Money cost of magic on demand

[marceloyoiti]

I'm trying to find the cost for magic spells on demand.
For example, if the PC wants to pay a cleric to cast Resurrection on a deceased friend's body how much would it cost?
I'm assuming standard rules of the Basic Set and GURPS Magic and a fantasy setting with common magic.
One possibility would be charging $33 per energy point like the Slow and Sure Enchantment. In this case the Resurrection spell would cost $9,900. The problem is that this is much cheaper than the elixir with the same effect ($25,000). I understand that the elixir can be carried around so it should be more expensive, but I'm not sure how much more expensive it should be.

Does someone know a cost per energy point that freelance clerics/wizards would charge to cast spells on demand?

[Polydamas]

Because of its extreme energy cost, I don't think Resurrection should have a standard cost. In most settings there are not enough teams of half a dozen master Healing wizards with huge powerstones or manastones and 100 loyal assistants for competition to emerge. It was originally designed as a plot device.

For spells that a typical wizard can cast them from FP or Energy Reserve, I would charge a few dollars per energy point, or a few percent of the expected rewards (Seek on a gold ring should be profitable). This partially depends on how mages work in your setting; do most of them cast one spell, like Copy or Earth to Metal, all day or do all sorts of jobs as needed? The later will charge more per energy point than the former because they spend longer sitting around waiting for work and talking to clients figuring out how to solve their problem.

[munin]

A similar thread for a DF setting produced $1 per energy for easy spells (10 energy or less) and $50 per energy for spells requiring multiple casters. The higher value can be seen as assuming that an organization capable of casting large spells isn't just supporting the casters involved, but also apprentices, amortized equipment, organization overhead, etc., so can be adjusted to meet the setting.

[Lamech]

The top cost for a spell, should be the cost of a scroll, plus a bit extra for the chance of a failure when casting.

I'll look at the ressurection elixer later to see whats up with that.

[Bruno]

There's a big difference between Enchanting something with the sort of energy costs of Resurrection, and needing to cast it on demand.

A slow-and-sure enchantment doesn't require hundreds of energy sitting around all at the same time, for one :) That's a resource that a slow-and-sure enchanter just doesn't need to do his job.

A custom, commissioned enchantment is like hiring a contractor to do a specific job for a specific period of time. You can negotiate, schedule it in a way that's convenient for both parties, and then the circle of mages can usually take a little time to get their lives set up for them being busy for 8hrs a day on your project for the next weeks and/or months. It's basically a 9-5 job, not very exciting.

Getting a group of five or six powerful spell casters (with hundreds of energy lying around ready for use) on short notice - who aren't already involved in a long-term enchantment project for instance, or fighting dragons or something - is emergency work. It's emergency work that requires expensive specialists, and worse, expensive specialists with a rare and valuable resource.

If they gather some of the energy by getting a crowd together chanting and holding candles, and a pile of assisting apprentices, well this has suddenly turned into the kind of giant people-wrangling projects that event planners usually spend weeks setting up.

Trying to get it done on the kind of timeline Resurrection usually requires due to the stacking daily penalties gives me the wibbles.

My plumber charges me twice as much for overnight/weekend emergency calls that he does for "scheduled in advance" visits - I expect at least that for this sort of mass spell casting, possibly worse.

Obviously these costs can be offset if the PCs can help remove some of these issues - if they have some large supply of energy, if they have contacts with skilled casters or favors owed by them, if they can help organize mass chanters, etc.

[starslayer]

Just thinking on the costs of 'on demand resurrection'-

300 energy

Lets assume that large cities/temples can actually support having a group of mages who do this. You are asking them to put on hold whatever they are working on (so they loose two days from a slow an sure enchantment, allow an alchemical concotion to go bad, etc; at least $150/wizard involved).

Then it's a rush job, so they'll likely want twice there working wage, as MASTER wizards they are likely making $50-$75/day.

Then you need the 300 energy.

Since were talking master wizards they probably keep a ten point powerstone, and have a personal reserve of 15- that means each wizard has 25 energy; and can down paut for up to 75 more energy (So 100 energy per wizard)

That means you need 3 master wizards; charging $150 each for the cancelation of there existing project, and $150 each for there time, and $75*10 for the depletion of there powerstone (since it will be out of comission for ten days) and $150/point for the paut there going to down.

150*3 = 750
150*3 = 750
75*10 = 750
75*150 = 11250

Gives a final cost of 13,500 for a 'for a friend of the family' rate on the resurrection (Basically minimum cost to break even on the whole exchange); assuming a mercantile increase of some amount for whichever lead wizard keeps the other wizards on 'speed dial' for exactly these sort of situations, and potentially some other markup if it's a situation of 'we don't have the money on hand right now, can we pay you later'

[marceloyoiti]

Thank you! This thread was exactly what I was looking for.
Of course that is a simplification for DF but anyway is a good starting point.