In one saga I played in 5th edition, the storyteller and I worked out a variant gift, one based around fear of the magi rather than resentment and envy. There was a corresponding change in the flavour so that instead of considering the magi to be dishonest and scummy, they would consider him more as a dangerous predator that you want nowhere near you, but that you don't want to provoke.
Minor flaw: The magi causes -6 social interaction rolls (as per blatant), except where the mundane considers the prospect of violent interaction where it becomes a +3 bonus to intimidation.
It fit in with the character having a visible appearance of lightning flickering over his body constantly, only stronger the more he lost his temper.
I think we've worked on spells (or at least discussed them) which were Mu/Im which actually changed the demeanour and flavoured the nature of the effect of the gift.
It was still bad, for example fear instead of dislike doesn't work when you're trying to get someone to trust you, but is great for menacing the daylight out of people.
This should not however negate the gift, but maybe make the gift less troublesome in a specific way. However you couldn't get mroe then one Mu/Im active at once so you may be able to buy off someons distrust, but they'd replace it with hatred or envy.
Well, I guess it's that I've been playing ArsM for a while. As recently as 4th edition, the description of the Gift was far less extreme:
As you can see, while the mechanical effect is the same, the flavor text is quite different. Still, social companions (or a "face" magus with Gentle Gift) remained a staple of our saga and the Order held together just fine.
