When I first read the Verditius Inner Mysteries in HoH:MC I really disliked them. While I found two of them vastly underpowered (Bind Curses and Automata), I perceived most others as overpowered, sometimes grossly so. Enchanted Casting tools is a good example -- if it were available as a "plain" hermetic virtue I think it would be about as valuable as Flexible Formulaic Magic, which is a Major Virtue. Other bonuses such as the significant ones provided by forge companions simply made me think that the author of the Verditius chapter had fallen into the all-too-common rpg-design temptation of "power creep".
Then I started noticing that it was probably all (almost?) balanced in very subtle ways. Many advantages are available not only to Verditius magi, but to their customers as well - which reduces the relative advantage to Verditius. Enchanted casting tools provides a huge boost to a field where Verditius magi are usually (somewhat) handicapped and on which they aren't likely to focus anyway, so again this diminishes its actual value. And, last but not least, there's Hubris.
Hubris is a very, very serious handicap. Sure, it provides a smallish bonus to lab totals, but it makes Verditius magi who delve deeply into their House Mysteries (and take advantage of them) much more vulnerable socially. Anyone who knows about their inclinations has an easy time manipulating them. In particular, it seems House Verditius would be the ideal target for demonic corruption, since Hubris inclines characters to a number of sins (from pride to greed to anger) and makes it really hard to resist temptation.
Of course, unlike other handicaps, the impact of Hubris depends strongly on the storyguide. He can completely downplay it, or play it up to the point where it's really really crippling. This is probably more a feature than a bug, because it means that a storyguide can fine-tune the limitations of Verditius (for example, in a saga that's really poor in vis, Verditius magi tend to suffer more than others, and downplaying Hubris can "rebalance" things).
In your sagas, how much impact does Hubris have? Do you often have Verditius magi act in ways that are ultimately detrimental to them because Hubris forces them to do so? Do demons target House Verditius a lot?
(EDITED a few typos)
