[@Dulcet] <3 I like you a /lot/.  Yeah, I figured this is mostly to keep things from getting out of hand.  And because we-the-writers are humans in this particular world, that is the baseline used for the IC.  Even though, theoretically, our lovely star host could have picked anything as a baseline.

[hider=more thoughts on the subject]
I know there's some species, however, where "normal" is "connected telepathically to all the rest", but I think you covered that under the obligate telepath and no cleaving people parts.  I think you might need to differentiate between something that's summoned and then exists (I conjure an ice spear, and it will stay if I drop it, and melt if I leave it) and that is thrown at someone, versus something requiring magic to sustain (I conjure an ice spear but if I lose focus it vanishes).  My instincts say the latter wouldn't have an effect, but the former would because the magic is creating a physical object which then persists in the world, and once it's there it might as well be something you picked up from the setting.

Ironically I do have characters that use "magic" through physical effects -- one guy uses electricity, and the base source of any current he generates is manipulation of charges within his own body.  Or the gal that pulls water from the air around her, so she can't use it in a desert, for example.  And of course most earth-bender type characters generally use stuff that's already around, such as that levitated piano in your initial examples.  [/hider]

<3

UGH I NEED TO FOCUS.  But hey, /almost/ done with Alys's char sheet!