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Old 07-01-2021, 05:36 PM   #1
Seneschal
 
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Default [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

My group has been entertaining the idea of returning to a GURPS campaign we had played half a decade ago - a horror/mystery campaign set in a dark fantasy world. For the previous campaign, GURPS worked wonderfully; the characters (built on 150 pts) were riddled with tragic flaws and hidden regrets that slowly consumed them as the world around them descended into darkness - something that GURPS portrays fairly well mechanically.

This time, a player with no prior GURPS experience approached me with a character concept the way they'd do it for D&D5e - "I wanna be an elf bard," complete with a drawing they made of a dashing pointy-eared scoundrel. Now, elves had not been part of the previous campaign, and the concept was a step too swashbuckly for the tone of the campaign, so we ruminated a bit on how to include them when I had an idea: instead of a mundane human, the character could be a unique fey entity - an enchanting, immortal trickster that plays cruel games with people. "Elf bard" on steroids.

To be honest, I was apprehensive of how a 150-pt GURPS character would feel for someone who comes from a 5e background. The other players know fairly well what to expect, but the transition tends to be jarring for newcomers, especially if their high-fantasy concept can't quite be realized on a limited point budget. So, I figured I might as well pull them behind the GM screen and hammer out something special the way only GURPS allows.

Thankfully, the player knew exactly what I was hinting at (warning, TV Tropes link, don't lose your afternoon), and they were on board. Now, I just need some help putting the archfey together; it's been a while since any of us touched GURPS.

The specific fae archetype we're going for is something like the Gentleman with Thistledown Hair from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell:
  • outwardly humanoid - no tiny body or wings;
  • immortal (time-wise) and hard to perish (pointy-thing-wise);
  • charming, foppish and playful, at least at first glance;
  • offputting and creepy at a second glance;
  • implacable alien mindset;
  • a heartfelt yet fleeting fascination with mortals;
  • deceitful and manipulative, although incapable of lying directly;
  • constrained by laws which they only respect the letter of;
  • powers of enchantment, illusion and travel between worlds, but generally has to bargain, coerce or persuade the consent of mortals before affecting them;
  • a limited ability to manipulate reality, or just access to untold treasures and ancient lore, enough to "grant wishes" of sorts.

What I'm looking for is how to put the above onto a character sheet, which Advantages and Disadvantages to use, the best fit for a magic system, whether there are some sourcebooks or Pyramids that could help me, etc. I'm also curious about more fae lore that I could use to flesh them out and maybe give them weaknesses and limitations.

The point total is not an issue, although I'd prefer to be as conservative as possible (under 500 if possible); the character is a kind of "monster PC" with which the player and I will subtly nudge the plot around, but I would still like them to be able to engage with the other characters on the same scale.

Thanks in advance.
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Old 07-01-2021, 07:26 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

You might look at writeups for artificial intelligences to represent the compulsions.

Truthfulness, Code of Honour (Faerie Law), and Compulsive Behaviour (Misleading Truths) seem like the traits to use. Appearance and OPH might do for the otherworldly beauty.
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Old 07-01-2021, 08:45 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
[LIST][*]outwardly humanoid - no tiny body or wings;
The default, so no traits needed.

[*]immortal (time-wise) and hard to perish (pointy-thing-wise);
Unaging -- though many people consider this overpriced even at 15 points unless your game happens to include a lot of aging attacks or covers a long enough span of time that avoiding aging rolls is going to matter. Age by itself doesn't convey any advantages; it's an excuse to have other traits (like lots of knowledge skills or Area Knowledge or History because you lived it, which you'd buy separately). You might well think it's just a 0-point Feature.

Hard to Kill (can still put the character down from damage, but they're less likely to fail a death check -- so down, but not dead)
HP (harder to down because there's more HP)
Injury Tolerance (very hard to damage in the first place)
Unkillable 1/2/3 (varying degrees of coming back from death, such as fey losing their form on the mortal plane and having to recreate it before they can come back)
Supernatural Durability - the Terminator or Jason / Freddie type from a slasher movie.

[*]charming, foppish and playful, at least at first glance;[*]offputting and creepy at a second glance;
Mostly RP or Quirks, I'd say, but you can try some counteracting traits.
Charisma (charming)
Supernatural Features (to become offputting on closer acquaintance)
You might also try Reputation (offputting and creepy) greater than the Charisma, but negative, to try to model being creepy after you get to know him. So bonus early on, malus once the Rep kicks in (though mechanically the Charisma is still there, so it's not as bad as it looks). You might also classify "offputting and creepy" as an Odious Personal Habit.
[*]implacable alien mindset;[quote]"Alien" needs definition; it's too vague to do anything with. "Implacable" could also use some refinement - see Fearlessness, Indomitable, Single-Minded, Unfazeable, Fanaticism, Stubbornness,
[*]a heartfelt yet fleeting fascination with mortals;
Chummy (just rotating who he picks as "company")
Xenophilia (for humans, noting that "strangers" soon stop being strangers, which you could take as the "fleeting" bit. Fascinated with humans that are strangers; once he gets to know them, he's bored and moves on)
Compulsive Behavior (meddle with mortals)
[*]deceitful and manipulative, although incapable of lying directly;[*]constrained by laws which they only respect the letter of;
Callous
Truthfulness probably isn't appropriate, as it hurts ability to lie or lie by omission.

Code of Honor (Fey -- which you'd have to detail, but mainly "never break the letter of fey laws / promises")
[*]powers of enchantment, illusion and travel between worlds, but generally has to bargain, coerce or persuade the consent of mortals before affecting[*]a limited ability to manipulate reality, or just access to untold treasures and ancient lore, enough to "grant wishes" of sorts.
them;
Mind Control
Enthrallment skills
Illusion (Powers 94)
Jumper (between Faerie and the mortal world)
Snatcher (access to untold treasures)

Some people have suggested using Jumper to "manipulate reality", given the presumption that an infinite number of slightly varying worlds can exist. Consider the fey taking all the PCs to a world just like the one they left, except that it has exactly those changes the wish is supposed to grant -- the PCs are royalty, or wealthy, or their hated enemy is dead, or the year is exactly 360 days long, or whatever. I've never tried it in play myself -- but taken literally it seems like a truly godlike power.
Ability to actually change the PCs in any manner is probably a Modular Ability for Affliction, Permanent, with enough points to cover whatever changes you want to be able to make to their traits (making a PC stronger, smarter, giving them Lucky, Magery, removing their Disadvantages, etc).

More individual generic fey traits might include Impulsive, Jealousy, Intolerance (of mortals), Overconfidence, Short Attention Span,
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Old 07-01-2021, 10:52 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

In my experience, giving one PC a huge number of cp that the others don't have leads to major problems. I've done it, the other players were resentful.

If you want a 150 point campaign, then allowing one character to start with 500+ points could be a problem.

This is very much like having a GMPC.

Just my opinion.
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Old 07-02-2021, 05:51 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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Originally Posted by DangerousThing View Post
In my experience, giving one PC a huge number of cp that the others don't have leads to major problems. I've done it, the other players were resentful.

If you want a 150 point campaign, then allowing one character to start with 500+ points could be a problem.

This is very much like having a GMPC.

Just my opinion.
I completely agree. Ordinarily, this is a Very Bad Idea(TM). I'm only contemplating it because I've known these people for 20 years and roleplayed with most of them for about as long; they live for stuff like this. Personally, I like things to be balanced - they like whatever makes the story more twisty-turny, and chafe at having to wrangle their character concepts into the typical mold of a 1st level D&D adventurer.
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Old 07-02-2021, 06:12 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
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These are great, exactly what the doctor ordered.

I like the idea of making "creepy" an OPH. I'd prefer Supernatural Features to be hidden clues as to the character's nature, and for the unease one gets when interacting with them to be subtle and hard to pin down.

As for "implacable alien mindset," I've looked up Indomitable and Unfazed, but they seem a bit too absolute. It might suffice, as suggested, to give the character Will and Fearlessness enough to get their Fright Check to 16, representing an immortal magical being that doesn't flinch at stuff that would threaten regular people, but could still experience fear in the face of cosmic horrors and whatnot.

As for fae weaknesses, that's a lot of good suggestions, and they all fit wonderfully, but I'll have to narrow it down to a few to avoid burdening the character with too many Disadvantages.

So far, the Enthrallment skills (which I've never used, even in traditional fantasy campaigns with actual bards) seem to fit the enchanting nature of a fey more than flat-out Mind Control would - their effects are unambiguously magical, but they're subtle and woven into a performance. I would alter the need for Public Speaking to allow the character to weave their enchantments into a night of revelry (Carousing) or a musical act (Singing/Musical Instrument/Dancing).

What strikes me as a bit odd is that Musical Influence kind of conflicts with Enthrallment, when they represent something very similar.
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Old 07-02-2021, 11:54 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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As for "implacable alien mindset," I've looked up Indomitable and Unfazed, but they seem a bit too absolute.
A common observation about a lot of GURPS personality traits. If you read them literally and enforce them ruthlessly, then many of them make characters unplayable. That's probably not the intent, so my groups generally just make it more of a bribe for roleplaying. (lMandatory, lest you eventually lose more than you gain for bad roleplaying deductions on earned xp, if you need a stick, but it doesn't sound like your group needs that push.)

Quote:
It might suffice, as suggested, to give the character Will and Fearlessness enough to get their Fright Check to 16, representing an immortal magical being that doesn't flinch at stuff that would threaten regular people, but could still experience fear in the face of cosmic horrors and whatnot.
Sounds good.

Quote:
As for fae weaknesses, that's a lot of good suggestions, and they all fit wonderfully, but I'll have to narrow it down to a few to avoid burdening the character with too many Disadvantages.
Absolutely. My goal was to provide a narrower shopping list for you to consieder, not a complete character build. Most of the choices come down to how you and your player see the character. As always, concept tells you what traits you need. (And a character budget generally focusses attention on what you _really_ need instead of "want" or "would be nice".)

Quote:
Enthrallment skills... I would alter the need for Public Speaking to allow the character to weave their enchantments into a night of revelry (Carousing) or a musical act (Singing/Musical Instrument/Dancing).
Seems good to me. Switching an ability to a different skill for a better fit to concept is generally free. (Only need to beware of the munchkin that will promptly try to become Johnny One-Skill on top of being a brain in a jar for Johnny One-Stat.)

Quote:
What strikes me as a bit odd is that Musical Influence kind of conflicts with Enthrallment, when they represent something very similar.
The 4e editors did a great job collecting and updating things from 3e. But that was a lot of work, and no one's perfect. There are still a few places where traits show their origins as having first appeared in various setting-specific books before making it into the core rules.

Enthrallment is really a category of sub-skills anyway, so you might just tuck Musical Influence under there, pick whichever set of mechanics you think best represents the ability in this setting, and leave the differences up to the skill used and situation. (E.g., Musical Influence requires a performance, perhaps live; Persuade might be Public Speaking; Enthrallment, Captivate, and Suggest might be any of several skills, either verbal or artistic -- though you might want to specialize them, so Suggest (Music) is a different skill than Suggest (Speaking).)
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Old 07-02-2021, 10:36 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
[*]outwardly humanoid - no tiny body or wings;
Passing Appearance (Human) perk, Secret (Not Actually Human) [-30 points]

For combat durability, also consider extra HP, Combat Reflexes [15 points], Damage Resistance [5/lvl], High Pain Threshold [10 points], and levels of Hard to Subdue [2/lvl].

For non-combat durability consider Resistant (Disease/Poison/etc.)

Good basic HT (12+) is also a decent way of modeling a durable character.

All these traits, especially Unkillable, might be countered by disads like Revulsion, Vulnerability, or Weakness to things like church bells, cold iron, silver, etc., but those sorts of disadvantages can get dangerous really fast.

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
[*]charming, foppish and playful, at least at first glance;[*]offputting and creepy at a second glance;
So, serious "sociopathic superficial charisma."

In addition to previous suggestions: Attractive or better Appearance [4+ points]; Charisma [5 points/lvl], Talent (Allure [5 points/level] or Smooth Operator Talent [15 points/lvl]), and Voice [10 points].

All suit the "only pretty on the outside" sort of noble faerie.

For creepy and offputting behavior, in addition to the suggestions that others have made: Bad Temper, Bully, Callous, On the Edge, bad Reputation, Sadism, Supernatural Feature, Trickster, or Unnatural Feature.

Bad Temper seems especially appropriate for the genre.

Possibly any of these traits could have a house-rules Accessibility limitation "Not immediately obvious" or "Not well known" worth at least -40% which limits negative reactions to just people who spend significant time in the character's company.

Keep in mind, however, that many traits which carry reaction modifiers conflict with the sort of social manipulation skills required for a bard-like character.

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
[*]implacable alien mindset;[*]a heartfelt yet fleeting fascination with mortals;
Additional Suggestions: Clueless, Code of Honor, Delusion ("Human society is like Fae society"), Hidebound, Oblivious.

Absent-Minded and Short Attention Span might be appropriate if the character is particularly flighty. Odious Personal Habit (Capricious) [-15 points] applies if the character has limited control over their moods.

I agree that you should choose which disadvantages are most important and choose the rest as "Controllable Disadvantage" or "Likes and Dislikes" Quirks. E.g., "Fascinated by mortals," "Capricious," "Never forgets an insult or a favor," "Views human society from a faerie point of view."

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[*]deceitful and manipulative, although incapable of lying directly;[*]constrained by laws which they only respect the letter of;
Classic faerie disadvantages. Model these as Quirk-level Honesty ("Obeys the letter of the law") and Truthfulness ("Cannot Tell Outright Lies"). They could be subsumed into a broader -5 point Code of Honor ("Faerie Rede").

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
[*]powers of enchantment, illusion and travel between worlds, but generally has to bargain, coerce or persuade the consent of mortals before affecting them;[*]a limited ability to manipulate reality, or just access to untold treasures and ancient lore, enough to "grant wishes" of sorts.
This is a massive list of powerful advantages, especially the plane-shifting and wish granting bits.

If your preference is a low-powered character, it might be fairer to the player to start play with most of these traits as "potential advantages" which can be accessed as the character develops. Especially for a 5e player, the concept of "leveling up" should be simple to understand.

Amnesia or Partial Amnesia is an expensive disadvantage would could easily explain the character's lack of full access to their powers and would a good way to reduce the point cost of a low-point character.

Some form of Racial Memory could explain access to ancient lore. Blessed, Destiny, or Unusual Background might also justify very limited wish-granting power. Detect might be useful for detecting caches of valuable goods, with the quirk that the character can't benefit from such riches themself.

Everything else depends on how magic works in your game and how much "new system crunch" your player is willing to put up with.

In particular, any system of GURPS Magic will work very differently from AD&D magic, so the player will have to know what they're getting themselves into.

IQ 13+, Magery 2-3, and 15-20 points in spells is a relatively cheap method of creating a character with reasonable "buff"/"debuff" powers. Another possibility might be Modular Abilities and variants on the Affliction advantage.

For 500 points, you could build an incredibly formidable GURPS Magic archmage character capable of casting powerful spells like Enslave, Planeshift Other, or even Wish using the standard GURPS Magic system.

For limited relatively inexpensive "enchant" powers, Imbuement powers might work best.

Jumper (World) is a very expensive advantage which could possibly be reined in using Accessibility (Only from certain places and at certain times of the year) and Limited Uses, Requires Preparation, and Takes Extra Time to bring the cost down to a more reasonable level. This power isn't necessary for an archmage with the prerequisites and power to cast spells like Gate or Planeshift Others.

Illusion effects can be handled using the Create or Mind Control advantages with the Magic power limitation. GURPS Psionics has a list of illusion powers which could easily be adapted to have a magical basis. Standard GURPS Magic also has an extensive list of Illusion and Creation spells.

"Bless," "Curse," or Probability Alteration powers could be magic spells, or variants on Affliction (Attribute Reduction, Bestow Dis/advantage, Negate Advantage, Irritating or Incapacitating Condition). Take a look at GURPS Powers and the Dungeon Fantasy series for inspiration.

For background material, GURPS 3E Faeries has lots of good "fluff" and some templates which could be updated to 4E.
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Old 07-03-2021, 01:38 AM   #9
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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Amnesia or Partial Amnesia is an expensive disadvantage would could easily explain the character's lack of full access to their powers and would a good way to reduce the point cost of a low-point character.
"Exile from Faerie" might be a good limiting disadvantage. Until the exile is rescinded, he doesn't have access to his higher powers. The way to get back is to bring his liege a new story, which is what he is trying to get from the PCs.
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Old 07-04-2021, 01:24 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Build Advice] One of the PCs is secretly a powerful archfey

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For combat durability, also consider extra HP, Combat Reflexes [15 points], Damage Resistance [5/lvl], High Pain Threshold [10 points], and levels of Hard to Subdue [2/lvl].

For non-combat durability consider Resistant (Disease/Poison/etc.)

Good basic HT (12+) is also a decent way of modeling a durable character.

All these traits, especially Unkillable, might be countered by disads like Revulsion, Vulnerability, or Weakness to things like church bells, cold iron, silver, etc., but those sorts of disadvantages can get dangerous really fast.
I've begun assembling the character in GCS and it's, almost to the letter, everything you've listed. I'm actually quite surprised at how (relatively) economical it is. I've opted for iron as a weakness (but not steel, only pure iron - fire pokers, horseshoes, nails, musket barrels...) for its "magical insulator"-qualities. The final write-up looks something like this:

Quote:
Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]
Hard to Kill 2 [4]
Hard to Subdue 2 [4]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Regeneration (Slow; Magical, -10%) [9]
Regrowth (Bane (Iron, occasional), -30%; Magical, -10) [24]
Resistant (Metabolic Hazards, +3) [10]
Revulsion (Iron, occasional) [-5]
Unaging [15]
Unkillable 1 (Achilles' Heel (Iron, occasional), -30%) [35]
Unusual Biochemistry [-5]
Vulnerability (Iron, occasional; ×2 injury) [-20]
A mere 84 points to be the fantasy equivalent of Jason Voorhees, shrugging off whatever you pump into them and getting up eventually no matter what's sticking out of them... unless your enemy brings an iron weapon. Then you're at -5 to everything if you get hit, and you treat killing blows from it as if you were a normal human. This is an acceptable dichotomy that comes with playing a "monster character", and the danger it presents is a good motivator to keep your inhuman nature under wraps.

I like that none of the abilities are absolute - you can still try to blow the faerie lord up with gunpowder, or put them to sleep by dipping them in a vat of opium, but most solutions are unreliable unless you know their weakness. Also, it allows the character to have fairly modest attributes, and thus play on a similar level as the rest of the party.

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Originally Posted by Pursuivant View Post
So, serious "sociopathic superficial charisma."

In addition to previous suggestions: Attractive or better Appearance [4+ points]; Charisma [5 points/lvl], Talent (Allure [5 points/level] or Smooth Operator Talent [15 points/lvl]), and Voice [10 points].

All suit the "only pretty on the outside" sort of noble faerie.

For creepy and offputting behavior, in addition to the suggestions that others have made: Bad Temper, Bully, Callous, On the Edge, bad Reputation, Sadism, Supernatural Feature, Trickster, or Unnatural Feature.

Bad Temper seems especially appropriate for the genre.

Possibly any of these traits could have a house-rules Accessibility limitation "Not immediately obvious" or "Not well known" worth at least -40% which limits negative reactions to just people who spend significant time in the character's company.

Keep in mind, however, that many traits which carry reaction modifiers conflict with the sort of social manipulation skills required for a bard-like character.

Additional Suggestions: Clueless, Code of Honor, Delusion ("Human society is like Fae society"), Hidebound, Oblivious.

Absent-Minded and Short Attention Span might be appropriate if the character is particularly flighty. Odious Personal Habit (Capricious) [-15 points] applies if the character has limited control over their moods.

I agree that you should choose which disadvantages are most important and choose the rest as "Controllable Disadvantage" or "Likes and Dislikes" Quirks. E.g., "Fascinated by mortals," "Capricious," "Never forgets an insult or a favor," "Views human society from a faerie point of view."
This is a very comprehensive list, thank you. I particularly like Clueless, which I hadn't considered previously - it fits the idea of an immortal trickster who doesn't really comprehend the passage of time, and thinks that the TL2 tribes he toyed with a few hundred years ago still function the same at TL4.

Given the sheer number of disadvantages, all appropriate, I'll make a list and consult the player on what they'd most be interested in roleplaying. We'll probably stick to one or two major ones; the rest, as you point out, are best left at quirk-level.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant View Post
This is a massive list of powerful advantages, especially the plane-shifting and wish granting bits.

If your preference is a low-powered character, it might be fairer to the player to start play with most of these traits as "potential advantages" which can be accessed as the character develops. Especially for a 5e player, the concept of "leveling up" should be simple to understand.

Amnesia or Partial Amnesia is an expensive disadvantage would could easily explain the character's lack of full access to their powers and would a good way to reduce the point cost of a low-point character.

Some form of Racial Memory could explain access to ancient lore. Blessed, Destiny, or Unusual Background might also justify very limited wish-granting power. Detect might be useful for detecting caches of valuable goods, with the quirk that the character can't benefit from such riches themself.

Everything else depends on how magic works in your game and how much "new system crunch" your player is willing to put up with.

In particular, any system of GURPS Magic will work very differently from AD&D magic, so the player will have to know what they're getting themselves into.

IQ 13+, Magery 2-3, and 15-20 points in spells is a relatively cheap method of creating a character with reasonable "buff"/"debuff" powers. Another possibility might be Modular Abilities and variants on the Affliction advantage.

For 500 points, you could build an incredibly formidable GURPS Magic archmage character capable of casting powerful spells like Enslave, Planeshift Other, or even Wish using the standard GURPS Magic system.

For limited relatively inexpensive "enchant" powers, Imbuement powers might work best.

Jumper (World) is a very expensive advantage which could possibly be reined in using Accessibility (Only from certain places and at certain times of the year) and Limited Uses, Requires Preparation, and Takes Extra Time to bring the cost down to a more reasonable level. This power isn't necessary for an archmage with the prerequisites and power to cast spells like Gate or Planeshift Others.

Illusion effects can be handled using the Create or Mind Control advantages with the Magic power limitation. GURPS Psionics has a list of illusion powers which could easily be adapted to have a magical basis. Standard GURPS Magic also has an extensive list of Illusion and Creation spells.

"Bless," "Curse," or Probability Alteration powers could be magic spells, or variants on Affliction (Attribute Reduction, Bestow Dis/advantage, Negate Advantage, Irritating or Incapacitating Condition). Take a look at GURPS Powers and the Dungeon Fantasy series for inspiration.

For background material, GURPS 3E Faeries has lots of good "fluff" and some templates which could be updated to 4E.
This is what I've been struggling with the most. While the aim wasn't to make a low-powered character per se, I did want to see how few points I could spend (or how heavily I could limit powers) and still end up with an otherworldly entity with a suite of unusual abilities. I've found that Illusion, built correctly and used imaginatively, could stand in for a variety of fey powers, and still be 30-40 points; Snatcher with Recall, Fickle and Unpredictable is a cheap way to represent access to a pot of gold, a dragon's hoard, or a mansion in the faerie realm, complete with a grumpy goblin majordomo that appears to take your order...

However, I'm currently leaning towards using Ritual Path Magic. We've used similar systems in the past, the player had expressed interest in flexible magic, and RPM is the kind of system where I can take a fair amount of cognitive load on myself and just go, "Sure, that could work, it would be a 30 energy ritual."

Plus, it can represent the full scope of fey powers with even a basic point investment. Sure, you can't do crazy high-fantasy stuff without investing a ton, but the starter package is probably the most flexible a GURPS mage can get on a budget. The downside—low-powered RPM magic having to be subtle and hush-hush—actually strikes me as a feature for a mystery/horror campaign.
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