Draw Power and Lightning/Electricity

[Raekai]

I spent a majority of down time today scouring the internet for some kind of ideas about how Draw Power would work on the source I want it to. Why? Well, if you recognize me from my Engineer thread, that's why. I want him to be able to pull massive amounts of energy to help with enchanting. That does work, right?

Basic idea... My campaign is based off of Eberron from D&D. Lightning rail. Ever heard of it? It's a train that floats over rails that are charged with magic lightning. Easy enough... I want to draw it's power...

1. What kind of energy should I expect from this? I'm just ballparking and saying that it's equivalent to your average subway's third rail. If someone would like to throw that together for me, I would be ecstatic.

2. This got me thinking... Magical lightning and what not... How much could I get out with Draw Power for every 1d of lightning?

3. Like I said, this will probably be used for enchanting. I was thinking about rules for an item between a Manastone and a Powerstone. An object that could contain mana, could never recharge on its own, but could be powered again and again. Anyone have ideas for that?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Basic idea... My campaign is based off of Eberron from D&D. Lightning rail. Ever heard of it? It's a train that floats over rails that are charged with magic lightning. Easy enough... I want to draw it's power...

Actually it's a bound air elemental that pushes the cars through the conduit stones. The lightning is a side effect. See Eberron page 125.

1. What kind of energy should I expect from this? I'm just ballparking and saying that it's equivalent to your average subway's third rail. If someone would like to throw that together for me, I would be ecstatic.

You'd be drawing power that pushes a trans-continental train at 30 miles per hour. So it's about equivalent to a mid-19th century steam locomotive. On the other hand, since it's actually a magical spirit that provides the power, I'm not sure that Draw Power would even work instead of Steal Energy.

2. This got me thinking... Magical lightning and what not... How much could I get out with Draw Power for every 1d of lightning?

You can't use Draw Power like this in 4e. It has to be able to power a machine that does useful work.

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Raekai

2. This got me thinking... Magical lightning and what not... How much could I get out with Draw Power for every 1d of lightning?

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=401

Had a spell called catch lightning.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Sindri

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=401

Had a spell called catch lightning.

The Power spells have changed considerably changed from the version in that article.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Raekai

3. Like I said, this will probably be used for enchanting. I was thinking about rules for an item between a Manastone and a Powerstone. An object that could contain mana, could never recharge on its own, but could be powered again and again. Anyone have ideas for that?

Wouldn't this be some kind of dragon shard in Eberron? Seems to be something Eberron shards could do, since they can store spells in D&D.

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The Power spells have changed considerably changed from the version in that article.

Yeah, I know but as far as I know Catch Lightning was never updated. I thought the OP could use it as inspiration.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Actually it's a bound air elemental that pushes the cars through the conduit stones. The lightning is a side effect. See Eberron page 125.


You'd be drawing power that pushes a trans-continental train at 30 miles per hour. So it's about equivalent to a mid-19th century steam locomotive. On the other hand, since it's actually a magical spirit that provides the power, I'm not sure that Draw Power would even work instead of Steal Energy.

You can't use Draw Power like this in 4e. It has to be able to power a machine that does useful work.

Son of a gun... Defeated three for three...

Regardless, your idea about Steal Energy gave me the perfect idea. I'll just have him bind an Elemental to one of his gadgets or whatever and just repeatedly steal energy off of those suckers... That seems fair, right?

Also... Since you know more than I do... Could you give me insight as to how conduit stones might be represented in GURPS? I think I have elemental binding figured out, but if anyone has rules for that, I'd rather use someone else's than worry about if mine are balanced especially considering my idea is incomplete.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Regardless, your idea about Steal Energy gave me the perfect idea. I'll just have him bind an Elemental to one of his gadgets or whatever and just repeatedly steal energy off of those suckers... That seems fair, right?

You'd need a Khyber shard to bind the elemental, but otherwise it seems to work in the logic of the setting. Of course, I'd probably not use the regular GURPS magic system in my version of Eberron, so it wouldn't actually work there. Really it's kind of hard to say what works and what doesn't when I don't know how you converted the setting.

Could you give me insight as to how conduit stones might be represented in GURPS?

I'm not sure what you mean. They are stones that allow the Lightning Rail to function. I don't even think they are shard items. Does any Eberron book actually give game statistics for them? They have to be pretty cheap, since they are basically rail ties.

[Fred Brackin]

[QUOTE=sir_pudding;1434095 . Does any Eberron book actually give game statistics for them? They have to be pretty cheap, since they are basically rail ties.[/QUOTE]

As I have recently started a campaign somehwhat whimsically titled Return To Eberron II:Die Harder my refresher cramming enables me to tell you that Conduit Stones are described byt not proced in the Eberron corebook.

They are also listed in the Wondrous section rather than one of the Shard sections.

What I can tell you is that Ve2 rated mag-lev track at $4 million a mile at TL7, $2 million at TL8 and $1 m,illion at TL9.

I wouldn't use any figure (in universal 4e $) for lightning rail costs higher than the TL9 numbers. The conomics of passenger rail are already dubious enough and what is probably the lower Starting Wealth of Eberron's TL4+whatever^ isn't going to help.

Eberron magitech produced at large scale is going to need to cost about the same as the equicvalent normal machinery and that's how I'd price it..

Eberron might be TL4+1^. You've got the weaponry of the Renaissance sans gunpowder and the magical equivalant trains and telegraphs. The airships could push you over to TL4+2 but they're probably the only items of magitach that really have no equivalent at TL5.

We''ve got to be careful though or we'll drag Bill Stoddard into this and he'll tell us that since Sharn has dinner theaters that makes it a TL7 equivalent. :)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

We''ve got to be careful though or we'll drag Bill Stoddard into this and he'll tell us that since Sharn has dinner theaters that makes it a TL7 equivalent. :)

Pish posh, that just makes them Advanced in Entertainment.