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[ilovecheese1]

Hello everyone. I am concerned with one of the new styles or theorems of magic detailed in Arcana Exxet, when combined with new abilities also in Arcana.

When someone selects their Magic theorem at character creation and chooses "Natural Magic", there is now no need for them to acquire path levels, so advantages such as natural knowledge of X path and Elemental Compatibility are obviously of no use. However, there is the new section for Metamagic advantages that also use path levels, and additionally many of them refer to a type of spell as opposed to paths (improved shields for example).

The question is, since a "Natural Mage" can't otherwise use path levels, and metamagic doesn't specify the theorem of the mage, is it alright for them to use metamagic and acquire their bonuses?

Any help appreciated .

[Arikail]

Personally, with Natural Magic being "A step back", I would most likely go with that it's style is not developed enough to utilize Metamagic at all. Personal mileage may vary, but that ruling would cut out a lot of the broken combinations that are inherent in allowing it to operate.

[Lia Valenth]

It seems to me that there is no reason that a Wizard using Natural Magic would be unable to use Metamagic. If they have Metamagic that improves the effectiveness of Shields and cast a Shield with Natural Magic I would think it would apply. Sure, this allows them a lot more path levels to be put into Metamagic, but considering how much weaker Natural Magic is (or at least how difficult it is to accomplish anything good) I would not consider this a problem.

Furthermore there is nothing in the rules against it, so disallowing it would be a HOUSERULE, though if you have a game where it does become a problem then go ahead and use it. I have used Natural Magic in my game, with an enemy for the party, and found that it was really weak.

[alphawhelp]

Hello everyone. I am concerned with one of the new styles or theorems of magic detailed in Arcana Exxet, when combined with new abilities also in Arcana.

When someone selects their Magic theorem at character creation and chooses "Natural Magic", there is now no need for them to acquire path levels, so advantages such as natural knowledge of X path and Elemental Compatibility are obviously of no use. However, there is the new section for Metamagic advantages that also use path levels, and additionally many of them refer to a type of spell as opposed to paths (improved shields for example).

The question is, since a "Natural Mage" can't otherwise use path levels, and metamagic doesn't specify the theorem of the mage, is it alright for them to use metamagic and acquire their bonuses?

Any help appreciated .

you can create shields with natural magic, I am not sure what you mean otherwise.

The only trouble I would see is when you run into a metamagic advantage like "Life Magic" (pg 26) that has different effects depending on whether the spell is base,  intermediate, advanced, or arcane.  I don't see how path levels are relevant to metamagic advantages.

[Arikail]

I believe that part of the issue is since someone using Natural Magic is not paying for their magic using ML, all of their ML can be used to acquire Metamagic. Meaning they'd have much more of those advantages available than your normal spellcaster. With some jiggering and the right combinations, could be a very overpowering character, when he's got nearly every single Metamagic (or even just half of them, I have not looked how much each tree would cost) by the time he hits level 10, because he has nothing else to spend his ML on.

[Lia Valenth]

With some jiggering and the right combinations, could be a very overpowering character, when he's got nearly every single Metamagic (or even just half of them, I have not looked how much each tree would cost) by the time he hits level 10, because he has nothing else to spend his ML on.

He could most likely not get too many of them, and it would cost him the ability to cast any path magic. Natural Magic users have no use in INT for learning spells, and their spells are cast with a POW check, meaning INT is not very important for them. So to get all the Metamagic he would decrease his POW and make him weaker. Likely he would never have more than 9-10 INT, which is not many spell levels even if they spend 10% of their DP on them.

The only real advantage of Natural Magic is that it makes them based on a single stat, which can thus be buffed up like a Mentalists can.