Tremere Diplomat (Template)

This template represents an ambitious Tremere magus. He is focused on succeeding in Hermetic politics, while keeping himself competent and balanced in his magical growth.

Game Statistics: See ArM5 page 27. Note that you still need to choose the Native Language of the character, as well as his wizard's sigil, background, and name.

Character Analysis

This character is built around his ambition to climb high in Hermetic politics. Most of the choices made in its design stem from this choice of character concept. This is reflected first and foremost by the choice of House, which allows the character to climb the explicit ladder of Tremere hierarchy towards the coveted position of Primus.

The character's Characteristics, however, are not chosen to serve his political ambitions. He is not blessed with particularly high social Characteristics, and his negative Perception means that he will more easily fall to social deceit (falling for a lie, not recognizing some intrigue, and so on). This character is not particularly naturally well-suited to gain political power; rather, it is a "normal" character that strives for power.

As a Tremere magus, the character's magic is thoroughly Hermetic. Like all Tremere, he lacks a Magical Focus and as such is unlikely to be able to match specialist magi from other Houses in raw power. Instead, he focuses on perfecting and bolstering his magic through cooperation with other magi. Many of his virtues and flaws - like Book Learner - can be seen as supporting this Hermetic style. Significantly, he also lacks any Affinity with Art or Puissant Art that will focus him in one area of magic, and his choice of beginning Arts and spells is broad.

Customization Notes

See the ArM5 core book.

One area in which this magus lacks as a leader is in his Characteristics - he has merely average Presence and Communication. You may consider increasing them by adding the Improved Characteristics virtue. An improved Presence should help him convince others at Tribunal and lead personally, so would be a great asset. As a lot of Hermetic life revolves around written correspondence, however, a good Communication will help him spread his agenda more widely by writing political polemics and may help improve his reputation and status by making him a desirable teacher, especially at old age. It is also useful as it encouirages the magus to participate in the Hermetic community of letters, as befits his Tremere philosophy of magical growth. The positive effects of good Communication can also be acquired by using the Good Teacher virtue instead of increasing Communication directly.

Some of the character's virtues and flaws are tangential to the main character concept of Hermetic ambition. This adds greater depth and variety to the character, but also is a natural place to start customization. The character's Elemental Magic virtue allows him to gain a little more experience and helps with a broad range of spells, but takes his magic away from Hermetic purity. You may choose to replace it with some other Major virtue. Secondary insight provides a similar, more thoroughly-Hermetic, alternative, and is especially suitable if you intend to maintain his generalist magical style. Mercurian Magic is a suitable choice as it fits the House's background and encourages magical cooperation between magi, but the character's spells do not include any Ritual spells and the virtue has a great cost in that it limits Spontaneous Magic. Flawless Magic is also apt for highlighting the Hermetic purity of his magic - as well as being highly effective.

The character's Latent Magical Ability likewise does not advance the main character concept and may be dropped or replaced with another virtue. Suitable replacements include Mastered Spells, Method Caster, Affinity with Leadership, Famous (in Hermitic circles, for pushing his agenda), Good Teacher (as noted above), Improved Characteristics (as noted above), Self-Confident, Social Contacts, and Strong Willed. Inspirational or Puissant Ability (Leadership) can be useful, but would detract from the character concept of striving to achieve power rather than being naturally suited to obtain it.

His Weak Magic Resistance can come to be an interesting flaw that will challenge his leadership competence without really undermining it. His Susceptability to Divine Power likewise serves to remind him of the greater power above him in a subtle manner. Both flaws are still fairly tangential to the main character concept, and can be replaced with others. The Blatant Gift would further focus him on Hermetic politics, Rigid Magic would highlight the purely-Hermetic aspect of his magic; Driven or Higher Purpose can provide him with a grand goal rather than just a bland lust for power, or Covenant Upbringing can distance him even more from mundane life (remember, however, that one more Personality Flaw may be taken in addition to Ambitious); Enemies or Favors are very apt to entangle him in Hermetic politics (note he currently has a Story Flaw - and that he can only have one); and Creative Block suits well his reliance on cooperation rather than individual brilliance.

Further Customization Notes

If you have access to the Houses of Hermes: True Lineages supplement, you should use it to extend your familiarity with your House and plot its domination. Consider specifically the tactical role the House assigns to you - this should affect your character growth and development. It is probably best to determine this role in consultation with the storyguide.

The character is well-suited to start and lead a new Mystery Cult, or climb the hierarchy ladder of an existing one. Clear candidates include the Cult of Mercury (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages) or the Neo-Mercurians (see The Mysteries Revised Edition), which will bolster the character's purely-Hermetic and cooperative style of magic.

If using Houses of Hermes: Societates, you should also pay heed to the rules on using agents, affecting Tribunal decisions, and using Etiquette. Consider how your character uses them, and make sure that if your saga uses these rules your magus' statistics will allow him to use them to his advantage.

Roleplaying and Gaming Notes

One cannot attain a leadership position without having a clear agenda others can join. Consider what your character stands for. What are the issues he harps on? What fears or hopes does he foster? Is there a political movement of gild that he is associated with? And what does your character himself thinks of those issues? Is he really moved by them, or is he just raising them as a means to gain power?

To achieve political power the character will surely need to advance his magic as well as his political skills, but he should do both in a balanced and calculated manner. While the details will vary according to the saga, consider how you, as a player, want to advance the character magically. One clear direction is the development of Vim spells to detect or create Hermetic subterfuge (Obscure Magic, The Intangible Tunnel, and so on) and to exploit Hermetic cooperation (Waiting Spell, Wizard's Communion, and so on). Another is to continue to emphasize practical and combat spells, perhaps focused on the elements as in the template. Yet another is to improve his intrigue through magic, by developing Mentem and Intellego spells. Finally, you may continue to be a generalist, dabbling in all sorts of magic.

In order to begin his ascent of the House hierarchy of power, the character will need to defeat his parens in certamen (see ArM5 p. 12). Gaining his voting sigil is also important to gain political power in Tribunal. Generally winning certamen means having four high Arts, but the character is unlikely to defeat his much elder parens through experience points alone - especially if his parens is more focused on magical growth rather than political power. Raw power is not the sole determinant, however. The character may be simply more determined (investing Confidence through the certamen) or lucky, but more than anything - he can be more desperate. It is possible to win against stronger Arts by investing enough raw vis. The timing of the challenge must be such that the parens would be reluctant to burn vis to hold his filius's sigil, however. Given several years or even decades of character growth, the character may also exploit his old master's misconceptions about his filius's focus and main Arts. Amassing raw vis and engaging in intrigue to time his challenge and deceive your parens may be early goals for your character.

You should strive to ascend both the internal Tremere hierarchy and respect and political power in the Tribunal you are resident in. As a Tremere magus, the character may face resistance to gaining political influence in Hermetic circles from other Houses; building trust with members of other Houses is something your sodales at your covenant (the player characters of other players) may help you with. Climbing the Tremere hierarchy, on the other hand, would require you to carry favor with fellow Tremere magi. In both domains, make use of your high Leadership and political skills - and make sure to increase them during the saga - to impress and manipulate other magi. Actively engage in intrigue, asking the storyguide to weave the stories of the fate of your plots into the saga.

Your Leadership score should also prove useful for leading a cadre of shield-grogs. Train them as a group, and add your Leadership to their - and hence, your - defense. This tactic can be very effective, at least at low power-levels.

Notice that the character has invested a lot in Penetration. His Pilum of Fire will still probably fail to penetrate a competent foe; this is not the point. Rather, the penetration ability is useful primarily as it is bolstered by arcane and sympathetic connections. When facing formiddable foes, make sure to collect and prepare arcane and sympathetic connections so that your magic would be effective against them. You may want to obtain some in advance, just in case - perhaps even to develop magic and agents to collect them.

One way to overcome your weak social Characteristics is to improve them by magic. Such spells are practiced by the Cult of Heroes (see Houses of Hermes: True Lineages), so you may find it necessary to convince them to apply them to you. Note that this cult is also related to the Cult of Mercury, so that if you're a member of one you may also wield influence in the other.