Virtues and Flaws

Virtues and Flaws are special attributes possessed by Ars Magica characters. Virtues are beneficial (but may include some drawbacks) and Flaws are detrimental (but may include some advantages).

Each Virtue or Flaw has a cost, with Virtues having a positive cost and Flaws having a negative cost. Each Ars Magica character type has an allowance stating how many Virtues the character can have; the exact allowance varies depending on character type (and edition of the rules).

In the Fifth Edition

There is some variation on available Virtues and Flaws between editions, most noticeably in that True Reason only exists in the Third Edition.

The Third and Fourth Editions had a fairly complex list of Virtues and Flaws, many of them with variable costs. The Fifth Edition opted for a generally well-received change that made it so that Virtues and Flaws are always either Minor (worth one point) or Major (worth three points).

Balancing Virtues and Flaws

In most cases, the total cost of a characters' Virtues and Flaws must add to zero; Virtues have to be paid for by choosing an equivalent value of Flaws. There are some exceptions. For instance, in ArM5, all magi get a "free" Minor Virtue from their Houses.

After balancing Virtues and Flaws, the total cost of the character's Virtues must be within the allowance for his character type.

Types of Virtues and Flaws

ArM5 categorizes Virtues and Flaws as follows:

General Virtues and Flaws
Hermetic Virtues and Flaws
Heroic Virtues and Flaws
Supernatural Virtues and Flaws
Personality Flaws
Story Flaws

Acquiring Virtues and Flaws

In the RAW, there are two main ways to acquire Virtues and Flaws: at Character Creation, or through Initiation into a Mystery. In addition, Forest Paths, Original Research, and integrating ancient magic all provide - typically much harder - means to gain V&F in-play.

Some storyguides allow characters to acquire or lose Virtues and Flaws over the course of the Saga; for example, a character might acquire a new Enemy, or defeat an Enemy she had at the start of play. This makes sense from a character-development point of view, but there are no formal rules for doing it. Some storygiudes dislike changing characters' Virtues and Flaws over time, and other allow it occasionally but insist that overall Virtues and Flaws remain balanced (that is, any new Virtues are offset by new Flaws, or any Flaws lost are replaced by new Flaws of equivalent cost).

References

ArM5 28-30 and 36-40
Virtues and Flaws Index, courtesy of Atlas Games and Erik Dahl
Fifth Edition Design Notes on Character Creation

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:virtues_and_flaws