New Virtues and Flaws

by Daniel J Cassar


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These new Virtues and Flaws may be taken with the permission of the Storyguide. They offer an expanded array of options for character creation.

General Virtues

These Virtues may be taken by any type of character, unless otherwise indicated. See the Ars Magica 4th Edition rulebook, pages 39-46.

Variable Virtues

Polyglot

You were raised in an environment where more than one language was routinely spoken. Since you were exposed to the languages at a young age simultaneously (perhaps your parents spoke different languages), you picked them up easily. For every point invested in this Virtue, you gain a Speak Language skill at a score of 4, and these may be improved as other Knowledges may be. Of course, scholarly languages (such as Latin) cannot be acquired in this way. No more than three points may be put into this Virtue.

+1 Virtues

Books

Somehow, you acquired a number of books from which you can study. You have 30 points of books, spent according to the following formulae:

Type of Book

Cost

Liber Quaestionum

Target Level + Quality

Summa

(2 × Level) + Quality

Tractatus

3 × Level

Auctor

30 points
These books may be either Hermetic or mundane in nature if you are a magus, but spellbooks cannot be taken with this Virtue. This Virtue may be taken more than once. Non-magi may only take this Virtue if they are Educated or a Magister in Artibus.

Perfect Pitch

You could sing from sheet music that you have never seen before without accompaniment, since your pitch is always exactly on. You can also precisely judge the exact pitch (such as C-sharp) of any sound you hear. Gain a +3 to all appropriate rolls concerning all musical abilities, such as Play (Instrument) and Sing.

Self-Disciplined

You are dutiful and rigorously disciplined. You have a Personality Trait Self-Disciplined at +3. When practicing, roll a Quality die instead of a Stress die and add your Self-Disciplined trait as a modifier. Magi with this virtue gain an additional experience point towards mastering spells for each season spent practicing alone.

Youthful

Your starting age must be less than 30, but you do not make aging rolls until you reach the age of 40 + Stamina, since you manage to hold on to your youth a bit longer than most. Additionally, you gain a -1 to all aging rolls once they are required. This effect is not cumulative with the effects of longevity potions.

+3 Virtues

Healing Touch

You have the power to heal wounds with a touch. By laying your hands on someone and concentrating (impossible in a combat situation), you can attempt to heal them. Roll a simple die + recipient's Stamina + the recipient's wound penalty + 2 for every Fatigue level that you wish to expend in the effort. If the result is 6+, the Healing Touch restores one Body level; if it is 11+, it restores two; if it is 16+, it restores three. If the result is below 1, you instantly lose a Fatigue level (beyond any you have intentionally spent) and cannot use this ability until you have had at least a full day of bed rest.

General Flaws

These flaws may be taken by any type of character, unless otherwise indicated. See the Ars Magica 4th Edition rulebook, pages 46-50.

-1 Flaws

Distant

The real you seems somehow never quite present in your eyes. You seem cold, hollow, unfeeling to some; you are enigmatic and unreadable. You have a Personality Trait, Distant, at a score of +3 (or higher if you wish). This personality trait serves as a penalty whenever you attempt to appeal to any sort of emotion – garner trust, inspire friendship, or even ask for help. This trait also acts as a bonus to all rolls resisting emotional manipulation or detection, magical (such as Sight of the Transparent Motive) or mundane (such as Folk Ken). You may not have social skills of any kind.

Illegitimate

You were born out of wedlock. As a result, your family may not recognize you as one of their own, and you are looked upon as a product of a heinous sin by the clergy. Your parents may look on you as an embarassment, and if one or both of them has a title or position, you have no right to inherit anything. You most likely dealt with a childhood devoid of love and encouragement.

Wanted

You are wanted for a serious crime. You managed to escape punishment somehow, but you have a level 1 bad Reputation among the authorities in a particular area (not necessarily the local area – you very well may have fled to escape death) as a criminal. If someone can identify you, you could be in serious trouble, but likely it was some time ago, so the danger is not as great as it might be. Friends and loved ones tend to remember – typically, the folk of Mythic Europe hold grudges.

-2 Flaws

Sense of Worthlessness

Your spirit has been crushed, perhaps by a childhood of abuse or some unspeakable torment that you endured. You begin the game with only one point of Confidence (you did manage to survive whatever circumstances laid you so low), but apply a -3 modifier to rolls for gaining additonal Confidence points.

-4 Flaws

Deaf (Companions)

You cannot hear at all, and probably have a difficult time speaking. Your Speak Language skills may never be greater than 1. You automatically gain the virtue Read Lips (see page 42 in the Ars Magica 4th Edition rulebook).

Missing Leg

Probably through some grave misadventure, you lost one of your legs. As a result, you normally wear a peg leg or some other crude prosthesis; perhaps you use a crutch. With it you walk extremely slowly (a maximum movement rate of 5 paces per round) and are at a -9 to all dodge rolls and -6 to all other combat rolls. Without some kind of aid, you cannot walk at all.

-5 Flaws

Hemophiliac

Your blood does not clot well, and a small wound could cause you to bleed to death if not watched over intensively. Any wound that the character receives must be treated quickly or you will quickly die. Once the character has Light Wounds, he will lose an additional Wound level each hour unless attended to by someone who can make a Chrirugy roll of 6+. If you receive Medium Wounds, lose one Wound level every 15 minutes unless a caretaker can roll 9+ on Chirurgy. At Heavy Wounds or if the you are Incapacitated, lose one level every 5 minutes, and the ease factor to control the bleeding is 12+. All wound recovery times are tripled in any case, and wounds will not heal at all unless watched over by a chirurgeon.

Hermetic Virtues

These Virtues apply to magi only. See the Ars Magica 4th Edition rulebook, pages 34-35.

+1 Virtues

Cypher

You have developed a personal shorthand that is extremely difficult for others to decipher. You most likely invented this code for the purposes of secrecy, but it could just be that your scrawl is impossible for others to read, but you understand it perfectly. You gain a special Arcane Knowledge, Cypher, at an initial score of 1. This score is added to the ease factor of any roll to for someone (other than you) to understand your lab notes and spell research notes. The Cypher ability can be improved as normal.

True Spell Mastery

Your diligence and intensive attention to detail allows you to cast spells that you have mastered with ease. Whenever you cast a spell that you have mastered, add +3 to the spellcasting roll. See page 74 for details on mastered spells.

Vis Sensitivity

You are able to naturally sense the presence of vis related to a particular Art. Any material containing vis of the appropriate type you will automatically recognize as such, though this intuition gives no indication of the amount present.

+3 Virtues

Castellum Magicum

You have been trained in the ancient Mercurian ritual that was the precursor to the Hermetic Parma Magica. The Hermetic Parma Magica ("magical shield") was intended to protect the magus and his cohorts from outside magical influence during their travels; the Mercurian Castellum Magicum ("magical fortress") was a stronger but less flexible sort of protection – it is immobile, but can protect a large number of people. You gain a Hermetic skill, Castellum Magicum at an initial score of 1. It is a spell-like ritual, taking about fifteen minutes of concentration (use the normal rules for distractions during spellcasting if you are interrupted during this time) to fully establish. Once erected, the Castellum Magicum provides a magical resistance equal to 10 times your score to all who are within a 20 pace radius from you at the time it was set up. Unlike Parma Magica, the Castellum Magicum does not move and is broken if any sentient, living thing moves into or out of the radius of protection. Your score in the Form of any attacking spell does not apply to this protection. In any case, the magical energies dissipate by the next sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first.

+4 Virtues

Eyebiting Magic

Your magic is highly effective when you stare into another person's eyes. You automatically gain the Virtue Piercing Gaze and when you have eye contact with the target of a spell, you may automatically bypass any natural resistance, and Parma Magica is only half as effective. Creatures with Might scores as well as items that confer magical resistance still receive their normal protection from magic.

Thorough Training

Your master had the patience to give you a very circumspect education in the ways of Hermetic magic. As a result, you automatically gain an initial score of 2 in all of the magical Arts at no cost.

Hermetic Flaws

These Flaws apply to magi only. See the Ars Magica 4th Edition rulebook, pages 35-37.

-1 Flaws

Conspicuous Spells

Some facet of your magic is particularly noticable, and this allows other magi to anticipate your movements easily. Whenever another Hermetic magus is aware of your spellcasting, they automatically know the Form and Technique of the spell you are attempting (even if you are not speaking or using gestures – the magical forces themselves are what is obvious) and need not subtract five from their spellcasting total for fast-cast defenses.

Docile Gift

The Gift manifests in such a way that is espically irritating to animals but does not affect people. Horses will rear and start if you get too close; normally friendly dogs will snarl and bark, and certainly attack if pressed. Wild animals will instinctively attack you out of a group. You suffer a –9 penalty on all interaction rolls with normal animals.

Dramatic Spellcasting

Perhaps a bad habit you picked up as an apprentice, you normally cast your spells with a booming voice and overly-dramatic gestures. You gain no benefits for casting spells this way. Using a Firm (rather than Booming) voice or Bold gestures (rather than Vigorous) incurs a penalty of -5 to the spellcasting roll. Anything less dramatic makes spellcasting impossible.

Feral Gift

Your Gift manifests itself in a way that makes mundanes especially uncomfortable around you, but does not seem to bother animals at all. People will instinctively fear and hate the magus; it is nearly impossible to make friends or even hold a pleasant conversation with strangers. Animals, however, react to him much as they would anyone else. You suffer a –9 penalty on all interaction rolls with normal people.

Incomplete Apprenticeship

For some reason, you had to cut your Hermetic training short. Perhaps your master came to an untimely end; perhaps you simply left him; perhaps you fled for your life. You had already learned the basics, but you never had the opportunity to round out your knowledge. You cannot spend any of your starting experience points to raise arcane/Hermetic abilities of any kind, your Magic Theory has a score of one less than normal for a member of your House, and must begin play with a Vim score of 0 (though the character will develop normally).

-2 Flaws

Easily Distracted

Any time a Concentration roll would be called for for interruptions in spellcasting, you automatically fail. You must still roll your Concentration to determine whether you botch (thereby losing a Fatigue level), and you gain an additional botch die (making a total of three) for your interrupted spell.

Easily Drained:

Whenever you lose a Fatigue Level due to spellcasting, roll a simple die. If the result is lower than or equal to the spell's magnitude, you lose an additional Fatigue Level. In any case, you receive a -10 penalty to your roll if you attempt to cast a spell the round following spellcasting and a -5 the round thereafter. These penalties are cumulative if you attempt to cast several spells in succession, and make it much more likely that you will lose several Fatigue levels if you overextend yourself.

Manifest Gift

Your gift has manifested itself in some physical way that makes you appear strange and noticeably unnatural; you automatically gain the Flaw Blatant Gift. Perhaps your eyes are a particularly strange color, or maybe you have a mark of some kind on your hand, chest or forehead. In any case, it will be very obvious what the feature is to anyone who sees you cast spells: your sigil must somehow be tied to the manifestation (perhaps your eyes glow or the mark on your chest bleeds when you perform your magic). If the mark is covered, you receive a -5 penalty to all spellcasting rolls, but contacting a target through it gives a +3. If your Gift's manifestation is ever somehow removed from you (a difficult task, normally), it robs you of your magical power.

Unstable Magic

Your spells have a habit of collapsing before they properly should. Whenever you cast a spell with a Duration of Sun or higher, the spell has a chance of breaking down and ending periodically during that time. After each span of time determined by a duration rating one lower than the spell's own, roll a simple die. On a 3+, the spell holds; otherwise, it collapses early. So, for example, if you cast a spell with a duration of Year, roll for possible breakdown each Season; a spell with a normal duration of Sun could break down each Diameter. Even Permanent spells still may break down each year. If you use vis to enhance the duration of a spell, the vis stabilizes it and it will last its full Duration.

-4 Flaws

Poor Channeler

Something about your magic makes it difficult for you to channel magical energies in indirect ways. You cannot cast spells through Arcane Connections, cannot use Talismans of any sort and can never make use of spell foci (and any consequently, cannot cast spells that require them). Magi of House Verditius may not take this Flaw – the use of casting tools would be impossible for a Poor Channeler.