I am trying to think of a way to make a creo spell last for 2 months. Does anyone know of a trigger spell that will automatically recast my creo spell at end of it's moon duration?
I'd say a kind of watching ward, which casts the second spell when the first ends
When you learn watching ward, do you learn it at as high a level as you can and then you can apply it to anything you want as long as it is equal to or less than that level?
Don't have my books with me, but I thought you could add a maginitude to the spell design for a special fixed duration.
So, if you has your Creo spell design for Moon duration at level 15, add 5 levels and change the duration to two months. As long as it is less than a year, it doesn't have to be a ritual.
-K!
I can do that?!!! 
I am having another one of those moments where I've been looking for my glasses and I find them on my head.
Use a nonstandard duration. It'll probably come out at Year level.
Yep.
Want a spell to last an hour (exactly)? Just design for Diameter and add a Magnitude.
Be warned that your storyguide may ding you for complexity ("how are you going to design for exactly an hour?") if you aren't persuing astrological Mysteries.
Your Storyguide could be a good guy (... and we all know good joke fits between these parentheses ...) and may just let you enjoy the game and not let the rules distract you too much.
Either way, pretty cool.
-K!
I don't need to know astrological mysteries, I just need an hour glass. 
nice
Considering that spell durations are typically tied to natural cycles, I don't think you can rely on an hourglass. At best, I'd say you may use the 12-hour division of day and night. Just keep in mind that hours lasted different times in summer and in winter.
I'm rather fond of the needless complexity of multuiple waiting spells.
You could easily develop a rego vim spell to hold another spell until the full moon crosses the sky.
Non standard durations are ok per the last paragraph in the middle column of page 114.
Celestial magic is the most straight ahead way to do it (barring the rego vim spell).
Thaumaturgy can do the trick.
spell binding can work as well
I went looking for non standard durations as soon as I read Verticius' post. Huh. That solves my problem right there! Thanks, Verticius!
I like the idea of multiple waiting spells. I want to set a whole bunch of them to go off like a magical Rube Goldberg machine. My character is kinda weird.
You're welcome.
Seriously, let us all know how that turns out. The comic and horror potential is simply too good not to explore.
You should read "Wiz Biz" by Rich Cook. Might give you a few ideas. Totally ruin the medieval feel, though.
... 
OK, I'm going to step off the field, now. Someone just painted a great big old bullseye rigth smack in the middle of it.
Ohhh.. I stand corrected. But splitting up a 12 hour day will be sufficient for what I am trying to do, so it's good either way. Thanks, everyone!
I think non-standard Durations/Range/Targets might be the most overlooked aspect of formulaic spell design.
I wish there were more examples of them in the books (and not Mystery stuff, standard Hermetic magic using the non-standard rules, if that makes sense). I hope that some of the submissions in the Open Call includes some.
You and me both, brother.
Do't get me wrong, I think the Mysteries add flavor and are interesting, but I would think that there are a lot of creative "hermeticists" out there. Especially if (esoteric) Mysteries are as rare as implied.
-- How about creating a 30 second bridge for quick getaways and dunking your opponents? "Gustov! Hold them for just another moment!"
-- How about a 3 month duraton copy of a tractatus (for lending purposes)? They want to borrow a book? Fine. Pay us 2 seasons of vis, feel free to use the guest house and read this copy. They could copy it in that time but they wont steal the actual book.
-- Good weather for the Faire without causing drought? A 1 week duration should be sufficient while you are there.
Anyway, pretty cool stuff. I'm not a great writer so I'm not participating in the open call, but I hope the authors and editors are keeping an eye to showing the wonders of Hermetic magic by itself.
Best,
-K!
As far as I can understand, making non-standard durations isn't quite that easy. Most spells with a non-standard dur are based upon non-hermetic magics, and the others tend to relate to some mystery.
If you want to make your own non-standard duration, that is actually a minor breakthrough!
Integrating a given non-standard duration into Hermetic magic is difficult, but any magus can create a spell with non-standard parameters without a breakthrough. It just isn't as flexible: you can't use it in spontaneous spells and the spell itself typically ends up being of higher magnitude than it should be. Neither can you take advantage of Flexible Formulaic Magic, Boosted Casting or anything that lets you tweak parameters. The spell is a one-off. Once integration is done however, the parameter can be used like any others.
For example, I'd rate the ArM4 Reach range as equivalent to either Touch or Voice: it's a bit better than Touch, doesn't carry as far as Voice but on the other hand can be used silently. You cannot use Reach range in a spontaneous spell, but you can create a formulaic that does. As far as the difficulty goes, I'd probably leave it equivalent to Voice, regardless of integration: I don't want it to ever be as easy as Touch, but pushing it to Sight seems a tad excessive to me...
Excellent summary Fruny.
Thanks for clarifying that, Fruny!