Indeed.
BTW, I checked and there are no guidelines to purify water! 
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Yeah, but l'm sure it should be.
You should be able to do it with ReAq pretty simply.
I would think it would be CrAq because water won't naturally purify itself, but it can be improved to be pure.
Rego isn't for natural processes, it's for changes between natural states even if the process to get there doesn't happen naturally. A person cannot naturally fly nor teleport, but they can be in any location naturally and ReCo can put them there. A bunch of ingredients won't naturally become a cake when just left on their own, but a cake is a natural state of properly mixing and cooking those ingredients so ReHe(An) can make the cake from them. Same idea with water. It can be naturally pure, so ReAq can be used to purify it.
Sure, you might do it with CrAq as an improvement. However, you'd either need vis or you'd need to maintain the magic. If you'd done it with ReAq instead, the magic can be over and you have the same purified water without having spent the vis.
Gotcha, I got stuck thinking of the ways Perdo-Creo are kind of opposites.
Background
Before apprenticeship
The boy was born in the outskirts of Dijon from a family of potters. His parents would make the pots, plates and jars that are used every day by the common people, but also the merchants, churchmen and even the households of the nobility. He was the fifth child, with three older brothers and an older sister, so this made for a busy household. It only became more so two years later, when his younger brother was born.Like his siblings, the boy was exposed at an early age to the tools and raw material of the family’s business. He played with clay and water, sometimes imitating his parents trying to make bowls and containers, but also modeling it to make small toys, houses, animals and characters with which he played, inventing stories that went with them. He was particularly imaginative and creative. But he also tended to play alone, for his brother and sisters were often ill at ease with him.
This unease only grew more pronounced as the years passed and was not limited to his immediate family. It was even worse when other children or their parents were concerned. One could hear the terms “eery”, “fey” and other less delicate words. These were further fed by the many small unnatural disturbances that occured when the boy was nearby.
This widening reputation is probably why, before his ninth birthday, a richly-dressed older man showed up at the family’s shop and inquired about the boy. He introduced himself as Leonard, a scholar. After a few visit, he offered to take the boy to be tutored in the Latin and in the arts, raising him to a better life. Though the boy's parents were quite reluctant at first, they relented after a while. Within a week, the boy was leaving his home and family behind.
Design Notes: Clearly, he won't have a Gentle Gift. Some early signs of Free Expression. To this day, he doesn't know if Leonardus used magic to change his parents' mind.
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Question: How would I represent artistic training?
My first inclination would be to use the Profession ability, but how wide should it be?
Profession: Artist (with a specialty in Sculpting)
or
Profession: Sculptor
Definitely Craft, not Profession.
I don't like making things too narrow, but there is a canonical Craft: Sculptor (HoH:TL), which still lets you work with lots of different materials in a similar style. Painter is listed as its own Craft Ability in A&A. I think it would get too narrow if we said something like ice sculpting is its own Ability, for example, but all of sculpting fitting under one Ability should probably be OK.
That's funny, because HoH:S p.45 says: "Craft, which is functional, is not art. A potter who makes a bowl to carry water, or a mason who builds a wall to hold up a roof, are engaged in craft, rather than art. Many crafters are, however, artists."
But I'm fine with using Craft: Sculptor.
A&A spends a lot of time on art. For creation of stuff it used Craft, while performance uses Profession. Here is what A&A says:
A piece of artwork’s Aesthetic Quality is based on an artist character’s Dexterity + Craft Ability for the production arts or Communication + Profession Ability for performance arts. Generally, an artist who produces something will use Dexterity + Craft Ability, while an artist who performs will use Com- munication + Profession Ability; a poet, for example, would use Communication + Craft: Poetry. Several bonuses are added to this total, derived from Virtues and various choices, to produce the final Aesthetic Quality.
The core book differentiates them similarly where Craft is
handiwork of some type. In general, Craft Abilities are distinguished by the material they work with, although you may also take a Craft Ability that allows the character to work with several materials in one specific way.
The latter "specific way" is how sculptor fits rather than identifying the material. C&G goes into way v. material, too. The core book puts Profession as
The ability to do a job which does not involve making something.
Since you're making something rather than doing a performance, the core book, A&A, and HoH:TL agree on Sculptor being a Craft.
I think the point in HoH:S is to distinguish between functional pieces (not art) and aesthetic pieces (art), rather than to distinguish between Craft and Profession.
I think we could draw a difference between Craft: Woodcarving/Craft: Stonecarving, which would be craftsmanship that might look nice but doesn't register as aesthetic value, and Craft: Sculptor which is art, and independent of material (but could have a material as specialty).
l would say that l don't necessarily see any difference between "functional" piece and "artistic" one as even purely functional piece has some aesthetics and even purely artistic one could be used functionally. So, l would say that Craft: Sculptor is fine without splitting the hair.
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Another question on the Craft family of abilities.
How would you say a Craft:(Material) interact with a Craft:(Art) interact with each other during character development? For example, my magus was born in a family of potter, so would legitimatedly pick up some Craft:Potter (or the more general Craft:Clay). Then, later on during his life, starts turning towards the more artistic Craft:Sculptor. Since clay is one of the materials used in Craft:Sculptor, could he merge them into the new ability instead of keeping the two seperate? So that instead of having Craft:Potter at 2 and Craft:Sculptor at 3 (+5 xp) for a total of 50 xp, he would simply have a single Craft:Sculptor at 4 (for the same total amount of xp).
Does that seem reasonable?
Ok, here's an initial version of his stats. I'll have some more background to share soon. There may be some changes as the background clarifies some elements.
Quintus Clusius, filius Flavia, House Jerbiton
Characteristics: Int +3, Per +2, Str -1, Sta 0, Pre 0, Com +2, Dex 0, Qik -1
Virtues:
- The Gift, Hermetic Magus
- Social Contacts amongst House Jerbiton artists and art lovers (Free House Vitrue)
- Free Expression (General, Minor)
- Flexible Formulaic Magic (Hermetic, Major)
- Improved Characteristics (General, Minor)
- Inoffensive to Animals (Hermetic, Minor)
- Inventive Genius (Hermetic, Minor)
- Minor Magical Focus in Changing Water (Hermetic, Minor)
- Puissant Muto (Hermetic, Minor)
- Quiet Magic (Hermetic, Minor)
Flaws:
- Limited Magic Resistance in Terram (Hermetic, Minor)
- Mentor (Story, Minor) – a Guernicus (presumably also his grand-pater's friend)
- Optimistic (Personality, Major)
- Temperate (Personality, Minor)
- Weak Spontaneous Magic (Hermetic, Major)
- Weird Magic (Hermetic, Minor)
Abilities:
- Area Lore: Dijon 1
- Area Lore: Confluensis Covenant 2
- Artes Liberales 1
- Athletics 2
- Awareness 2
- Brawl 1
- Charm
- Code of Hermes 1
- Concentration 2
- Craft: Potter 2
- Craft: Sculptor 2 -- or 3 if we merge the two Crafts
- Finesse 2
- Folk Ken 2
- Guile 1
- Language (native): French/Bourguignon
- Language: Latin 4
- Magic Theory 3
- Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 2
- Parma Magica 1
- Philosophiae 1
- Ride 1
- Swim 2
Hermetic Arts: Cr 3, Mu 6+3, Re 5, Aq 7
Spell:
- Mighty Torrent of Water (CrAq 20)
- Sculpt the Living Water (MuAq 20) - GofF p.96
- Cloak of the Duck's Feathers (ReAq 5)
- Rock of Viscid Clay (MuTe 15)
- Bind Wounds (CrCo 10)
- Wizard's Leap (ReCo 15) - HoH:S p.36
- Aura of Beguiling Appearance (MuIm 10) - HoH:S p.96
- Wizard's Vigil (MuVi 20)
- Unravelling the Fabric of Terram (PeVi 5)
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I would just merge the two Crafts unless there is something you really want to do with pottery, too. If you're just going to do sculpture of different sorts, merge them into that.
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The limited magic resistance to Terram, when he works with clay seems a bit...strange?
I sometimes do similar with the idea that the mage's body is more open to some element, making them stronger in it but also more susceptible to it. At other times I go the opposite direction, where the mage's body has so much control over an element that they're stronger at it and less susceptible to it. I think either way can work, fitting different concepts.
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It represents that fact that his magic is more attuned to fluidity and maleability (Muto and Aquam), so the rigidity of Terram has an easier time overwhelming his magical defenses.