[Magic] Replacing the Enchant spell with Alchemy or Herb Lore

[Keampe]

Magic Thamatergy pg 227 - Raw Magic.

Using Raw Magic as a fixative gives you 100 mana per point of raw, greatly reducing the cost of enchanting. Has the added benefit of encouraging the hunt for monsters and/or rare ingredients so that the item can be crafted by the mage.

- Shane

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Keampe

Magic Thamatergy pg 227 - Raw Magic.

Using Raw Magic as a fixative gives you 100 mana per point of raw, greatly reducing the cost of enchanting. Has the added benefit of encouraging the hunt for monsters and/or rare ingredients so that the item can be crafted by the mage.

- Shane

This. Also, I would recommend Dr.Kromm's Pyramid article “The Material Difference” (vol.3, #66: “The Laws of Magic”), which examines the notion of “Resource Farming” as a way of making PC Enchanters viable. It used a variant of Quick and Dirty Enchantment, the main difference being where the energy comes from: rather than the enchanter having to supply the energy from his own FP, HP, and a Powerstone, the energy comes from farmed materials. The article goes into detail as to what sorts of materials are appropriate for a given Enchantment, how to identify and harvest them, and how much energy they should provide.

In terms of Alchemy, the Alchemy skill factors into the Material Enchantment process as part of the Preparing Materials step. I could also see implementing an alternate take on Alchemy, built on the Ritual Magic variant of the standard magic rules: the core skill would be Alchemy, and most of the Colleges would be learned as Paths with the caveat that they can only be used for their Item entries and in conjunction with Material Enchantment, as described in the aforementioned Pyramid article. Enchant and Temporary Enchantment would be exceptions, defaulting directly to Alchemy at no penalty and being among the few spells that the Material Enchantment Alchemist can actually cast directly, albeit only through the Material Enchantment rules: Temporary Enchantment would be used to create the equivalent of elixirs (with the number of elixirs in a batch replacing the number of uses the Temporary Enchantment provides), while Enchant would be used to create the equivalent of charms.

If I were to do this, I would have this replace the dedicated Alchemy rules from Magic.

[Taneli]

I've allowed enchanters to spend up to their Enchant * Enchant / 10 energy per day on slow and sure enchantment, and do note that I require them to actually have and spend the energy at the end of each enchantment day as opposed to standard enchantment rules. Enchant -skill is modified for mana level and some other modifiers, and is actually lower of the Enchant and the spell being Enchanted, as usual.

Then I modify enchanters wages based on the setting's desires and then come up with the price for magic items based on that. (Or vice versa).

So, for example, if I decide that enchanters should be making about $2,000 per month (solid Status 1, between Comfortable and Wealthy, so Comfortable wealth), and that the average enchanter has Enchant skill of 15, granting them about 20 energy per day of enchanting speed, assuming they have that many energy available at the end of each enchanting day.

Assuming 20 workdays per month, enchanter's daily pay comes down to $100 per day, or about $5 per point of energy for the enchantment. I then usually double this for finished items, accounting for storage, merchant's fees and whatnots.

From this, you can then easily extrapolate what a master enchanter with a skill of 20 can earn, when their enchanting speed is double that of the normal enchanter (20*20/10 = max of 40 energy per day)

[Black Leviathan]

I think Enchantment was designed less with the concept of making people not want to use it and more making a distinction that it's not something homeless adventurers throw together in their spare time. That perhaps very small enchantments would be done on the road but anything serious would be done in a workshop in a high magic tower with teams of enchanters.

I can see how Alchemy could be used to have enchantment-like effects. Modern steal is basically iron with secret ingredient additives and a secret recipe for forging it. Why wouldn't an Alchemist be able to forge a blade that does more damage or that affects insubstantial creatures, or even an amulet that gives small bonuses to resisting disease or sleep or other common maladies by harnessing the inherent energies of the magical world. These constructions would be more complex than a potion or salve and require a potency that ordinary ingredients probably wouldn't made the grade for.