If they both increase the affinity by a mastery the gap increases to about 15%. You really need over 1W in your affinities to make it worthwhile to shell out the extra hero points to become a devotee and learn the additional feats.
My gaming group noticed this when we found that Devotees* were no better at using feats they'd learned than Initiates. Quite often an Initiate was getting better automatic magic augments (they could add in a couple of common magic feats as well as, maybe, three affinities).
If you want to be a decent Theistic magician, a concentrated Initiate that spends the same number of hero points on magic will be almost as capable as a Devotee at using his or her God's magic and probably more flexible as they can know common magic feats as well.
So, if you want someone that can lob lightning bolts (or whatever particular schtick your character is based around) around, Devote and learn the feat, maybe stick some extra hero points in the feat as well. If you want someone more broadly capable, stay an Initiate and concentrate.
Cheers,
Ash
*This was all part of the same process as realising that 14 resistance was fairly hard to beat reliably in a simple contest and that 17 was actually still quite a crap ability score.
> --- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, ASHLEY
> MUNDAY
> <aescleal_at_b...> wrote:
> > My final comment on the matter was going to be
> that
> > while Greg ~geuflects~ never managed to convince
> > players to keep playing initiates in RQ, in HQ
> he'd
> > finally found a way - by making Initiates a lot
> more
> > flexible than Devotees. He'd made Initiates the
> > powergaming option until you hit RuneLord, sorry,
> > Disciple. [Incidentally, a position I'd still
> hold,
> > especially after reading the Fahq U on the
> subject.]
> >
> >> Ash
>
> I still think that devotees are a perfectly viable
> powergaming
> option due to their magical abilities effectively
> starting at above
> the level of default resistance of 14 while an
> initiates effectively
> starts at below it.
>
> Mark
> Mohrfield
>
>
>
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