TL 3 tasks/requirements that aren't easily aided by spells

[Dalillama]

Spinning off the other two TL3 magic threads, what are some things that need to get done in a TL 3 context that there aren't spells for:

Raising livestock; animal spells can help keep livestock calm and under control, but there's nothing in the RAW magic system that will get you more sheep or make the pigs grow bigger or faster or the cows give more milk.

Harvesting living stock: There's no spells to shear the sheep or milk the cows.

In a heavily Magic-based farming regimen, animal products are likely to make up a proportionally lower portion of the diet.

Textiles: There's no spell to spin fiber into thread, nor one to weave thread into cloth. Those are tasks that occupied a vast amount of labor before they were mechanized. I suppose you could put something together out of air golems, but then you're getting into the realm of enchantment to make it an effective go of things. Likewise there's no spells to make paper.

A lot of other craft skills could be aided if the artisan had one or more spells, but would still have to mostly be done by hand.

[Otaku]

What limitations does the 4th Edition Standard Magic system place on Golems? I only know the 3rd Edition stuff, though to be fair the one Skill a Golem is allowed to know is supposed to be a Weapon Skill, but I had forgotten that over the years. Plus, I've seen more treatments of Golems as servants so having one with (for example) Housekeeper seems pretty handy for a wizard...

Relevant because, even if there's no direct Spell to do something, there might be another Spell that could be repurposed to do it, or at least fake it. Not that I'd want to burn (for example) "Wish" on such a thing. XD

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by Otaku

What limitations does the 4th Edition Standard Magic system place on Golems?

There's explicit permission for wide GM discretion, but if you hew to the default restrictions ("In most cases, additional abilities should be restricted to extra ST, HP, and DR"), a golem comes with "10 points of skills appropriate to the golem’s intended function".

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Otaku

What limitations does the 4th Edition Standard Magic system place on Golems? I only know the 3rd Edition stuff, though to be fair the one Skill a Golem is allowed to know is supposed to be a Weapon Skill, but I had forgotten that over the years. Plus, I've seen more treatments of Golems as servants so having one with (for example) Housekeeper seems pretty handy for a wizard...

Golems are getting into the realm of enchantment; cheap (relatively ) golems are absolutely an industrial revolution in tbr making, I'm looking specifically at spells the local mage can cast/leadceremonial casting of/in higher mana areas are part of ordinary professional skillsets.

Originally Posted by ehrbar

Sure there is -- the description of Haircut explicitly says "Can also be used to shear sheep," in Magic, p.39.

You can then use Hair Growth, same page, to make the sheep regrow the fleece at a million-fold speed, then Haircut 'em again. And the magic items in each case are pretty inexpensive, 100 energy for Hair Growth and 150 for Haircut.

Ok, I was wrong there. That still leaves you with the same problem as Blessed flax growing jn Essential Earth: turning all that wool into cloth. Clean will help with the early phases, but carding, spinning, andweaving are still down to elbow grease.

[dcarson]

Felt is stiffer and heavy but can replace canvas and it doesn't need weaving. It still needs carding.

[rkbrown419]

There are some spells in Biotech that are useful even at low tech levels if you decide they exist in your campaign. Analyze Heredity (if I'm remembering right) can let you know which animals might pass on desirable or undesirable recessive genes. It can greatly increase the efficiency of attempts to breed animals for greater size or rapid growth or whatever. Those spells can work on plants too, permitting breeding for higher crop yields, pest resistance, drought resistance or whatever you want. Create Chimera can yield interesting results especially if you decide that heredity works differently in your world (or decide the spell blends creatures on a genetic level) it could even create new species. There are also spells that will be of interest to midwives as well as aiding in n the birth of livestock.
Tasks that can't be aided by spells will depend greatly on what spells you let exist in your world and how common knowledge of them is.

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Harvesting living stock: There's no spells to shear the sheep

Sure there is -- the description of Haircut explicitly says "Can also be used to shear sheep," in Magic, p.39.

You can then use Hair Growth, same page, to make the sheep regrow the fleece at a million-fold speed, then Haircut 'em again. And the magic items in each case are pretty inexpensive, 100 energy for Hair Growth and 150 for Haircut.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ehrbar

Sure there is -- the description of Haircut explicitly says "Can also be used to shear sheep," in Magic, p.39.

You can then use Hair Growth, same page, to make the sheep regrow the fleece at a million-fold speed, then Haircut 'em again. And the magic items in each case are pretty inexpensive, 100 energy for Hair Growth and 150 for Haircut.

Yes, I remembered that one, but I don't recall one for weaving.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Spinning off the other two TL3 magic threads, what are some things that need to get done in a TL 3 context that there aren't spells for:

Raising livestock; animal spells can help keep livestock calm and under control, but there's nothing in the RAW magic system that will get you more sheep or make the pigs grow bigger or faster or the cows give more milk.

Bio-Tech has some, though they'd mainly be useful for high-end stock breeding and developing new breeds.

Harvesting living stock: There's no spells to shear the sheep or milk the cows.

Haircut can explicitly be used to shear sheep.

Textiles: There's no spell to spin fiber into thread, nor one to weave thread into cloth. Those are tasks that occupied a vast amount of labor before they were mechanized. I suppose you could put something together out of air golems, but then you're getting into the realm of enchantment to make it an effective go of things. Likewise there's no spells to make paper.

A lot of other craft skills could be aided if the artisan had one or more spells, but would still have to mostly be done by hand.

Animate Machine would be of great assistance, but it's got a very high casting cost. And then there's Create Servant.

[Willy]

I don´t know the exact name of the spell, but there is one that makes sure a sexual act will have offspring, others make the target infertile.

This makes raising livestock and breeding of better suited animals much easier.

By the way a reason the first cows breeded for the enormous amount an modern cow gives in milk or meat, was starving literally to death, was the metabolism couldn´t keep up with the needed energy for it. Special pastures and plants were developped for them. A lot of plant spells make the special pastures or fodder unnecessary, because you can make the grass grow much faster and nutrious.