The Puppeteer (Template)
This official Tytalus tempalte represents an argumentative Tytalus magus, specializing in controlling and manipulating others.
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Character Analysis
The character design here is... well, it's strange.
The Self-Confident virtue is a given for the House, and the Tormenting Master (Major Story flaw) almost obligatory too. The Weak Parens flaw also fits this motiff. So far, so good.
The next motiff is that his magic is draining, causing him pain and fatigue. His Painful Magic (Major Hermetic) Flaw means he loses a "Pain level", which works like a Fatigue level, for every spell he casts. His Life Boost and Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic virtues mean he can invest further fatigue, to further boost his spellcasting. The pain means he'd probably want to cast few spells, but when he needs to, he can boost his casting by suffering even-more.
Then there is the mental-control stuff. He specializes in Mentem, which is a good, Tytalus, thing to do. However, he cannot cast subtly and silently so gaining benefit from his social mentem spells (aura of rightful authority, trust of childlike faith, and posing the silent question) in a social context could be... problematic. He has Piercing Gaze which means he is better at intimidating people, but he has low Presence and Perception and a fairly-low Leadership. His Brawl is higher! For some reason.
His Great Intelligence seems to come out of nowhere, and his Improved Characteristics add to physical ones that don't really contribute to his motiffs.
And he has awareness with a specialty for... ambushes ?! And some skill at bargaining about... luxuries ?!
So... yeah.
Customization Notes
As always, you still need to choose the Native Language of the character, as well as his wizard's sigil, background, and name.
This Tytalus character can take up to three more points of Flaws, and a similar number of Virtues. We reconnebd to make use of this to add the Deft Form (Mentem) minor virtue, which will greatly increase his ability to use his magic discreetly in social contexts. This requires adding a minor flaw too; we recommend taking the Wrathful personality flaw as a minor flaw.
Your Painful Magic means you would want to avoid casting spells if possible, and are limited to but a few per encounter too. We therefore recommend making some adjustments to your Characteristics and Abilities. Focus on the use of Leadership (intimidation), as your Piercing Gaze adds +3 to these rolls. We therefore also recommend switching Qik and Pre, to support this change; this does mean his dodging Init should be lowered by 1. We would also recommend dropping Bargain and Awareness to 0, which would allow you to increase your Intrigue and Leadership to 3.
Overall, the altered Puppetteer looks like this:
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Note that the character is still somewhat unorthodox for a Puppetter, mainly in that one usually doesn't have Painful Magic so can cast his Mentem spells more freely, and probably has more social skills and Characteristics that better suit them, such as a positive Perception (for that Folk Ken) and Communication (which often helps - including in debate).
Further Customization Notes
House Tytalus is described in Houses of Hermes: Societates. In this book, a great deal is made of the struggle between Physis (the self) and Nomos (the law). You are definitely on the side of Physis, following the Calliclean school of thought in the House. We suggest you read on the House, and this philosophy within it, as well as the rest of what the chapter offers.
One thing the chapter suggests is the practice of an Eristic Moot, a public debate in which you forced your master to acknowledge your status as a magus. You possibly ended your apprenticeship before its allotted 15 years, thus gaining the Weak Parens flaw; in this case, you may want to reduce your starting age by a few years (which would reduce your Abilities). Alternatively, you may have asked a Quaesitor to test you, which would explain why your master is a Tormenting Master, but would also be seen as ignoble in the House.
If instead you killed your master, this could also explain your Weak Parens flaw. In this case, however, you would want to replace the Tormenting Master flaw, perhaps with a Beloved Rival minor story flaw (such as your "sibling", i.e. another apprentice of your master).
Note that the House traditionally uses "titan" names for its magi; see Houses of Hermes: Societates for example Tytalan names. Menoites, a titan associated with violent anger and rash action, is a good fit for a male character; for a female, Klymene (mother of pre-thought and after-thought, Prometheus and Epimetheus) might work.
The chapter also discusses the use of Intrigue, agents (detailed in the appendix of HoHS), and rules for debate (based on Folk Ken, Intrigue, Artes Liberales; and also Charm, Guile, and Leadership; if these rules are used in your saga, you might want to improve Artes Liberales to enhance the first triplet).
Roleplaying and Gaming Notes
You were always an argumentative, angry child, prone to fighting and rage. Your apprenticeship didn't change that - but it did teach you to be more subtle, to saw discord throguh intrigue and intimidate others instead of simply pommeling them. You still delight in arguing for argument's sake, which can often lead you to violence. Your weak and tormenting master taught you powerful magic, but this only brought more pain and frustration as you realized that every spell casting brigns with it a new kind of suffering. You managed to force or trick him into acknowledging you have completed your Gauntlet, however, and thus escaped his cruel, pathetic, clutches - even if he is resentful for it.
Your favorite spell is Pains of the Perpetual Worry, which with your wizard's sigil causes actual pain. Consider developing a Concentration variant of it, which would both be lower-level (and thus have higher Penetration) and would work better to interrogate and threaten people with. You should probably master some variant of it, so you could cast it safely in foreign auras, and should seek to increase your Mentem (and perhaps Creo) to increase its penetration. Increasing In, Pe, and Re would also be nice, for your other spells. Eventually, you could achieve total control over people with further spells.
Playing a bully might not be enjoyable to the other players, or player characters. Talk about it with your group before starting playing this character. If this is a problem, consider dropping Argumentative and keeping the original Trusting -2, and taling Loyal to Friends +2. Make your fellow PCs, or mabye the covenant leaders, the few people you do trust and are loyal to, treating them well and not bullying them around.
You should create other, more diverse, spells. What if you are attacked by a beast, a creature with Cunning rather than Intelligence? You won't be a able to use your spells against it! You should have spells to attack a non-Intelligent opponent, as well as defense, escape, and utility spells. And ones that don't require Eye contact.
You should create magic items, if you have the vis for it, instead of spells. Perhaps a talisman. You can use them without suffering the pain. And talisman attunements can also help with spellcasting. Be mindful that you'd be better off investing buffing effects in your familiar bond, rather than in a talisman or as casting them as spells, to avoid Warping.
You use your Leadership to order people about, and your Intrigue to cause strife for your amusement. You may want to spend some of your XP on increasing these Abiltiies, especially should you get embroiled in House plots. You probablby don't care about other people enough to invest in Folk Ken, Charm, or other social skills, and you are not as good at uncovering plots (Per + Intrigue) as you are at fomenting strife (Pre or Com + Intrigue).
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