[Aardvark892]

One of my players just created an Aspected mage, an Enchanter.  Priority B magic.  It seems as though aspected magicians, even with such a high priority level, do not get any formulas (or spells, or spirits, depending on type) for free, and that any purchase of formula have to be bought with karma.  Are we missing something?  Shouldn't they get a certain number for free the same way a regular spell caster gets spell points to spend buying spells?

Thanks in advance for any guidance on this!

Tim

[Beta]

Basically Aspected mages get a pretty raw deal in RAW. 
- Starting magic of at best 5,
- no free spells,
- and getting the skills in a skill group, which if I understand RAW you can't technically break until you are spending your karma (i.e. if you have skill group 4, you can't use 2 starting skill points to raise one of the skills to 6, you'd have to spend 5*2+6*2 = 22 karma instead.
- and on top of all that, astral perception rather than projection

Whenever I try to come up with an aspected mage I tend to end up actually making a full mage and taking the Incompetent negative quality  to block one of the other key groups, and just not buying a skill in the third. 

I'm not saying that you can't make a good aspected mage, just that the hassle ends up not seeming to be worth it to me in general.

[fseperent]

Yeah, it's weird that aspected mages got a free skill group and nothing else for Priority C or higher.
I figure giving the aspected mage half the spells/summoning formulae/alchemic formulas as a mage would get at the priority chosen could balance out the freebies.

[Aardvark892]

Thanks for the replies.  It definately seems like aspected mages are getting the shaft.  May have to house rule on that one, based on maybe half the spell points of regular magicians at the same priority level.  Enchanters especially are getting cheated a bit because they have to make all of their spell effects way ahead of the game, in objects.

[Glyph]

Aspected mages do get a raw deal in priority/sum-to-ten, but remember that you can get skill group points from your skill priority, too.  For example, you can get B for aspected magician and C for skills, and combine the two skill groups to at least have your core magical skill group at 6 (and then you can add specialization(s) with starting Karma).  Likewise, your base Magic may only start out at up to 5, but you can add points from your metatype selection to bring it up to 6.

What really kills most aspected magician builds is the lack of freebie spells/preparations combined with the high Karma cost of buying them.  For the 30 karma it would take to start with a bare-bones allocation of 6 spells/preparations, you could buy 6 power points for a mystic adept.  I would only consider making a conjurer aspected mage - and even then, a pure mage specializing in conjuring has more options.

[Whiskeyjack]

I'd probably advise your guy just not to do that. Aspecting is bad, Alchemy is bad, combining the two....ehhhhh.....

[Hobbes]

Basically Aspected mages get a pretty raw deal in RAW. 
- Starting magic of at best 5,
- no free spells,
- and getting the skills in a skill group, which if I understand RAW you can't technically break until you are spending your karma (i.e. if you have skill group 4, you can't use 2 starting skill points to raise one of the skills to 6, you'd have to spend 5*2+6*2 = 22 karma instead.
- and on top of all that, astral perception rather than projection

Whenever I try to come up with an aspected mage I tend to end up actually making a full mage and taking the Incompetent negative quality  to block one of the other key groups, and just not buying a skill in the third. 

I'm not saying that you can't make a good aspected mage, just that the hassle ends up not seeming to be worth it to me in general.

Probably the best way to do it under 5th edition without house rules. 

Personally I house rule it:

Magic B: Aspected Magician: Magic 6, one Rating 6 Magical skill group; 10 Formula or 35 Karma of Bound Spirits
Magic C: Aspected Magician: Magic 4, three rating 3 magic skills from one group; 7 Formula or 25 Karma of Bound Spirits
Magic D: Aspected Magician: Magic 2

Just no mechanical reason to shaft Aspected mages like they are.