.Magic beings do not age and have great difficulty learning new things. Becoming a Familiar changes all that. They age along with the magus and die when he does, and has no penalties learning Abilities when taught/guided by their magus.
Do not overpower or munchkinize the Familiar, nor choose attributes that abuse the house rule on learning & aging.
Good question 
I had not considered that. I suppose training an apprentice counts as a normal seasonal activity. You need to be able to open his Arts. Finding an apprentice...
Sacrifice one or more seasons, and I will design the basics of the character (or another player may)
I expect that most of my unique spells will be invented using the illusion rules in HoH:S (Jerbiton). I'm fine with inventing all of them.
Ok. I'll see how my CrCo lab score shakes out.
I'll use RoP:M then. And behave myself.
Excellent. I plan to be a 'Skilled Magus' in the Tremere hierarchy and his age seems to be about right for a first apprentice. As with my LR, I'll see if my Arts are high enough.