[M&M] Magic

[Gov2win]

Hey there, I'm very new to the Mutants and Masterminds system, and I'll be joining in a campaign of the newest edition. I was wondering if anyone has any idea of how magic works in the system, as the rulebook is a bit vague about it. I understand that it somehow allows you to select other powers and add the magic descriptor to it, but how many power points does that cost and are there limits to this?

Sorry I'm so uneducated about all of this, but I'm very used to D&D spelling out every last detail of everything in the game >_<

[Volthawk]

Well, let's say you take Magic 10 (costing 20pp). You make another power that costs up to 20pp (twice the rank). That power now has the magic descriptor. If you want more than one spell, take them as Alternate Powers.

[kamikasei]

Completely ignore the Magic power. Create other powers as you see fit, and give them the [magic] descriptor.

Magic as a power is pointless. It's just dressing up an alternate power array.

[Tengu_temp]

The Magic power is broken because it lets you pick pretty much all your powers as alternates under the "they're magic!" excuse. Do what Kami said and pick alternates where it's thematically appropriate.

[Gov2win]

Oh, alright, I think I understand now. But what do you mean by take others as alternate powers, you mean just do the same thing twice?

[Tengu_temp]

Alternate power is another power, costing the same total as the original power, taken for the low cost of a power feat instead of buying it for full points. The book explains it in a slightly confusing way, but still better than me.

[Gov2win]

Oh alright, that was actually less confusing than the book. Thanks for the help! :D

[hangedman1984]

Magick in m&m is pretty much just fluff

[kamikasei]

The Magic power is broken because it lets you pick pretty much all your powers as alternates under the "they're magic!" excuse. Do what Kami said and pick alternates where it's thematically appropriate.

Thing is, I've made a mage character who had almost all his powers all alternating off one another on the excuse that "they're magic!", and I still didn't use the Magic power to do it. It's just that pointless. If doing it that way can be legitimately excused, you don't need a power to make it okay. It seems useful mostly to slip stuff past an unwary GM, which is, well.

[Drascin]

Really, what Kami said. Even without the "it's magic" excuse, with enough creativity and a bit of GM allowance you can alternate nearly anything off nearly anything (just ask the Silver Age writers! ). Magic's problem is that it's just a normal array that doesn't do anything special, and it's a rather boring array too, thematically speaking.