Economics of dwarven magic
 

The Light spell does no good as a grow light as it would take around a hundred of these per hex and each apprentice can only power 25 per day. Even if you rotate these around that's still two wizards per hex of agriculture.

Meal includes (non alcoholic?) drink, but do you subject the waste products to a Scour or grow mushrooms?

Does the water from a Magic Rainstorm stay around after the spell lapses?

Will combining Scrying (or Insubstantiality) and Dark Vision enable the dwarf to see inside rock and determine where to mine? Otherwise use Pathfinder.

Open Tunnel is much quicker than using hand tools, but please ensure that there are no gems or useful ores there first. Does enchanting a pick to increase damage also increase tunneling speed?

BTW: Does anybody else use the rock splinters spell from page 71 to exterminate hundreds of rats or bats at a time?

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

How do you figure the number of light spells needed for a growlight?

Permanent light items also look relatively cheap.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

Torch is 50 lumens.

Sunlight is 98k lux.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

However that is over kill

How Many Lumens per Plant

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

And each hex is about a square meter.

Hence 100 light spells per hex at least.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

The GM probably has them research a new spell and/or enchantment for the purpose, 100+ years before his campaign begins play, if he wants this to be a thing.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

Gate connecting to a mountain-top above cloud level (or just an abstract point seven or eight miles up) with an unobstructed line of sight in the direction of the equator? You could make it one-way to prevent the pressure from equalizing, then use mirrors to deflect the light downward into the room and diffuse it.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

You need someone to protect against gate instability.

Or something....

You look up from the plants growing on the old lava tube's floor to the shimmering gates lining the ceiling. Your halfling wizard is just about to speculate how big those spiders are, given that their gates are four feet across, when she's suddenly snatched into the shadows. Say, weren't you depending on her to be the only party member with acute hearing?

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

Um, I don't get it.

It's a world with "magic"

We play a game set in a world with "magic" so we need rules, measurements, to play the game

The world should not need to be constrained by "the rules of magic" to justify that some things exist because "magic"

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

"There is a small chance that a Gate will malfunction and be destroyed each time it is used."
ITL, p. 56 (emphasis mine)

I can't tell if it's legit to have a Gate that remains open all the time (though the comment about "public highways" seems to indicate that it is), but if so it would take a lot of sunlight to add up to one "figure."

In any case, it doesn't have to be the Gate spell per se. A specialized "Borrow Sunlight" spell with similar requirements should be possible without being unbalancing.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

I haven't studied the new printing of the gate rules... do they now let light pass through? I thought they were always invisible, and the only way to see the other side was to stick your head through and hope that wasn't a bad idea.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

Or they could just learn the next spell in the college and cast Continual Light with the 6 cost for a "glare as bright as day". Or go several layers deeper into the college and learn Continual Sunlight. Oh wait, wrong game.

Seriously if you are looking at the economics of magic too deeply in any game system, it's probably not going to work well using the spells listed in the rules book. By definition those are optimized and priced for adventuring use, not economic utility. We've been having this debate since people started asking how Rock to Mud altered the economics of building dungeons.

Re: Economics of dwarven magic
 

IQ 12 Knead Stone(T) The subject can mold solid stone with her hands as if it were wet clay. She can shape five pounds of stone per turn and needs to make rolls against the proper talents. For example 3/DX Potter to make simple stone jars or 3/IQ Architect/Builder to craft buildings that are structurally sound. Cost 1 and 1 per turn to maintain. Enchantment costs are the same as Invisibility save that three doses of Corrosive Poison are used instead of one dose of Invisibility potion each week.

A narrow path one hex long is four x four x seven feet, 112 cubic feet. At a granite density of 175 lbs/ft^3, this is ten short tons. It takes 41 (eight hour) days to mold this with a self-powered enchantment, so just use a pick.