Scryproofing: $65

[hcobb]

"Let's summon a demon to kidnap the prince!"

"Sure, where is he? Remember that a demon only gets 12 actions."

"We'll scry for the prince first."

"The prince, along with everybody else in his court, has a level five conceal spell cast on his person. As that's only $65 by ITL 60 it's routine for everyone of higher than recruit who works for the government."

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by hcobb

"Let's summon a demon to kidnap the prince!"

"Sure, where is he? Remember that a demon only gets 12 actions."

"We'll scry for the prince first."

"The prince, along with everybody else in his court, has a level five conceal spell cast on his person. As that's only $65 by ITL 60 it's routine for everyone of higher than recruit who works for the government."

I am somewhat concerned that the pricing for magic does not accurately reflect the likely availability of wizards...

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by hcobb

"Let's summon a demon to kidnap the prince!"

"Sure, where is he? Remember that a demon only gets 12 actions."

"We'll scry for the prince first."

"The prince, along with everybody else in his court, has a level five conceal spell cast on his person. As that's only $65 by ITL 60 it's routine for everyone of higher than recruit who works for the government."

I don't think that would work.

First off, I *think* Reveal/Conceal only works on non-living objects, based on the description of the spell. Secondly, a Conceal spell only works if something is hiding, or very small, so unless the prince is lurking in his closet all the time or is a prince of mice, he isn't going to gain a benefit from it. I think it's pretty implicit that you can't cast Conceal on, say, a hidden 5' stone statue, and then move it into the middle to the street and have it stay concealed, as well. This would be the same thing.

[hcobb]

See concealed notes on Crystal Ball (ITL 162)

Also Scrying is its own can of worms for example:
ITL 26 "Add 1 die if the target is within wards or a pentagram." (Which wards?!? The spell or the magic item, which is only a pentagram?)

ITL 29 "And it will prevent scrying."

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

See concealed notes on Crystal Ball (ITL 162)

Also Scrying is its own can of worms for example:
ITL 26 "Add 1 die if the target is within wards or a pentagram." (Which wards?!? The spell or the magic item, which is only a pentagram?)

ITL 29 "And it will prevent scrying."

The Crystal Ball reference on ITL 162 just says Crystal Balls almost never penetrate Conceal, not that Conceal offers a way to block entire people from Crystal Balls. i.e. It seems to me it just means that you can't use a Crystal Ball to see things under a Conceal spell.

That is a good catch though about Pentagram saying it will prevent scrying, as opposed to just adding 1 die. Though one wonders how exactly either of those work with various pentagram layouts and scrying targets.

I'd tend to think the mention of Wards in Scrying means the item that creates a pentagram, since the alternative (Ward spells) just notify the wizard when a doorway or 3-hex area is passed.

However I'm not much of a fan of information-gathering game situations being trivialized by magic, so I tend to want there to be more ways to prevent both scrying and crystal balls. Though I'm not sure I'd choose a cheap permanent spell casting as you suggest in the OP above.

[hcobb]

Make a magic item to do it then.

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/house_rules.html#antidetect

[Skarg]

Yes, an amulet like that seems very appropriate.

I think there should be a spell too, just if it's going to be a new use of Conceal, I think it should be spelled out a bit more rather than assuming Conceal can do that, because the RAW description doesn't look like it. Likely a different spell (or not). Maybe not have it be a trivial-cost indefinitely-lasting thing... unless the GM wants it to be that easy to jam scrying... though maybe they do. If it is that easy, it really does seem like it would tend to be a common thing to do, especially for people who might tend to have enemies.

Actually the more I think about easy scrying protection, the more I like it. I think there has always been an unfortunate amount of vulnerability of castles and palaces and nobility and other powerful people to various TFT magic, and having routine ways to block and/or add 5 dice to the difficulty of scrying, crystal balls, astral projection, long-distance teleportation and demon attacks would probably be very desirable both for princes, for GMs, and for notorious adventurers not wanting to be easily hunted down.

[David L Pulver]

I think a lot of issues would be improved if suggested spell costs and wizard salaries beyond, say, IQ 13-14 followed the same doubling curve that is used for XP costs. I think this would be a quite reasonable reflection on the rarity and demand for time of the higher-IQ wizards. An alternative may be to impose a 10-100x cost increase in the usual fee for spells of IQ 15+, i.e., t hose not cast via book. That might reduce the $65-issue...

[hcobb]

Of course there are no enchantments because ITL left out the cost of living for the apprentices and they all starved to death.

We'd bring them back with potions, but there are no potions because these cost more than they sell for so nobody buys them.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Of course there are no enchantments because ITL left out the cost of living for the apprentices and they all starved to death.

We'd bring them back with potions, but there are no potions because these cost more than they sell for so nobody buys them.

Except more logically, the listed prices reflect mere minimums, and enchantments and potions, when they appear on the public market at all, sell at whatever price the highest (and/or most powerful) bidder offers.