The Food College Bothers Me

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Well, there's always Body of Food. You think that's just an ordinary blueberry muffin hiding in plain sight on the table, but it's really a magical ninja!

Body of Food (Other) would be a devastating spell.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Anders

Body of Food (Other) would be a devastating spell.

Don't living critters already have a Body of Food?

[edk926]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

Why in the world would someone who regularly gets into fights specialize exclusively in the food college? Well, someone with the bad luck to be born with One College Magery: Food College and a frankly insane stubborn refusal to just focus on weapon skills instead, I guess. I'm sure there was someone like that born somewhere in the infinite multiverse - but I doubt he found adventuring companions.

It's not for an adventurer, but a master Food College mage is going to be one of the most valuable mages out there up until the most recent TLs for sure.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by edk926

It's not for an adventurer, but a master Food College mage is going to be one of the most valuable mages out there up until the most recent TLs for sure.

As long as they aren't sailing through a no-mana area (and aren't more afraid of magic than they are of starvation or illness), a master Food mage would be in massive demand among ship crews. Also vital for an army to have enough Food mages, and for a town under siege to have at least a few. One of my plot points that I sometimes plop into fantasy settings is a historical siege that lasted decades, due to both sides having good support mages and a lot of stubbornness. I sort of wonder what sort of cultural effects that would have afterward, whether it was really one continuous siege, or a series of several mostly-inconclusive sieges.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Don't living critters already have a Body of Food?

Quite a lot of their body is edible, but that varies according to who's doing the eating and how much preparation is required. Body of Pasta or Body of Chocolate would make them entirely edible immediately.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Quite a lot of their body is edible, but that varies according to who's doing the eating and how much preparation is required. Body of Pasta or Body of Chocolate would make them entirely edible immediately.

Ah, so that's where chocolate frogs come from! I do wonder if some food mages in a setting might run a business something like that, though not necessarily with any trading cards.

[Dencat]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

. One of my plot points that I sometimes plop into fantasy settings is a historical siege that lasted decades, due to both sides having good support mages and a lot of stubbornness. I sort of wonder what sort of cultural effects that would have afterward, whether it was really one continuous siege, or a series of several mostly-inconclusive sieges.

With camp followers and time you may end up having Siegetown surrounding the target. Add some melodrama by introducing young lovers born into siege on opposite sides.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I sort of wonder what sort of cultural effects that would have afterward

Well if reality is any precedent, the besieged side slowly decays and refocuses its energies on spells of mass destruction, while the sieging side undergoes an economic boom, a mass increase in communication spells, and invents K-Pop. The siegers no longer have any desire to conquer the besieged (in part because conquest would be disastrous to both sides), but must maintain the siege out of fear of what the besieged would do.

[AlexanderHowl]

Not to be disgusting, but Create Food can safely transform human/animal waste into food for a cost of 2 FP/meal (safely disposing of a potential disease vectors while creating rather strangely palatable food). A single mage with Create Food-15 with 99 nonmage participants can create 50 meals every 15 minutes (5 minutes for the ceremonial casting and 10 minutes for everyone to recover 1 FP), meaning that they could create 1200 meals in six hours. Since children could participate in such a ceremonial casting, it would be a good way to keep children active during a siege (since the participants are consuming 300 meals per day, you are only netting 900 meals a day).

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Dencat

With camp followers and time you may end up having Siegetown surrounding the target. Add some melodrama by introducing young lovers born into siege on opposite sides.

Interesting point. Mind you, the immediate comparison that popped into my head starts with 'Two households, both alike in dignity...' and doesn't have a happy ending, but that's far from the only result possible.

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well if reality is any precedent, the besieged side slowly decays and refocuses its energies on spells of mass destruction, while the sieging side undergoes an economic boom, a mass increase in communication spells, and invents K-Pop. The siegers no longer have any desire to conquer the besieged (in part because conquest would be disastrous to both sides), but must maintain the siege out of fear of what the besieged would do.

Well... um... I hadn't considered that comparison, but that's a good point. Mind you, what happened in the Korean Paeninsula depended a lot on factors that might not be present, but we can certainly say that it's a plausible result.