Does a PC transitioning into WA immedeatly get all the perks a player starting out as WA gets(advanced skills, spells). Or does he have to buy them one by one?

Thank you for your answers.

They need to buy them.

Yep, they have to buy them. That includes the Basic spell cards, Channeling, etc

Thank you for the answers!

I'm not sure that you have to wait to get all the action cards, at least by the rules. You may consider talking to your GM and seeing if you can nab a few basic cards early. I'd assume your equallibrium would come with the order card, but with channeling you could draw power to cast them.

Otherwise, you are probably using all your apprentice action card picks on basic spell actions.

Oh, I wouldn't say that the apprentice would need to acquire the action cards/skills before transitioning, although their ability as an apprentice is hampered by not having the majority of them. About the only thing I'd make a requirement is the possession/development of Magical Sight (or is it called Magical Sense?).

The OP wasn't asking about waiting, though, but whether they came with the career by default (which they don't). Honestly, I would find it difficult to allow (rp-wise) a PC to transition into an apprentice career and maintain an adventurer profession. Most adventuring apprentices are senior ones (hence the fact they they have already mastered several skills, spells, etc). A brand-new apprentice would really require/necessitate long hours of study/schooling/training in the College. I suppose it could be possible if they were apprenticed to a Master Wizard who adventured and was able to teach them on the road. Apprenticeship is not something the Colleges take lightly.

Of course, if the PC is not planning to be a College wizard, and instead run as a hedge wizard, that is different.

I agree with much of what Dvang has said regarding the timeline of becoming a wizard. Generally, I would require that a character leave the adventuring life to become an Apprentice, though this doesn't mean that the character is forever removed from the game. Perhaps the entire group takes a hiatus while that character is gone, learning the abilities that are necessary before being set on the road to adventure. Perhaps the player takes on another character temporarily while his "main" character is gone.

Again, they could certainly play as a Hedge wizard, who would play much the same as a standard Apprentice, with some house rule modifications to make things more unpredictable and dangerous.

In my WFRP 2e game, I just asked players at the start of the campaign if anyone was thinking of becoming (transitioning to) a wizard. When it was established that one player did in fact want to go that route, we just established a back-story for the character that supported the transition.

I agree that it would be a narrative challange for the GM (to say the least) to make it possible for a PC to transition into WA (i.e. entering a college). But a system that relies so heavily on career transition as a form of advancement and which relies heavily on chance when it comes to starting carrers must allow becoming a magic user later in ones career progression. The untweaked rules make it pretty unlikely to have even one magic user in the (3 PC) starting group. I remember this being the case in 1ed as well. Balancingwise this is a bit of a nightmare. A PC transitioning into WA will have to use all of his career advances just to reach the level a PC starting out as WA has initially. As Acolytes both will be vastly different regarding their spellcasting ability. I think its a good idea to make a PC desiring to go down that path to aquire magical sight first. Without it i don't think a college would accept him/her. It would probably be a small adventure just getting the PC accepted and then find a way to still keep adventuring.

AlephTau said:

Since – as you said – switching to a wizard career is already ridden with penalties, I think requiring the PC to acquire Magical Sight before switching careers is too hard. I don’t see it as a narrative problem to let him/her switch to the new career sheet and then require him/her to get Magical Sight as a first skill advance – or something like that.

Talking about acquiring Magical Sight: to me it seems as if this is not one of the automatically acquired skills for Wizard Apprentices either, isn’t it? Seen from that perspective, this makes even less sense. (I could also imagine a magically gifted kid learning a spell even without actually being able to channel, much less have an understanding and clear perception of the different winds of magic.)

You are right, I wouldn't require my player to aquire Magical Sight before switching to WA. I would require it before entering a college however, since I think that that would be the main thing they would check for before accepting a new member. As you can see, I don't think becoming a WA and entering a college has to be the same thing. Entering the career could be seen as starting on the path to become a spellcaster. Then, after a few advances a college could be entered. Also, IMO only after entering can the talent card be reasonably aquired.

Sounds good to me!

I have a player who wants to play a wizard but started out as something else. Whilst I haven't permitted him to go into Wizards Apprentice, I have allowed him to become a Hedge Wizard. He has come up with a bit of background regarding magical talent in the family and I worked a few foundations into the story before he was ready to transition. The first was a forbidden Tome he discovered. Using this I allowed him to take an insanity so he could gain Magical Sight as if it was a class skill. He also ended up in a middle of a magical storm that, whilst it had no game effect, can be played as if it had opened up some dormant talent in his mind.

When he makes the transition I am thinking of giving his character the channeling and petty magic cards for free. Otherwise he will be halfway through his career before he can cast even a rubbish spell and that isn't much fun. Given that he is coming to this late in life he will probably turn out to be a terrible wizard who will be more of a threat to himself and his friends than he ever will be to any enemies.

Whilst I think Wizards should be rare in Warhammer I also try and remember that evreyone is playing for fun. If someone really wants to be able to cast spells as part of the game I dont see much benefit to anyone at the table in stopping them.