Hello everyone,
Does someone have figured a good method of allowing the use of faerie raised magic during chargen?
Thanks for your ideas!
As a major virtue, Faerie Raised Magic ought to be a more economical means of inventing spells than the system for post-apprenticeship acquisition of additional spells.The standard rule is that during post-apprenticeship character generation a spell costs a number of experience points equal to the spell level. So a lvl 20 CrHe spell costs 20xp. {5th Edition Core Rulebook pg32, first paragraph of the third column.} The same spell invented with FRM costs only 4xp(base)+4xp(magnitude) = 8xp. {HoH:MC pg86}
As a houserule I would let the character buy spells at the cheaper FRM price provided the spell met one of the following criteria:
(a) Exclusively targeted fairies, of faerie regios, or faerie vis, etc.
(b) Used any of the special ranges or durations of faerie magic such as Fire and Road. If the character has with the Spell Timing minor virtue, then using durations like While, Not, If, Held, and Midday/Midnight.
(c) Personal range effects.
(d) Any Mentem or Imaginem effect.
If the player is creative, a fun restriction would be that any spell invented with FRM cannot have appeared in any published Ars Magica materials.
Since there is an additional 33% discount for inventing similar spells, I would expect that FRM character would have a few groups of thematically related spells. CrMe spells that inspire an emotion in the target are great since you can have a different one for each emotion. {Great listing of possible emotions for hermetic magic on HoH:S pg67.}
Just thinking about it right now in response to your question: I would probably let the player convert whatever amount of their starting xp into spells (in the manner described on HoH:Mystery Cults page 86) that they wanted, as long as they can come up with a convincing in-game explanation. I think it would be hard for a player to seriously abuse this, since starting xp really are needed for decent Arts and Abilities (though maybe I'm thinking of freshly Gauntleted characters). Furthermore, making the player create a back story that incorporates the necessary exposure to faeries with the given powers will result in awesome character depth right out of the box, which is worth some benefit.
All but the most fervent munchkins would probably just take on a handful of extra spells, which should be fine balance-wise. Troupe approval, as always, should be required.
For a newly Gauntleted magus, as mentioned above, just spending some of his xp in the matter described in HoH:MC p.86 should work just fine: sure he gets a very nice cost break, but he doesn't have that many xp to spend to begin with and it is a Major Virtue... You might also allow him to exchange some of his starting spell levels for xp to buy Faerie spells: a very good deal, to be sure, but it is a Major Virtue. Just make sure he also has some regular spells, after all he is still supposed to be a Hermetic Magus.
For an older magus, spending xp should also work fine as long as you allow the other magi to invent spells in the Lab, using their Lab total, instead of just buying them with xp: since using Lab Totals allow for much faster learning of spells than the 30 xp (meaning 30 levels) per year, this should work just fine and maintain game balance. The Faerie Mage can invent spell more easily outside of his focus, in fact can invent some spells that would be just out of his normal reach, but once Lab Totals reach 30+ nothing can beat regular Hermetic invention in the Lab.
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Happily Halancar, I allow that 
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Ok, your ideas were interesting! Thank you very much.