Me and a player (a non-council wizard) are toying with the idea of having a shade of Merlin ride around in his head (a small part, one of many Merlin left laying around after his death, at least in our campaign). I'd like to stat this as a Demonic Co-Pilot, but I'm not sure what sorts of Demon's Agendas I can Compel him on with such an ultimately benevolent (as far as we know) being.

I thought of Fate itself, as Merlin intentionally submitted himself to entrapment and death at the hands of Nimue in The Once and Future King, but that doesn't quite seem like enough. A few more minor agendas to add onto that, or one big one would really help.

All we know of him (in canon) so far is that he was the keeper of Excaliber/Amoracchius and he created a prison for demons. That's more or less in line with the types of thing the party goes for, anyway, so it doesn't seem like it makes for strong Compels.

So, ideas?

Our wizard is going to be working in the names of both Hecate and Hades simultaneously, so we're looking for something that fits both of them, or just the Greek pantheon as a whole (what few are left of them, Hecate and Hades being plot relevant for us and thus the only two we're sure of).

Book benefits include +1 to spells of a certain element or in certain situations or just downgrading Toughness of a certain class of creature. Another thing I considered was Blackstaff-style protection from the First Law. Or maybe there's some other benefits we haven't thought of.

For reference, our campaign is going to be taking us around the world, facing down  creatures from several different mythologies.

(Sponsor agendas will be much easier for us to come up with, but suggestions are welcomed there, as well.)

One of my players is playing a wizard for the first time in our campaign, so we're a bit fuzzy.

He had a four-shift enchanted item that he threw at my mooks and won the roll by six shifts. Now, is that ten damage or four? I thought shifts added like with anything else, but he thought it was just four stress, period.

Ruling? If possible, direct me to a page number in YS? Thanks all!

Okay, let's say I have a spell that turns ground into quicksand or causes tree roots to grapple a person. I cast that spell against an enemy and win by 3 shifts, or give the block a strength of 3 or whatever. My ally then attacks him, with a four-shift attack. How does the enemy dodge? Roll once to overcome the block, and again to dodge? Roll once against the +7? Roll once against whichever is higher?

I'm trying to take the writeup for shield spells and adapt it, so I THINK the third option is correct, but I'd like some opinions.

Lets say I'm statting up a wereseal or a Scion of Neptune or something. They should get things like Inhuman Speed and such, but only when they're in the water. How do you stat that exception? Put it in as a Human Form or Involuntary Change, maybe? Affecting the swim bonuses?

Given his my friend is saying he should be plot-level powerful, but I say he should just be inaccessibly strong (like the Garou or a high-ranking Denarian).

So what do you think? I'd say Mythic-level everything (except Speed), Hulking size, and the standard Wizard powers, along with a few Refinement points. Total Refresh around 30 or 35?

So, as I understand the rules, you have your Phase 3 story, and then for the Phase 4 story, someone else jumps on your Phase 3 and adds their character to it. Then for Phase 5, someone else jumps on to someone's Phase 4 and adds to that, so everyone's Phase 5 should have 3 story parts, yeah?

How would you handle this if, say, you had another player join in two months down the line? Would his character's Phase 4 still piggyback off someone's Phase 3, or would you use some more recent story threads that came up in the sessions? Personally, it seems kind of silly to say "Yeah, you totally knew all these guys way back when, but you just haven't been with the party the last couple months for some reason and nobody's mentioned you." Sure, you could work that in, but that's dependent on the character and the campaign. So do you guys have your ways of handling this?

The rules examples in the book largely focus around a single player (sometimes two), but my RPG experience tells me it's a LOT easier to keep the whole group together. So how often do you split up the party, and how do you handle it when you do?