Hey gang, I have a question for you...

I have a player in my group who is not a Wizard or Priest. She has been around a few and is intrigued by the magic and was wondering if she could spend non-career advances to learn to cast basic spells (essentially becoming a Hedge Wizard or Witch without changing careers).

Is this possible?

What is involved in doing so?

Thanks!

Gitzman

I would say that they have some level of inherent magic "in the blood", seems to be the requirement for college wizards, though it seems necromancy and some dark arts don't even need that.

I dunno. It'd require a *no siree bob I definitely didn't use an expletive there!*load of reading, so maybe tell 'em to take education?

I would allow to her to explore the ways of hedge wizardy as a begining, if she is willing to take the risks... Probably if she enjoys it it will also enhance her role play. For the future, as GM, I will consider if she is adopted by the collegse of magic to teach her color magic (and therefore she can evolve to aprentice), or on the other hand, she sticks to to hedge wizardy and therefore she has to live a life of nearly constant subterfuge as a Witch /Warlock.

I would say no, and the linchpin is in not changing careers.

If the player wants to learn magic actions mid-game great, but they need to show enough commitment to do so, and for me that's the career change. No one casually learns magic. It requires serious dedication, one large enough that you can't do "on the side" while pursuing your current life path.

I'd be cool with learning the skills out-of-career, but once a character starts actually lobbing spells, it's hard to continue to see them as a Bailiff.

At this stage in the game, we have a couple of "entry point" careers for non-college casters, namely Mystic and Witch. Both of those offer access to certain magic skills (and have the arcane trait) and provide a great excuse to develop those abilities.

The Dark Magic talent card has a clause in the rules that it can be taken and socketed into a non-Order, non-Witchcraft talent slot, as i recall. Given a forbidden tome from which she can learn to cast her spells, she can start on the way to corruption the most fun way possible!

exactly what Amehdaus said. The dark Magic Talent card. One Player in our group uses it, but we all don't know it.... yet.

Great replies, thank you, still a few questions though...

So she has been aroudn enough magick and learned a bit of the dark stuff in the world. She wants to start to dabble (not full blown college magic and spell casting, im thinking more cantrips and basic stuff).

• What skills does she need at the most basic level to generate power to cast basic spells?
• I know you can generate power and manage in through your equalibrium. So i guess you can be a caster without channell power (although a less potent and slower to recharge one).
• The way i see it, is if someone were to teach her, or she studied for some time in a forbidden tomb she 'could' (at GMs descretion) learn some very basic knowledge, perhaps enough to cantrip or get herself into trouble?

I'm really excited for teh roleplaying possibilities here because she is really interested in it and totally willing/wanting to accept the struggles that come along with it.

Gitzman

• I would say that you need channeling and spellcraft. Even if she doesn't get the channel power action I'd say you have to be able to channel the winds to some degree if you
• Certainly she doesn't need the channel power action card, she can use the power that she gains through the equilibrium rules (if I remember correctly the Witch career works like this, I think witches cannot buy the channel power card).
• The cantrip spell would be super appropriate as a basic, low level multi-purpose spell as you can do a little bit of everything with it (kind of like perform a stunt as a spell).

I'm guessing she's playing a human (is it 'Helga' from the podcast by the way?), with the help of the adaptable ability she could jump into Witch (without finishing her current career), buy some skills and spell actions and then jump right back into her current career and just go from there.

From what you're describing the Witch career is the way to go as you said: "She wants to start to dabble (not full blown college magic and spell casting, im thinking more cantrips and basic stuff)." Sounds like a Witch to me (or maybe a mystic to begin with).

k7e9 said:

I would agree with you here, but for Witch being able to cast spells without Channeling.

I think that Spellcraft (acquired, not trained) is all that would be necessary skill-wise.

Ok cool, it sounds like we've hit a consensus then on what is the minimum entry point to 'dabble' in the arcane arts.

Yes it is Helga. She's got a hankerin' for the darker things in life these days, but doestn have a good outlet for exploring it.

1. So Spellcraft aquired at the very least to gain access to your power pool.
2. And Cantrip or basic spells to get you started.
3. Followed by a reasonable method and reason as to why/how you would gain the knowledge

Gitzman

I guess there are some self-taught witches out there, that are able to do minor magic at times, maybe without even realizing it themselves (kind of like many channelers start out in Wheel of Time). If I remember my warhammer lore correctly kids might start doing magic without any training whatsoever, and the parents of those children are required to send their kid to the collages (or they can try to keep it a secret and hope no one notices). So there might not even be need for study, at least not for the cantrip action (and maybe a few other low level spells).

Oh and don't forget to start handing out corruption points to Helga when she starts casting spells.

Oh dont you worry, she has a handful of corruption already!

Buy her a comb to take her of her first tentacles!