Just diving into Ars Magica properly for the first time, and I'm reading through The Mysteries book, immediately after reading Hedge and Ancient Magic - and I'm wondering about using the rules for Integrating magic so that you could create Potent Spells, without having a specific Potent Magic virtue.
So the character wouldn't get +3 bonus to lab and casting totals, but would be able to add Shape and Material bonuses to the spells they'd designed for that purpose. It seemed like a pretty good idea for a Verditius at least!
What do people think of this as an in-game goal, and what ramifications do you think this would have? I can see it causing a ripple in prices and fights over resources, as magi planning for potent enchanting have to deal with people looking to keep rare ingredients for use as material components.
Verditius magi tend to invent and use items rather than spells, so they would likely be among the least interested magi.
That aside, it is not a bad idea at all.
Seems eminently reasonable as a character goal, and shouldn't cause any major problems if they succeed. Well, other than demand for rare material increasing significantly, but that can be a boon as well as a problem.
The reason I figured it might be of interest to Verditius is that they already require Casting Tools, so having spells that need them to function and get bonuses from them wouldn't be as much of an imposition - I could imagine many other wizards not bothering, under the reasoning that they'd rather not design or learn a spell that won't work if they don't have a piece of coral wrapped in fox fur or whatever
If I understand correctly, you would like to have a new virtue that is like Major Potent Magic without the +6 bonus, but for all hermetic spells (without the restriction to a specific field)? That sounds much more powerful then Major Potent Magic. It effectively let's you add your Magic Theory score to all casting scores, and your MT is likely very high.
I was offsetting it in my head with the cost of researching a Major Breakthrough and then remaking all your spells as Potent Spells, but it would undeniably powerful!
I don't think it is worth a Major Breakthrough: talismans offer access to similar bonus. So even if it is the integration of a Minor/Major virtue into hermetic magic theory, it should not be as hard as other Major Breakthrough, IMO.
I think the scary thing is Attuned Talisman + Potent Magic, so you're adding double Shape and Material bonuses to all your spells.
I figured Major Breakthrough because I feel like I remember reading that integrating a Hermetic Virtue you've invented with a Breakthrough from something extra you have to learn into a main part of Hermetic Theory, it's a second breakthrough at the same level.
But you're right, given how close it is to a thing Hermetic Magic can already do, I would put it at the lower limit of Major Breakthroughs
And you will also have several sources of Inspiration: the Potent virtue itself, Talisman, even enchanted items leveraging fully a bonus from Shape&Form, possibly even some Rusticani items made while crafting spell (they are casting a spell leveraging the object's shape and material, which is different than enchanting an item - option 2 of their power, not 3).