Spells: moving out of range

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

At that point it has got to be cheaper to just enchant an item.

Cheaper? Probably! However, stealing or breaking an item – perhaps even by teleportation or disintegration – is easy. Locating, say, six secret imperial bases, infiltrating them, and killing all the well-guarded mages within who are maintaining multiple different defensive spells on the emperor at some ungodly skill level that's nearly impossible to dispel? A little harder.

It's good to be the king. It's even better to be the god-emperor-wizard who prevails over multiple kings. When you're fielding armies of 300,000 legionaries and auxiliaries, who cares if you're also paying for a couple thousand wizards as your own personal bodyguard? Why, that isn't even a legion!

Of course, you'll still have defensive items enchanted, just in case. You can afford it. Always nice to have a few dozen Wish spells on your bellybutton piercing so you can say "Oh no you didn't!" to would-be assassins (and if you're canny, you'll control or ban Wish spells for everybody else . . .).

And you'll probably also have unremarkable-looking guys named Rat and Weasel who just kind of hang around holding your laurel wreath and bearing your ceremonial sword, but who are in reality powerful wide-area Mana Enhancers intended to protect against the possibility of sudden mana loss. You might "just" have items enchanted for them.

If magic can do it, there comes a point where anyone with the resources of an empire will do it for herself or himself. Damn the cost. When you're Crassus or Pompey with Multimillionaire 3-4 in personal wealth, you'll fund your personal defenses – wizards' circles, magic items, Rat and Weasel, the best concealable armor money can buy – out of your own pocket, because you trust your own judgment more than that of the Imperial Bodyguard Corps.

This is really the only way to make sense of stable kingdoms and empires in settings where enchanting and circles of wizards exist: You have to assume the "defender" (in this case a ruler who risks being assassinated or replaced) enjoys the home-ground advantage against "attackers" not just in terms of military and social might, but also the magical kind. A setting where upstart adventurers with a nice bow and a Lesser Wish spell could just take out the emperor is barely a step removed from a Mad Max-level apocalypse.

[Gnomasz]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Cheaper? Probably! However, stealing or breaking an item – perhaps even by teleportation or disintegration – is easy. Locating, say, six secret imperial bases, infiltrating them, and killing all the well-guarded mages within who are maintaining multiple different defensive spells on the emperor at some ungodly skill level that's nearly impossible to dispel? A little harder.

I'm so saving this in my "Empire of the Necromancer - King" folder!

Originally Posted by Fanny

Is there anything like Technique Mastery from Martial Arts for RPM allowing you to buy it above the School/Book/Path?

I don't really know RPM, but is there anything that says it can't be allowed? I'd say it's GM's call if the perk can be used for RPM, working pretty much the same way. It's specifically described as a fitting perk in DF19: Incantation Magic, which derives from RPM.