Shapeshifter
I've made a design a while ago using much the same approach as Salutor, with focus being more on spontaneous magic than ceremonial magic, but using some of the same principles. The design is not particularly Munchkin but has some ideas that works pretty well, so I'll share it anyway. The reason for the design was a challenge from another player to use some of the most crippling Hermetic Flaws, and still make a powerful character - thus there is some Munchkinism required to do that
Virtues
Diedne Magic (Instead of Life Linked Spontaneous Magic)
Great Stamina x2
Cyclic Magic: Daytime (replaces Mystical Choreography)
Enduring Magic
Special Circumstances: Touching the target
Puissant Muto
Affinity with Muto (or Skilled Parens)
Ex-Misc.: Major = Shapechanger*
Ex-Misc.: Minor = Minor Magical Focus: Self-Transformation
Flaws
Short-ranged Magic
Loose Magic
Weak Magic
Poor Formulaic Magic.
Cyclic Magic: Nighttime
Dark Secret
Major Story Flaw
Shapechanger - Ex-Miscellanea
*Since she had a very weak penetration and could not cast spells with range greater than Touch, I decided to have her focus on personal buff spells. I designed a 'Hamskifter' (Shapechanger) Ex-Miscellanea variant based on Scandinavian traditions of Shapeshifting, and gave her a focus within Self-Transformation. The Major virtue Shapechanger was discussed in here in a previous thread, and is not Munchkin in any way. This is just the version I felt good about, but some people in here find it weak for a Major Supernatural virtue and I could easily have pushed my SG further with this. Summed up it is a package of: Unbound Tongue (Mystery Cults), Inoffensive to Animals and a rule on Characteristics when Shapechanging: When adopting another shape and comparing the human vs. the new shape’s characteristics (as per Mystery Cults p23: Statistics of Shapechangers – retain the human score, if higher. This tends to give her animal forms higher Communication and Presence, while Big creatures remain a fair Dexterity and Small creatures retain some Strength.
Comments
She has spent some xp on Artes Liberales (Ceremonial Magic) and Philosophiae (Ceremonial Magic), and a great deal in Parma. On the other hand, she has saved up a lot of xp from neglecting Penetration, and skipping one or more Weapon skills. Instead she focuses on Brawling in animal form if combat is neccessary. When sponting the idea is to double through both the focus and the Diedne Magic, so as to reach high totals. Her arts are spread out pretty well, with an obvious ephasis on Muto, Corpus and Animal however. But scores of 5 come pretty cheap so there aren't many spells under level 15 that she couldn't spont (even with requisites), making her spellcasting very versatile. Her Formulaic spells are focused on spells of pretty high level, that she would'nt be able to spont until she recieves a great deal of xp through play. Also she has a Ritual healing spell in her Grimoire.
Equipment
She wears a long padded Fransiscan-style robe, that is sewn together from parts of various animal skins, hides, feathers etc. While this doesn't do much for her in relation to mundane activities, it gives her the requisites required for changing into a large range of animals including different types of birds, reptiles and carnivores. She hopes to be able to enchant this cloak as her Talisman at some point, with attunement options such as; Animal hide +7 turn into appropriate animal; Clothing +4 transform self /+4 protect self / +4 move self; Cloak +5 alter or suppress wearer’s image / +4 transform wearer /+3 flight. Furthermore, she mostly wields items and clothes from Animal (or Corpus) material to avoid further requisites on her Shapechanging spellcasting.
Generalism - XP
Note that although generalism is very rarely mentioned in Munchkinism, it has its uses in this design. Once Muto, Corpus and Animal are high enough for Shapeshifting, adding xp in all of the other Arts increases the spontable repertoire rapidly as a result of the potential to double or triple the Art. Also it makes the Maga much more capable when it comes to requisites, one of the biggest obstacles for Form specialists. In addition to this - generalism has a few advantages that are often overlooked (from my experience anyway): 1) Easy access to Summae since you could study many Arts, and have relatively low scores (hard to find that Auram level 18 book), 2) Easy access to cheap Vis to study from, you should always have some Vis you could use (and you don't need five pawns of that expensive - and for you most precious - Creo Vis, just to recieve 10 xp), 3) Easier to find able teachers of both Arts and Spells, 4) Easy access to lab texts for spells that you would like to learn (often many more options when learning more than one spell in a Season).
Generalism - Freebies
Also generalists often get 'free' protection. First of all, one might have a better shot at fast-casting an appropriate counterspell. Secondly, with a full years dedicated study one could probably up ones low Forms to all reach a score of 6 - giving a +2 Form bonus to pretty much anything from Soak to resisting Magical Lies. Thirdly, with a score of 6 in all Forms, your Magic Resistance is increased for all magical attacks, in a way that is slightly better than if your Parma was actually one point higher. Oh, yeah - and as a small bonus option, you're very hard to predict in Certamen