Can Arcane Powers be used with double action?

Question

Is there anything preventing someone with Arcane Background from using two Powers in one turn, taking a -2 penalty to each cast attempt?

Using Powers

As an action, a character may use a single power by declaring the Power he's using, spending the desired number of Power Points, and making an arcane skill roll.

Given a character can generally take two or more actions in one turn, suffering a penalty to all dice rolls involved, I feel this lands in the same category. There's the restriction of one attack per weapon per turn, and the arcane character could conceivably be a single weapon. That removes the opportunity to use two attack powers in one turn.

What about buff powers? Could an arcane character with sufficient skill cast Deflection and Smite simultaneously, rolling Arcane-2 each time?

Answer 1

No, you cannot activate more than one Power per turn. Activating a Power is seen as a single generic action, and as you cannot use the same action twice in a turn, you cannot activate two Powers in the same turn.

See here for official confirmation of this.

However, there is nothing stopping you activating Smite on one turn and then Deflection the next, maintaining both so that you have both effects ongoing and active.

EDIT (From Sitting Duck's answer): The Core Book Super Power AB is the exception, as each power uses a separate skill. In that case, you can activate multiple powers on the same turn while taking a standard MAP.

Answer 2

I did read somewhere in the Savage World forum an answer where Clint suggested that if you had two heads then each could cast a spell at -2.

Answer 3

The Core Book Super Power AB is the exception, as each power uses a separate skill. In that case, you can activate multiple powers on the same turn while taking a standard MAP.

Answer 4

In most cases, using two powers is doing the same action twice, which is not allowed: you cannot attack with your sword twice per round, you cannot fire your revolver twice per round, you cannot cast a fireball twice per round.

There are two exceptions:

1. Superpowers are different skills, and therefore different actions. If you have a superheroine with Colossus' superstrength (Smite) and Shadowcat's "phasing" ability (Deflection), she could activate both in the same round with the usual multi-action penalty to both rolls.
2. If your character has more than one arcane background (Magic + Miracles, say, like DnD's Mystic Theurge), they you could activate two powers with two different rolls (Spellcasting, Faith) with the usual multi-action penalty. Edit: This will only be possible if your setting allows a character to have more than one Arcane Background. In the core rules, Arcane Background is only one edge (regardless of the descriptor: Magic, Miracles, etc) and can only be taken once.