[PnP] how virgin is virgin enough?

[J Hooten]

Natural magics is a major problem area.
They are quite valuable yet quite fragile under the rules.
If I recall correctly they imply a dispel can ruin the material somewhere?
Also a failed enhance ruins the material in many cases, gems especially.
So some method to repair these gems is needed or literally there wont be 
any more gems to enhance.
Its a major magic economics question!

If its too easy to break and hard to fix then the gems 'value' is lower 
and an enhanced one is much higher
You would only try to enhance one in the best purified and other boosted 
means as its nearly irreplaceable.
If its easy to fix then the failures are not a big deal and the price of 
virgin gems goes up and enhanced ones down some.

I always ran a version of Purification can be used to remove others 
effects and thus return things to 'virgin' but that may have been too easy.
Maybe the El used has to exceed the El on the object before it can work?
If it was enhanced it could still have an MDV to resist being purified, 
but once more low level casters that fail will have little penalty
So either of those do not limit things much
Set the effective MDV higher? Like 20 area?
Thats enough to scare away lower level casters.
Or set two levels, one for failed one for abysmals?
Or use same but set the failure of the purify on abysmal is an abysmal?
So badly failed objects would be risky to bring back but possible.

But remember any of this is setting part of the magic economics of the 
game and should be checked carefully!

There already exists unbalance in the economics.
Large metal items are much harder to make than small ones.
Wood or Leather items are easiest to make.
Thus your small amulets and various other items can be made quickly and 
cheap.
But major armors require much more time and materials even though the 
magic used may be the same.
You may wish to set the skill check needed for enchantable works high to 
limit the junk magic.
Of course some decide certain rituals are needed and thus set more 
effort for all magic creations.
Nothing wrong with that, its just house rules setting the economic 
factors again.

Item costs should figure some factor for that labor as well as the magic 
and Mages should not work cheap.
So much per day plus so much per mana used plus expenses seems fair.
Note that mana and labor costs will go up based on Mel or other such 
factors, so you pay much more for higher quality work.

If anyone has a pricing guide for regular items, I can try to fit a 
formula to them that follows such rules.
I have been wanting to work it out but never settled on a good price range.



Alex Koponen wrote:
> As both GM and player (with enchanter) I play that only the last stage 
> of manufacture from raw materials is necessary for one to be able to 
> enchant it. As GM I would give minor bonuses to those who competently do 
> the earlier stages as well.
>
> Example A: Enchanter cannot enchant boots that were made by another 
> bootmaker or even from leather precut and marked by another bootmaker, 
> but can enchant boots he makes even though copying another bootmaker's 
> pattern and using leather bought from the tanner, butcher or 
> slaughterhouse...he doesn't need to raise, kill, skin and tan the 
> leather himself...though I would give minor bonuses if he did so. I 
> would give slightly bigger bonuses for the closer stages, in this case 
> tanning than for skinning, etc.
>
> Example B: I would allow a minor bonus to an enchanter using raw ore to 
> make the iron and steel of a weapon or armor. I would also allow the 
> enchanter to roll with no bonus or penalty should he be working from 
> pigs of iron bought from a source that was iron ore. I would impose a 
> penalty of a small chance of automatic failure of enchantments if the 
> item was made from scrap that might include some material that was 
> either already enchanted by someone else or had previously failed being 
> enchanted/enhanced/ensorcelled. If the scrap did include such then the 
> final product would automatically fail when permanent magics were cast 
> upon it. This failure might have an increased chance of an Abysmal. So 
> using Detection, Perception or some other method of determining the 
> 'virgin' status of what you are about to work on or use permanent magics 
> on is a wise precaution. Exception: If instead of just to a red  or 
> white heat the scrap was fully melted to a liquid state then it would 
> regain its 'virgin' status. Note that a forge melting iron is much 
> hotter than the usual forge used for pounding out iron and steel.
>
> This makes enchanting jewelry and gems problematical as unless you have 
> dug up the gem yourself the odds are good that someone else has already 
> tried to enhance, enchant or ensorcel it. Large flawless 'virgin' gems 
> would have quite a premium over other gems due to the demand by magic 
> users and their clients. Dwarves and most large mining operations likely 
> have set traditions, rules and laws pertaining to who gets the chance to 
> cast magic upon enhanceable gemstones. Restoring the 'virgin' status of 
> gems is quite likely impossible for low MEL enchanters...perhaps 
> possible for high MEL enchanters. To do so would at a minimum require 
> high EL in Dispel and Regeneration spell variants.
>
>
>
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