A couple of questions about powerstones

[edk926]

1) One-College powerstones are going to be cheaper than a regular powerstones due to them being useful for less mages, but what would be a good cost for them be on the open market? On the one hand, One-College Magery is -40%, but on the other hand the bulk of the cost creating a powerstone goes into the materials itself and not the energy supplies, so the cost will be much more than -40% of normal. On the third hand, there will be an inherent preference towards certain colleges so some colleges could be more valuable than others. So what would be a good set starting point for cost for them?

2) Since Enchantments automatically fails at rolls of 16+, does the chance of critical successes still increase if you happen to have an Enchant skill of 16 or more?

3) On that note, what would rolling a Critical Success while enchanting a powerstone specifically do to that stone?

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by edk926

1) One-College powerstones are going to be cheaper than a regular powerstones due to them being useful for less mages, but what would be a good cost for them be on the open market? On the one hand, One-College Magery is -40%, but on the other hand the bulk of the cost creating a powerstone goes into the materials itself and not the energy supplies, so the cost will be much more than -40% of normal. On the third hand, there will be an inherent preference towards certain colleges so some colleges could be more valuable than others. So what would be a good set starting point for cost for them?

2) Since Enchantments automatically fails at rolls of 16+, does the chance of critical successes still increase if you happen to have an Enchant skill of 16 or more?

3) On that note, what would rolling a Critical Success while enchanting a powerstone specifically do to that stone?

1. An involved question mostly determined by the economy of a particular gameworld. I would back envelope it at 80% of the base value of a same sized full powerstone. For additional fudge factor the whole bargain/haggle/Merchant roll process that (in most fantasy worlds at least) means there is no set price.

3. I have seen a critical success on a Powerstone roll; Enchant 2 points instead of 1, Immunize the stone against 1 future quirk, Remove a quirk on the stone in addition to enchanting 1 point.

bonne chance

[RGTraynor]

Witchking's comments aside, I could easily see the market price of Powerstones set by statute/guild regulation, in cities large enough for such things. An 80% threshold, such as he describes, could be mandated to ensure enchanters didn't focus on making One-College stones to the exclusion of making full-use ones. And sure, some Colleges are going to be much more popular than others: I'm of the firm opinion that wizards focusing on Earth spells are going to be at the top of the economic food chain, for instance. Someone showing up in the marketplace with One-College Mind Control stones, by contrast, I expect will be SOL.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by edk926

1) One-College powerstones are going to be cheaper than a regular powerstones due to them being useful for less mages

GURPS powerstone costs have always been set by the labor and materials costs determined by mechanics of creating them. By those rules a 1 college stone is cheaper by $8 x power - so for example you pay $1820 instead of $1900 for a 10 point stone. If you charge substantially more than the prices on Magic p.20 for normal stones, you might mark up one college stones by less, but that's rarely ever done.

2) Since Enchantments automatically fails at rolls of 16+, does the chance of critical successes still increase if you happen to have an Enchant skill of 16 or more?

To a 6 or less? I've always assumed yes. I can see how you could interpret that as a 15 cap on effective skill, limiting you to 5 or less, but I think interpreting that way also prevents anybody from ever making a magic item that would work in Low Mana (since effective skill and hence Power would be capped at 15 there too) and that's not how that works in the preceding section. It's pretty obviously not the design intent.

3) On that note, what would rolling a Critical Success while enchanting a powerstone specifically do to that stone?

RAW, increases the Power of the enchantment by 2d. That's largely pointless for powerstones and the rules do explicitly tell GMs to be generous, so you should probably add something. I personally have always liked beneficial quirks (things like recharges even when other stones are nearby, is intangible to non-mages (makes it harder to steal) or recharged twice as fast if you bathe it in blood or perform some other ritual that might be a reasonable quirk if it were required for the stone to recharge)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by malloyd

GURPS powerstone costs have always been set by the labor and materials costs determined by mechanics of creating them. By those rules a 1 college stone is cheaper by $8 x power - so for example you pay $1820 instead of $1900 for a 10 point stone.

The main situation where one college is useful is if you're taking advantage of "The cost to cast Powerstone is quadrupled if the item being enchanted has a value of less than $10xP2 + $40xP" and deciding "You know, I'm perfectly willing to pay 48 energy per casting to avoid material costs" (those rules are... not well thought out. The threshold for paying 4x to avoid material costs making sense is... 1 point single college stones, or 2 points for general purpose stones).

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

Witchking's comments aside, I could easily see the market price of Powerstones set by statute/guild regulation, in cities large enough for such things.

Ayup. Regulation by the State in the economy, of magic and where the two join is one of the BIG dials the GM has to fine-tune where he wants the campaign to be tonally.

With no real input from OP on that question I just tossed out my back of envelope guess on where the 'free market' might fall on value of 'One College Powerstones'.

Of course the value of such stones would vary widely and the college in question would be a large factor determining perceived value.

Dunno I might think One College Enchantment might have a value on the high end of the scale. However per RAW there is no limit to the number of Powerstones a mage can own and use. Therefore I am unsure how many of those would even reach the market to begin with...

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

Someone showing up in the marketplace with One-College Mind Control stones, by contrast, I expect will be SOL.

Or arrested. One use for medium-sized Mind College Only Powerstones is to reach the 30 energy cost of Enslave without obvious assistants and ritual.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Or arrested. One use for medium-sized Mind College Only Powerstones is to reach the 30 energy cost of Enslave without obvious assistants and ritual.

Yeah, the local potentates would tend to want that sort of spell cast with their supervision or not at all.

[edk926]

It would probably be easier for a Mind Mage to cast Lesser Geas on a Thief and make them steal a powerstone for them anyway. I mean the thief will likely have a bit lower Will for defense purposes, and they would be made to do something they already do anyway. Sure they might not have an idea what a powerstone looks like, but them stealing a non-enchanted semi-precious gem is an okay consolation prize. Lesser Geas on an Enchanter to make them a powerstone is possible too, but that Enchanter is probably going to have about the same Will, which would make spell success harder.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Or arrested. One use for medium-sized Mind College Only Powerstones is to reach the 30 energy cost of Enslave without obvious assistants and ritual.

I could also see there being stuff like tariffs on powerstones by college, like maybe the most innocent like healing are tariff free but there's a +90% tax on selling necromancy powerstones.

Not sure where all-purpose would fall though, should in theory be the most taxed.