[DM advice] How do you deal with your enchanter? - Page 2

Anthony · 06-15-2011, 04:54 PM

In general, the issue with PC enchanters is the same as any other sort of PC crafting: it gives you a specialized form of income (you can craft items, then sell them), so for balance reasons you shouldn't be able to create value significantly faster than a regular job appropriate to your status and wealth level. If your PC can create a $10,000 magic item in a month, he'd better be at least Very Wealthy ($14,000 typical income at TL 3).

In general I recommend deciding how much you want magic items to cost, and what wealth level you want enchanters to be, and then it takes on the order of (item wholesale price - item material costs) / (expected enchanter income) months to create the item; wholesale price will likely be 50-75% of retail price. For fantasy (TL 3), if enchanter is a normal wealth job, figure at least 1 month per $1,000 in retail price, and if it's not a normal wealth job, the PC enchanter should normally buy an appropriate wealth level. Note that there's no particular reason you need to use the GURPS Magic rules for magic item values, I'm personally fond of something like $10 x (listed energy cost). Also note that, if you keep magic item prices constant, higher TL can craft items faster.

If you want faster enchantment, but still want to keep the economy under control, figure that you can spend 1 character point to cut one month off of the create time of an item, and also bump material costs up really high -- at TL 3, if the cost of magic items is $10 x energy, but they require $5 x energy in materials, and being an enchanter (significant effort to learn, and requires an unusual talent) is a wealthy ($3,500/month) job, S&S enchantment rate should be on the order of 10 energy per hour (thus, in a month where you work 170 hours, you can craft a 1,700 energy item with a nominal value of $17,000, but it costs $8,500 in materials and if it sells for $12,000 (71%) to a wholesaler, your enchanter makes the target $3,500/month).

Phoenix_Dragon · 06-15-2011, 10:54 PM

I kept the same costs for enchantment while drastically cutting down enchanting time by completely ditching slow-and-sure enchanting. Since that means you have to have all the energy there up-front, I used Raw Magic, and priced it so that the cost of enchanting stuff was the same (About $3,000 per unit, depending on availability). Also means enchanting is limited by the supply of raw magic, and it becomes a valuable trade commodity (And good loot, too).

ajardoor · 06-15-2011, 02:37 PM

They cover this type of thing in Thauamtology.

I think one solution was to reduce all energy costs for enchanting to a quarter of the original values.

trooper6 · 06-15-2011, 03:32 PM

I did a thing for my Alchemist recommended on Thaumatology pg 104...maybe you could do it for your enchanter.

Basically, the player take the Gizmo advantage (max is normally 3), the player can pull out an elixir that he already made (that might be back home) or that he can afford to pay market prices for out of cash.

You could do that with your enchanter. If you enchanter has the cash to pay for the enchantment, they could use their Gizmo for the day to basically say that they have already done it.

06-15-2011, 04:54 PM	#1
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: [DM advice] How do you deal with your enchanter? In general, the issue with PC enchanters is the same as any other sort of PC crafting: it gives you a specialized form of income (you can craft items, then sell them), so for balance reasons you shouldn't be able to create value significantly faster than a regular job appropriate to your status and wealth level. If your PC can create a $10,000 magic item in a month, he'd better be at least Very Wealthy ($14,000 typical income at TL 3). In general I recommend deciding how much you want magic items to cost, and what wealth level you want enchanters to be, and then it takes on the order of (item wholesale price - item material costs) / (expected enchanter income) months to create the item; wholesale price will likely be 50-75% of retail price. For fantasy (TL 3), if enchanter is a normal wealth job, figure at least 1 month per $1,000 in retail price, and if it's not a normal wealth job, the PC enchanter should normally buy an appropriate wealth level. Note that there's no particular reason you need to use the GURPS Magic rules for magic item values, I'm personally fond of something like $10 x (listed energy cost). Also note that, if you keep magic item prices constant, higher TL can craft items faster. If you want faster enchantment, but still want to keep the economy under control, figure that you can spend 1 character point to cut one month off of the create time of an item, and also bump material costs up really high -- at TL 3, if the cost of magic items is $10 x energy, but they require $5 x energy in materials, and being an enchanter (significant effort to learn, and requires an unusual talent) is a wealthy ($3,500/month) job, S&S enchantment rate should be on the order of 10 energy per hour (thus, in a month where you work 170 hours, you can craft a 1,700 energy item with a nominal value of $17,000, but it costs $8,500 in materials and if it sells for $12,000 (71%) to a wholesaler, your enchanter makes the target $3,500/month).

06-15-2011, 10:54 PM	#2
Phoenix_Dragon Join Date: Apr 2005	Re: [DM advice] How do you deal with your enchanter? I kept the same costs for enchantment while drastically cutting down enchanting time by completely ditching slow-and-sure enchanting. Since that means you have to have all the energy there up-front, I used Raw Magic, and priced it so that the cost of enchanting stuff was the same (About $3,000 per unit, depending on availability). Also means enchanting is limited by the supply of raw magic, and it becomes a valuable trade commodity (And good loot, too).

06-15-2011, 02:37 PM	#3
ajardoor Join Date: Jun 2010	Re: [DM advice] How do you deal with your enchanter? They cover this type of thing in Thauamtology. I think one solution was to reduce all energy costs for enchanting to a quarter of the original values. __________________ My blog: http://tabletoprpg333.home.blog

06-15-2011, 03:32 PM	#4
trooper6 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Medford, MA	Re: [DM advice] How do you deal with your enchanter? I did a thing for my Alchemist recommended on Thaumatology pg 104...maybe you could do it for your enchanter. Basically, the player take the Gizmo advantage (max is normally 3), the player can pull out an elixir that he already made (that might be back home) or that he can afford to pay market prices for out of cash. You could do that with your enchanter. If you enchanter has the cash to pay for the enchantment, they could use their Gizmo for the day to basically say that they have already done it.