Spiritless Magic (Major Hermetic Flaw)
The character finds it difficult to put any more effort than is absolutely necessary into a spell - perhaps he is lazy and unwilling to work harder, or perhaps his spells simply go off as soon as they've gathered the minimum necessary power. As a result, all spells cast by the character are forceless (unable to penetrate any Might or magic resistance) unless the caster expends a Confidence point during the casting of the spell. Magi with Spiritless Magic may gain no benefit from using the Overtime rules for labwork in covenants, at the storyguide's option.
(Compare to Weak Magic. In general, a caster with Weak Magic has higher penetration than one with Spiritless Magic, but for an added cost the Spiritless Magic caster can improve his penetration.)
Severed from Twilight (Major Hermetic Flaw)
For some reason, the character has no connection, or a damaged connection, to Wizard's Twilight. If he gains enough warping at once to enter Twilight, and fails to resist it, instead of entering Twilight he takes an Incapacitating wound. Further, because the character is not linked to Twilight, he gains flaws (and a virtue) from Warping as mundanes and hedge wizards do.
(A possible flaw for an Ex Misc tradition, serving to highlight to players why it's a GOOD THING that the Founder Criamon incorporated Wizard's Twilight into hermetic magic. Also possible as an Ordeal for some mystery cult, trading the ability to ascend to Twilight for some earthly power.)
Wellspring of Vis (Minor or Major Supernatural/Story Flaw)
You are a vis source. Mystical creatures can sense this, as can Intellego Vim vis-detecting magics. Collecting the vis is generally unpleasant for you. Perhaps heartbreaking trauma causes you to cry tears of Mentem vis, or your heart's blood contains Corpus vis. Whatever the case, magi, hedge wizards, or mystical creatures you don't even know may attempt to torment or annoy you in a specific way (with the minor version) or try to kill you (with the major version) to collect vis from you.
(An odd idea, the logical result of thinking about some of the more unusual vis sources from the perspective of the vis source itself. Appropriate for mystical creatures and warped mundanes, but probably inappropriate for magi. People with this are likely to have Magical Air as well.)
Composite Forms (Minor Hermetic Flaw)
Due to an oddity in your lineage or inherent magic, and often reflecting a philosophical belief system, there are two arts that you cannot seperate. You have a single score for these two arts, which must be forms, and you may improve them using study totals for either art. However, all experience put into the composite art is halved, rounded down. Intellego Vim spells cast by this character will not distinguish between the composited arts. Spells created by the character using the one of the composited arts always have the other as a requisite, even if there is no special reason to do so. Books written by the character may either be about the composited art, and thus useful only to that tradition, or they may be written about one of the two arts it is made up of, but in that case the book is Incomprehensible, as the character does not fully understand what he is writing about.
(Just an interesting mechanical way to represent certain kinds of philosophies. Compositing Corpus and Vim might be appropriate for Criamon on the Path of the Body, for example, and some weather-witches might combine Aquam and Auram. Combining Mentem and Imaginem might be appropriate for a magus who uses musical Performance Magic for illusion and manipulation. Etc.)
Ray (Spell Range)
Spells with Range: Ray have the same effective range as Sight, but are one magnitude easier (as Voice.) The spell itself is visibile as an emitted beam (or bolt, or whatever, usually based on the magus's sigil) and requires a successful Aiming roll to strike its target. If the spell would have already required an Aiming roll, a -3 penalty is applied to that roll.
(This range was created mostly because I wanted a variant of Pilum of Fire and Ball of Abysmal Flame and such that could actually miss, and this seems a fair way to do it. It may be included as a part of hermetic magic to start with, or as a potential minor breakthrough, or merely a non-hermetic effect that some mystical creatures or magic items have for their powers.)
