I have been considering creating spells to enchance the characteristics of the important characters of our covenant, along the lines of the Gift of reason. However, as this is a very vis expensive spell, I considered making a group/room variant. Then it occured to me that a circle variant would be far more efficient (2 mag lower, and no real limit to the number of persons targeted).

This does feel allmost like cheating - at the very least like exploiting a loophole, however, and it made me wonder if dur: mom spells should be permitted with circle target? Espesially the ritual variant...

However , there is nothing to stop you making a spell to temporarily increase characteristics.Or possibly a charged item.

There is the problem of warping though.

Just curious as to what characteristics you want to increase and why?
Int isnt as crucial for a Mage anymore , but Sta certainly is.

Com & Dex mostly. It's something many of our mages have low scores in, and they are both needed for good texts...

As I'll be casting the spell myself, it will give me no warping (and I plan to design it so that my apprentice is similarly unaffected).

As for the statment that int is no longer as important to a magus, I beg to differ - All lab activities depend upon it, and since we use the lab improvment rules from WGRE that goes double...

Depending on the level at which you would be casting the spell, it may already end up as a ritual. You may wish to look at developing it as a ritual with a target Group. It would definitely cost less vis than it would to individually cast the spell on each person. I hadn't thought of it until you talked about the circle duration, but it would make sense for this type of spell to be developed.

You also wouldn't have to worry about Warping for being under the spell continuously, since it would be Instant effect.

I agree with you on Int still being important for lab activities (having made a Bonisagus lab rat, I still have good use for the stat). Per might be a good stat to consider too for mages- you would use this for any finesse rolls that may be required (multicasting spells, etc). With the new rules for spell mastery, I'd expect to see a lot more mastered spells out there. (Depending upon the spell, Fast Cast and MultiCast would probably be 2 of the most popular choices for specialization, with Penetration for offensive spells also being taken).

Sta and Str are other good ones to develop (if you have the spell level capability), more for the covenfolk. It would be a way of making the covenfolk more hardy and improve shield grogs' effectiveness in protecting the mages.

correction to me:

5e prohibits Creo spells with a Target other than Ind or Group, so, no the Circle target won't happen.

"5e prohibits Creo spells with a Target other than Ind or Group, so, no the Circle target won't happen."

That restriction applies to actually creating something (page 113)

If you are doing anything permanent with Creo , Duration is always Momentary and the spell is a Ritual (page 112).

But if you were doing a Level 15 Creo Corpus effect to give +18 to recovery rolls , you could make the Target for the spell Circle.

If you are increasing stats for already created person/persons , game balance suggests you use target : Group.

Increasing stats is making the person closer to an ideal form.
If you are increasing Str say , you are not creating new muscle mass , that would be a Part target and disallowed.

You are enhancing the potential that is already there.

At least thats my take.