Forbidden Magic Front & Magic Laundering

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Railstar

Overall, I definitely think individual collections of spells is a far better solution to trying to learn a second style from the ground up.

Well you still need Style Familiarity in a respectable style, or you won't have the social connections you say you need.

[Railstar]

I’ve edited the starter post to make my question more clear, since the derailing about Style Familiarity has been persistent.

For those who don't want to go back to the start, I've repeated the question here.

Which spells are best for a wizard to earn an income or provide a cover story to other wizards for how the wizard earns an income?

Assume 20 points reserved for these spells + prerequisites.
IQ + Magery enough to only need to spend 1 point per spell.
Please do not suggest Style Familiarity unless it gives a shortcut to learning the money-making spells with fewer points.

[sir_pudding]

Bless Plants.

[Railstar]

Thanks, that’s one possible route - Seek Plant [1] Identify Plant [1] Heal Plant [1] Bless Plants [1].

Benefits from a fairly short prerequisite list. Downside is if Lifebane is common among their main school it might be difficult to implement safely, or risk discovery to use.

Looking up plant spells and possible shortcuts for prerequisites I discovered Wither Plant could be used to benefit crops – because you can target “everything but one type of plant” as a weedkiller spell to purify crops. Double energy cost but it could be used as a fake Bless Plants.

[ericthered]

20 points is enough to do just about anything short of being an archmage in something.

Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing, Major Healing, Cure Disease is probably enough to learn a living anywhere you go. That was 6 points, if you spent two on major healing.

If you've got Magery 3 (and if you're a PC that's more than likely), then Great Healing, Restoration, and regeneration are within your grasp, without even expending the full 20 points!

Note that the first circle of Onyx spells are all from different schools. If you add four more colleges, you have access to the "1 spell from 10 colleges" spells. Which are all nice. Enchantment can be lucrative. Gate spells take a little more marketing to turn into cash, but are fantastic in adventures and people will pay to be whisked from one place to another. Those two are both fairly cheap and give you a good way to make money.

But really, with a 20 point budget, the question is "What's the best way for a mage to make money?"

[jason taylor]

Become a hit man.

[Railstar]

Originally Posted by ericthered

20 points is enough to do just about anything short of being an archmage in something.

Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing, Major Healing, Cure Disease is probably enough to learn a living anywhere you go. That was 6 points, if you spent two on major healing.

If you've got Magery 3 (and if you're a PC that's more than likely), then Great Healing, Restoration, and regeneration are within your grasp, without even expending the full 20 points!

Note that the first circle of Onyx spells are all from different schools. If you add four more colleges, you have access to the "1 spell from 10 colleges" spells. Which are all nice. Enchantment can be lucrative. Gate spells take a little more marketing to turn into cash, but are fantastic in adventures and people will pay to be whisked from one place to another. Those two are both fairly cheap and give you a good way to make money.

But really, with a 20 point budget, the question is "What's the best way for a mage to make money?"

I was thinking 20 points gives a lot of options. That’s the main reason I was so vehemently opposed to taking a second style – because with 20 points you can learn 2-3 prerequisite chains, and appear as an expert in your field of magic, as long as you are not attempting to conform to a style with ranks in it (in which case you can barely finish the second rank).

Enchantment spells, Gate spells & limited Healing I like – because they go into things the wizard would find worthwhile anyway, meaning those points are not just solely for appearances, but for things the wizard would happily use too. I’d be particularly interested in what you think are the most marketable enchantments or how you would plan on marketing Gate magic into a business venture.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Become a hit man.

Tempting, but perhaps not the best approach to take when wanting to appear as an upstanding citizen.