Bartholomeus of Verditius - INACTIVE

[Arthur]

@Trogdor

@Arthur

1. Prepare item for enchantment: Wand of elm with glass and an emerald (20 pawns of space) -- Costs 15 pawns (4 for wood wand, 1 for glass, 15 for emerald, -5 for Craft) -- Sell for 60 pawns

Is opening an item for enchantment really something that we can do for hire, selling for 3x the vis cost? Because that is by far the most efficient use of a season that I can think of. (A profit of 45 vis for one season of work? Sign me up!)

Yes, I realize that Bartholomeus has the advantage of being a Verditius and needing only 15 vis to open the item, whereas most everyone else needs 20 (and a higher MT). But even without that efficiency, selling an opened item is staggeringly good for return on investment.

Assuming a similar MT of 8 for a non-Verditius, that's still opening a device with 15 pawns of space for 15 vis and selling it for 45 vis, a profit of 30 vis for a season of work. Nothing else even comes close.

When I asked about it, Jonathan stated that this service was only in demand in limited circumstances. In his reply he specified:

@Jonathan.Link

@Arthur

EDIT: Can "empty" items (just prepared for enchantment with no effect invested) be sold? That is probably the most efficient way to earn vis for a younger Verditius.

Yeah, I can see the allure to doing that. However, I think that this would be a task that any Verditius would find unworthy of his Art. These would be exceedingly rare commissions, IMO, with only items that have a lot of components, or a high vis cost for preparing being eligible. Say 8 components (shape and material limits) or at least 20 pawns needed to open the item?

I limited myself to doing this only once for a big-ticket item like that, with a few other times Bartholomeus enchanting and selling lesser items instead. So I think I was reasonable here. I even gave the item a specific purpose for the opening: "So he spent some time preparing a wand for a magus who was looking to hunt a dragon (a wand of elm with an emerald and glass)." That specific makeup provided multiple bonuses for someone looking to enchant destructive effects against dragonkind, and wouldn't have been easy to prepare by a more action-oriented magus. Getting Magic Theory to 10 is a massive investment of xp.