I'd always interpretted that flaw (in the case of magi) as applying to life up to apprenticeship.
I'm still toying with the animal magus, although he isn't quite gelling for me just yet. I'm also considering an Ilfetu Bjornaer. I see that our covenant is very close to the Novgorod tribunal, with all its Bjornaer politics. Maybe my character would want to keep an eye on things, but from a distance?
Anyway, I'm traveling for the weekend, but let's see what ideas I have come Monday.
I think as long as it's not outrageously combat-effective, and you create it using the grog guidelines in RoP:M, it should be fine.
Scott
I have to agree with Salutor here: recognizing that, yes, the character type in question appears in a canonical source, it just doesn't follow the rules. Maybe we can find a way to represent that character type in a different way?
Scott
So here are some character ideas I’ve got, and would love your input. I’ve never played any of these Houses, so all of them are new and interesting to me. So, which one seems the most interesting to you, would work best with the magi already here, and would make for interesting stories?
Sidhe-blooded Criamon on the Path of Strife (5-10ish years post-gauntlet; initiated two Avenues on the Path of Strife)
Left at the doorstep of the covenant of Xylinites (The Sundered Eagle Theban Tribunal book), a clutch of Criamon Path of Body magi and mundane monastery and orphanage, as an infant. His Gift was detected early by the magi and he was taken as an apprentice at a very young age while also attending classes at the orphanage until the negative effects of his Gift became too prevalent. He was a good student and true believer of the Criamon way, however at the age of (18 or 21) his strong faerie blood manifest itself and it became apparent it would be impossible for him to live aptly (I have few ideas for why that might be). Reluctantly, the magi told him of the Path of Strife and he began to walk down that Path. Focus on Corpus, Muto and Rego. Spells will focus on Muto Corpus to make him a better fighter with his weapon, teleportation and various Rego spells to make personal wards.
Bonisagus certamen expert (fresh from gauntlet after 20 year apprenticeship)
Found at a young age by magi of House Tremere, he was found to be a child prodigy at certamen (a Harenarius) and began his apprenticeship as a disputant. After 10 years as a Tremere apprentice he was “claimed” by an infamous Trianomae Bonisagus who saw the potential to develop him into a tool to control political disputes. He suffered 10 more years as an apprentice to this infamous master who seemed inclined to keep him for another 5 years (arguing that he should have the apprentice for 15 years, regardless of how long he was an apprentice before). The young magi petitioned the local quaesitor, who had no love lost for the Bonisagus, for a gauntlet. The quaesitor agreed that he had spent enough time as an apprentice and administered a nominal gauntlet which the apprentice passed. Now freshly gauntleted, he is trying to get as far away from his tormenting master who tells everyone that will listen that he is not a true magus, and make a name for himself. Will have Great Presence at least once and will be built to be really good at certamen (so all, or at least a good number, of arts at mid level) to include mMF Certamen and good finesse, penetration and probably Puissant Parma. Being a Trianoma Bonisagus, he’d be good at diplomacy with other magi (but probably wouldn’t have the Gentle Gift).
The next two aren’t quite as well thought out, but still very interesting to me….
Dwarf (faerie-blooded) Stonemason Verditius (10-15 years post-gauntlet; initiated Elder Runes, possibly Enchanted Caster Tools and/or Automata)
Not entirely sure about his backstory, beyond that he is descended from the dwarves of Norse mythology (probably as tainted in my brain by Tolkien and Gygax 
). Works only with stone (of all types) to build beautiful structures and statues.
Giant-blooded (Nordic fire giant) Verditius of the Confraternity of Balento (10-15 years post-gauntlet; initiated Affinity with Ignem Enchanted Caster Tools and possibly Elder Runes)
Again, don’t have much on the backstory yet, but the idea of an 8 foot tall magus crafting wands and staves that shoot fire sounds interesting to me.
Boy, they all sound like great ideas to me. My two thoughts are:
The Criamon sounds interesting, mostly because I've never seen a Criamon magus played. And who doesn't like to have a fighting magus around?
The Stonemason Verditius might be very helpful in fixing up the ruins into a really spiffy covenant.
I've been corrected: the Magic Might specified for Magical Animal Companion suggests a companion-level character.
Scott
Apologies - I should have reviewed this ages ago and got back to you. I think it's fine now (although I haven't gone through and added up every number of the advancement). The only point I meant to check earlier was who he owes favours to?
Also, I can't get the owl's combat stats - not sure if I'm just missing something, but I'd expect them to be higher.
Welcome to all of the new people!
One thing I'd suggest you think carefully about is why your magus would be coming to this covenant - it's set up as a base camp on the edge of/outside Hermetic territory, which is great for certain concepts, but won't fit a lab rat as well (unless he wants to be as far away as possible from everyone else - note the head of the covenant is a quaesitor, which will make it less attractive for some of the more unsavoury reasons for wanting to be far away from everyone else, but might be an asset if you're trying to get away from your Tormenting Master).
I'd also stress that it's entirely reasonable to play a character who's not planning to make the covenant his permanent home - that's what it's set up to cater for! (And the combination of the speed of play in a PbP and the possibility of stretching out the stay means "why hasn't your character gone back home yet?" is unlikely to be a pressing issue anytime soon).
I tried very hard to be meticulous about my last point tally. And while it's certainly possible that I made an error, any error I made should be evident, as the creation process was pretty transparent.
I was figuring that it was some members of House Bonisagus for their help in setting up his expedition. But if you have a better suggestion for something that would fit into the story better, I'm certainly willing to switch things around.
I thought that I made him up properly. As I recall, I created the owl as a magical creature from the ground up using the regular generation rules. If I underpowered him, however, I'd be more than happy to correct that.
I just noticed the date of the Saga, currently 1228? I'd be curious if anything has been established about the politics of House Bjornaer, particularly the major fault lines of the Wilderist/Harmonist debate, and the status of the various factions in the Novgorod Tribunal.
I ask because the concept that is most speaking to me right now is a Bjornaer politician. I like the idea of having him be a member of Clan Ilfetu and very concerned with the state of the house in relation to the natural environment. The Covenant site would seem to be a good one, as it is on the fringes of the order, and relatively close to the politically important Novgorod Tribunal. I see him as having avoided settling in Novgorod or the Rhine tribunal so that he wasn't directly implicated in the struggles, but more of an outside observer and worker behind the scenes. A factor that should make this particularly interesting is the Ilfetu vow never to lie. I look forward to that challenge.
As for the Heartbeast, the other critical component of a Bjornaer magus, I think I'd like for him to be a dragon. I suspect a Chimera of a bear and a snake? I'm fine with the final form not having wings for two reasons. One is that many medieval depictions did not have them, and also that I would like this to be some sort of storm and wind focused dragon, who flies by lifting himself up in the wind. This would make him a weather magus, likely with a major magical focus, and his arts concentrated in Auram and Animal.
He'll likely be older, as I'd like him to already have relatively established his heartbeast and to be known among his house as an oracle and mystagog. I hope that the stories that may emerge from this path will be of interest to the Storyguide and to the group. A final small twist is that, as a dragon, I see him having a personal obsession with building his hoard, likely represented by the Major flaw Avaricious. A local on the fringes of the civilized order would seem to be a good place to sequester something like this.
Hmm...I'm not sure that a bear and snake chimera really fits a dragon...although I'm not sure what would work better. Another option might be just go with a big snake, and then go with Mystery of the Anima (maybe with mist or storm as your "element") and then become more dragonlike with the Refinement initiations? You should be good a self-initiation as an Infeltu.
On a seperate note, have you thought about Mythic Blood instead of the Major Magical Focus? You could do Mythic Blood, Storm Dragon, and take the minor magical focus as Storms (vice weather). So, you could use Rego or Muto Auram on already existing storms to control/modify them, or Creo Auram to create storms. But you couldn't, for example, use the focus for generating a calm breeze or having lighting strike from a white fluffy cloud on a calm day.
Interesting ideas. One way or another, the snake seems to be the central animal. I've also been considering the Mystery of the Epitome, thinking of a dragon as an ideal-type of snake. One thing I like about the Mystery of the Chimera is that it makes refining size easier, and I think he'd like to be a really big dragon. Stellatus in the main book is Size +8, that seems a good goal 
(I wonder how many extra magnitudes that would require for Animal spells?) The bear seems like it would add bulk, limbs, and claws, as would a lion I suppose. I think his regular heartbeast would be a snake, we'll say the Asp from the Mundane beasts document, and I'll reflect on the Inner Mystery a little longer.
Yeah, I think the Verditius concepts are probably not the best due to what you said.
I think I’m going to give the Criamon a shot, since it’s a character idea I’ve had for a while and would like to give it a try.
So, now I need some help on why he went down the Path of Strife. Here’s the basic background I posted earlier:
Left at the doorstep of the covenant of Xylinites (The Sundered Eagle Theban Tribunal book), a clutch of Criamon Path of Body magi and mundane monastery and orphanage, as an infant. His Gift was detected early by the magi and he was taken as an apprentice at a very young age while also attending classes at the orphanage until the negative effects of his Gift became too prevalent. He was a good student and true believer of the Criamon way, however at the age of (18 or 21) his strong faerie blood manifest itself and it became apparent it would be impossible for him to live aptly. Reluctantly, the magi told him of the Path of Strife and he began to walk down that Path. Focus on Corpus, Muto and Rego. Spells will focus on Muto Corpus to make him a better fighter with his weapon, teleportation and various Rego spells to make personal wards.
So, the question is, what about his Faerie nature would make it unable for him to pursue any other Criamon path?
First, my thoughts on his Faerie nature are that he is the son of a powerful Faerie Mistress who hopes to overthrow the current Sidhe Lord. She purposefully seduced a magus (probably Merinita) for the purpose of bearing a Gifted child who would eventually aid her in overthrowing the throne (Faerie Heritage flaw from RoP:F). Once the child was born and proven to have the Gift, she killed the magus and left the child near a covenant of magi that she was aware of (Xylinites). She didn’t understand the differences between the different Houses, so to her any covenant was just as good as any other.
So, with that background, here are some of my different thoughts for why living aptly (per the Criamon definition) is impossible for him.
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I could just give him a Major personality flaw like Proud or Lecherous, and state that it is derived from his Faerie nature (and thus cannot be overcome). Probably the easiest route, but seems a little boring to me.
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Give him the Supernatural Beauty virtue from HoH:S (in the Jerbiton section). The idea here is that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to resist all of the attention that would be garnered from having this virtue. And, it could prove detrimental towards the apt living of other Criamon if he were in a clutch with them, as they may be corrupted by his unbelievable beauty and break their own vows.
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Take a malediction (not sure if this is lesser or greater) that he “May never swear an oath.” Oaths are tangible things in Faerie and have power. His mother would have placed this curse/geas on him to ensure that when the time came for her to reclaim him, he would have no ties (in the form of Oaths/Vows) that she would have to break. This would have some interesting (and dangerous) implications. Every Criamon Path other than the Path of Strife requires the magus to swear an oath (ie. Take the Vow flaw), so he could never follow any other path. More interesting is that he could never actually swear the Oath of Hermes. So, the way I could see this going down is that his master trains him literally since he was a baby to be a Criamon, destined for the Path of the Body and prepared to live an apt life. After he completes his gauntlet, he is administered the Oath of Hermes, only to find that he can’t speak the words. Eventually they realize the nature of his Malediction for what it is and are at a loss for what to do. He can’t join the Order, but he’s learned too much of Hermetic magic to not join. They can’t kill him, because that would be “un-apt”. So they contact the Clutch of Ebony Eggs (Path of Strife clutch) as the worldly magi of the Criamon. He is sent to the clutch and given an option; he can be killed (the magi on the Path of Strife have no problem with killing), or serve as a Criamon magus without swearing the Oath of Hermes (it would be their (Dark) Secret). Another key point is that he could probably never join a covenant, because covenants typically require you to swear an oath as well. Nova Castra would then be the perfect location because he could live there but never need to join as a member. One major issue with this route is it would give him two major story flaws. If that’s not acceptable, he could just start with the Dark Secret flaw, and eventually it could be replaced by the Faerie Heritage flaw if/when that comes into play. This is obviously the most interesting to me. But the most difficult/complicated as well.
If we didn't like difficult/complicated things, we wouldn't be playing Ars Magica.
I do like the third,which seems a good use of the Dark Secret flaw. Since oaths are minor flaws, I suspect their converse would be as well, but I don't know.
The Owl's combat stats are currently:
Talons: Init +6, Atk +6, Defense +13, Damage -10
Beak: Init +6, Atk +5, Defense +10, Damage -10
Her characteristics are:
Int +1, Per +2, Pre -2, Com +1, Str -9, Sta +2, Dex +1, Qik +7
And her brawl is 4 (talons).
I'm guessing Talons are using Claw stats of Init/Attack/Def/Dam -1/+2/+3/+2, and Beak Teeth stats of 0/+3/+1/+1.
The character also has the Improved Defense quality (as well as Improved Soak).
Based on that, I'd expect for Talons the stats to be:
Init: +7 Qik -1 = 6, Atk = +1 Dex + 4+1 Brawl +2 =8, Def = +7 Qik +4+1 Brawl + 3 +Improved Defense 2= 17 and Damage = -9 Str+ 2 = -7. = +6/+8/+15/-7.
Similarly, I'd expect the Beak to be:
Init: +7 Qik +0 = +7, Atk = +1 Dex + 4 Brawl +3 = 8, Def = +7 Qik +4 Brawl +1 +2 Improved Defense = 14 and Damage = -9 Str+ 1 =-8 = +6/+8/+14/-8
It's possible you're using different weapon stats, but they'd have to be pretty different (and decently negative) to be the sole explanation, particularly for the Defense.
A couple of quick notes:
How legitimate is a dragon heartbeast? That seems a tad overpowered. And I'm not familiar with rules for chimeras, so please point me to them.
Second, the concept of "Sidhe" really only hold for Ireland, or perhaps Celtic cultures more generally; unless your character is from that area, you'll want to pick something more in-tune with local fae, though certainly, faerie lords are going to be found in other cultures (and in game terms you would stlil call it "Sidhe blood").
Scott
Yes, it's 1228 (we started in 1226). I don't think we've got any Bjornaer politics established - we did have one eagle Bjornaer right at the beginning of the saga, but he only lasted a few days of game time before declaring that there was a distinct lack of proper cliffs round here, and heading off again. That said, The Dragon and the Bear is a 4th edition book, so it's probably worth explicitly checking with MTKnife that any important bits of background you're taking from it apply in this saga.
Agreed on a bear and snake chimera not really working as a dragon (as I think you've done further down the page as well). Prince of Boredom, are you thinking of the Mythic Blood: Zmey virtue from the Tremere chapter of HoH:TL?
A snake could work, although if you're aiming towards a dragon, you might want to start with something bigger than an asp? (Although I'm not sure what large snakes there are in Mythic Europe).
Chimera rules are on page 31 of HoH: MC. They're one of the three approaches to inner heartbeasts for Bjornaer - essentially, you take your base animal and mash it up with another noble animal so that the resulting creature is still noble. Something like a griffin (eagle and lion), for example.
I think how overpowered a "dragon" heartbeast is going to be will depend a lot on what we actually mean by "dragon" - getting to a dragon size will either involve a lot of initiations or MuAn magic (which then needs to penetrate if you attack someone), and you don't automatically get any might or powers.
It does occur to me that Fray was musing about a draco form, so he might be quite interested in talking to the Bjornaer - and I'm sure the Bjornaer would be entirely happy to discuss his secrets with the shape-changing specialist.
I quite like the "Unable to swear an oath approach". I'd say it was probably only a minor flaw. For the story flaw, I'd suggest you take whichever you're more interested in playing stories about (at least at the beginning of the game).
The Covenant has been requiring visitors to sign to acknowledge the terms of the covenant as regards to visitors (of which the key bit is "you can keep the first harvest, but any recurring sources you find while you're staying here are the property of the covenant in the long term") - would that be a problem for him?
I'm a little fuzzy on why the faerie killed his father. Is it just to reduce competing claims on him?