I've been thinking hard about characters. The trouble is that I know enough about the system to create a character of powerful synergies and can then give him or her a story that explains the virtues and flaws. What I am trying to do is to create a character that starts with a concept and chooses virtues and flaws that fit the concept and damn any questions of power. That means I best stay away from Intellego and Vim, because these arts always bring out the inner munchkin in me.
Ideas:
The farmer - a magus that cares about crop yields, cows, and rain. Problem - I grew up in rural Germany but I'm no farmer.
The Wassermann - Saxony has tales about river or lake-dwelling fairies - problem: I have never liked house Merinita
The gently gifted knight - school of Ramius (or whatever the flambeau's name was), problem: what a common concept
The bard - problem performance magic is not in the core book
none of these are exceptionally fascinating. I'll need more time.
Farmer-magus would be odd for the chapter house, as it is set in a bog.
There is already another pc magus specialized in Aquam, and I'm not fond of House Merinita either.
Flambeau knight-mage is indeed quite common. It is also most useful in a saga where physical conflict is frequent enough. This is more of a political saga (though this hasn't surfaced much so far).
Bard-mage is indeed hard without Performance Magic and it wouldn't be fair to give you access to something that the others couldn't get. It might still be possible, either with a combination or Quiet Magic and Subtle Magic, or through a variant of the concept (see below).
One character type that could be useful to the chapter house is a verditius. There is always a call for some magical items at a new covenant/chapter house, so he could satisfy those. Making a name for himself in the Tribunal would also call for some politics. This could be combined with the bard idea, for a crafter of magical instruments.