You went to the opposite extreme
That's okay. Don't change anything.
What I was looking for was something like this...
First Cycle, 7 years (1 season scratched, 21 seasons advancement (210xp), 6 seasons lab)
I discourage spending more than half your xp on arts.
The idea is to break development up and build evenly. The character as they are at the end of each cycle; are they viable and playable at that point? If possible, I would like to possibly play out "flashback" stories from the past of the characters.
As for the spell, you need to keep in mind two things: How far away the armor is when the spell is cast, and how far it is being moved. The same spell can put armor on and take it off. I would imagine (but there are other thoughts). At these parameters and R: Touch, you touch the suit to put it on, and when taking it off it piles right next to you. Maybe a Finesse roll to put it on properly and/or pile it neatly? At R: Voice you can strip a knight bare. At R: Arcane you can summon your suit from a secret hidden armory. But for that second one, you need to add magnitudes for distance travelled.
Are you planning to make your armor your talisman? That would be cool.
The hammer will be my talisman. It stinks that hammers don't have a Shape/Material bonus so I can't make it an Item of Quality as well.
The spell, I thought would make an interesting offense against an armored opponent, and would be equally useful for defensive purposes, when caught by surprise. Mostly because once I started thinking about the magic focus of armaments, I couldn't think of very much it might apply to. Effects to put armor on and take it off, effects to sharpen or otherwise enhance a sword, effects to repel weapons... but sharpening or enhancement effects can't be used on a weapon without it having to penetrate MR, and an effect to repel metal weapons would also require that you not be wearing metal armor, so most of the things I could think to apply the focus to come with their own negatives.
A small hammer gives +2 for Building, according to my SMBonus pdf (which, in turn, references p. 137 of Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults. Unfortunately, that's the only instance of "hammer" the search function pulls up, but it's a start.
You can pick up Vulgar Alchemy (see The Mysteries Revised) as a mystery virtue and develop novel S/M bonuses, though it will take a few seasons of experimentation.
I think you can add a magnitude for 'complexity' and specify that the spell ignores any metal items you're wearing or holding.
While I agree with most of what you wrote, the base is off. Here are the ReTe teleportation bases:
Level 4: Transport a target instantly up to five paces.
Level 5: Transport a target instantly up to 50 paces.
Level 10: Transport a target instantly up to 500 paces.
Level 15: Transport a target instantly up to one league.
Level 20: Transport a target instantly up to seven leagues.
Level 25: Transport a target instantly to a place to which you have an Arcane Connection.
ReTe doesn't have teleportation bases, does it? checks main rulebook, p. 155 Nope, not there. checks the ReCo guidelines, on a hunch No, that's not it, either.
tracks down my Spell Guidelines pdf Ah. Magi of Hermes. Doesn't count, I don't have that book
I still stand by my calculations, only because of my personal preference for this stuff. Main rulebook trumps what's in the supplements. By which, I mean that I look for guidelines in the main rulebook. If I don't see it there, or something from which I can extrapolate a reasonable guideline, then I'll check my pdf, and even then, I'll only use a guideline if it's in a book that I have. (I'm big on only using books that I have, both as a player and as a sg...I've been stung too many times by not having the rules where I can see them).
Also, I didn't read Ryu's desire as "teleporting the armour onto his body," but rather "transporting his armour onto his body"...that is, moving the armour from point a to point b, across the intervening space. (Although, in Ars Magica, that's my default reading for "transport", unless it's specified as teleportation.)
I read it the same way, though I would require at least Concentration duration. Donning armor is a complex process that can't happen in a brief moment, even with magic filling in for the squire (IMO). I wouldn't necessarily require Concentration rolls unless he's distracted by something other than donning his armor.
If he wants the armor in place instantly, I would call that teleportation, requiring the MoH guidelines and a Finesse roll.
Either way, I could also see an argument for Group target rather than Individual, since most suits of armor are comprised of several components.
Does anyone know where the rules are for greater-than-average quality items? I know I've seen it somewhere but I can't find it now that I'm looking for it. (I tend to read my books once when I first get them and then put them on a shelf somewhere.)
Items of Quality? Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, p. 124 (in the Verditius section).
Same here, and then try to find it when I need to reference something. Which I've been having to do often enough lately that it's getting easier for me to find some stuff.
Not items of quality. There's rules for making your craft roll and you have a chance of making items of varying degrees of quality. I thought it was in MC in the Verditius section, but I was wrong.
I am thinking about switching the magic focus in armaments to the Elder Runes, though. It just doesn't seem like there's a whole lot that the focus would apply to. Unless I could take a magical focus in enchanting armaments?
There is a lot you can do with a focus in armaments.
CrIg20 Sword of the Avenger (sets the blade aflame w D: Conc)
ReTe25 Ward against Steel & Stone (+15 soak versus weapons)
CrTe20 ritual Sword of Damascene Steel (improves the quality of the actual metal)
MuTe?? Swords to Snakes
PeCo?? Blade of Vorple Wounding
InTe15 Howl of the Steel Weapons (grants a +9 defense bonus)
PeTe ritual that ruins an entire army
It isn't so much a matter of what you can do for yourself either. Your fellow Knights of Seneca will want these services.
Or perhaps a more narrow focus as a Minor Virtue? Just weapons or just armor?
As for Runes, I believed I mentioned Iberian Script to you. Wikipedia it. Many characters are similar, others unique. And in real history, Iberian Runes are older and were used for writing in several local languages of that ancient era. Some were translated by Romans, some tongues lost and texts forever indecipherable.
Valdarius had a minor breakthrough just before the Schism War, and descendants of his lineage learn to use this script.
Advantage: includes runes for Muto and Terram
Disadvantage: lacks Intellego, Mentem
extra bonus for inscribing on metals instead of wood
Most of these things are bits I don't picture a Verditius actually doing with magic effects. Hermetic magic pales in comparison to Verditius craftsmanship. <scoff, snort>
Veridtius Craftsmanship is a form of Hermetic magic. And remember, the true Verdi look down on your "Valdarian" craftsmanship. But your'e gonna prove them wrong dagnabbit!
And you do realize that a magic focus applies to enchantments, eh?
So you wanna be muy guapo now eh?
Presence will be important as you will need to act as your own mystagogue. Use Verditius Lore or call it Valdarius Lore. Either way. Despite window dressing and paint, they are the same thing.
Almost forgot something important!!
I reccomend that you take Mentor to represent your close link with your tiny lineage. This Mentor would be the only othher Valdarian magus left (perhaps your parens).
You have a Hermetic cousin, Dimir Taar of Verditius. His mater Kyra was Valdarian but diverted off into spirit magic and reassimilated into the Verditi.
Dimir Taar resided at Andorra and was keeper of the fabled Vault of Valdarius. He was zapped into twilight during the recent attack upon the covenant. You learn of this form the letter you recieved from Carmen at the end of autumn 1229 and can thus enter game at the start of Winter 1230 (Andorra uses an ecclesiastic calandar, and casts their Aegis on the winter Solstice and marks that as the start of their Hermetic Year).
A focus in armaments also applies to siege weapons
Including having a mundane ballista that you bring in through ReTe teleport, holds in the air through ReTe telekinesis, loads up with a dedicated spell (the bolts being teleported too, and under the focus IMHO), and fires at your ennemies (mundanely), bypassing their parma with mundane bolts.
If you have some vis and the right ritual, you can even equip your bolts with Momentary duration diamond arrowheads that'll ignore wards against metal.
