Editing The Dresden Files RPG (section)

===Types of Magic Users===
Like many other settings, the Dresdenverse has many different types of magic users. We're going to go over the human ones here. Wizards also heal better (note: better, not faster) than mortals, and because of this live much longer. Some of the oldest wizards have lived to be over 400 years old, and if you study necromancy, you might just "live" longer than that. These affects will apply to all practitioners to a greater or lesser extent.

*'''Minor Talent''': You don't have a lot of power or talent, but you have some. To do do anything really significant, you need the help of other minor practitioners. Most likely, you'll be part of a larger community of small time magic users. You might be part of a group of like minded people who will work together to perform magic for a variety of tasks. Work hard enough and you might become a Focused Practitioner, make the right connections and you might become a Sorcerer. Much of the wardens' information comes from tips from these minor talents.

*'''Focused Practitioner''': You can do one type of magic really, really well. You've honed your gift and learned to use it in ways most people never thought possible. For example, if you learn to shape-shift into a wolf, you might learn to halt the transformation halfway and take on a hybrid form or you could use you shape-shifting to heal your own wounds incredibly quickly. You're inferior to wizards and sorcerers in terms of pure power, but you're likely to be respected for the effort you've put into your craft. 

*'''Sorcerer''': You're at best middle management in the magic world. You don't have wizard levels of power, chances are you only really have one or two proficiencies in magic. However, you've managed to supercharge your few skills either through making deals with higher powers or tapping into a source of power like artifacts, places of power, or specific dates and time. You're nowhere near Wizard levels but you can hold you own in a fight if it happens on your terms. The rest of you power comes from time consuming and often tedious rituals. You probably don't have a complete understanding of magic but to most sorcerers it doesn't matter how it works so long as it works. You'll seem like a badass to minor talents and vanilla mortals, but wizards might look down on you for taking the shortcut to power, and it's a truly rare sorcerer who has the versatility and practical experience to take on a Warden. You might get lucky with a sucker punch, but in a fair fight? Not likely. Sorcerer is also a general term for various nonhuman magic users, like the Sidhe and Fomor, who can potentially match or exceed wizard levels of power.

*'''Wizard''': You're top of the food chain, as far as mortal magic users go. You can instinctively use magic, but you must study and develop your talent to truly excel. You have the potential to learn any magical discipline if you work hard and learn, but your skill in that magic is based on your individual preferences and talents. All wizards have The Sight, which enables them to see the true psychic manifestation of the world around them, letting them see paths of magic and allowing them to see through illusions. Its a double edged sword though, since anything you See will form a memory that will never fade or soften, so if you See the wrong thing, it might drive you insane. Wizards can also engage in Soul Gazes by looking into the eyes of beings with souls (and some who don't, lore kinda swings back and forth on this) enabling them to See some manifestation of the true essence of a person. This is completely involuntary and will occur whenever the wizard looks deeply into the eyes of someone. Soul Gazes are a two way street, anyone who is subject to a wizard's soul gaze gets a look into the wizard's soul. Among wizards, earning the right to join the White Council is akin to earning your PhD, being recognized by the premier wizards of the world as a peer, if not always an equal. If you play your cards right, you'll live centuries and amass a tremendous amount of wealth, power, and knowledge. If you play your cards wrong, your charred corpse will probably be lying in a ditch in some part of the Nevernever. You're also able to pull off a death curse, a spell that expends all the energy in your body, plus all the energy you can pull in from your environment, in one massive spell. This often takes the form of a massive destructive spell, but can take more subtle and long-lasting forms if the wizard has more time to prepare it. 

*'''Warlock''': You're a magic user of any level who's broken at least one of the Laws of Magic. Odds are you didn't know about any Laws and are an unlucky, inexperienced kid who just developed powers. Sadly, your life expectancy has taken a drastic decrease because the Wardens tend to compensate for their low numbers with sheer fanaticism. How unjust, right? WRONG! You've most likely been irrevocably warped by the Black Magic and/or have gone mad with power. In most cases, the only solution is for the Wardens to put you down like the rabid abomination in human skin that you are. If you're a Council member, the Council will probably look the other way if you break the First Law, since you very likely had a good reason and you're mature and experienced enough to avoid any warping. But if you break any of the other Laws, YOU WILL BE PUT DOWN. If you're not a Council member and you're sane and repentant, and someone on the Council vouches for you, then you might, just might, get put under the Doom of Damocles, which is basically parole with the penalty for violation being death. The Doom gets removed when you've proven yourself trustworthy in the eyes of the Council, which you'll be forced to join because they want to keep a close eye on you. If you're sane and unrepentant then you're a fucking whiner who's too self-absorbed to surrender your life for the good of the many. This probably sounds unfair right? WRONG! For every genuinely redeemable warlock, there's at least ten gibbering maniacs who deserve to die, and wardens have neither the time nor the resources to try to rehabilitate everyone. They do what needs to be done.

*'''Emissary of a Power''': Like the sorcerer, your power comes from an external source, in your case the patronage of another being; likely a demon, spirit, or lesser god. Unlike the sorcerer, you probably don't have any natural talent for magic. You've been bestowed power by your patron in exchange for your allegiance(or the small price of your immortal soul).  In most cases, you won't know how this power works and even if you do, you can't recreate it without your patron. Emissaries of a Power only keep their abilities as long as they continue to work for their patron. Depending on the arrangement, you might be forced into a job that lasts a lifetime (or several lifetimes) or your job might just last until next Tuesday. The exact nature of the power you've been granted varies depending on the nature of your patron, an emissary of a spirit associated with fire will have fire powers, etc. 

*'''Chosen of God''': You're a member of an extremely select group of people who get their power from God. You didn't decide to become a Chosen, God decided. Your power will leave you when you whens His will has been done, as such most Chosen have powers for an extremely short period of time. You'll likely appear in the right place at the right time to do the right thing, guided by divine coincidence or vague but specifically tailored hints from The Almighty. Your power is fueled by your faith. (Note: Chosen are explicitly of the Abrahamic God, or at least the mainstream religions, champions of other, more forgotten gods are more along the lines of Emissaries of Powers)

*'''True Believer''': Your faith is so strong that it has supernatural effects. Its debatable whether or not this is really magic, its more like you have a greater than average metaphysical mass/psychic presence as a result of your belief or that your chosen deity has decided to reward you for the strength of your faith. You're not overtly supernatural, you can't cast divine magic or stuff like that, but you might be able to ward off and defend against supernatural beings whose nature is antithetical to your belief (a True Believer Christian might set vampires aflame if they touch him, for example). You seem to be ever so slightly more effective than most when fighting evil; when you give someone or something your blessing, its seems to actually work; when you genuinely pray, your prayers tend to be answered (or you just tend to forget the times they weren't answered. Confirmation bias is almost universal among True Believers, even if their Belief does objectively have power). Unlike chosen, your power comes from your own Faith rather than a specific god or God. True Belief in an idea or philosophy is just as potent as Belief in a god or religion, as we see when Harry uses his pentacle amulet and his raw faith in Magic as a tool to protect people and make the world a better, brighter place to ward off a vampire.