Salvete Sodales!
I also really lieked the 4th ed. natural magicians, and was very interested in finding out what had become of them in 5th ed.
Actually, they are very interesting as well but their powers differ significantly. 4th ed. characters were basically hermetics who could only use a very slow version of sponanous magic but who could copy any hermetic spell or ritual with this - and were able to acchieve pretty impressive results.
The spellcasting abilities of the new learned magicians remind me more of the old 'cunning folk' characters (whose trappings are presented as an alternative tradition for these rule mechanics). By this they loose in power but gain a kind of magic much more distinguished from the hermetic one. It also fits better into the historical setting, as their effects might be powerful but lack any optical impressiveness. I like them. Below are the links to some related threads (mostly initiated by me):
some learned magician's spells for review:[url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/carmina-for-an-learned-magician-for-evaluation/3455/1]
a sample character:[url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/catnip-garlic/129/1]
discussions about some of their abilities:
[url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/possible-mistakes-in-hedge-magic-revised-edition/3519/1]
[url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/do-learned-magicians-need-amulets-for-longevity/3517/1]
[url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/integration-of-learned-magicians-entreaties/3458/1]
Apart from the fact that I just like the character concept this class has another nice advantage: John Post who wrote the chapter seems to be pretty quick to answer any questions on them - so no guesswork about what the authors might have thought.
Go ahead, get the book, it is great.
Vale,
Alexios ex Miscellanea