Most of the spells, however, were solely augments to your existing abilities. Bladesharp did nothing for you if you did not pull out a sword and start swinging it. Protection improved your ability to shrug off your enemy's blows. Lantern augmented your ability to search in low light conditions, mostly by making it less "low-light".
Little things that aid you in doing what you do make sense to me as Common Magic. And I think that describing this as Augment-only traits is the easiest shorthand for describing this type of magic.
Obviously the narrative needs trump this in HQ2. If it makes sense to have someone use the same augment twice in a row, for the sake of the story it just happens. If the choice to use a laymember's rune as a direct ability is going to get nods all around the table, then this should not be a limit.
But I don't think this is a stupid rule.
Let's say you did not have the Fire rune (which most Heortlings don't). What ability would you use to burn down a house? But if you are a laymember with the Fire rune, you might do this slightly better than others. More often, you probably are called on to keep watch at night because you can augment your duties with simple light-based magic. But light-magic alone is not going to defend the camp from a nighttime ambush at the Common Magic level of the layman.
I believe that the reason HQ2 works as a ruleset is because there is no need to spell out every exception and that describing tools in general terms (like Common Magic is augment-only) works because the game empowers gaming groups to step outside of the basic system when needed. Generally, I plan to take every statement in the rules and S:KoH as the "default" situation; not the absolute fixed unmodifiable situation. I don't expect the rules to hedge themselves each time they make this statement. That's already been covered in the foreword of the book.
Some other things could be described as augment-only (armor and weapons), but for the more part, those items where bundled into your cultural keyword. If you bought "Fine weapons and armor" as an ability, I'd probably "never" allow that to be used directly as an ability, but it's a great augment for fighting, impressing foes, and gaining the admiration of your chief.
--Todd
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