[The Saucepan Man]

Drat. I knew someone would ask that, and I could have laid pretty good odds on it being you, Bill. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Hmm, access to the means to learn and the intelligence to use it. That, I suppose, makes it like any other craft, but that ties in with my own idea of "learned magic" in a world such as ME. Those with the ability to teach magic of this kind would no doubt have been pretty rare, thus the scarcity of sorcerors.

The idea of whether particular racial stocks might be precluded from learning magic is an interesting one. I agree that it is difficult to imagine Hobbits or Dwarves becoming sorcerors. Perhaps they just never had the inclination to do so and, in the case of Hobbits at least, had no access to those able and willing to teach them.

Mind you, a Hobbit sorceror may have gone down well in the Shire. The ability to conjure food and beer would have commanded great respect. And imagine how popular the creator of the "Bowl of Everlasting Mushrooms" would be. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]