[Banestorm] Mages of the Legions

[Icelander]

Dr Temp wanted me to post some of the plausible low-point cost mages who I think would make magically assisted Legions both faster on the move and better able to cope without as extensive logistical support than non-magical forces.

He asked me to skip traits like Wealth, Status, Allies and Contacts and we agreed that the mages would be around 75 CPs, as elite parts of the Legions.

Here is the first one, and as I have time, I'll add more of the lower ranks of battle mages in the Legions as I see them:

Name: Aethelwyn “Roundarse” (50 CPs)

Attributes
ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary attributes
HP 10 [0]; Will 10 [0]; Per 10 [0]; FP 10 [0].
Basic Speed 5.00 [0], Basic Move 5 [0].

5' 6"; 170 lbs. (SM 0)

Social Background and Languages
TL: 3 [0]
CF: Christian regions [0]
Languages: Anglish (Native/Native) [0]
Latin (None/Broken) [1]

Advantages
Magery 0 [5]
Talent: Goodwife 1 [5]
Talent: Animal Friend 1 [5]

Disadvantages
Duty: Legions (almost always) [-15]
Sense of Duty: Megalos [-10]
Chummy [-5]
Gullibility (SC 15-) [-5]
Gluttony (SC 15-) [-2]
Selfless (SC 15-) [-2]
Overweight [-1]

Quirks
Incompetence: Dancing [-1]
Loves to sing, dance and perform [-1]
Dislikes violence (weak Pacifism: Reluctant Killer) [-1]
Famous for his horsepie recipes among the Legion [-1]
Strong regional accent on his Anglish (-1 to reaction from some snobs) [-1]

Skills
Administration (IQ-1) -9 [1], Animal Handling: Equines* (IQ+0) -10 [1] Area Knowledge: Western Megalos (IQ+0) -10 [1], Brawling (DX+0) -10 [1], Cooking** (IQ+2) -12 [4], Hiking (HT+0) -10 [2], Housekeeping** (IQ+3) -13 [4], Leadership (IQ+0) -9 [1], Packing* (IQ+0) [1], Public Speaking (IQ-1) -9 [1], Savoir-Faire: Military (IQ+0) -10 [1], Scrounging (IQ+0) -10 [1], Shield (DX+0) -10 [1], Shortsword (DX-1) -9 [1], Soldier (IQ+0) -10 [2], Teaching (IQ+1) -10 [2], Thaumatology (IQ-1) -9 [4], Wrestling (DX-1) -9 [1]

Spells
Food collage:
Seek Food (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Test Food (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Decay (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Purify Food (IQ-1) -9 [2]
Prepare Game (IQ-1) -9 [2]
Create Food (IQ+5) -15 [24]
Essential Food (IQ+3) -13 [16]

Fire collage:
Ignite Fire (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Create Fire (IQ-2) -8 [1]

Attributes [0]
Secondary Attributes [0]
Social Background [1]
Advantages [15]
Disadvantages [-40]
Quirks [-5]
Skills [30]
Spells [49]

Total [50]

Aethelwyn is a simple lad from the country, growing up with his teamster father and helping with his horses. Growing older, his love of food caused his father to consider apprenticing him to a baker or butcher and had already taught the boy what little he knew of cooking, but fate intervened. When the boy was discovered to have magical talent, his father wanted him to join a guild and make the family rich, but Aethelwyn felt that it was his duty to serve his country before he served himself. As he put it to his father: “If I join the Guilds, I’ll feed the rich and learn exotic recipes, but in the Legions, I can feed those who are really hungry and make a difference with my gift.” Never one to lecture his simple son on the complexities of social status, money and the healthy desire most people have for both and secretly believing that his son might benefit from being told what to do all the time, his father agreed.

Magical education was a trying time for Aethelwyn, as he was a natural target for the wicked fun of those older, stronger, smarter or better with magic. However, he did find his own particular niche. He was already good at housework, due to having to fend for himself and his father since his mother died in childbirth, and since the conjuration of food from inedible object was a wonder beyond wonders for this lad for whom hunger wasn’t an uncommon state, he applied himself diligently to becoming a Food mage, or as they were known in the Legions, Magus Frumentarius.

Now, Aethelwyn is a proud soldier in the Legio XIII. He doesn’t like the violence that does tend to be a consequence of army life, but he likes his brothers in arms and despite the merciless teasing that they inflict on him, Aethelwyn is a valued and beloved part of the Legion. The legionaries know that without him, they would not eat as well or as often and that he is willing to exhaust himself to keep them in fighting trim, as he was already demonstrated at least once in his six months of army service.

[JAW]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Spells
Food collage:
Seek Food (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Test Food (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Decay (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Purify Food (IQ-1) -9 [2]
Prepare Game (IQ-1) -9 [2]
Create Food (IQ+5) -15 [24]
Essential Food (IQ+3) -13 [16]

Fire collage:
Ignite Fire (IQ-2) -8 [1]
Create Fire (IQ-2) -8 [1]

Umm shouldn't spells be at level 12+ to count as prerequisite? That's what it says in my book anyway. Or was that changed in 4th E? (I suppose magery 0 at 5 points is also 4thE addition..)

[DrTemp]

Originally Posted by Icelander

[...]
Create Food (IQ+5) -15 [24]
Essential Food (IQ+3) -13 [16]
[...]

What does an army do with a guy who can produce one meal every 5 minutes? Sure, it's cool if you have one of them for every 10-20 of your legionnaires, but this character ins intended for Yrth, isn't he?

[DrTemp]

Originally Posted by JAW

Umm shouldn't spells be at level 12+ to count as prerequisite? That's what it says in my book anyway. Or was that changed in 4th E? (I suppose magery 0 at 5 points is also 4thE addition..)

Go buy 4e. It's cool and makes the owner of this server happy.

[PK]

Originally Posted by JAW

Umm shouldn't spells be at level 12+ to count as prerequisite? That's what it says in my book anyway. Or was that changed in 4th E? (I suppose magery 0 at 5 points is also 4thE addition..)

A rather large number of things changed between 3e and 4e. But then again, that's rather the point of a new edition, no? :)

[JAW]

So I take the answer is - you prerequisites no longer need to be at level 12+ right. That adimittedly does make making an effective low cost mages easier to do - though they tend to be "johnny one spelss" more easily.

I got to agree that feeding the army with create food might not be feasible. Seek food might actually be more efficient in most cases. Finding the food cache the locals are trying to hide with wery little effort will feed more soldiers with less energy than transmuting twigs and gras for edible food. And ewen if high skil allows mass creation of food with little faatigue cost the risk of critical failures would mean that it's going to be used only when the suplies are actually wery low. But on siege campaing he'd be useful (how about eating a sally port through the walls of the fort...)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DrTemp

What does an army do with a guy who can produce one meal every 5 minutes? Sure, it's cool if you have one of them for every 10-20 of your legionnaires, but this character ins intended for Yrth, isn't he?

Huh?

Casting Create Food ceremonically with a century of men creates 50 meals in 5 minutes. Provided we have one Magus Frumentarius for every cohort, it takes exactly one hour to conjure a meal for it from grass, animal dung, dead leaves and other organic residue.

Since mages capable of learning this spell aren't exactly one in a thousand characters, we can have more than one per cohort, for an even shorter time.

I'd say that those who learned Essential Food to level 15 were even more useful than poor Aethelwyn, since Essential Food never spoils and a single ceremonial casting of it provides more than 30 meals, weighting only 5 pounds.

[Icelander]

Name: Jeremy Falconhands (75 CPs)

Attributes
ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Attributes
HP 9 [-2]; Will 12 [0]; Per 13 [5]; FP 10 [0].
Basic Speed 5.00 [0], Basic Move 5 [0].

5' 9"; 150 lbs. (SM 0)

Social Background and Languages
TL: 3 [0]
CF: Christian regions [0]
Language: Anglish (Native/Native) [0]
Lation (Broken/Broken) [2]

Advantages
Magery 0 [5]
Animal Empathy [5]
Fit [5]
Talent: Animal Friend 1 [5]*


Disadvantages
Callous [-5]
Duty: Legions (almost always) [-15]
Jealousy [-10]
Loner (SC 12-) [-5]
Overconfidence (SC 12) [-5]
Sense of Duty: Predatory Birds [-5]
Workaholic [-5]

Quirks
Reveres raptors as the most efficient hunters in the world and often compares military manouevres to their movements [-1]
Likes to eats the catch of his birds daily and refers to it as their shared kill [-1]
Secretly doesn't care for Christianity and adheres to a naturalistic belief system [-1]
Wants to become a Mage-General of a Legion and will stop at nothing to achieve it [-1]
When angry, Jeremy sometimes screeches like a bird [-1]


Skills
Animal Handling: Raptors* (IQ+1) -13 [4] Area Knowledge: Western Megalos (IQ+0) -10 [1], Cartography (IQ-1) -11 [1], Expert Skill: Military Science (IQ-2) -10 [1], Falconry* (IQ+1) -13 [2], Heraldry (IQ-1) -11 [1], Hiking (HT+0) -10 [2], Intelligence Analysis (IQ-2) -10 [1], Leadership (IQ-1) -11 [1], Navigation: Land (IQ-1) -11 [1] Observation (Per+1) -14 [4], Public Speaking (IQ-1) -11 [1], Savoir-Faire: Military (IQ+0) -12 [1], Shield (DX+0) -10 [1], Shortsword (DX-1) -9 [1], Soldier (IQ-1) -11 [1], Survival: Plains (Per-1) -12 [1], Strategy (IQ-2) -10 [1] Tactics (IQ-2) -10 [1], Teaching (IQ-1) -11 [1], Thrown Spear (DX+0) -10 [1], Thaumatology (IQ-1) -11 [4].

Spells
Animal college:
Beast Soother (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Mammal Control (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Bird Control (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Rider Within (IQ+3) -15 [16]
Master (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Beast Summoning (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Beast Speech (IQ-2) -10 [1]

Communication and Empathy college:
Sense Foes (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Sense Life (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Sense Emotion (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Truthsayer (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Mind-Reading (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Mind-Sending (IQ-2) -10 [1]
Soul Rider (IQ+1 ) -12 [4]


Attributes [40]
Secondary Attributes [3]
Social Background [2]
Advantages [20]
Disadvantages [-50]
Quirks [-5]
Skills [33]
Spells [32]

Total [75]

Jeremy is an ambitious young man whose family has served in the Legions for generations. When he was discovered to have magical talent, Jeremy was ecstatic and immediately constructed fantasies of becoming one of the General Staff within a year.

It hasn't happened that way and the natural arrogance of this sleek and predatory youth might soon begin to crumble under the weight of realising that there are many mages in the Legion whose effortless grasp of magic far surpasses his own.

Nevertheless, his native intelligence, diligence and genuine love for birds make him a first class Magus Cognito who can look over enemy encampments from above. And Jeremy works hard to improve his skills and train for the eventual day when he can master more powerful spells and serve in a more exciting capability.

Talent: Eye for terrain 10/lvl
Artist: Landscape Design, Cartography, Geography, Geology, Prospecting, Mathematics: Surveying, Navigation, Survival, Strategy and Tactics.
Reaction bonus: Cartographers and scouts.

[DrTemp]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Huh?

Casting Create Food ceremonically with a century of men creates 50 meals in 5 minutes.
[...]

You might want to re-read the spell's description. It sais explicitly that it creates one meal. Normal time to cast is 30 seconds, that makes it 300 seconds for one ceremonially-casted Create Food. One meal in 5 minutes.

[DrTemp]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Name: Jeremy Falconhands (75 CPs)
[....]

Now, that one makes sense, but he'll never be more than an expensive scout. Oh, and he'll burn many a bird. How old is he?

Edit: A sidenote: None of these knows Lend Energy. Why? :->