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December 16th, 1995:
Last updated 12/16/95.
If you generate a magus near the age of 35, make sure that you will have an Intellego Corporem lab total of at least 20, by the time you hit age 35. You will need this in order to make a Longevity Potion. You will want this total to be as high as possible; at age 35, you will need a lab total of at least 40 in order to guarantee that you won't suffer any aging effects.
Similarly, make sure that you have some reasonable score in Vim, if you're likely to need to enchant items or will soon need a longevity potion, since Vim will limit the number of pawns of vis you can use in a Season. At age 35, a longevity potion requires at least 7 pawns of vis; your Vim + Magic Theory must at least equal this.
If you are creating a magus who is a generalist, you will probably want to emphasize Techniques over Forms when allocating your Art scores, since Techniques are more generally useful (but don't forget that it's your Forms which provide bonuses to Resistance). The ultimate "generalist" beginning magus has a 6 in three of the Techniques, a 5 in the two remaining Techniques, a 3 in nine of the Forms, and a 2 in the remaining 1 Form; this is, I believe, the most "efficient" allocation of points for the highest average Technique + Form combination. However, do note that such a character is actually not all that effective, since useful Spontaneous Magic is usually at least of level 10, and with those scores, even with a good Intelligence, there's a good chance that Spontaneous spells won't achieve the desired level.
You will want to buy Concentration, Meditation, and Certamen; these are essential Skills (and a -3 penalty and 3 extra botch dice are imposed if you try to use them without having them). You should also buy Finesse and Penetration (3 extra botch dice are imposed if you try to use these Talents without having them). Even if you only put a single Experience Point into each, it saves you from the penalties, and is thus definitely worthwhile.
Affinities are extremely useful. Note that the bonus of a standard Affinity virtue is not equal to the cost of that virtue; it's equivalent to the score in that Affinity, which is treated like a Skill. In terms of character concept, most magi have something that they're particularly good at; taking an Affinity is the best way to represent this.
It is very difficult to invent high-level spells during the early Seasons of play. At character generation time, you can take spells that would take you Seasons to invent during play; thus, you might want to pick out the high-level spells you want and take them at character generation time rather than trying to invent them later. In general, unless you begin as a specialist, you will want to make sure that any spells of level 20 or higher that you definitely want your magus to have are part of your initial allotment of 150 spell levels. It's not a bad idea to calculate your lab totals when picking out your Art scores; a lab total of 20 will allow you to invent a level 10 spell in a Season, and a lab total of 30 will allow you to invent a level 15 spell in a Season, two benchmarks to be considered when doing initial character generation.
Be wary of taking a low Stamina. It's entirely possible to take spells which fall into the Intelligence + Technique + Form + 10 guideline of initial spells, but which you cannot reliably cast due to a low Stamina. A magus' Fatigue Levels are extremely precious; an unusually low Stamina is likely to make Fatigue recovery frustratingly slow, as well as increasing the pace at which those Fatigue Levels are lost in the first place.
Members of House Bonisagus should probably take the +1 Virtue, Hermetic Prestige.
Members of House Mercere need to take the +3 Virtue, Redcap. This Virtue is not available to those who aren't members of this House.
Members of House Merinita need to take the +1 Virtue, Faerie Magic. This Virtue should probably be available only to members of this House.
Members of House Quaesitor should, obviously, have the +1 Virtue, Quaesitor. It is extremely unusual, however, for young members of other Houses to be Quaesitors; this is an honor normally only granted to older magi.
Members of House Tremere should be required to take the -1 Flaw, No Sigil. This Flaw should be available only to Tremere. Since the sigils in Tremere "cascade", to hold one's own sigil requires winning it from one's parens, who in turn must have won his, on up through the top ranks of the House.
Members of House Verditius should be required to take the -1 Flaw, Verditius Magic. This Flaw should almost certainly not be available to anyone not of this House.
I've provided, below, a number of example beginning magi tailored to do specific things; I'd rather provide utilitarian magi instead of reinforcing House stereotypes. I make no claim that these are the ideal ways to generate such characters; I merely claim that I think these are reasonable. I have avoided using things which StoryGuides may object to as unbalancing.
Assume that the magi below have an Intelligence of +3 and a Stamina of 0. Unless there was a good reason to do otherwise, they have minimum scores of 3 in Corporem and Vim, and 1 in everything else (it's cheap enough to just spend a single point, usually, that it's worthwhile). I have not attempted to balance their Virtue and Flaw points.
I recommend the following set of minimum Abilities to all these magi (at the cost of 19 XP): Affinity 3 (if they have one), Certamen 1, Concentration 3, Finesse 1, Meditation 1, Parma Magica 3, Penetration 1. Magi who have spells that require Targeting should have greater amounts of Finesse, if possible.
Cr 5 An 2 Ig 1 In 5 Aq 2 Im 5 Mu 5 Au 1 Me 5 Pe 5 Co 5 Te 5 Re 5 He 1 Vi 3Spells:
CrAn 20 Weaver's Trap of Webs CrAq 20 Mighty Torrent of Water CrCo 20 The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch MuCo 10 Eyes of the Cat ReCo 10 Rise of the Feathery Body ReIm 20 Image from the Wizard Torn ReIm 20 Wizard's Sidestep InMe 10 Sight of the Transparent Motive PeTe 20 Obliteration of the Metallic BarrierNotes: This is an "unfocused" generalist -- he has a bit of everything that might be useful. His spells are, respectively, defensive (immobilization), offensive, healing, general utility (vision in darkness), general utility (dealing with heights), investigatory (places), defensive (personal protection), investigatory (people), and general utility (everything from getting rid of barriers to dealing with armored warriors). Some frequently-used low-level Formulaic spells are included here, just because they're so useful to have, if one doesn't have any other large nasty spells that one wants filling that initial allotment of 150 points.
Art Scores:
Cr 5 An 2 Ig 2 In 5 Aq 2 Im 2 Mu 5 Au 2 Me 2 Pe 5 Co 3 Te 2 Re 5 He 2 Vi 9Spells: (25 levels left)
InVi 20 Perceive the Magical Scent MuVi 15 Shroud Magic MuVi 15 Gather the Essence of the Beast PeVi 25 Wind of Mundane Silence ReVi 25 Waiting Spell ReVi 25 Watching WardNotes: It is really the Virtues, and not magic-specialization choices, which make the Lab Rat. This example also happens to be a Vim specialist, a "meta-magician". This character is designed to work in concert with other magi, boosting their capabilities with his own, which are primarily utilitarian. He could use several more of the lower-level Vim spells, such as Scales of the Magical Weight, but these can be invented easily enough. The remaining levels of spells should probably be used to give him one or more more general kinds of spells.
Art Scores:
Cr 5 An 1 Ig 1 In 6 Aq 1 Im 1 Mu 4 Au 1 Me 10 Pe 5 Co 3 Te 1 Re 5 He 1 Vi 3Spells: (15 levels left)
InCo 15 Whispers through the Black Gate CrMe 20 Memory of the Distant Dream InMe 25 Posing the Silent Question InMe 30 Peering into the Mortal Mind PeMe 20 Loss of But a Moment's Memory PeMe 25 Blessing of Childlike BlissNotes: This magus is designed for information-gathering and tinkering with people's minds -- finding out what he wants to know without letting people know that he's finding out. He also provides a reasonable example of how to design a specialist in a single Form.
Art Scores:
Cr 0 An 0 Ig 0 In 0 Aq 0 Im 2 Mu 0 Au 0 Me 0 Pe 12 Co 11 Te 0 Re 0 He 0 Vi 2Spells:
CrCo 20 The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch InCo 20 The Inexorable Search PeCo 40 Clenching Grasp of the Crushed Heart PeIm 30 Veil of Invisibility PeMe 20 Loss of But a Moment's Memory PeTe 20 Obliteration of the Metallic BarrierNotes: Designing a magus around a single spell is not an uncommon thing to do. Often, this is an Instant Death spell, or its equivalent. Such magi are essentially extreme specialists in a single Technique and Form. "Typical Flambeau" (Creo Ignem specialists) are easy to design; therefore, I've made this example a Perdo Corporem specialist; he's set up to have as much flexibility as possible, however, within his field of specialty. Note that his Affinity score must be 4 or higher in order to legally take that Clenching Grasp and Veil as initial spells. This fellow is essentially an assassin -- locate someone, hunt them invisibly, and then kill them. The Loss and Obliteration work well for dealing with guards, as well; the Healing Touch takes care of any wounds that might be sustained in the process, and these three spells give this magus some reasonable flexibility in doing things other than killing people. A Dust to Dust (PeCo 15) would be extremely useful for corpse disposal, but we don't bother with taking it as an initial Formulaic, since he can easily invent it in a Season; the same is true of some other low-level PeCo spells that would round out his repertoire.
Art Scores:
Cr 3 An 3 Ig 2 In 3 Aq 2 Im 3 Mu 12 Au 3 Me 2 Pe 3 Co 3 Te 3 Re 3 He 3 Vi 2Spells:
MuAn 20 Steed of Vengeance MuAu 20 Talons of the Winds MuCo 20 Preternatural Growth and Shrinking MuHe 20 Piercing Shaft of Wood MuHe 20 Thaumaturgical Transformation of Plants to Iron MuIm 20 Image Phantom MuTe 15 Hands of the Grasping Earth MuTe 15 Object of Increased SizeNotes: This is an example of how to specialize someone in a single Technique. This magus is fairly good at a bit of everything; he's an example of how one can specialize heavily in something, yet have a very broad-based repertoire of effects.
Art Scores: (13 points left)
Cr 5 An 1 Ig 1 In 1 Aq 8 Im 1 Mu 1 Au 8 Me 1 Pe 5 Co 3 Te 1 Re 5 He 1 Vi 3Spells: (25 levels left)
CrAq 20 Mighty Torrent of Water PeAq 25 Curse of the Desert ReAq 20 Waves of Drowning and Smashing CrAu 25 Clouds of Rain and Thunder InAu 15 Whispering Winds ReAu 20 Circling Winds of ProtectionNotes: This is really more of an example of how to specialize a magus in two Forms, in this case, Aquam and Auram. Most of the really serious weather spells are very slow-acting; many are high-level rituals. Nonetheless, the magus here has some basic flexibility. He can raise a storm, and wreak havoc with anything on the water. The Circling Winds are excellent protection in combat, and he has two excellent attack spells, one useful against multiple targets, the other useful against single targets. The Whispering Winds is very useful in non-combat situations, since it allows conversations to be overheard. We try to concentrate on taking spells in a limited number of Techniques, so we don't need to worry about initially buying up all the Techniques.