>From a rules point of view, your character is
>'supposed' to become an initiate (or equivalence in
>the other types of magic), if not something more
>advanced.
How so? Why 'supposed'? I think that there are a lot of cultures in which doing this is true, but not all of them. In fact, the Teshnan religion is common magic, you'll note. So they have a special need to concentrate in it. In other places I'd think it's just one option amongst many.
>Concentrating common magic, even with the I
>am Not a Rock ritual, seems very... limited. Would
>any player, other than those who like a challenge /
>being masochistic to their character do this, and if
>so, why?
Well, I made such a character, but I have to mitigate that because I'm sort of a "challenge/masochist" player (actually just into premises), and he was a God Forgot Aeolian to boot. But I could have done it elsewhere as well, and I think it's not such an odd choice.
For one thing, it's actually pretty powerful in many ways. Consider that you have a huge range of abiliies to select from, and when you take them for 1 HP (now that you're concentrated), you get them at 17, not 13. In terms of outside power level, a common magic concentrated magician can accumulate levels at the same rate or faster than any other user of magic. They don't get mass discounts, but...
>Also, I don't see why a character would 'in-character'
>do such a thing. Unless you are from a culture with
>no magic keywork, it would seem to me that
>concentrating common magic would be an act of actively
>turning your back on your divinity (however its
>defined).
How about Imarja? To become good with her magic you have to concentrate in it. Far from turning your back, that's embracing the religion. Just because common magic comes from different sources, doesn't mean that it's any less religious neccessarily. "Common" doesn't mean unreligious.
That said, I think that what concentrated common magic allows is the character arcehtype that I was going for if you decide to eschew religion (say you go self-rock, for example). It makes for the wandering magician type who knows all sorts of "small" abilities. I was inspired, in fact, by two sources: the character Ergo from the movie Krull, and the "Magician" from the boardgame "Magic Realm." Seemed pretty cool to me.
Mike
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