Eberron - anyone has a conversion?

[Jürgen Hubert]

Thread necromancy!

I've been reading through my old Eberron books recently, and now that I've got some more GURPS 4E experience under my hood (both as GM and as player) I think I'd do some things differently.

Let me start with Enchanting - which, after all, is a huge part of the flavor of the world.


First of all, Quick and Dirty enchantments do not exist on Eberron (in order to avoid some weird economics and "cheap tricks" from the other new rules edition). However, Slow and Sure enchantment allows you to put 10 energy points into an item per day and enchanter. Should the enchantment cost less than the available energy points per day, the time to create the enchantment is reduced proportionally. For example, if five enchanters (with a total of 50 energy points per day) wish to enchant a one point powerstone (with an energy cost of 20), then the total time is (8 hours)x(20/50) = 3.2 hours (or 3 hours and 12 minutes).

Furthermore, creating magic items requires consumable "enchanting supplies" for a flat cost of $25 per energy point.

So, what do magic items generally cost? Well, Eberron is a TL3+2 world, so base daily wage for an enchanter is $50, or $5 per energy point - so the total "base cost" of enchantments is $30 per energy point. However, there is always a chance of failure as well as a merchant markups. Thanks to House Cannith, magic items are generally sold at a flat rate of $33 per energy point (as it can be assumed that they can get enchanting supplies cheaper due to bulk rates and also profit from custom "enchanting lines" like their creation forges, which makes production cheaper still).

A new spell of the Enchantment college also helps with speedy enchantment:

Transfer Essence (VH)

You can transfer the energy embedded in a single existing enchantment to a new enchantment as part of the enchantment process. You must know the enchantment whose energy you transfer. If you fail the skill roll, the energy is lost and the original magic item loses its enchantment.
Example: You know the Accuracy enchantment and have acquired a magic sword with Accuracy +1 (enchanted with 250 energy points). You wish to enchant a staff of Fireball (which requires 800 energy points to enchant). With Transfer Essence you can transfer those 250 energy points to the new enchantment, reducing the remaining energy cost to 550.
Duration: Permanent
Time to Cast: Transfer Essence replaces one day of the enchantment process and takes 8 hours to cast.
Prerequisite: Enchant


A new perk is available:

Master Enchanter:

Your Magery (Enchantment College) counts as full Magery for the purpose of learning and using spells from other colleges - but only for enchantment purposes.


Enchanters can also buy Modular Ability (Super-Memorization) with the Limitations (Spells for Enchanting Purposes Only, -50%) and Preparation Required (10 minutes, -30%), for a total of -80%. Basically, by reading up on the spells in spellbooks, enchanters can create enchantments for those spells even if they cannot cast them. However, they still need to learn any prerequisites for those spells, either with further slots their Modular Ability or the hard way. At the GM's option, those with Quick Gadgeteer (Magical) can buy off the Preparation Required limitation, or even change the Modular Ability to Cosmic.


Finally, there is a new variant to Gadgeteer:

Gadgeteer (Magical)

Magical gadgeteers can invent and create new enchantments that don't fit into the normal systems for enchantments, such as artifacts, eldritch machines, and creation forges and other industrial enchantment lines (though in the latter cases they had better be a member of House Cannith or they will get a visit from them once they find out). Furthermore, they can "cannibalize" existing magic items and use them as "enchanting supplies". Quick Gadgeteers can use Transfer Essence to drastically reduce enchantment times as described under Quick Gadgeteering, though they still need to get their energy from somewhere. Furthermore, they can purchase Gizmos, representing magic items they created in their downtime (though they still need to get the energy and enchanting supplies from somewhere, paying for them at the normal rates if necessary).


Now I need to figure out what Simple, Average, Complex, and Amazing represents in terms of energy points in enchanting... any suggestions?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Now I need to figure out what Simple, Average, Complex, and Amazing represents in terms of energy points in enchanting... any suggestions?

Well, pick some examples and see if you can find a pattern. That's a good place to start.

So: At the extreme end, I think we can agree a Great Healing item is Amazing (4000 energy).

And at the trivial end, a 60-energy Seek Air item is probably Simple :) I'd probably go as high as 100 energy for Simple, at the least.

Is a +1 sword Average? It seems a classic magic item, so that might make it pretty Average; on the other hand, 4e D&D has +1 items pretty quickly, and that would vote for Simple, possibly giving you an upper range on Simple. That's 250 energy, classify it depending on the feel you're going for.

Shatterproof is the "basic" enchantment for magic weapons in D&D - all magic weapons being pretty darn tough. That's 400 energy - Simple (if your +1 sword is simple), or Average?

What about a +2 sword? Is that Average, or Complex? (1000 energy) a 2 Power enchantment or 2 Speed enchantment is also 1000 energy.

What about a Great Wish? that's 2000 energy, but not quite as fancy as a D&D Wish. Is that Complex or Amazing? Restoration is 2000 energy as well.

But there's also 4000 and 8000 energy spells in there, those are pretty clearly Amazing.

My inclination is to go with the following
Simple: 1-199 energy
Average: 200-999
Complex: 1000-3999
Amazing: 4000+

EDIT or alternately
Simple: 1-250
Average: 251-1500
Complex: 1501-3999
Amazing: 4000+

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by Bruno

My inclination is to go with the following
Simple: 1-199 energy
Average: 200-999
Complex: 1000-3999
Amazing: 4000+

I think I will stick with this one, thanks.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Other thoughts:

I think I will do away with the "spell slots" for normal mages. Sorcerers are just mages with Wild Talent.

Clerics and druids will be adapted from the Dungeon Fantasy archetypes.

[Bruno]

Sometimes I feel like Sorcerers (in the basic GURPS magic system) are mages who have taken Shortcuts to Power perks to "snipe" a small set of spells, and then spent the rest of their points on a pile of Energy Reserve so they can cast all day.

[Blind Mapmaker]

I've made D&D Wizards use standard GURPS magic with prerequisites, while Sorcerers use spell levels tied to Magery level that contain exactly the same spells Wizards use, but Sorcerers can chose whatever spells they want without regard to prerequisites. They are, however, restricted to a maximum of (Magery minus spell level) spells from a given level. Sorcerers can have more Magery and Energy Reserve than Wizards and so far this works fine. It makes Sorcerers powerful, but less versatile than wizards - a good choice for less experienced players, too.

Thinking about it, this is basically Bruno's approach with less bookkeeping for Shortcut to Power perks.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I've made D&D Wizards use standard GURPS magic with prerequisites, while Sorcerers use spell levels tied to Magery level that contain exactly the same spells Wizards use, but Sorcerers can chose whatever spells they want without regard to prerequisites. They are, however, restricted to a maximum of (Magery minus spell level) spells from a given level. Sorcerers can have more Magery and Energy Reserve than Wizards and so far this works fine. It makes Sorcerers powerful, but less versatile than wizards - a good choice for less experienced players, too.

Thinking about it, this is basically Bruno's approach with less bookkeeping for Shortcut to Power perks.

For the sorcerers, in a way, it's almost like how Power Investiture works. I think that's a really good idea to go about separating the two classes.