Does Magic-Minor count towards calculating magic points?

[edoreld]

So in the AFF book (pg. 67), it says:

If a Hero has any points in the Magic-Minor or Magic- Wizardry special skills, their Magic Point total should be calculated before play, and recalculated if necessary. The Magic Point score is calculated as follows:
(MAGIC Characteristic + Magic-Wizardry special skill) x 2
That is, 2 Magic Points for every point in that characteristic and special skill. These points are available every day to a Hero, and are replenished by a nights sleep. If the Hero has disturbed sleep or less than a full night, the Director may reduce the number of points gained. A Hero may never restore their Magic Point total above the calculated value by sleep or potions. An increase in one of the

The formula seems to indicate that only Magic-Wizardry points are used to wards calculating magic points, but the wording between the two paragraphs above and below the formula is confusing me.

So if a hero does have Magic-Wizardry and Magic-Minor, does he use only Magic-Wizardry to calculate his magic points or does he add up his Magic-Minor points as well?

[Ruffnut]

I think whichever is higher

[Nuvole!]

I allow Magic - Minor to count towards MAGIC POINTS. After all, the payers spend their XPs to increase it and then they will spend their MAGIC POINTS to cast both Wizardry magic and Cantrips.

[edoreld]

I allow Magic - Minor to count towards MAGIC POINTS. After all, the payers spend their XPs to increase it and then they will spend their MAGIC POINTS to cast both Wizardry magic and Cantrips.

To each its own, but as a player I would totally abuse that rule by getting a few cheap points in Magic-Minor just for the extra magic points.

That leads to another question though. Does Natural Mage apply to cantrips? Because in that case you wouldn't need to spend magic points to cast them.

[SkinnyOrc]

I believe it should be played exactly as what you've quoted from page 67 says, that only MAGIC and the Magic-Wizardry special skill count towards MPs. So if they don't have Magic-Wizardry it's just MAGIC x 2.

The first bit is only saying that you calculate MPs for a character who has either Magic-Minor or Magic-Wizardry, not that both skills count towards the number of MPs. The reason to get more points in Magic-Minor is to know more cantrips and to make them easier to cast. Seeing as you only use MPs for them if the casting fails it also lets you cast them more often.

On page 33 it confuses things by saying "A Hero receives 2 MP for every point in the MAGIC characteristic, Magic-Wizardry and/or Magic-Minor". But the official errata doc says it should be "A Hero receives 2 MP for every point in the MAGIC characteristic and Magic-Wizardry special skills". Also none of the example characters under Sample Archetypes have a number of MPs that can include Magic-Minor.

[HedgeWizard]

For the Natural Mage question I would say yes it does count.

[SkinnyOrc]

That was one of the reasons I suggested changing how Natural Mage worked in this thread.

[HedgeWizard]

I like what you put there. Never thought of Natural Mage in that way and your adapted version and explanation provides a whole new flavour I feel.

[SkinnyOrc]

Any time something's as popular as Natural Mage it's probably over powerful, but I was surprised how many issues this one had when we pulled it apart. The Chaos Mage issue Stuart pointed out was one I hadn't thought of. But you never want automatic success in a system where the GM decides the size of roll penalties, you just want a large bonus.

[Lorian]

I agree, Natural Mage + Cantrips / Chaos Magic = OP. I think it should give a bonus equal to your magic special skill for the spells. ((BTW Sorry for not being very active recently I have exams I miss this))

[HedgeWizard]

I’ll be honest i never used it because it seemed a bit unfair and over powered. But I will be using Skinny Orc’s version.

Good luck with the exams Lorian, may Hamaskis smile upon you!