Very variant spell magic

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

What are you trying to argue? That magic item will be more common? That magic items will be less expensive? Nobody's claiming otherwise. That's a logical consequence of the premise. Are you trying to argue that every single mage will become an enchanter because that's the most lucrative option? That's not how people work. Some will, but not all. Some, probably most, will have "make lots of money" as a lower priority than "build things" or "heal people" or whatever. Or are you trying to argue that magic item will be everyday things, like cars in our society?

Generally, the reason not to sell the magic item you created and use it yourself basically comes down to wanting a monopoly on the spell (for whatever reason - IIRC Overwatch's Mercy doesn't share her healing tech out of fear of it being misused, so the reason need not be selfish). Consider someone who wants to heal people. Such a character could create a wand of minor healing in 6 days, rest for a day, spend the next 6 days healing people, rest for a day, and so forth. IIRC, minor healing costs 1 FP per use, so she could do up to 48 healings a day (ignoring casting time) by healing, resting 10 minutes, healing, and so forth for an 8 hour shift. Over 6 days, that's an impressive 288 healings. Alternatively, she could create a wand of minor healing in 6 days, rest for a day, sell her wand to someone who has Magery but otherwise lacks the ability to heal, then spend the next 6 days making another wand while the person who bought her wand does the same 288 healings she would have done in those 6 days. She then sells that wand and starts on another, during which time 576 healings are performed, and so forth, adding 288 healings per week until her local area is saturated with healers (which may well happen after the first week, honestly), at which point she can start selling her wands to traveling merchants to spread healing elsewhere. And of course this is assuming each wand is only used by a single person - there's nothing preventing a team of folks with Magery 0 alternating shifts so that there's always someone available to use the wand.

It seems like what you want is a world where mages primarily function by creating a spell-casting item and then just using it themselves. As things stand, that's unlikely to be what you'll get - unless being a mage is associated with desire to keep whatever they make to themselves (which is an option - perhaps Magery is strongly associated with such a personality trait), you're going to have enough of them be prolific enchanters to result in a world full of magic items, and with most "mages" likely just being folks with Magery 0 using wands they purchased from Ye Olde Magick Shoppe. If you don't want that, there certainly are fixes available (including, as Anaraxes noted, just ignoring the problem and fiating that the world works the way you want it to, Because Reasons, but that plan may not survive contact with the PCs).

Originally Posted by Plane

T28 notes that enchanting is already an exception to the need for at least 2 people to perform a ceremony, so I don't think you'd need to bother with that enhancement if you took (B67) One College Only (Enchantment) -40%

I believe the intent is that magic can either only be done via magic items or via lengthy rituals.

[Whitewings]

Mages wouldn’t have both. Most are Enchantment Only, others are Ceremonial. The latter are far less common.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

What are you trying to argue? That magic item will be more common? That magic items will be less expensive? Nobody's claiming otherwise. That's a logical consequence of the premise. Are you trying to argue that every single mage will become an enchanter because that's the most lucrative option? That's not how people work. Some will, but not all. Some, probably most, will have "make lots of money" as a lower priority than "build things" or "heal people" or whatever. Or are you trying to argue that magic item will be everyday things, like cars in our society?

It doesn't matter what their goals are, mages would be divided into two groups, the first being the ones who know magic and enchant stuff, and the ones who don't know magic but just use the tools creates by the one who do know magic. The latter group would typically be Magery 0. Able in theory but untalented.

Of course what you could do is incorporate tools as a ritual component. Said tools wouldn't necessarily be magic in themselves but if you don't have your wand or amulet or whatever then you're at a -10 to cast.

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by Varyon

It seems like what you want is a world where mages primarily function by creating a spell-casting item and then just using it themselves. As things stand, that's unlikely to be what you'll get - unless being a mage is associated with desire to keep whatever they make to themselves (which is an option - perhaps Magery is strongly associated with such a personality trait), you're going to have enough of them be prolific enchanters to result in a world full of magic items, and with most "mages" likely just being folks with Magery 0 using wands they purchased from Ye Olde Magick Shoppe. If you don't want that, there certainly are fixes available (including, as Anaraxes noted, just ignoring the problem and fiating that the world works the way you want it to, Because Reasons, but that plan may not survive contact with the PCs).

It’s probably because of a preindustrial worldview and a general attitude of “that’s not how it’s done.” A “proper” magician either creates his tools or receives them as gifts from his teacher or some other individual, perhaps in trade for services (make this for me, I’ll make that for you), they shouldn’t be simply bought and sold like lengths of cloth.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

What are you trying to argue? ?

That your reduction of energy costs by a factor of 100x radically changes _which_ magic items will be created. Possibly even in a way you do not desire.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

It’s probably because of a preindustrial worldview and a general attitude of “that’s not how it’s done.” A “proper” magician either creates his tools or receives them as gifts from his teacher or some other individual, perhaps in trade for services (make this for me, I’ll make that for you), they shouldn’t be simply bought and sold like lengths of cloth.

Tradition can indeed be a strong force in cases like this, but you may want to come up with more substantial blocks to the kind of behavior you don't want, such as a Mage's Guild enforcing adherence to tradition. Needing skill 15+ in two skills is a major impediment to those with Magery becoming practicing mages, so you need something else blocking them from using the shortcut of convincing (i.e. paying) a proper mage to take a week or so off work to make an extra wand (or so some enterprising lord doesn't have his battlemages turn to wand production, and outfit everyone with Magery in his army with the ability to lob fireballs and the like).