Alternate Spells-as-Skills-as-Powers Riff

[Gef]

Interesting.

I've just started a psi campaign, so that's where my focus is, but I'll keep your idea on the backburner. I'm keen to see what you come up with for enchantment; it is a messy area for spells-as-powers and a good reason to use the standard magic system, but a good approach would theoretically work equally well for empowerment of psi crystals and holy relics. Unlike Sir Pudding, I found that game-mechanically simple notions generated unintuitive complexity in implementation.

The exception is one-use items (potions), which just take a Triggered Delay enhancement. Repeat for extra doses (or charges); that'd get you plenty of cheap-but-weak magic items. That apprentice could make a wand of Firebolts (Triggered Delay: Point wand and say boom) with 40 charges (shots) in a work day (based on fatigue recovery time and assuming an energy reserve). Market price, counting overhead and distribution costs, would be about three times an apprentice's daily wage. Sound like a good deal?

For major items, I predict you'll eventually settle on a skill for Make Specific Major Item, with prerequisites in the form of spell skills for every effect the major item incorporates. A major item skill would be developed per invention rules, each one would be a trade secret, and probably more difficult than very hard. While there's no theoretical limit on how many skills there could be, in practice there'd be a set list, standard products on the market, with a few new ones each year (or decade, depending on how rare wizards are and whether there's a patent system to protect inventors).



GEF