Enchanting an Item Str cost

[Tywyll]

Can someone explain to me how mages afford the Str cost for enchantments? Is it an all day process so you can recover lost fatigue while you dither with it?

I understand Apprentices and the Aid spell adding. Can they recoup and add more?

[hcobb]

25 fatigue times 15 minutes rest per point = 6 and a quarter hours in an eight hour shift just lying around.

ITL 154: "This ST is not used all at once; it is expended in small bits as the wizard does the thousand-and-one thaumaturgical operations required to prepare for a permanent enchantment. Apprentices are a must."

My take on it is that the apprentices take turns watching the figurative pot and alerting the wizard so it doesn't boil over. Therefore only a single apprentice can be replaced with ST alternatives such as a half-dozen drainies, or a rack full of one-point stones, etc.

[Anaraxes]

ITL also specifies that an apprentice supplies no more than 25 ST/day to enchantment. (hcobb's calculation gives you an idea why.)

That's also a reasonable number for the mage himself -- if he has to rest 6.5 hours just to recover, and is working at half efficiency for the "real" work, that's a 13-hour day, every day, for weeks.

So, just divide the ST/day cost by 25, and that's how many mages you're going to need for the project.

(Like most old-school games, enchanting significant items for personal use was not expected to be a PC in-game activity.)

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

ITL also specifies that an apprentice supplies no more than 25 ST/day to enchantment. (hcobb's calculation gives you an idea why.)

That's also a reasonable number for the mage himself -- if he has to rest 6.5 hours just to recover, and is working at half efficiency for the "real" work, that's a 13-hour day, every day, for weeks.

So, just divide the ST/day cost by 25, and that's how many mages you're going to need for the project.

(Like most old-school games, enchanting significant items for personal use was not expected to be a PC in-game activity.)

A wizard can also use Powerstone/Strength batteries in enchanting. And those could be recharged by another group of apprentices off site.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

A wizard can also use Powerstone/Strength batteries in enchanting. And those could be recharged by another group of apprentices off site.

Which increases total ST cost by a factor of five, even if the powerstones are free.

There simply are not enough adult wizards in Dran to provide the ST for the things ITL says they do. My fix is to dip into vocational education to provide the ST needed to keep the lights on. What's yours?

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/wizards_dran.html

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

A wizard can also use Powerstone/Strength batteries in enchanting.

Yes, certainly. No doubt an early investment for the serious enchanting circle.

[Skarg]

You just need enough assistants. They don't necessarily need to be wizards, just people with IQ 9 who get trained in the Aid spell. In our old TFT campaigns, where all non-wizards had -4 DX to cast spells, there were still such non-wizard assistants, particularly in places where there was a lot of servitude and/or slavery available. Flocks of non-wizard hobgoblin apprentices were "a thing"...

[hcobb]

What is the non-wizard Aider doing in their resting minutes?

Take the Gate Station example:

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/wizards_dran.html#Station

The four adult wizards and the eight vocational education ST batteries are all there studying magic between the gate flickers. They don't disrupt the situation because they either have their noses in books or they're quietly discussing aspects of magic with each other.

Put a non-wizard on that platform and what would he talk about?

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

What is the non-wizard Aider doing in their resting minutes?
...
Put a non-wizard on that platform and what would he talk about?

Well the ones assisting enchanters might be doing various mundane tasks that are needed for the enchantment.

As for your resting gate station attendants, just because they're not a wizard doesn't mean they're not interested in magic. Perhaps they are studying other spells or other books on other subjects, or studying artist/calligrapher, or all of the above and more. But you could well be right that the "culture" of the attendants at your gate stations doesn't admit non-wizards.

[hcobb]

For enchantments the question I have is how does an apprentice know the timing and size of the Aid spell to cast? A wizard either has some sort of mystic sense as to how spells work (various mentions of this in the book) or has spent a decade as a child watching spellcasting over and over again. A non-wizard could be standing there not knowing when or how much.