By "not be particularly stressful" I meant no more stressful than the normal problem of casting a complicated ritual.
If the caster is a paranoid nutter she'll be stressed about all sorts of things all the time (and she will presumably have appropriate Personality Flaws).
But, otherwise unless the caster actually has some evidence that something has penetrated the covenant boundary while the Aegis is down, she shouldn't be especially stressed about that possibility under normal circumstances. Even if she thinks that has happened, it need not make the casting of the Aegis ritual especially stressful "Oh look, a bunch of centaurs have entered the covenant and are loitering around the stables. I'll just get on with getting that Aegis back up and then we can chase them out and calm down the mares."
Aren't all magi paranoid nutters, to some extent? Certainly with respect to the Aegis, upon which they all rely for security for the covenant and covenfolk. I find the idea of trying to time the ritual to coincide with sunrise to be the least stressful event. Waiting until doing one's morning ablutions, breaking fast, completing the Parma ritual, and then communing with the magi, then begin casting the Aegis ritual all while the defenses of the covenant are actually down seems to be a more stressful environment, just for the possible unknowns.
If the unquantifiable potentialities of a few minutes or hours without an Aegis seems unbearably risky and turns a magus into a gibbering wreck of stress and paranoia, it is hard to see how he can ever summon the fortitude to leave the covenant?
On the other hand, if trying to time the casting of the Aegis to happen moments after sunrise is the least stressful scenario....?
You seem to be arguing both sides. You can time it such that there is a very minimal gap in the Aegides being in effect, which is (minimally) stressful because of timing or trying to make it a minimal gap between Aegides. OR, you can Let it Go, and learn to love it and be relaxed while casting the Aegis without any possible worries. I don't understand why trying to plan the casting of the Aegis to happen a few minutes, or rounds after the sunrise is any more or less stressful than waiting several hours later in the day to cast the ritual.
But, this hair-splitting about relaxed or not does nothing to counter my point that there is a huge risk/benefit calculus between a relaxed casting of the Aegis being possible with only Spell Mastery 1 and times where the Aegis can't be cast in a relaxed manner. And, it's a contrived event. Contrived by the story, or the SG. For an Aegis 30, with 4 participants in a Communion, that's 1 (base) + 6 vis +4 particpants + additional botch considerations that make it stressful, so at least 11 botch dice, where there would normally be none. There are numerous methods towards mitigating botch dice, but these are generally minimized in a game where relaxed rituals can be cast with Spell Mastery 1 mitigating all risk.
Is there any chance Notatus actually noticed this issue when he originally invented the spell and managed to come up with a solution? He is portrayed as something of a genius and it was a major breakthrough, after all.
If it were up to me, I'd just rule the Aegis ends at sunset instead of sunrise, while still able to start at sunrise, giving a "day" or so leeway.
That's something of a big assumption I think.
I've seen several magi in play that were not paranoid nutter and have indeed played a few who were.
Indeed, I have experienced little but negative feedback when actually trying to play a genuinely paranoid nutter.
Anecdotal evidence, I know, but with a statement referencing 'all magi', that is sufficient.
Well, it would require a breakthrough on a duration akin to Faerie Magic's Year+1 duration, which lasts for 1 year and 1 day, and is measured based on time, not on the passing of 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices. And the Aegis was already a Hermetic Breakthrough.
Well, I was being somewhat sarcastic, but this forum lacks a sarcasm font...
Players tend to be far more paranoid than characters. Can't tell you how many times a player says stop talking, you're giving the GM ideas. Wait, that's not paranoia. Regardless, I want to find some reasonable middle ground between no chance of botching and wait, this time it's stressful because %reasons% and you now have 11 botch dice, where before you had none. It seems arbitrary and capricious, even if there is a valid story reason to explain away why casting the Aegis this time is not a relaxed event.
Rituals, and I said this in the Rethinking Ritual Magic thread, are almost always hand waved, too. Until they aren't, and then players who haven't had to deal with the risks suddenly do. I'd like to provide a way for them to eliminate all risk, if they want to pay the price, and IMO, Spell Mastery 1 isn't a sufficient price, and it is easily countered by a wily/killer GM.
Which is fine, but, what you view the Ageis as protecting doesn't really have any bearing on what the Aegis is there to protect from. The Aegis can be there primarily to protect the covenfolk and the physical covenant from harassment by creatures with Might scores . . . or it can be there primarily to protect the covenfolk and the physical covenant from spells cast by hostile human wizards (whether other Hermetic Magi or hedgies). Parma directly protects magi from hostile spells, but there's no plausible way to use Parma to stop an enemy from mind-controlling covenfolk to set things on fire. But even if the enemy casts on the covenfolk when they go outside the covenant, the same Aegis that will strip an invisibility spell cast outside the covenant should do the same thing to a mind control spell.
Regardless, I want to find some reasonable middle ground between no chance of botching and wait, this time it's stressful because %reasons% and you now have 11 botch dice, where before you had none. It seems arbitrary and capricious, even if there is a valid story reason to explain away why casting the Aegis this time is not a relaxed event.