Plan for +15 period,
Lab Stats
New spells
Lab item
The change of heartbeast is a very big change. You wanted to be able to combat in beast form and Lion form grants you automatic melee capability. Wolf can work too, but you have to figure a way of get advantage of its team fighting capabilities (leadership). Perhaps conjuring a pack of wolves.
Also, Freki is in the last chapter of Through the Aegis has a wolf heartbeast.
As I understand the Abilities from using changed shape is that when in animal form you use the general abilities of that animal (e.g Stealth and Brawl), which the animal has at certain levels. These are unaffected by your human form and also unaffected by whatever you do in human form e.g. train.
But if you spend an entire season (or significant part of)= a season in animal form you can practice or train those abilities to a higher level. In essence, your human intelligence allows you to study beyond what animals instinctively know. Check out Through the Aegis, Freki from Collem Leonis - I'm sure there is something about that there.
I would write the magus stat block up separately from the animal form, and list the animal form with the altered characteristics (as discussed earlier in this thread) and the list of abilities, comprised of any languages, lores, supernatural abilities from the human form as well as the general abilities from the animal form. And this stat block includes any training done in animal form as well as any new general abilities learned. And I would only list in animal form any virtues and flaws affecting the animal form, plus any which the animal has, including qualities. Again, check out Freki from Collem Leonis and see if she isn't written like that.
Ha! Damn. I've just read Freki and its a solid write-up. I should have checked which heartbeasts were already written up. I re-wrote a flaw when the character moved from lion to wolf, so its not too strange to change again to get a shape which is not written in detail.
Perhaps a Bear is suitable...it retains the combative aspect I'm after.
I've made a list of all the Bjornaer with their heartbeasts in the sourcebooks, these are the ones with full stat blocks,
- Antunnos, Stag, Hooks 37, Stats
- Falke, Falcon, GotF 96, Stats
- Freki, Wolf, TtA 140, Stats
- Hérisson, Hedgehog, LoH 9, Featurette
- Hilde Oddfish, Shark, TtA 13, Stats
- Lexora, Lion, TtA 43, Stats
- Ragna, Raven, SubRosa-18 32, Stats
Have I missed an official bear write-up somewhere?
(Ankoydes is a Bear, and I wrote one on a blog a while ago.)
Moved this comment here so not to post through another thread.
Great idea, thank you. I'll do that, drafted..
Sorry to rain on your parade, I had missed it was a point of yours to avoid choosing a heartbeast already statted up. But then again, better to discover it now rather than later.
Off the top of my head I can't recall any more statted up Bjornaer magi and heartbeasts.
If you are looking for combat capable, what about a wolverine, they can be nasty? Or a hyena or a snow leopard, be to more exotic?
Thanks Christian. I’ve dug into some of the options in the 3e and 4e Beastiary too just to see what is there. My suss was to have an option which could physically stand toe-to-toe with a knight which is why a more combative option is attractive. As strong as the smaller sharp clawed mammals are they are not up to spec compared with many of the choleric Heartbeast choices. Going bear, aurochs, rhinoceros were options found and Bear is a more reusable candidate. Maybe I should choose a polar bear to add a slightly “fish out of water” angle.
There is also a body of bear mythology across many traditions to draw from, which is where I plan to borrow some of the Sensory Magic inspiration. I’m just getting my head into the dualistic nature of the way bears are portrayed and will carry on.
Lastly it’s attractive to have a bear candidate as it calls back to the founder’s Heartbeast. I might do something with that in later cycles.
Blogged today a full list of all the Bjornaer magi mentioned across all the 5e sourcebooks. There is a skew for avians and combative types which makes a lot of sense.
The Bjornaer in my saga is a bear and he is definitely combat-capable from the beginning, with no need to add spells.
I think that it is comparable in power to a Lion but more endurance oriented. Also, that sick stamina helps a lot with spells. and if you get the inner heartbeast of virtue, stamina is the stat that will increase by +3.
Planning out more spells for the +30 period. It is a time where Samual will be on the offensive and looking to actively fight to make a difference. I also wanted some spells he could cast while humanoid. I doubt he will be able to craft all these, but plan on him investing them eventually.
A caveat for these spells is that I think there might be duplicates across some of the books. I'll try to note where I got the initial reference in RAW or where I think they are similar.
not sure if this should be base 2 to plan a a suggestion? "you are hungry, go feed!"
... as per the Crystal Dart.
... as per the Protesting Adversary Held Still (MoH, p132)
throw a target, rather than move them through the air.
..Feed, fatten, and transport livestock in small boxes instead of wagons and pens.
I'm assuming you meant +5 damage, and that the +5 is simply a typing error? Given that you're referencing The Crystal Dart.
I will go spell by spell with time.
Note that these kill if the target acts on its urges. Several other spells have some characteristic roll at 9+ to avoid, but with this duration, i think that is almost guaranteed that the target will die at some point.
You can drink yourself to death by water: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
Crystal Dart does +10 damage, with the same base and Reqs. I added Group to represent moving a large number of shards, and added an extra mag of “force” to increase the damage.
You sort-of did. 3+1+1=5. From there there are another +2+2 for +10+10. 5+10+10=25, not 20. So while you listed an extra magnitude, you didn't actually add it.
Well shucks! Thanks Callen. I’ll edit it.
Might sneak this one in to the +30 period too. I haven’t planned for the ability to travel efficiently yet. Perhaps lowered to R: Personal, for the bear shape although having it for other animals is probably too handy.
Also thinking of a Villano’s sling using animal bits & bones, to allow ranged fighting with creatures with MR.
Thrash of the Earthen Bear has been addressed.
I don't like this. But I don't know why. I cannot find a logical reason (not overpowered, seems mechanically right...) It seems... I don't know. Not elegant.
I would like to see this implemented with sensory magic.
Using the Gift of the Leap's Frog base 10 (or a similar base for Animal as we discussed with your leap spell) you could fling that person perhaps 15-30 feet in the air. That is a really rough landing.
I think that the Animal requisite (or the Corpus requisite if you invent the animal version) should be free. You are not changing the effect of the spell, just allowing to affect an additional type of targets.
In any case, I mean, if you are using magic. Go big. Fling away that poor bastard. That spell seems like something a real bear could do.
If you increase another magnitude, you are in the Realm of warping. Perhaps that defeats the purpose of the spell.
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IMHO any Creo (Rego) [physical form] missile spell, non-aimed, intended to deal damage, should be similar to Dagger of Ice Cr(Re)Aq 10, +5 damage (Base 3, +2 Voice, +1 Rego requisite). There are no other canon examples. But creating a animal products is base 5, so such a spell would be 2 magnitudes higher than for aquam.
I went through the same thing with Corvus, and ended up with the more efficient Mu(Re)An variant of Crystal Dart.
It is very inefficient, because the 2 magnitudes higher makes it too difficult compared to the meager damage. There are no known examples of an animal product being more dangerous than an icicle. L&L has Lance of Animal Bone, but this merely creates a lance to be used by hand. The basic Dam stat for a lance is +5, and in actual use it would be wielded with force, represented by the wielder's Str stat plus the carryover of Atk minus Dfn. How much would be fair to assume if moved by magic? Unseen Porter ReTe10 counts as Str +5. I don't like using Finesse to represent attack skill, because the spell is not aimed.
Also: Nor are there any missile type spells of Creo Herbam or -Terram. However Wall of Thorns creates a static thing, dealing +15 damage if forcing ones way through...so if said wall was forced over someone (needing Rego req) it would be fair to assume something similar. Otherwise Herbam and Terram only has some Muto and/or Rego examples of damage dealing spells: Piercing Shaft of Wood (lvl 15, dam +5 to +10, depending on size), Crystal Dart (lvl 10, +10 dam), Earth's Carbuncle (lvl 15, dam +10).
I'm finding the wording on this spell slightly ambiguous - does it mean that someone's mindcontrolled to not actually eat, or to feel permanently hungry?
If the latter, it feels more like a Creo than a Rego spell.
I agree - or actually feel this even more strongly.
I think the target is mindcontrolled to feel permanently hungry, but I've read it a few times, and I still don't know how it works.
What does this spell do, please?
The target will feel hungry for the duration, unable to sate their need for food. It is not intended to forcefully compel them to eat in the absence of other important events. I wanted it to be the type of spell a fae might curse somebody with.
“It doesn’t matter what I eat, I’m always hungry”,
I wasn’t sure if it was CrMe or ReMe when writing, and went with rego due to the “state of mind”. Happy to flip it to Creo Mentem if that’s more appropriate.
Is the base too high or right?