Let's all take a deep breath, and try hard not to flame each other. I assume you have positive intent, please respond with the same courtesy.
*sigh* The problem with forums like this is that the reader gets to assign tone to the post that simply isn't intended. I suggest you re-read my post and rather than envisioning someone yelling its contents at you like a drill instructor or a dalek, imagine someone amiably discussing your proposal over a drink. And do me the courtesy of not accusing me of flaming because you've misinterpreted the tone of my post.
The +2 pure mortal bonus is a game balance mechanic. It's useful because powers are much more powerful per point of refresh than stunts are. the +2 refresh helps balance that.
Yes, exactly, it's a balancing factor for someone with
no supernatural abilities whatsoever.
The point of this post was trying to imagine something that doesn't have any powers at all, but still explores supernatural declarations. I understand your opinion that this is a concept that either:
a) shouldn't be explored at all
or
b) should lose the +2 refresh and might as well take powers.
Then you understand wrongly. To cover the points raised here (and again, imagine this as an amiable chat rather than an attack on you).... First up, you've just said that you want a character that has no supernatural ability, but can nevertheless make declarations that are supernatural in nature. There's a world of difference between what you're proposing as hedge magic, and making a normal declaration using a mundane skill. Using hedge magic you're creating something that doesn't already exist. Using a mundane skill means that you are taking advantage of something that already exists. Mundane declarations have to have logic behind them - you couldn't (as joe average) be stripped of all possessions and thrown naked into a cell, and then use a mundane resources declaration to say "I have a keychain flashlight on me!", certainly not without serious rationalisation as to why you'd still have it (and I'm thinking about the watch in Pulp Fiction as an example here). Using hedge magic you could make the declaration with no logical reason as to why you'd have a light source.
Point a: um, we are discussing it! I already said that I have no problems with the very minor spell casting effect using fate points rather than a purchased power but it would have to be carefully policed - full blown Wizards have to beat a difficulty of 3 to put an aspect on a scene magically, you want to be able to do that automatically without a test in the same way that a declaration works, but with the flexibility of spellcasting.
Point b: I don't quite see where you're coming from on this. The +2 bonus is exactly that, it's a bonus for playing a character with no supernatural abilities whatsoever. The moment you add an ability to use magic at any level (even if it is as minor as this) you remove the character from the category of pure mortal and no longer get the bonus. The way I see it when you're creating a character the +2 for being a pure mortal should be the last thing you deal with on your character. Think of it this way... in a 10 refresh game you create your character on the basis of 9 points worth of stunts. After you've finalised everything, if you've got no supernatural abilities you then get given 2 extra points of refresh to spend either on more stunts, or as fate points. You shouldn't be approaching character creation from the point of view of "Well, I'm a 12 Refresh character" from the start.
If you're able to cast minor effect spells by spending fate then you arguably have taken a power, you're just not spending points on it. You've still got (in a 10 refresh game) your full compliment of 9 available points to spend on stunts, and the ability to use minor magic. The only 'must' for this character is a High Concept that they can invoke for the effect.
