My guess would be minor
Is the thing based in mythology or did JK invent it?
You are so Harry Potter and I am Doctor Strange 
As near as I can tell, she invented it.
Which makes our friendship all the more magical.
Other influential (non Ars) wizards in my life include Elric, Doctor Fate, and Mister Lizard.
Ok, long time, I'm a little lost, so my post may be off. I hope I understand you right and that I am clear.
As I see it, if you're affecting one of your senses, you must target that sense. So, you could:
- Grant yourself a new sense (Sight of the Active Magics)
- Increase the range of a sense (Eyes of the Eagle)
- See though a given material (Clear Sight of the Naïad)
Note that only the first exemple give you a magical sense. The others keep your sight as it is, they just better it in another way. Likewise, whereas sensory impressions usually fade, this spell allow to keep them fresh.
The alternative, as I see it, is targeting something in order to record everything from this.
Like: Remind your Loved One
Base 1, +1 Eye, +3 moon, +1 Ind= lvl 10
This allows you to record all your sensory impressions from a given person, keeping them perfectly fresh in your mind so long as the spell endures. Some magi use this to keep fresh sensory impressions of their loved ones while traveling, whereas Quaesitores use that to record interogations. They won't have any special record of anything outside the spell's target, of course.
Does this help?
Yes and no. This is a gray area. As I understand it:
Spontaneous Magic must use standard ranges, or ranges for whom you've got a virtue.
BUT hermetic spells can be invented with non-standard ones, which are usually 1 magnitude higher than the closest standard range.
How does this mingle with virtues and breakthrough? My take is that you can work to integrate a non-standard r/d/t, making it a part of hermetic magic. This eliminates the +1 penalty, and gives you the appropriate minor virtue.
For exemple, imagine that the Eye range wasn't integrated. One could use it as a special range akin to Touch +1, until someone got fed up with it and integrated it through research.
Where this meshes badly is when some R/D/T are described as being impossible to use without a special virtue.
A quick search of the forum gave this good resume of things, as well as the page reference
I love you.
Ardath (Str 0), Wirth (Str 0), Isen (Str 0), Arachné (Str -2).
The only reason why Arachné has -2 is that she's old and not someone I picture as strong at all, even when younger. More the swift, lean type whith stingy strikes.
I still remember one guy arguing that no, his combat magus with Int +3, Per +3, Qik +3, Sta +2, Com +1, Pre -2, Str -3, Dex -3, didn't take dump stats 
Hum... Necromancy is a Major. This is smaller for necromantic purposes, wider otherwise.
Mammals is a Major, and would allow you to do this, but only to mammals. OTOH, you can do it to any animal, yet can't affect live ones.
It applies to every technique, but for a subset of the form.
I'd say rename it "Animal Necromancy" and it'll be perfectly fine. This makes it a subset of necromancy, just like you want, but doesn't let you use your focus to, say, tranform a dead cat into a dragon or create a pile of corpses.
First draft. I haven't written a good background story yet, because I'm very aware that this may still change.
I plan to give her 2 cycles, one revolving around her binding her magical animal companion as a familiar, and one about her fight for a change of scrying laws. At the end of cycle 2, she wins hermetic prestige over some legal battle but is banned from Normandy and returns home to Iberia-->Andorra.
I doubt, she'll ever be a very good mage (although I plan to invest some xp in mastery abilities to improve her PeVi spells), but she'll try to get 5 in all arts so she can train an apprentice soon. She'll be a good lawyer and excellent at comprehend magic.
Ide, filia Pralicis, at Gauntlet
Characteristics: Int +3, Per +5, Pre +0, Com +0, Str -1, Sta +1, Dex -1, Qik -1
Size: 0
Age: 22(22)
Warping Score: -
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Maga; Comprehend Magic (HoH:S, 128), Gentle Gift; Great Perception (2x), Improved Characteristics, Inspirational, Minor Magical Focus (exotic magic, HoH:S, 126), Piercing Gaze, Puissant Comprehend Magic, Self-Confident; Unnatural Magic (HoH:MC, 87), Driven (Major: Become a Quaesitor and legalize comprehend magic), Weak Magic Resistance (against spellcasters not analyzed using Comprehend Magic, see HoH:S 126)*; ability block (martial), magical animal Companion (Korax, a Raven of Virtue), overconfident (minor), unimaginative Learner
Personality Traits: Amiable +1, Persistent +3, Overconfident +2
Reputations: none
Combat: -
Soak: +1 (+4 with Doublet of Imp. Silk)
Fatigue Levels: Ok, 0, -1, -3, -5, unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), incapacitated (16-20), dead (21+)
Abilities: see below
Arts: Mu 5 15
Pe 5 15
Re 8 36
Co 8 36
Im 6 21
An 1 1
Me 1 1
Arts: 125
Spells:
Doublet of Impenetrable Silk MuAn15
I’m singing in the Rain ReAq5 (protects against rain, Base: 1, R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind, +1 unnatural)
Call to Slumber ReMe10
Prenatural Growth and Shrinking MuCo15
The Flying Witch ReCo25 (Base 15, R: P, D: Sun, T: Ind)
Cozy CrIg5 (keeps you warm, Base 2; R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind)
Veil of Invisibility PeIm20
Demon’s Eternal Oblivion PeVi5 (Base 3, R: Voice, D: mom., T: Ind)
Sap the Griffin’s Strength PeVi5 (same Magic Realm)
Irony PeVi5 (same fairies)
Break the Shield PeVi10 (HP 85)
Development:
Elionor Sala was born as the natural daughter Matieu Grony, the son of a Barcelona Patrician and Anna, a maid in the house of Matieu’s father. Although Elinor was never officially recognized, mother and daughter were allowed to stay with the Patrician household and she got even to spent time with her father.
Early Childhood:
Occitan (Catalan, Merchants) 5
Area Lore Catalonia (Barcelona) 2
Athletics (running) 1
Awareness (search) 2
Charm (wit) 1
Folk Ken (observing personality traits) 1
Guile (disguise) 1
Stealth (inside a building) 1
Swim (sea) 1
Childhood (2 years: 40xp)
Elionor managed to charm Matieu into taking her along on some of his business trips through Catalonia, and she learned even more by just observing how business was done at the house.
Animal Handling (Horses) 1
Etiquette (Patrician) 1
Intrigue (understanding power constellations) 2
Leadership (children) 1
Riding (long distance) 1
Survival (cooking) 1
Apprenticeship (240xp – 125xp arts = 115xp):
In Normandy
Latin (Hermetic) 4
Magic Theory (Vim) 3
Artes Liberales (rhetorics) 1
Parma Magica (Mentem) 1
Comprehend Magic 1+2
Concentration (spells) 1
Penetration (Vim) 1
Order of Hermes Lore (history) 1
Profession: Scribe (hermetic texts) 1
Code of Hermes (scrying) 1
Equipment: Wizardly robes (improved with Doublet of Impenetrable Silk)
Voting Sigil: A perfect clear crystal lens
Spell Sigil: clarity (she’s an HDTV wizard!)
At a glance, I am loving it 
In cannon, Andorra is part of Provencal. In this saga, it is part of neither Provencal or Iberia, but has connections to both. Culturally, we are more oriented towards Iberia and have very close ties with Barcelona covenant (including a direct portal to the city).
This is an interesting character and I look forward to seeing her in action 
Just one thing to point out...Solomon is a Quaesitor and has proven for the most part to be quite conservative (with the one exception of the whole dragon magus thing 
) and will likely not be supportive of Ide's driving goal. I'm fine with character conflict, just wanted to make sure you were aware of the current makeup of the covenant.
Ah, the resident quaesitor. The one she has to flatter to get ahead. Or to convince so he can do the legal talk
Seriously:
If you think her goala are too quaesitorial (or if she's too brainy for Andorra), then I can tweak her to become a more classical Pralician: "We come in peace. Sign here to join the Federation."
Driven is easily replaced by Ambitious or Optimist ("No, I don't think he's a diabolist, just because he's sacrificing children"), or Waster of Vis (she seems to have trouble with vis anyway), and piercing gaze by venus blessing (hawk eye to moon eye).
or
to make her a hoplite, I could kick out inspirational, piercing gaze and the Gentle Gift and give her Flawless magic, Puissant parma (specialty: sharing parma) and an affinity with vim, plus some more aggessive personality flaws.
I think the goal is not legalizing outright scrying, just use of magical analysis.
If you plan to do that, you should not take it as an actual flaw (although you can still have it in your background and history): A flaw that's not a flaw is not a flaw. Silveroak planning to do this in-game is already a bit much IMO, and here, you're talking of "deleting" a flaw before game.
Possibilities:
- Take the flaw, and have 2 "twin" animals, one who becomes the familiar, the other a regular animal companion.
- Take the flaw, and use the rules to "gain" a virtue to delete it, spending XP and seasons.
Like the name of her custom spells, especially "Irony"
If I may make some suggestions:
Her Perdo Vim sucks (Casting total Pe 05 + Vi 00 + Sta 1), meaning her might strippers and Break the Shield spells suck too, with a base penetration of 3 + die (meaning you can only affect the weakest creatures) and -2 + die (!!!)
Instead of "Break the Shield", useless AND which she may tire herself casting, may I suggest taking Invisible Sling of Vilano (CT 9)? Swap Penetration for Finesse, and put to use that Greatest Perception without tiring yourself. In fact, this is a spell I'd chose anyway, just due to your high Per.
Better yet: Forget the flight spell, which is your only reason for your Rego and Perdo scores. Change your Corpus 8 to Vim 7 and spend the rest between Corpus and Mentem. This'd give you a base ReVi CT of 16, much, much better for these might strippers and also improves your Veil of Invisibility CT (which is otherwise only 12 + die, meaning exertion is almost certain)
Like, try this (changes in bold):
Mu 5 15
Pe 8 36
Re 5 15
Co 2 3
Im 6 21
An 1 1
Me 3 6
Vim 7 28
@Fixer: Thanks for all the thought you poured into my character.
I thought a familiar would become a True friend story flaw toreplace magic animal companion, but I do admit that it is somewhat cheesy.
I know that the casting total for the PeVi spells is lousy yet, and I knew I had to pour some xp into raising those arts. But the idea of giving her a vilano fighting style is also very appealing (I had forgotten that finesse uses perception. I had actually looked up bows, but that turned out to be another edition).
I'll try reshuffling some virtues (stuff that improves her finesse), and maybe also some flaws to explain why she doesn't go the PeVi route. I'm sure I can take care of the familiar problem on the way.
The longer I think about Fixer's comment, the better I like it.
I'll probably turn her into a Herbam Vilano.
And she won't need the ability to fly then, because she'll have a magically created wooden armchair to fly around with (much safer than a broomstick)!
I like these ideas
Where I differ from Fixer is that I think turning a Magic Animal Companion is an okay idea. They will still generate stories. That is what I plan to do with Silveroak (in fact, I already started with that). I actually play my Familiar that way (he has gotten me in trouble more than once, but I am the one playing him). So it could work.In asth ed (and prolly earlier) there was a negative bond quality or two that had similar effects ("Independant" and .At Odds").
I like the chair! It reminds me of Metron (from DC Comics, not the one in our game)
Ahhh, yes. I think I see now. The line is drawn (roughly) between "applying your existing senses something or somewhere else" - which targets the thing/place you are using them on; and "improving your existing senses" - which targets the sense you are improving.
Antoine, too: Int +4, Per -2, Pre 0, Com +2, Str +2, Sta +1, Dex +2, Qui -2 - and a non-combatant. That Strength comes from working the forge 
If you gotta fly, fly in style!
The difference with Silveroak is that it would happen before play.
So he'd swap a minor flaw for a minor virtue before the flaw had any chance at all to come into play, at no cost. Which is why I suggested, if he went this route, to use the existing rules to "remove" the flaw, just like any other character could have done, or to have twin ravens, odin-like.
As far as I understand, yes.
This is all the difference between a T: Vision vis detection spell (I see all the vis in range) and a T: Ind vis detection one (does this item have vis?)
Never said that, Fixer. I recall the conversation, too. Of course, I'd design the character differently now.
I've made progress on the companion character
I'd like him to have the magic air flaw, and Animal Ken, inoffesnive and alluring to animals and Summon Animals (from HoH:S Beastmaster), in other words, I want him to be an ungifted Beastmaster, aguy who is great with animals but not liked by people without a parma.
As for the Pralician, I'm torn between two versions, both using vilano herbam and a talisman that can store bolts as grain (this leave her vulnerable to bodiless beings like spirits, but that's what the team is for):
-
"law" Pralician: keeps her anti-scrying motivation, takes harmless magic (Pe can't do permanent damage) to explain why she doesn't PeVi, must lower intelligence by 1 so I can drop improved characteristics and take Cautious with finesse, keeps the magic animal that is to become a true friend/familiar flaw.
-
"family" Pralician: replaces anti-scrying motivation with a husband (beastmaster companion) and some gifted/ungifted children (dependents flaw), drops both inspirational and piercing gaze to get the True love virtue and Cautious with finesse. This build would not use a familiar (because being married and having a familiar is a bit like bigamy), but instead develop dual-use spells (for working moms, like animated wooden dolls), a higher Intellego to open the arts of apprentices with exotic talents and to look after her family, the attempt to get to 5 in all arts, and items to safeguard her family. This build also involves getting either deficient perdo or harmless magic to explain why she uses vilano spells.
I'm not qualified to offer much opinion here, but I will note that the saga currently has... two? three? characters with the True Love flaw (I can't recall if Lucas's wife is a True Love, or "just" a marriage )