Enchanting Economics

[arconom]

I bet a Threshold mage could charge up a boomstick fairly quickly.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by arconom

I bet a Threshold mage could charge up a boomstick fairly quickly.

Yeah but doesnt help the overall production rate.
First Threshold style mage I ever ran into was Ysgarth. Loved that system, came out in 1980 or so. made a big difference in how we played with having to budget magic not for the day but for the month.
Hal is write this has been done to death and we did answer the ops questions.
He just read part of the rules wrong so came to a conclusion that wont work.

Q&D enchanters just need bigger ERs or maybe Mass magic :) I can see a stadium full of people all being told to bless this item so I can sell it :)
Could work for say enchanting that new purification hoop for the sewage plant though.....

S&S well that has had numerous suggestions to increase how much energy can be put in as well.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by arconom

I guess the wizard who created Steal Energy only needed it as a prerequisite and didn't actually intend to use it.

He probably had One College Magery (Necromancy). A lot of icky cool but actually inferior Necromancy spells make more sense if the Necromancer had no better choices.

[Anaraxes]

... or just wanted a way to take energy from unwilling (if helpless) prisoners. Lend Energy is voluntary. You can't force people to cast it. Steal Energy is something you can choose to do by your own volition.

[daniel_gudman]

I actually did look at Steal Energy; my thinking was, you hire a totally unskilled day-laborer type, and his whole job is getting the life-force wrenched from his body.

But, even if you're paying them a Poor wage, which is 1/5th of what the you'd be paying Energy-Lenders, they're 1/6th as productive: because of the 3:1 differences of Steal vs. Lend Energy plus the 2:1 difference of the mage having Recover Energy. So they cost 6/5ths as much per energy point. So it's more expensive.

And the Enchanter has to cast the magic rather than have it cost on them; having them seems simpler and less problem-inviting.

Of course, that's assuming an ethical necromancer. If they're renting a cabin on a boat doing the Africa to South Carolina run in about 1790 on a Magic is Real parallel world, then they could pay a pittance to the boat captain for slave "labor" that's pure margin anyway. Personally I think that would be a great "indirect villain" to confront the PCs with... what he's doing is wrong but legal, and he'll sell them magical equipment at lower cost than they would otherwise be able to get. Of course, if we're going to be using unwilling participants, it would probably be time to start digging up explicit human sacrifice rules and go deeper.

Or if you wanted to give your players a "What Measure a Non-Human" ethical problem, the necromancer siphons from a race of ensorcelled pigs that got their IQ bumped from 5 to 6; they're now valid targets for Steal Energy since they're sapient, AND they produce delicious bacon!

[Stegyre]

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

the necromancer siphons from a race of ensorcelled pigs that got their IQ bumped from 5 to 6; they're now valid targets for Steal Energy since they're sapient, AND they produce delicious bacon!

And I'm sure they're all doing secretarial work, too.