Having recently acquired the ArM 5 core rules, I'm trying to create a maga who lives and works as much as possible underwater. This is currently a purely intellectual exercise, although they might see play one day. I don't have access to most of the splat books, including (probably most importantly), Covenants, Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults or Realms of Power: Faerie.
Current thoughts:
Aequora ex Merinita
Characteristics: Int 2, Per 0, Str 1, Sta 2, Pr -1, Com -2, Dex 2, Qik 1
Size: 0
Age: 26 at end of apprenticeship
Decrepitude: 0
Warping: 0
Confidence:1 (3)
Virtues:
Strong Faerie Blood (Undine) MS
Ways of the Lakes MG
Quiet Magic x 2 mH
Special Circumstances (immersed in water) mH
Possibly True Friend in respect of a Familiar - I'm not sure if I take this as part of the original virtues and flaws choices, or only later when I start bind the familiar to my maga. Does it depend on what age she enters play? If not, then another minor virtue to balance Faerie Upbringing.
Flaws:
Necessary Condition (touching water) (MH)
Weak Magic Resistance (completely dry) (MH)
Plagued by Supernatural Entity (Undine mother) (MS)
Faerie Upbringing (mS)
Personality Traits: Loyal (familiar) +3, Curious +2
Abilities: Artes Liberales 1 (ceremonial magic?), Bargaining 1 (fay bargains), Concentration 2 (spellcasting), Faerie Lore 3 (water fay), Finesse 1 (aquam), Folk Ken 2 (faeries), Latin 4 (Hermetic terms), Magic Theory 3 (Familiars or enchanting items?), Native Language 5 (faeries), Order of Hermes Lore 1 (Merinita), Parma Magica 1 (aquam), Penetration 1 (aquam), Second Sight 2 (faeries), Swim 5 (underwater),
Arts: Cr: 5, In: 5, Mu: 5, Pe: 5, Re:5, An: 1, Aq: 8, Au 5, Co 1, He 1, Ig 1, Im 0, Me 0, Te 0, Vi 0.
Spells Known:
Mighty Torrent of Water (CrAq 20), +15
Subtle Taste of Poison and Purity (In Aq 5) +15
Clear Sight of the Mind (variant - sun duration) (InAq 15 = Base 1, +4 vision, +2 sun) +15
Lungs of the Fish (variant - personal target) (MuAq(Au) 15 = Base 4, +2 sun, +1 part) +12
Comfort of the Drenched Traveller (PeAq 5) +15
Parching Wind (PeAq(An/Co/He) 20) +?
Ward Against Faeries of the Waters (ReAq 20) +15
Cloak of the Duck's Feathers (variant - doesn't stop working with total submersion) (ReAq 10 (Base 1, +1 touch, +2 sun, +2 very unnatural effect) +15
Background:
Aequora was born of an undine mother and an unknown human father. She was brought up in her mother's court, spending her early life amongst the water fay, able to survive due to her mother's spells upon her. When she was eleven, a powerful Merinita maga visited the court. Spotting the gifted child, she stole her away and apprenticed her. At first, Aequora hated the maga, but she soon grew to appreciate the magical knowledge bestowed upon her, and her wish to return to her mother's court faded, though she never fully integrated into human society. Her mother's desire to have her returned never faded, however. Whilst she wouldn't kill Aequora (intentionally), she might attack that and those she perceives as keeping her away from her, or attempt to kidnap her. Aequora in turn doesn't want to kill her mother even if she could, but no longer desires to live wholly in her court and in her shadow.
The general intent of the build is that the maga is substantially better than another mage would be underwater, but quite weak out of it. Underwater, I believe she gets the following bonuses:
+2 to any action (undine blood)
+3 to cast or resist spells underwater (special circumstances)
+3 to any roll that directly involves lakes or their inhabitants. I'm slightly unsure quite how wide-ranging this is - the text specifying that it includes combat rolls makes me think it would include lab totals made in a lake when they have a die roll involved, and it is a major virtue, but I'm not certain.
The two quiet magic virtues should prevent difficulty in speaking underwater being a problem, although I'm not sure how much of one they'd be anyway. It must be possible to design a spell to enable yourself to speak underwater and for the sound to travel "normally", but I'm not sure what it would be. Muto Corpus? Creo Imaginem? Neither seems quite right.
Ideally, I'd like the character to live and study underwater. This has several obvious problems, including the need to keep renewing spells to enable her to breathe and see properly, together with the effect of warping from being constantly under such spells, and the effect of water on lab equipment and particularly spell books.
The first looks like it should be solvable with a familiar. If I understand the rules correctly, any number of effects can be instilled into the maga-familiar bond without causing warping. She can therefore enchant the bond with sun duration 2 use environmentally triggered effects that let her permanently breathe underwater (and her familiar out of water if necessary), see underwater, speak underwater and anything else that looks useful. This will have the side-effect of making her become a bit more fishy with each new power, but I don't think that really hurts the character concept.
I'm not sure what would be an appropriate familiar to get. The only obvious specific aquatic animal that's occurring to me is a frog/toad, which would presumably be Muto Aquam. That has the advantage of being able to breathe and move out of water. Aequora's techniques are pretty evenly balanced, although I might be tempted to restat that. What other animals are there for the different technique/aquam combinations?
The second is slightly more tricky. I'm trying to work out whether it would be better handled by a long duration spell or an enchanted item. Irritatingly, it looks as though Room target isn't quite big enough to affect a base room, since a laboratory must have at least 500 sq ft of floor space and the spell guidelines (for corpus, admittedly) suggest that Room target is only up to about 400 sq ft. A +1 size modifier should handle that for a spell, and she'd presumably have to go up to a x6 modifier for an invested device. This means needing between 12 pawns (wooden lab) to 24 pawns (stone) to open the device to enchantment, implying needing Magic Theory between 6 and 12. The lower end is reasonably possible; the upper looks like the sort of thing only a serious item enchanter would have, which isn't really meant to be her focus. She might be able to get it enchanted by someone else, I suppose, but that looks likely to be extremely expensive and relies on the relevant NPCs existing. I don't really like the idea of a laboratory made out of wood, though, especially underwater. I'm not sure whether I actually need to enchant the room itself; could I enchant an aquamarine (for example) embedded in the wall of the room, and gain both the shape and material bonus that way (give or take cap from MT)?
I'm trying to work out if a talisman is another viable alternative. It solves the opening to enchantment problem, but it seems a bit odd to have a building as your talisman. She also wouldn't be able to take it with her, and would therefore be leaving a giant, probably easily findable arcane connection to her lying about.
The actual spell is worrying me slightly. A permanent (FSVO) version of the immersion variant of Cloak of the Duck's Feathers on the contents of the room should do it, I think. That way anything within the room doesn't get wet. I don't want it to affect Aequora, though - she needs to be wet to do pretty much anything. Will her Parma prevent it if it's cast without penetration, or not? If not, how can I acheive the effect? How do I get an effect that constantly affects anything that's within the room at the moment? I think it's implied in some of the spell descriptions that a spell on a room will affect anything that was in the room at the casting of the spell for the duration, rather than anything in the room whilst it's in the room. I think the latter is what I want. Although if I bring things in with a sun duration Cloak of the Duck's Feathers it might not matter that much that it doesn't get affected until sunrise/set.
Is anyone able and willing to give me suggestions for things I've misunderstood/missed? Do the variant spells work? Is Merinita the best house for her? I chose it as the obvious one for someone with strong faerie blood, but at the moment she doesn't actually draw on her Merinita status that much. Would it be a minor breakthrough to adapt the "Road" target to "River"? Should her parens be up before a tribunal for molesting the faeries? What actually are the penalties inflicted for being underwater? If I don't need the True Friend virtue, what's a good alternative? I'm struggling to think of good minor magical focuses. Affinity with/Puissant Aquam are obvious choices, but are there better ones?