Your options are an amazing collection. I'll try to make a shortlist that prioritizes story potential. I do not see him as a demon hunter - he's a peaceful guy with a PeVi-disability.
Pack leader: This would enable him to become more of a mage politician. So far, he carefreely frolicks through the forests, but with this he'd become quite a bit more political. This will never be a character who is mega-proficient in the arts (wasn't built that way), but it would give him new skills to spend his xp on, like intrigue. He'd also try to become a master asap, so his voice has more weight. He'd be less of a "typical" magus, who solves most of his problems using magic, and more like a companion character, who is more focused on skills. He'd still not be very competent around mundanes, but that never was the plan for him anyway. Probably the most active of the three for the game to come.
Minor Magical forcus in self-Transformation (not understanding animals, I do have the one and only spell I need to do this already): The charm of this option is that it would give the character something to do in the lab, especially for the remaining 6 years pre-game. This would also increase his options in divine auras, if it included muto spells. The official definition of this minor magical focus in the core book says that this affects both Mentem and Corpus spells. A clear definition of what his new abilities are would be very helpful: Shapechanging oneself? Changing oneself? What about those spells that permanently change a character, those Creo effects that can raise intelligence etc? Allowing these would be an incentive to develop creo (and mentem, and - maybe- corpus), which in turn would help with abilities in the long run: intelligence plays a very minor role in labtotals and stamina in spellcasting. But com and presence and perception are the most important factor for a character who relies on skills. I'd probably try to raise his presence, perception and communication to make him a better politician (in the long run: All these spells are lvl 35-55).
The enigma: mechanically interesting, because I've never been there, potential to do Criamon stories: How will they react? The best solution if you think the boon should be relatively minor and the character should mostly stay the way he is.
Twilight scars:
part of the pack leader package could be some cosmetical magical special effect, like a manly smell, or that other sounds are tuned back somewhat when he speaks
Self-transformation could come with the ability to change his hair (or sex) at will (he could do that with spells anyway)
Enigma: a tatoo (hopefully hidden beneath his clothes) that sometimes gives him hints [a chance for cryptical hinting or foreshadowing, since the storyguide completely decides on the frequency and kind of in game hints, this is not in any way abusive]
Story-wise, I think that Pack Leader (also called natural Leader) offers the greatest potential. I'm leaning that way.
Self-Transformation is basically Muto spells that target yourself. In the lab it applies only to R:Personal spells, but the focus also applies to pretty much any MuCo or MuMe spell when you target only yourself.
The Enigma mostly gives you more control for future Twilight, though it also makes them slightly more likely.
Fall 1197
The twilight experience has changed Placidus and he retreats with Doom to Lusatia. It isn’t just that his voice somehow tunes back other voices, but he feels that he isn’t doing enough. He spends hours talking about Protecting the wild places with Doom. She tells him that nothing will come of his efforts and that no serious mage will respect him because he is too young. He travels to Urgen, to ask him what he can do to further the agenda of the Weissdorngilde. The Bjornaer magus tells him that he has to make a name for himself as a master if he wants to be heard in the Tribunal. He also says he might call upon him in his quest for archmagehood: A Weissdorngilde archmagus would send a powerful signal to the other gilds. On the way back, they are attacked by Fairies of the air, and gain 3p of Fairie vis. Fortunately, back at Fengheld, where Placidus gets his book for the winter, Horst says he can trade the vis for magical corpus vis in Irencilla, if they do not need it right away
Season mechanics
Adventure: Code of Hermes Lore 5xp, from 1 to 1(5); 3xp in parma gained from 2 to 2(3)
3/3p of vis gained (total: 5p), 45/45xp gained, all pre-game warping gained
At some point, I'd like to buy some area lore in northern Germany to reflect Placidus stay there. How big an area would that cover Northern Germany? Central Germany? The lands of Fengheld?
It's mostly cosmetic anyway (for a game taking place in Switzerland), but not learning anything about the region would be odd with all the traveling he does.
It all depends on what you want the area to cover. The lands around Fengheld? That could be covered by "Harz Mountains", or as wide as "Saxony". "Northern Germany" would cover an area as wide as Saxony, Friesland, Holstein, Pomerania and the Margravate of Bradenburg. Central Germany would be Thuringia, Franconia and Bavaria.
As mentioned in the description of Area Lore, the wider the area, the less details is known about a specific locale. So knowing who rules the city of Goslar might be an Ease Factor of 6 for Area Lore: Harz Mountain, Ease Factor 12 for Area Lore: Saxony and Ease Factor 18 for Area Lore: Northern Germany.
It might not be as cosmetic as one might think, considering that your magus can fly and travel quite a bit.
winter 1198 (year 5 starts)
Still not happy with the quality of the light at Lusatia, Placidus this winter learns the basics of Creo Magics. Doom, who is bored and jealous of his books, complains that she can't read. He promises to find a solution to that.
Unlike the winters before, he starts writing lots of letters. He asks around the Redcap network for a magus who can improve his speaking skills. Finally, he tries to find someone to teach Doom how to read.
At the end of the season, he uses some more circle spells to create light in some of the chapter's room. This leads to a heated argument of Odorpes who calls him a meddler.
Season Mechanics
reading Cr 15xp from 0 to 5.
0/3 vis gained (total: 5p), 15/45xp gained
Spring 1198
For the first time in many years, Placidus decides to spend spring in his lab: He wants to learn Aura of Ennobled Presence to become a better politician, which is quickly done with a Fengheld lab text. Realizing that e still has lots of time left, he invents a second spell: Aura of Beguiling Appearance.
When he casts the spell on his familiar Doom, he realizes how hot she would be as a human. He decides to give her human form some day...
Seasonal Mechanics
2xp exposure to MT, from 3 (4) to 3(6); two spells gained (see HoH:S, p. 96)
0/3 vis gained (total: 5p), 27/45xp gained
Questions: Can the raven learn how to read, i.e. Artes Liberales 1?
What's the price of raising Pre and Com from 0 to 2? In vis? warping? and Time? Do magi sell casting that Creo ritual?
I have a major magical focus in perfecting living beings. this will include me learning all the rituals to increase the stats, so if you want it in play or late in the pre game set up, then Marcus can do it for you, probably.
Correspondence xp gan only be gained when it is on the same subject as the primary learning during the season. So Placidus cannot gain 1 xp in Magic Lore when his primary studies this season is Creo.
The same applies to the Spring season.
Yes, Doom could learn Artes Liberales and thus learn to read. Have you detailed his stats yet at the time he gets bound to Placidus as a familiar?
The price of getting a stats-raising ritual are very high. These rituals are somewhat more accessible to members of House Mercere than to others, and should involve some sort of service in addition to the vis cost. he cost in vis for Placidus would probably be at least twice the cost of the ritual itself. A ritual to raise a stat to +1 is level 40, and level 45 to raise it to +2. So 16 and 18 pawns respectively.
I would certainly prefer if any stats-raising rituals were done during play.
I'll edit out the correspondences when I get to it. Doesn't change a thing xp-wise anyway (45/year).
I've always thought of Doom as the raven of virtue in RoP:M (hence the might of 9). I'm tryng to keep her grog level, so she can mostly serve as someone to show the inner workings of his mind (I don't like writing monologues). She also serves as a lab assistant (but won't progress beyond where she is in MT), and once she gets to read, she'll have to pick up some hobby that doesn't get into the way to keep her busy (music maybe? some weird Organisation Lore? Anything that is a way to safely dispose of any xp gained without making her more powerful.)
If the raven of virtue is too powerful as it is written, we can nerf it, but then it would become able to learn useful stuff rather easily, so it probably wouldn't be much of a nerf. We could easily reduce its second sight and premonitions.
Anyway, her main function is to turn monologue into dialogue.
Asfor the rituals, they can certainly wait until the game starts (that will make them cheaper too, I suppose). Maybe that explains why he moves to Triamore for years 8-10, to befriend Stephen's mage in hope of cheapening his price.
The stats for the Raven of Virtue look reasonable for a grog-level familiar. It is just that, as you the magical creature becomes a familiar and then gains more experience, it's nice to have the stats written down in your magus' stats topic for reference. It avoids all kinds of trouble when trying to look up a specific elements of information.
It is also an opportunity to add a few Personality Traits and details that distinguish Doom from other ravens of virtue, which also explains why this particular raven was suitable as a familiar to Placidus.
I will not allow that specialty, because that covers pretty much all that a familiar does with Magic Theory -- assist its master. ArM5 p.66 lists the following as possible specialties: inventing spells, enchanting items, a single Art.
