Character Planning - Magus

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#41 Post by Starbeard »

I've got most of the stats on my magus completed, I think, with the exception of choosing spells. I'm still a bit hazy on spell levels and all that.

Otherwise, I've picked the house, virtues/flaws, and assigned all E.P.'s from childhood, later life, virtues and apprenticeship. I'm going for a character highly influenced by Merlin from Sword in the Stone, with a clerical and university background.

Basic Information
House Bonisagius (research)
Age 25

Int 3
Per 1
Str -3
Sta 1
Prs -1
Com 3
Dex 0
Qik 0
Virtues and Flaws
Virtues
  • The Gift
  • Hermatic Magus
  • Book Learner (1)
  • Clerk (1)
  • Educated (1)
  • Good Teacher (1)
  • Inventive Genius (1)
  • Magister in Artibus (3)
  • Puissant Magic Theory
Flaws
  • Animal Companion—owl (1)
  • Chaotic Magic (3)
  • Necessary Condition—unique rhyme (3)
  • No Sense of Direction (1)
Abilities
General
  • Awareness 2
  • Concentration 3
  • Language—(native) 2
  • Language—Arabic 3
  • Language—Greek 2
  • Language—North French 2
  • Lore—(local area) 2
  • Lore—Church 2
  • Lore—Order of Hermes 2
  • Music (sing) 1
  • Music (compose) 2
  • Profession—Scribe 5
Academic
  • Artes Liberales (astronomy) 5
  • Civil and Canon Law (papal law) 2
  • Latin (academic usage) 5
  • Medicine (apothecary) 1
  • Philosophiae (ritual magic) 3
  • Theology (history) 2
Arcane
  • Code of Hermes 3
  • Finesse 2
  • Magic Theory 5
  • Parma Magica 1
  • Penetration 2
Arts
Techniques
  • Creo 3
  • Intellego 6
  • Muto 6
  • Perdo 6
  • Rego 6
Forms
  • Animal 6
  • Aquam 3
  • Auram 6
  • Corpus 6
  • Herbam 3
  • Ignem 3
  • Imagem 3
  • Mentem 6
  • Terram 3
  • Vim 6
Spells
120 levels (maximum level is Technique + Form + Int + Magic Theory + 3)

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kmbll
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#42 Post by kmbll »

Kai is a young man with long dark black hair. He wears thin glasses and generally appears unkempt - having forgotten to gather himself having gotten lost in his studies. Like most members of House Criamon, he's tattooed from head to toe - with small ovalish circles partially filled - not so different from eyes - all over his body.


1. What was your background before you were taken as an apprentice? You could be taken on from almost any circumstances.


Kai never knew his parents - though they were of House Criamon as well. He was raised by an elderly man named Eckhard who would later become his master. Kai's few inquiries about his parents all received the same response - they had been dutiful scholars of House Criamon and their pursuit of the Enigma had been their demise. Kai had a relatively simple childhood, there weren't many children nearby and other adults seemed to avoid Eckhard's house. Kai did have one friend, Kaspar, a young Sidhe from a nearby and secretive Sidhe village. Eckhard hadn't even been away of the village until he saw Kai speaking to Kaspar in the backyard - Kaspar had greeted Kai and told him that his village seer had seen a promising future for the two of them.

2. Who is your master and what is he/she like? What was your apprenticeship like?


Eckhard was a dutiful guardian - if not a loving one and he ensured Kai had his proper training and often gave puzzles to the boy to entertain him. As any good son of the Criamon house, Kai had a great love for puzzles and mysteries - and was enraptured with the Enigma. From a young age, Kai was noted to be especially gifted with magic but in casting a weird side effect would occur - tiny Twilight Portals would appear periodically throughout the room and items would gravitate through them. Most of the time those items would come back out by the time Kai had finished casting but occasionally they would be lost forever. Kai embraced his gift and was very studious and loved the art of magic.


I'm struggling a bit with character creation and would appreciate it if someone could look it over:

Basic Information
Name: Kai Suhren
House Criamon
Age 20

Int 3
Per 2
Str -2
Sta 2
Prs -1
Com-1
Dex 0
Qik 0
Virtues and Flaws
Virtues
  • The Gift
  • Hermatic Magus
  • Flawless Magic
  • Cautious Sorceror
  • Inventive genius
  • Study Bonus
  • Puissant Ability - The Enigma
Flaws
  • Twilight Prone
  • Weird magic
  • Driven (Major)
  • Weakness (Mysteries)
Abilities
  • Awareness 3
  • Concentration 3
  • Language—(native) 5
  • Magic Lore—1
  • Magic theory - 3
  • Parma Magica - 1
  • Artes Liberales 1
  • Latin (academic usage) 4
  • Penetration 1
  • The enigma (3+2)
Arts
Techniques
  • Creo 2
  • Intellego 3
  • Muto 2
  • Perdo 2
  • Rego 2
Forms
  • Animal 0
  • Aquam 0
  • Auram 0
  • Corpus 3
  • Herbam 0
  • Ignem 0
  • Imagem 5
  • Mentem 0
  • Terram 0
  • Vim 10
Spells
Gather the Essence of the Beast (Rego/Vim Level 15)
Scales of Magical Weight (Int/Vim 5)
Sense the Nature of Vis (Int/Vim 5)
The Sorceror's Fork (Mut/Vim 15)
Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood (Int/Imag 5)
Prying Eyes (Int/Imag 5)
The Ear for Distant Vocies (Int/Ign 20)
Bind Wound (Cre/Corp 10)
The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (Cre/Corp 20)
The Wound that Weeps (Perdo/Corp 20)

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#43 Post by Keehnelf »

Starbeard wrote:I've got most of the stats on my magus completed, I think, with the exception of choosing spells. I'm still a bit hazy on spell levels and all that.

Otherwise, I've picked the house, virtues/flaws, and assigned all E.P.'s from childhood, later life, virtues and apprenticeship. I'm going for a character highly influenced by Merlin from Sword in the Stone, with a clerical and university background.

Basic Information
House Bonisagius (research)
Age 25

Int 3
Per 1
Str -3
Sta 1
Prs -1
Com 3
Dex 0
Qik 0
Virtues and Flaws
Virtues
  • The Gift
  • Hermatic Magus
  • Book Learner (1)
  • Clerk (1)
  • Educated (1)
  • Good Teacher (1)
  • Inventive Genius (1)
  • Magister in Artibus (3)
  • Puissant Magic Theory
Flaws
  • Animal Companion—owl (1)
  • Chaotic Magic (3)
  • Necessary Condition—unique rhyme (3)
  • No Sense of Direction (1)
Abilities
General
  • Awareness 2
  • Concentration 3
  • Language—(native) 2
  • Language—Arabic 3
  • Language—Greek 2
  • Language—North French 2
  • Lore—(local area) 2
  • Lore—Church 2
  • Lore—Order of Hermes 2
  • Music (sing) 1
  • Music (compose) 2
  • Profession—Scribe 5
Academic
  • Artes Liberales (astronomy) 5
  • Civil and Canon Law (papal law) 2
  • Latin (academic usage) 5
  • Medicine (apothecary) 1
  • Philosophiae (ritual magic) 3
  • Theology (history) 2
Arcane
  • Code of Hermes 3
  • Finesse 2
  • Magic Theory 5
  • Parma Magica 1
  • Penetration 2
Arts
Techniques
  • Creo 3
  • Intellego 6
  • Muto 6
  • Perdo 6
  • Rego 6
Forms
  • Animal 6
  • Aquam 3
  • Auram 6
  • Corpus 6
  • Herbam 3
  • Ignem 3
  • Imagem 3
  • Mentem 6
  • Terram 3
  • Vim 6
Spells
120 levels (maximum level is Technique + Form + Int + Magic Theory + 3)
This character is a bit older than I'd like to see--he should be fresh from his apprenticeship, more or less, which means those extra five years (ish) should be early childhood years, i.e. no academic or supernatural XP spent on abilities or arts.

Also, there are a HUGE number of experience points, I think because you assigned your initial 240 in abilities PLUS in Arts, whereas they should be split between those two.

Finally, you automatically start with your native language at 5 at no cost.

Let me know if you have questions, and sorry it's taken me a while to get around to looking this over in detail.

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#44 Post by Keehnelf »

kmbll wrote:Kai is a young man with long dark black hair. He wears thin glasses and generally appears unkempt - having forgotten to gather himself having gotten lost in his studies. Like most members of House Criamon, he's tattooed from head to toe - with small ovalish circles partially filled - not so different from eyes - all over his body.


1. What was your background before you were taken as an apprentice? You could be taken on from almost any circumstances.


Kai never knew his parents - though they were of House Criamon as well. He was raised by an elderly man named Eckhard who would later become his master. Kai's few inquiries about his parents all received the same response - they had been dutiful scholars of House Criamon and their pursuit of the Enigma had been their demise. Kai had a relatively simple childhood, there weren't many children nearby and other adults seemed to avoid Eckhard's house. Kai did have one friend, Kaspar, a young Sidhe from a nearby and secretive Sidhe village. Eckhard hadn't even been away of the village until he saw Kai speaking to Kaspar in the backyard - Kaspar had greeted Kai and told him that his village seer had seen a promising future for the two of them.

2. Who is your master and what is he/she like? What was your apprenticeship like?


Eckhard was a dutiful guardian - if not a loving one and he ensured Kai had his proper training and often gave puzzles to the boy to entertain him. As any good son of the Criamon house, Kai had a great love for puzzles and mysteries - and was enraptured with the Enigma. From a young age, Kai was noted to be especially gifted with magic but in casting a weird side effect would occur - tiny Twilight Portals would appear periodically throughout the room and items would gravitate through them. Most of the time those items would come back out by the time Kai had finished casting but occasionally they would be lost forever. Kai embraced his gift and was very studious and loved the art of magic.


I'm struggling a bit with character creation and would appreciate it if someone could look it over:

Basic Information
Name: Kai Suhren
House Criamon
Age 20

Int 3
Per 2
Str -2
Sta 2
Prs -1
Com-1
Dex 0
Qik 0
Virtues and Flaws
Virtues
  • The Gift
  • Hermatic Magus
  • Flawless Magic
  • Cautious Sorceror
  • Inventive genius
  • Study Bonus
  • Puissant Ability - The Enigma
Flaws
  • Twilight Prone
  • Weird magic
  • Driven (Major)
  • Weakness (Mysteries)
Abilities
  • Awareness 3
  • Concentration 3
  • Language—(native) 5
  • Magic Lore—1
  • Magic theory - 3
  • Parma Magica - 1
  • Artes Liberales 1
  • Latin (academic usage) 4
  • Penetration 1
  • The enigma (3+2)
Arts
Techniques
  • Creo 2
  • Intellego 3
  • Muto 2
  • Perdo 2
  • Rego 2
Forms
  • Animal 0
  • Aquam 0
  • Auram 0
  • Corpus 3
  • Herbam 0
  • Ignem 0
  • Imagem 5
  • Mentem 0
  • Terram 0
  • Vim 10
Spells
Gather the Essence of the Beast (Rego/Vim Level 15)
Scales of Magical Weight (Int/Vim 5)
Sense the Nature of Vis (Int/Vim 5)
The Sorceror's Fork (Mut/Vim 15)
Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood (Int/Imag 5)
Prying Eyes (Int/Imag 5)
The Ear for Distant Vocies (Int/Ign 20)
Bind Wound (Cre/Corp 10)
The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (Cre/Corp 20)
The Wound that Weeps (Perdo/Corp 20)
It looks to me like you've only spend 194 XP between Abilities and Arts. You should get the following:

Native language at 5
45xp to spend on any combination of Area Lore, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, charm, Folk Ken, Guile, Living Language (choice), Stealth, Survival, Swim
240 XP to divide between abilities and arts from apprenticeship.

Also, the level on the Healing Touch spell is too high for you to have learned by now (20). Max level for a spell to know is Form + Tech + Int + Magic Theory + 3. In your case that is Creo/2 + Corpus/3 + Int/3 + Magic Theory/3 + 3 = 14. The same is true for the Wound that Weeps, as your abilities are the same for that one. Maybe try picking up a higher level Vim spell to fill in those levels as that's where most of your ability is stacked!

Let me know if you've got any questions!

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#45 Post by Starbeard »

Keehnelf wrote:This character is a bit older than I'd like to see--he should be fresh from his apprenticeship, more or less, which means those extra five years (ish) should be early childhood years, i.e. no academic or supernatural XP spent on abilities or arts.

Also, there are a HUGE number of experience points, I think because you assigned your initial 240 in abilities PLUS in Arts, whereas they should be split between those two.

Finally, you automatically start with your native language at 5 at no cost.

Let me know if you have questions, and sorry it's taken me a while to get around to looking this over in detail.
Drat! Alright, I'll go over everything again and see where the mess up was. I had picked Magister in Artibus and Educated as Virtues, which gave me an extra 290(!) experience to spend on academic skills only, and also forced the starting age higher. To keep the age down, I'll probably just get rid of the Magister Virtue altogether and stick with Educated, giving him only 50 extra EP and no age modifier (or any requirements to spend a term each year teaching at the university).

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#46 Post by Keehnelf »

Aha, that would explain the discrepancies! Yeah, that Virtue doesn't really work for young starting magi, sorry :(

Your compromise sounds perfect.

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#47 Post by Starbeard »

Cool, I'll get a reworked character sheet up ASAP.

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#48 Post by Keehnelf »

Are folks still interested in this? Do you have more questions? So far we only have one magus sheet up in the thread!

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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#49 Post by Das »

Mine right?

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#50 Post by Keehnelf »

Yep!

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#51 Post by Keehnelf »

I think my timing was bad to get energy built up around this and we may need to put a pin in it.

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#52 Post by Starbeard »

I'm still in, but I've been really swamped with work; it's been about all I can manage to just keep checking in on the games that I'm already in, and even those have to skip a day or two at times.

I'll slap myself on the wrist and get a revised magus sheet together tonight, or else!

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#53 Post by Keehnelf »

No worries--if we get our momentum back this can be moved out to the main forum, even with two (might even be easier to get started with two and build momentum more from there).

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#54 Post by Starbeard »

Alright, here's the revised character, Strubelgir. To keep track of things, here are where I put points:

Childhood: Language + 45 ep
Later life (15 years): + 225 ep in abilities (clerk allows academic)
Apprenticeship: + 240 ep (put 120 into abilities and 120 into arts), +120 levels of spells
Educated: +50 ep for Artes liberales and/or Latin only

I still haven't gotten around to picking spells yet, though.

Basic Information
House Bonisagius (research)
Age 20

Int 3
Per 1
Str -3
Sta 1
Prs -1
Com 3
Dex 0
Qik 0
Virtues and Flaws
Virtues
  • The Gift
  • Hermatic Magus
  • Book Learner (1)
  • Clerk (1)
  • Educated (1)
  • Good Teacher (1)
  • Inventive Genius (1)
  • Puissant Magic Theory (from House)
Flaws
  • Animal Companion—owl (1)
  • Chaotic Magic (3)
  • No Sense of Direction (1)
Abilities
General
  • Awareness 2
  • Concentration 3
  • Language—(native) 5
  • Language—Arabic 1
  • Language—Greek 3
  • Language—North French 3
  • Lore—(local area) 2
  • Lore—Church 2
  • Lore—Order of Hermes 2
  • Music (sing) 1
  • Music (compose) 1
  • Profession—Scribe 2
Academic
  • Artes Liberales (astronomy) 4
  • Civil and Canon Law (papal law) 2
  • Latin (academic usage) 4
  • Medicine (apothecary) 2
  • Philosophiae (ritual magic) 2
  • Theology (history) 2
Arcane
  • Code of Hermes 2
  • Finesse 2
  • Magic Theory 4
  • Parma Magica 1
  • Penetration 2
Arts
Techniques
  • Creo 4
  • Intellego 5
  • Muto 3
  • Perdo 2
  • Rego 4
Forms
  • Animal 3
  • Aquam 2
  • Auram 3
  • Corpus 2
  • Herbam 4
  • Ignem 2
  • Imagem 4
  • Mentem 5
  • Terram 2
  • Vim 5
Spells
120 levels (maximum level is Technique + Form + Int + Magic Theory + 3)

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Keehnelf
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#55 Post by Keehnelf »

That looks good! Let me know if you have questions about picking spells--you're fine with transferring this now over to the Magus thread and beginning work on your Consortes/Companion with Das in that thread while you work out the final spell selection.

There are no real right or wrong answers to spell selection--but I would advise you not to get overly ambitious in terms of grabbing just a handful of very powerful spells. It will leave you not at all flexible and less powerful overall because the highest level spells you can know have a reasonable chance of failure (and an extremely high chance of fatiguing you) when you try to cast them in field conditions.

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Starbeard
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Re: Character Planning - Magus

#56 Post by Starbeard »

I think I have the spells figured out. I have no idea how to strike a good balance, so I just evenly split my 120 spell points between my Forms: 30 spell points each to Vim and Mentem (they're both at 5), 20 points each to Herbam and Imaginem (they're at 4), etc.

Everything's well within the maximum level limit. Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie is exactly at my limit of 20 (Intellego 5 + Mentem 5 + Intelligence 3 + Magic Theory 4 + 3):

Creo auram
Wreaths of Foul Smoke (level 10)

Creo imaginem
Discern the images of truth and falsehood (level 5)
Prying eyes (level 5)

Intellego mentem
Sight of the transparent motive (level 5)
Frosty Breath of the Spoken Lie (level 20)

Intellego vim
The Invisible Eye Revealed (level 10)

Muto herbam
Pass the Unyielding Portal (level 5)
Hunt for the Wild Herb (level 5)

Muto imaginem
Aura of ennobled presence (level 10)

Rego animal
Ward against the Beasts of Legend (level 10)

Rego herbam
Dance of the Staves (level 5)

Rego mentem
The Call to Slumber (level 10)

Rego vim
Aegis of the Hearth (level 5)
Mirror of Opposition (Form) (level 15)

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