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Old 05-08-2021, 07:22 AM   #32
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Discussing Yrth History & Evolution of GURPS MAGIC

Continuing on a theme...

Megalos was said to be highly organized and had its mageborn integrated well within its legions. But here is the rub. In the early incarnation of Yrth, Low mana inflicted a -6 penalty to spell casting and power levels of magic items. One needed a magic item rated at Power 21 to function in a Low mana region. Later editions of GURPS MAGIC would set this penalty to -5. But think about that for a moment. Magic swords, if crafted by mages with a skill 15 in enchantment and <magic property to be enchanted> - then such an item that required 200 days to enchant would work in all areas/regions save for one, Caithness. In order to get this item to a power level of 20 (21 originally), the mages would have to invest a total of a +6 bonus to skill. Time for Skill rules as they were, would require x2 for a +4 bonus, x3 for a +5 bonus, and x4 for a +6 bonus.

The implications of this is such that it takes between 600 to 800 days to enchant that blade (using a generic 200 days to illustrate for this purpose, a single enchantment) instead of 200. For what it took to create 1 enchanted sword that would work in ALL enemy and home battle grounds, Megalos could have 4 blades enchanted that would work in MOST enemy and home battlefields - just not in Caithness.
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