Character:John Volerus

A character for Ars Magica (4th ed.), created by psychojosh13.

Campaign

The campaign centers on a rising covenant (Spring/Summer border) in the hills that separate England and Scotland. Local politics are hard to escape (the covenant's neutrality and relative isolation notwithstanding), but the primary concern now is those dragon-headed longships coming up over the horizon...

Character Stats

John Volero

House Verditius
Age:29
Sigil: a metallic clanging sound
Personality: Hot-headed +1
Reputation: 0

Soak Total: 1
Confidence: 3
Twilight: 0
Decrepitude: 0

Stats

Intelligence 3 (creative)
Perception 3 (detail-oriented)
Presence 0
Communication
Strength 1 (well-worked)
Stamina 1 (determined)
Dexterity 1 (fine-tuned)
Quickness 1 (reactive)

Virtues

+1 Inventive Genius
+3 Immunity to Fire

Flaws

-1 Follower of Verditius
-3 Weak Parma Magica (must be near metal)

Abilities

Brawling (improvised weapons) 3
Carouse (staying sober) 2
Certamen (Ignem) 2
Concentration (lab work) 2
Craft - Blacksmithing (lab equipment) 3
Finesse (Ignem) 2
Great Weapon (warhammer) 3
Hermetic Law (mundane relations) 2
Magic Theory (enchanting items) 5
Organization Lore - Hermetic (politics) 1
Parma Magica (Perdo) 2
Pick Locks (speed) 1
Scribe Latin (copying) 2
Speak English (Northumbrian dialect) 4
Speak Latin (Hermetic usage) 5
Verditius Magic 2

Possessions

Warhammer
Casting tools
Forge and related tools

Arts

Creo 4
Intelligo 1
Muto 6
Perdo 3
Rego 3

Animal 2
Aquam 2
Auram 1
Corpus 3
Herbam 2
Ignem 9
Imagonem 0
Mentem 0
Terram 9
Vim 0

Formula Spells

The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch (CrCo 20)
Conjure the Sturdy Vine (CrHe 10)
Edge of the Razor (MuTe 5)
Heat of the Searing Forge (CrIg 10)
The Miner's Keen Eye (InTe 20)
Rock of Viscid Clay (MuTe 15)
Rusted Decay of Ten-Score Years (PeTe 10)
Supple Iron and Rigid Rope (MuTe 3)
Tales of the Ashes (InIg 5)
Trapping the Fire (MuIg 25)
The Unseen Porter (ReTe 10)
Ward Against Faeries of the Mountain (ReTe 12)
Wielding the Invisible Sling (ReTe 10)

Character Description

Born John Angler, the magus now called Volerus does not look like the sort one thinks of as a wizard. He spends much of his time at his forge, and as a result he is muscular and tanned, quite the opposite of the archetypal aged bookworm. The forge also seems to have molded his personality quite a bit, for Volerus is brash and headstrong, and has little reluctance to fight when the situation calls for it. Nevertheless, he has a good head for the magical arts, especially the enchantment of the items he forges. His greatest ambition is to one day create a weapon of legendary power, something on the order of Arthur's Excalibur.

Commentary

Experienced AM players may notice that Volerus' stats seem pretty high. This is because, instead of the usual point-buy, I used the optional die-rolling system for generating his stats. There's nothing else unusual here. Overall this character took a decent bit of work to put together; not as much as, say, GURPS, but picking out formula spells can take a while when there aren't too many in the book that seem to fit closely with my character concept (if I were to actually play this character, I would probably create at least one or two of my own formula spells to replace some of the ones on my list, but for purposes of this challenge I wanted to stick with what was in the book).

Also, for those who don't have it, I will take this time to point out that AM4 is available for free at e23.