Okay, one of my players has come up with a lovely idea for a Wizard character. It’s one that I’ve decided to allow, even if it means fudging things a little.
The concept is a Wizard who was transformed into a parrot long ago (so long ago that he’s actually spent more time as a parrot by far than as a human), as the result of a spell cast by a wizard gone bad. The only reason he’s survived the transformation is his Wizards constitution (combined with the fact that the wizard that did this was particularly adept at transformation spells). He managed to kill the wizard in question, but unfortunately the Death Curse made the transformation as near permanent as possible – there is a way back to human form, but the character has yet to discover it.
So, aspect-wise, I’m considering a Trouble aspect along the lines of CURSES, I’M A PARROT!
Compels for this include actually acting like a normal parrot – either as a result of having been a parrot for so long that certain behaviour seems natural, or due to a drop in ‘connection’ with the portion of his intellect and human body that is effectively stored in the Never Never. I reserve the option to have that Never Never portion of him attacked at some point, but don’t have any real intention of doing so at present. This accounts for a number of lost years and blank spots, where he’s effectively spent time as a normal parrot before regaining his senses. He’s looking at either being a companion for one of the other PCs or having a street urchin (possibly a gang of them) that he goes around with. (I sort of envision him as an avian Fagin type if he goes with the group of street urchins).
Another compel option is for the length of time to perform a ritual (we both like the image of a parrot nudging ritual components into place). As an automatic thing rituals will take longer to perform, but it really only acts as a compel when time is an important factor.
Invocations include getting overlooked as a normal animal, difficult to hit while flying, able to fit through gaps a human couldn’t etc.
Because I’m looking at running a Chest Deep game, I’m having to look at the refresh costs quite carefully. I’m going to insist that the character needs to have at least ‘Wings’ as an ability in order to fly around (I could just make the ability to fly an invocation of the parrot aspect, but I think I’d prefer to take the Wings route). This means that the character needs at least 1 more refresh than is available on the regular Wizard template. Rather than downgrade him to a Sorceror, I’m probably going to take the approach of saying that his parrot abilities have replaced some of his wizarding ones. Specifically I’m looking at swapping The Sight for Wings, and giving him the option of taking Channelling instead of Evocation – allowing him another point to spend on something parrot appropriate – and representing the idea that his current form cuts him off from invoking more than a single element (Air would seem appropriate). The idea is that as and when he is returned to human form the full Evocation and Sight will swap back in.
Incidentally, I have looked at the Parrot on the mundane animals thread, and while I agree with most of it, I don’t think Diminutive Size is necessarily appropriate in this case – I have pictures of a parrot face to face with my two year old son, and it’s by no means dwarfed by him. That said, it does depend on the breed of parrot, so Diminutive size could be appropriate in some cases, just not this one.
Does all this sound fair enough, bearing in mind that I don’t want to make the whole thing too much of a creation nightmare, and would rather it not be too much of a headache in play – which is why a few tweaks at character creation and an Aspect seemed the way to go. The aspect comes from an extreme consequence inflicted as part of the original spell, as per the Transformation rules under thaumaturgy.
Does all that seem fair?
