Very variant spell magic

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by Varyon

So, you essentially want casting to be difficult, but creating items that can themselves cast spells to be easy (relative to the default, anyway). The next question then is how you want skill to come into play - is anyone who picks up a given wand* of fireball going to be equally skilled in casting that spell (skill in using the cast fireball is going to be dependent on Innate Attack), or do they need to have their own skill with using it?

If it's the former, you may want to have enchantment roughly follow the default rules (but allow it to go faster and/or be cheaper), but only allow enchanting (or make non-enchanting markedly more difficult). Characters can still learn spells from other colleges, they just can't cast any (so can only use for enchanting). I'd probably price Magery as One College Only - or maybe halfway between that and full-blown Magery, considering you can still learn other college spells and get the Magery bonus, you just can't cast them. You may want to reduce the difficulty for unusable spells - this will make it easier for your enchanters to know several spells to enchant into items. This puts all the complexity on the enchanters, as the end users can just pick up any wand they meet the prerequisite for and go to town (provided they also have the relevant use skill - Broadsword for a Flaming Weapon sword, Innate Attack for a Wand of Fireball, etc). "Golf Bags of Holding" may be common, with a combat "mage" having several different wands for dealing with various situations (Fireball, Stone Missile, Sunbolt, etc).

If it's the latter, things are a bit more complex. I'd probably make most spells easier to learn, and give a discount to Magery as you're dependent on having a specific wand for each spell (somewhere between -20% and -50%, perhaps). This makes the end user have to deal with complexity (enchanter still has to), as he or she needs to both have an appropriate wand and know how to cast the spell. This will result in more focused combat mages. Which approach appeals more to you?

*I'll note I'm using "wand" as a generic term for your spellcasting items - they could be an amulet, a ring, a sword, a quiver... whatever is appropriate.

I'm currently inclined to the first. I'm thinking of Magery being normally One College (Enchantment). Some mages are Ceremonial Magic Only with Solitary Ceremonial, but ceremonies are long; seconds become minutes, minutes become hours. Casting times using an item are normal. The problem then becomes how to bring the time for enchanting down to something more reasonable. I'm currently considering one hour per point for Slow and Sure; Quick and Dirty is fine as-is.