The Mage career structure is a little different for all the others, in that the different "categories" have the same career path - study, study and more study. What seperates a necromancer from a shaman is not the way they are generated but the kind of magic they practice. A more substantive difference is the style of magic. Styles of magic are discussed in more detail in "Magic and Magicians", but basically Mages can be divided into three groups: (roll a d6 to see what category you fall into)
Primitive mages manipulate magical forces by a mixture of ritual and pure force of will. Unfortunately, since they rarely, if ever, understand the nature of the forces they control, they may suffer extravagantly for their powers and often the precise results of their spells are not quite what they had intended. Moreover, the involvement of the primitive mage in his power is intimate, so failure is usually visited directly on the spellcaster. However, the total belief that primitive spellworkers have in their handiwork has its compensations. The primitive mage may not always get what he wants, but he almost always gets something! Primitive magicians do not generally research spells, they either learn them from another, or find them.
Ritual mages, on the surface, appear similar to primitive mages, since they also direct magical energies by ritual - chants and gestures to focus the mind, materials and symbols to invoke certain powers. Indeed, they often know little more about the magics they command than primitive mages. However, the rituals they use are more complex and more sophisticated, having been perfected over generations, so that performance of the ritual in a certain manner always leads to a certain effect. This has the advantage that mages can be more sure of the outcome of their spells, and since the rituals also act to "insulate" the mage from his own spells to some extent, the effect of a failed casting is less likely to be visited on the person of the spell caster. Ritual spellcasters find researching new spells a difficult and tedious affair, and generally rely on those compiled by previous generations. Some ritual mages do understand more of the basic principles on which their art is based and therefore find it easier to create new spells or modify old ones, but this process is often hit or miss, consisting of the combination of bits of ritual from different spells.
The Adepts are those who more fully comprehend the nature of magic. Rather than learning "spells" as such, they can visualise the mana around them and manipulate it to achieve the effects they desire. In some cases, they employ ritualistic techniques to focus their minds, but the most skilled require no more than a thought to activate their magic.
These different styles of magic are reflected in the way they buy spells. Primitive mages use no power frameworks. Because they are not restricted by the need for a "coherent set of powers" and they tend to learn spells as they find them, this means that they tend to have a hodge-podge of spells. Ritual mages can buy their spells straight, but it is more usual for them to have a multipower. This means that their spells tend to be more restricted - and of course their multipower defines their maximum power level and restricts their spell use to some extent. Adepts are able to utilise magical energy more flexibly - they use power pools, although these are usually restricted to a certain type type of magic.
In the world of Gothick Empires, spell use is subject to certain restrictions - which are more fully detailed in Creating Magic Using Characters. Briefly, there are certain limitations which all spell users must take on their spells, which are designed to prevent magicians from dominating the game, while allowing them maximum freedom. The "Five Laws" of spellcasting can be summed up thus :
To see how these rules are put into play in Gothick Empires, visit the NPC pages and check out the character sheets for a couple of mages, read about the Nature of Magic or check the Magic in Sengoku page where similar rules were used for my medieval Japanese game. In this case Mana is referred to as Ki - but the rules - discussed in some detail are essentially the same
So, after all that exposition, take Magery: (CHA based, the skill roll required for all spellcasting) and KS: magic specialisation - for example, illusion magic - for 5 points, plus:
for a total of 20 points, then roll a d6 to begin acquiring more arcane lore:
You can choose your spells from the extensive Grimoire I have compiled, use the various schools of magic published in the Fantasy Hero book and its companions as source material, or check out the spells in the Fantasy gaming section at Fitz's home page -or any one of the other many Hero System pages with FH material.