What is the hedge mage?

[hcobb]

In my table of random careers I've got the requirements as Naturalist and Staff. My assumption is that these gals live close enough to the village to actually use silver and close enough to nature to find alchemist ingredients for silver.

I can imagine a slightly more feral version that adds Woodsman and is seldom seen in settled lands.

[Skarg]

It's a term for people who know some useful spells in a village setting. There's no standard spell list.

[FireHorse]

I have always taken the term "hedge" as being functionally synonymous with "unaffiliated" — a self-taught loner from the sticks, rather than a graduate of some wizards' academy.

[hcobb]

Anybody in a tradition of pre-literate magical rituals passed down directly from predecessor to disciple I would classify as a shaman, closely tied to the functioning of their society.

My vision of Hedge mages has them learning at the very fringes of WG.

[RVA_Grandpa]

Originally Posted by FireHorse

I have always taken the term "hedge" as being functionally synonymous with "unaffiliated" — a self-taught loner from the sticks, rather than a graduate of some wizards' academy.

That fits the description of a NPC in our game. He was originally a bear, but a powerful wizard changed him into human form. Now he is a hermit living in the woods who has been studying magic on his own, hoping to reverse the spell and return to his bear form.

[amenditman]

Hedge wizard is traditionally one not trained at a formal school.

My campaign a Wizard is one who attended a school as part of the Wizard's Guild and is required to have the Aid spell. A hedge wizard has no formal affiliation to the Wizard's Guild and has not been trained by them. No Aid spell required.

[Shostak]

I thought hedge wizards were those who were educated in hedge schools, illegal schools for persecuted groups that perpetuate forbidden (perhaps subversive) knowledge. Hedge mages would be in opposition to the Wizards' Guild.

[hcobb]

My calculation is that a formal Wizard Academy education is $25k, half of which comes from the parents and half from general Wizard Guild dues.

In comparison training and arming an army recruit only takes $3500.

What is missing from your ad-hoc mages so they don't cost so much? Literacy?

[amenditman]

My hedge wizards are usually self-taught or had an apprenticeship to a recognized hedge wizard/witch, tribal shaman, etc.

They don't have Staff, not required to have Aid, usually know how to do things useful in a rural village. Probably have some mundane skill learned from family.

[FireHorse]

Originally Posted by hcobb

…What is missing from your ad-hoc mages so they don't cost so much? Literacy?

I would imagine that a Hedge Mage probably gets a much smaller (or at the very least, different and probably much more specialized) selection of spells than an Academy / Guild Wizard. The Hedge Mage can only learn what their mentor / trainer happened to know, while the other has access to a whole organization of teachers, or even whole Libraries full of knowledge.