Alicia Information

From Ars Magica

Revision as of 13:59, 6 March 2006

Alicia Vach Information

Forced Shapechange

This is my proposal for Alicia's Greater Malediction. It is, of course, subject to SG approval, but I think it's pretty good as is and it allows for some tweaking on the fly if needed.

Plain English Summary: At sunrise, noon and sunset, a shapechange is forced on Alicia. She can try to resist, but the pressure will build until she changes. The longer she resists, the harder it will be for her to have any control over the shape she changes into and the more difficult it will be for her to regain control over her form.

At sunrise, sunset and noon a change into animal form is forced upon Alicia. She can try to resist with a Shapeshifting roll of 12 (the "resistance roll"). Since this is a forced change and curse, the difficulty is higher than that of a normal shapechange. Even if she suceeds in resisting, she must resist again every subsequent diameter with a difficuly that increases by 1 every time until she finally does change. When the shift does come, she may make another roll ("control roll") against the same difficulty to choose which form she shifts into, if she fails the form is randomly selected or chosen by the SG.

Once shifted, she must stay in that form for at least one diameter. Then she may try to regain control of her form again("recovery roll"). She makes a roll against a difficulty of 9 plus the amount by which she missed the roll which forced the change. If she succeeds she may change to any of her forms, including human. If she fails, then her form either randomly shifts or changes to something more awkward or whatever the SG decides would be most amusing or incovenient. Every diameter which passes during which she does not attempt to regain control reduces the penalty on the roll down to the point where the final roll is just the straight "9."

• The "control roll" must be made even if she choose not to resist the change. That is, she can go with the change when it first comes on her, giving herself (most likely) an easier "control" and "recovery" roll.

• If she chooses not to resist the change, she must still make a "resistance roll" to determine the penalty she uses on the "recovery roll."

• Optional: since the curse is the result of Hermetic magic it is affected by aura as Hermetic magic is. The aura effects only "resistance rolls", not "control" or "recovery" rolls, or normal shapeshifting attempts.

So, in the covenant and other places where her nature is know, it's not a huge deal. As the change pressure build, she can choose to just go with it, taking only a normal roll (against a difficulty 12) to try to choose her form and then two minutes later taking a roll with no penalty (difficulty 9) to recover her control. (I think this is fair; for instance, if you are a known Lyncanthrope you known when you will change and for what duration and could easily arrange to be locked in a room with sufficient food for the duration. In both cases, on home ground with proper preparations, the effect can be dealt with reasonaly well.)

Outside and adventuring, however, it becomes much harder to deal with - especially the noon change. When the change comes, if she is in company she will have to try to resist changes until she can get to a safe place and the longer she resists, the harder it is to control the change when it does come.

With the option of having it affected by aura, it gets easier to control in magic auras and faerie auras but harder in the dominion, and botches in faerie auras could be interesting. (I actually think this will be more of a pain adventuring than Lycanthropy in most cases ...)