[rfv855]

Two ideas combined into one.

I like the Conan RPG, and the way scholars (sorcerers) are build there- both in abilities, and in atmosphere.

Magic is dark- as a scholar, you are studying secrets originally learned from Lovecraftian old ones and their servants, and pre human races- and lot of time, directly from demon that you made pact with.

Large part of scholar's magic is making pacts with demons, and sacrificial blood magic.

Also, rather then having a pretty much limitless number of spells, scholar has a small number, which however can be used for more purposes, especially combined with scholar's skills.

When I was wondering how it was possible to make similar character in Shadowrun, I came up with the idea of a sorcerer based on adept.

The adept considers himself a priest of Set- as Set was portrayed in Conan books. He also views his magic as sorcery- when most mages in Shadowrun perform magic by using outside forces, his magic is based on changing his soul, to become partly similar to pre human beings that once walked the Earth. Once its done, it allows sorcerer to to perceive things that mortals cannot- and then to learn to channel his power in form of spells (adept powers).

Whatever its just another Adept's Way, or the adept actually did contacted something in metaplanes, of from long before the First World, is anybody's guess.

As for building the PC, its based on adept. First power is obviously Astral Perception. The next one is what adept calls Black Hand of Set- Killing Hands, with a few Critical Strike ranks and with Distance Strike added. in addition, Commanding Voice.

Adept also starts with Power Pact with some shadow spirit- probably some of the more sane ones of succubus or wraith variety. Rather then letting the spirit to use his spells (which he doesn't has in Shadowrun sense), as part of Pact he either pays a karma point to spirit, or arranges for a spirit a situation where it can use its karma drain power, for each time he uses one of spirit's powers.

As for progression, it will be most likely less about developing new adept powers, and more about learning new metamagic techniques- Divining and similar. Also, he will try to learn blood magic as soon as possible- human sacrifices were a pretty major part of sorcery and Set cult.

Much of his abilities will be based about making Pacts with spirits though- Accident and Energy Drain are pretty comparable to curses that Black Circle use in books.

Had anybody tried similar character, and how do you think it will work out?

[Charasanya]

I'm neither familiar with a similar character concept, nor with the Conan world or the RPG, though this "changing of ones soul" sounds a bit like a possession tradition to me, which may or may not fit the concept. A mystic adept may fit the bill, perhaps with the chanelling metamagic, or a possessing ally spirit.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Building the character isn't actually difficult; you've pretty much done all the work already.  The main impact will come when you talk over the idea with the GM and s/he, presumably, will realize that the character is straight out a Twisted Path magician.  We've discussed elsewhere the issues behind this - which in part include the fact that the Twisted Paths in the hands of a PC really can be a route straight to significantly more power than anyone else at that point has.

Why can't players be twisted mages?

[rfv855]

That tread had some interesting reading.

To bring some Conan RPG perspective though. Conan RPG specifically doesn't has such things as good or evil- not because it is mostly gray, but because back then people still hadn't thought in terms of good and evil. More so, many cultures are affected by nonhuman races which lived in their lands before them- and many races have at least some traces of nonhuman blood in them. And unlike in Shadowrun, it doesn't means elfs of dragons- it means serpentmen which had build an empire before first dinosaur was born, or demons from between worlds.

In Shadowrun, spirits are, in a way, secondary to metahuman races, most being originally summoned/created by metahuman mages. Even most Toxic spirit represents metahuman or nature corruption. Horrors might be all evil as far as metahumans are concerned, feed on fear and pain, and corrupt all that they touch, but they still are forces that can be understood using metahuman terms.

In Conan RPG demons are Lovecraftian beings, which existed for millions of years before first ape that would eventually develop into man made it first step. A lot of them might appear understandable using human terms, unlike Horrors they don't actually feed on human fear or pain- even if they usually enjoy torturing humans for entertainment, and it is much easier to make a mutually beneficial pacts with them, then trying to do anything similar with Horrors. However, when you look deep down into them, they are much more alien to mortals then even Horrors- and while appearing evil, they are not- simply because calling them evil is applying human term to something which, while might be reasoned with by humans, is in no way human.

And sorcery in Conan RPG is similar- sorcerer learns secrets of powers that existed millions of years before first human was born, makes pacts with beings from Outer Darkness between stars, and ultimately, from the very first moment when he actually can be called a sorcerer, isn't fully human anymore. To quote the main manual, "The very process of becoming a sorcerer wreaks permanent changes to the very soul of the arcanist, changes that other sorcerers and supernatural entities can detect just by looking at him."

Which is the approach to magic which I want to replicate with this character.

Speaking in power terms, yes PC's abilities will need to be balanced. There are enough ways to do that though- advanced blood metamagic techniques aren't that easy to find source to be studied from, shadow spirits sane enough to make workable pacts with aren't that common, PC's chosen style of magic might attract  some attention that he would really rather avoid, some of shadow spirit abilities might not fully work for PC, ets ets.

Also, how would this specific setup work for a starting PC- compared to a more traditional starting mage builds.

[Aryeonos]

Wow, that sounds neat, I want to read the Conan novels now.

[RHat]

The problem is that the character is a Twisted no matter how you spin it, which means that no matter what you cannot play this character without the GM's explicit and specific permission letting you play a Twisted - certainly something that exists in the setting, but explicitly not a player option by default.

And Horrors are something far beyond Lovecraft's wildest nightmares.  The notion that spirits are created when people summon them is what hermetics believe, not canon fact (so far as I know),