[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If you're willing to have metal-magicians who turn out high-quality steel in quantity, they can sell that steel and become wealthy. With that material, mundane smiths can make high-quality weapons, which become much more readily available than they were in historic TL3 settings.

This is where my mind went with this as well. I figure good metal is much more common simply because mages can filter out all the impurities. But what would you peg that as if it were technology? TL5ish?

Originally Posted by johndallman

Likewise, if earth magicians can make it relatively cheap to build (and maintain) fortifications, then every petty noble has a decent fort.

I figure shape earth is about as common as most powers. I don't want stuff like Create Earth though. I'm thinking I'm going to simply ban stuff that creates something out of nothing to prevent economic abuse. I'm also considering that stuff like gold cannot be manipulated by magic at all since it's a noble/immortal metal.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Overall, this kind of craftsmanship makes many fantasy tropes far more plausible: everyone of significance has a stronghold and a well-armed warband, without using up the whole economy supporting that.

I wrote this into my setting bible. Thoughts?

Mage-Shaped Gear
Shapers (those mages who can manipulate metal, wood, etc. as easily as a potter manipulates clay) are prized for their usefulness, despite the fact that it is a rather common form of magic. Expertly Shaped items have double normal HP and DR, while Masterfully Shaped items have triple HP and DR. Add +1 to HT for Expertly Shaped items or +2 for Masterfully Shaped items). The bonuses of this depend on the material being shaped and who did the shaping.
Add +9 CF for Expert Shaping or +39 CF for Masterful Shaping. This value is for weapons and armor, for non-armor and -weapon items the cost is +4 CF for Expert Shaping or +14 CF for Masterful Shaping. There may be other values as well dependent on the specific shaped substance. These effects are cumulative with the item’s quality where applicable. Two pertinent examples:

Metal: Expertly Shaped weapons give -1 to odds of breakage, but give weapons parrying them a +1 to odds of breakage. They never need sharpening or maintenance and are in effect exempt from all such rules. If they are sharpened regularly, the first hit always does +1 to damage (stacking with all other sources). Masterfully Shaped weapons won’t break under most circumstances (weapons over 10 times their weight might though, at the GM’s discretion) and give -2 to odds of breakage. Weapons parrying them have +2 to odds of breakage. Expert Metal Shaped Muscle-powered missile weapons made mostly of metal, such as the Tubular Bow (GUPRS Low-Tech p. 76) receive a -1 to odds of breakage when using them to parry and never need maintenance. Masterfully Shaped muscle-powered missile weapons receive +10% to range as well. Other mostly metal missile weapons or artillery (such as cannon or firearms) reduce their Malfunction number as if they were a +1 TL higher than they actually are (for Expertly Shaped) and add a +1 bonus to Accuracy (for Masterfully Shaped).
Wood: Expertly Shaped weapons give -1 to odds of breakage and are incredibly resistant to flame, being considered Highly Resistant (p. B433). Masterfully Shaped weapons receive a +1 bonus to damage for melee, thrown weapons, and projectiles. Missile weapons receive a +20% to range and increase the ST rating by 1 for range and damage instead. Expertly Shaped armor and shields can be made at 50% of weight for the same base DR, or 30% weight for Masterfully Shaped armor and shields. For vehicles that have been Shaped, the cost increases to +49 CF (for Expert Shaping) or +99 CF (for Masterful Shaping). For vehicles so created, Expert Shaping gives a +10% bonus to speed or double normal HP and DR, while Masterfully Shaped vehicles receive either triple HP and DR or +20% bonus to speed or double HP and DR and +10% bonus to speed.