Self sponsored magic

[cetra02]

If a character has self sponsored magic, such as superior pyromancy, do they still need channeling or ritual on their sheet, or does the superior pyromancy replace those powers?

[dragoonbuster]

They should have at LEAST Ritual, and it would be weird not to have Channeling too in a lot of cases. For a Pyromancer, they should definitely have both. A concept like Morty, who doesn't do any real evocation but can perform ectomancy at evocation's speed, is one where you might only have Ritual and take Superior Magic.

IIRC, Superior Pyromancy on the board is priced at -4. I think this was because the author wanted to boost Focused Practitioners, and was designed more like Sponsored Magic with Ritual + Channeling + Evothaum + Extra Benefit all for -4, but...I'm not a fan of that idea. I price Superior Magic at -2 (usually), it grants some kind of appropriately thematic/related evothaum, and it grants a 1 refresh-ish amount of Extra Benefit. You need to have a good reason and Aspect(s) to take it, and it builds on existing spellcasting as a representation of deeper talent, training, experience, etc.

[Sanctaphrax]

If you have Superior Pyromancy, you absolutely should not have Ritual or Channeling (Fire). That'd be like having Channeling and Evocation, since Ritual and Channeling are both strict subsets of Sponsored Magic.

If you wanna rewrite the Power like dragoonbuster did, that ought to work fine. But if you're using it as written it replaces the lesser Powers.

And yes, that does mean there's no mechanical reason to take Channeling + Ritual. But that was already the case; as Superior Pyromancy shows, Channeling + Ritual is just plain worse than Sponsored Magic. And if you plan on buying Refinements, it's also clearly inferior to Evocation + Thaumaturgy.

Focused Practitioners get a rough deal.