Used to be enough of difference in domains of spirits and time a spirit would serve to really set the hermetic apart from a mentor spirit class, now seems not picking mentor sprit is downside for a mage. Been considering to leave elementals conjured by hermetics to last 24 hours as opposed to 12 (till next sunset or sunrise). This doesnt seem to overpowering of houserule.

As always curious for some input, thanks.

Honestly, I don't think that would change much. Mentor spirits cost BP. Precious, precious, positive quality buildpoints. By that, I mean that they count against the 35 BP limit on positive qualities. That makes mentor spirit self-balancing, in my opinion.
Are you having a problem with no one playing Hermetics, or is this just a problem that you anticipate?

Guess just flavor issue, so far all players have gone mentor spirit route and in previous versions of game always was hermetics heavey due to nature spirit domain rules.

Also note that Hermetics darn sure *can* take mentors, if they feel the want. The might not see them in the same light, and aren't as likely to take, say, Rat or Dog, but they still have options. Quite fond of Fire Bringer myself. Mentors in this style tend to be more philosophies/approaches, rather than Shamantic masks. A Fire Bringer might want to bring magic down from the hands of the corps and Tirs, to share the knowledge with Metahumanity as a whole. A Dark Seductress can just be some Hermetic who slept her way to staight 'A's in college, and now works with illusions (Hey, SOMEBODY had to invent teh Orgasm spell!) ... so on and so forth.

Yeah, Wakshaani, technically I know that is true. Some stubborn part of my brain still wants to reject the idea, though. I do like the way you described Hermetic mentors, though, that might help bring me around.

personally, I kinda like that all the magical traditions are the same now (i.e. they all follow the same rules.) I always thought the hermetics were over powered compared to shamans since hermetics got the flock of elementals.
I also like that hermetics can now take mentor spirits or totems or whatever you want to call them. If you want to make a house rule that everyone without a mentor spirit has spirits that last 24 hours instead of 12 that's great, but singling out hermetics just because that's how it was done in past editins doesn't seem to make alot of sense to me; but hey it's your house rule, do what you want.

the BP cost is pretty significant. not in its value, per se, but it does mean that a full magician (15 BP) with a mentor spirit (5 BP) cannot take any exceptional attribute qualities (20 BP).

I think most people can live without exceptional attributes .

As soon as the shaman gets Invoking, he can have his gang, too. Then the battles usually looked like naptime, as the spirits used their confusion power on the opposition.