Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
It's a lot easier to afford 10 energy than 100, resistance isn't that relevant if you are kidnapping peasants, and if you have skill 16 critical failure is rare.
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In the pre-GURPS MAGIC 4e days, getting 100 energy was difficult, if not impossible. Now? Not so much.
3e version:
"
Spectators. Unskilled observers can aid a ceremonial casting; they usually
chant, hold candles, etc. Each spectator contributes one and only one energy
point to each spell cast, up to a maximum of 100 “spectator” energy points per spell. Sincere belief and desire to help is required; you cannot collect a crowd off the street, pay them a fee, and use them for spectators."
4e version:
"
Each unskilled spectator who supports the casting (by
chanting, holding candles, etc.): 1 point, to a maximum
of 100 points from all spectators."
Note the difference. In one, it spells it out saying you can't just take someone off the street, pay them, and expect them to have a sincere belief and desire to help. 4e rules don't have that limit.
So, how hard is it to pay say, 1/8th of a day's labor, to cast a ritual spell that takes 10 seconds to cast (10 x 1 second to cast for ritual magic)? If using TL 3 income...
700/4 = 175 for the week. 175/5 = $37 for the day's labor. 1/8th of that is a mere $8 per person. Toss in extra money for candles and the like, maybe even pay double THAT rate, and you end up saying $20 x 100 or $2,000.
All that just for one HOUR'S worth of ritual magic.
Dumb question time. If you cast this ritual once per minute, 60 times per hour - in theory, one could knock off 60 years off of 60 recipients (after all, you can only cast the spell once per month. One
COULD read that it is one try per target per month as opposed to one casting of the spell per month.
Either way you want to look at it, spending $10 per point works well enough simply for those people with struggling income. Paying $8 per hour is double what they'd normally make.
So - while on the face of it, 100 energy seems like a lot. That was true in 3e days, not 4e.