Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
(a) it was the standard trope at the time -- and still may be, given that relatively few fictional mages just whip up backpacks full of magic items customized to their problem at hand, as opposed to all the elite craftsmen laboring a lifetime to produce their one unique masterwork; and (b) it's not that interesting to have a PC that just sits around in a lab creating and mailing stuff to some other, active, PCs to use. In fact, that usually gets gets abused into an NPC / Ally of the real PCs.
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Sure, but if enchanting stuff took a reasonable amount of time (a few days to a few weeks) and prices for enchanted goods came mostly from material costs (due to magical reagents or whatever), then you could still have 'magician can't whip up permanent magical items customized to situation at hand immediately' and 'no need to have player sit in lab all day while everyone else adventures' along with 'more reasonable economic assumptions'. It'd also get away from the current non-trope of 'GURPS enchanters have to work together', which isn't a trope in any fiction I can think of.