Incanters in Society
 

Incanters (DF 19) and regular Wizards seem balanced against each other for a dungeon campaign, but back in civilization, it seems that the incanter has a significant edge outside of combat and action.

If there are enough incanters, it seems to me that they should out-compete regular wizards in most of their traditional social roles--wise old retainer, maniacal overlord, and any other role that involves preparation and long term plans.

Does that seem right to you?

If so, will this incanter superiority be reflected in your societies?

If so, how?

Re: Incanters in Society
 

Do note that the incanter's Unusual Background is more onerous than the psi's, implying that (as of this writing) the incanter template is the rarest type of adventurer. So it's safe to assume that any DF world will have very few incanters.

I agree with the rest of your post, so to me, that suggests that incanter viziers are often the "secret weapon" at the sides of the most successful rulers. They're probably a precious resource, sought after by anyone who wants to lead (or just better the lives of) their people.

Re: Incanters in Society
 

Although I suspect that behind every incanter vizier their is probably a White Robe Wizard who is actually pulling the strings on the person pulling the strings ;)

Re: Incanters in Society
 

If incanters can be trained, there's a strong incentive to send off one's advisers to learn the incanter lens, mind you. In fact, if versatility and skill trump time in your priorities, said advisers could learn a slight variant of that lens:

Incanter Scribe: As for the incanter lens, but spend only 1 point on Alchemy and all eight Paths, and raise Symbol Drawing to (H) IQ [4].

There. Now the vizier cranks up Symbol Drawing as high as feasible and creates everything as scripts. That adds an hour to every spell, but it also effectively replaces all Paths. An adviser with IQ 14 who's taken this lens and spent just another 20 points on Symbol Drawing would have skill 19 for creating any ritual imaginable, plus the ability to have 24 scripts ready to use at any given time. Not necessarily the most effective delver, but an incredibly versatile support ally.

Re: Incanters in Society
 

I recently introduced Incanters to my fantasy game, which up to now was purely Sorcery based (not even default Magic). And I'd have to agree that point by point it would be more powerful. Preparation has its advantages, and the spell construction method allows some tricks that are way more expensive to reproduce via Powers.

But I pretty much went for PK's reasoning: It's an "Unusual" background, and highly based on skills. And IMHO skills are a bit harder to get than most other advantages on a point by point basis. For a 20-30 point advantage, you might just need to be born lucky (literally sometimes), whereas having the same amount in a skill would require a huge amount of experience.
So raising your Sorcerous Empowerment might just "happen" or be caused by some relatively simple initation rituals, whereas putting in another 4 points into Thaumatology might require years of study.
Points being a (rough) balancing mechanic for adventurers, nothing more.

From a pure background perspective, my Incanters are actually Johnny-come-latelys. The Sorcerers were there first and have a large library of spells and traditions to build upon. Incanters are the non-talented people trying to reverse engineer bits and pieces of that. The odd guild of "scroll scribblers" trying to peek behind the curtains.
Most of them specialized in just one approach. My local "Wizard's guild" is doing it the way PK mentions: All done via Symbol Drawing, with masters having access to one or two Path skills.
Plus "low" alchemists and shamans.

Re: Incanters in Society
 

An interesting variant would be waiving the Unusual Background and disallow Incantations - that would be a very un-DF way to do things, but it might work for some campaigns.

Re: Incanters in Society
 

I wish I had some more to add - but all of these ideas are pretty neat. :-)

Re: Incanters in Society
 

That makes me picture families who base their whole livelihood on one craft-enhancing or -defining Grimoire-ish recipe they have. Using skills barely above their defaults, but with the recipe bonus and added time, it still works enough to practice their craft.

If you've got a better or more useful family secret, "pre-industrial" espionage might be a big part of the campaign.

Of course that's assuming a rather commercial interpretation of things, it might also be part of a more utopian, Xanth-ish society.

Re: Incanters in Society
 

Frankly, there's no explicit rule that you need to have any Path skills to create scripts. I suppose you could strip down the lens to the bare minima and refocus on Symbol Drawing. This lens does just that, spending the "leftover" 3 points on the two relevant bits of training:

Incantation Scribe Lens (+50 points)

Advantages: Unusual Background (Incantation Mage) [15].

Skills: Alchemy (Infusions) (VH) IQ-3 [1]; Professional Skill (Dungeon Butcher) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Ritual Magic (Incantation) (VH) IQ-3 [1]; Symbol Drawing (Scripts) (H) IQ+7 [32].

There. Way too limited for a delver, but fun for NPCs. :)

Re: Incanters in Society
 

Hoss, you could probably apply the "Charms or Elixirs Only" (-20%) limitation from Pyramid #66 to that UB to drop it down 3 points.