The top end of magical crafters (for Matt Ryan)

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

So one of my players called in sick and another called in busy at work. My game was scrapped for the evening.

I decided to see how big a deal wondrous item crafting from city and guild could be.

upon first glance I was very relieved to see that it required a major virtue.

I'm imagining that a player who wanted to take advantage of it might design a companion around crafting abilities (designing a Nephilim mythic companion from RoP Divine or taking corrupted abilities from RoP: Infernal would be options to take it further than I have but I didn't use them for this analysis.)

I chose a forty year old character with the following virtues.
touched by magic (because he's going to be in a covenant)
wealthy
affinity (craft skill)
puissant (craft skill)
Great characteristic

A wealthy character who is forty years old has 700 experience to use. I put half of his experience into his craft skill making it a 12 (adjusted for his affinity). Adding bonuses for puissant and a specialization he has an effective skill level of 15.

So lets set him up right with a covenant to back him and see what sort of a craft total he can generate

15 skill
4 attribute
3 workshop
3 materials
5 aura
3 assistant
3 starting item
15 shape and materials bonuses

total of 51.

Our crafter now spends five seasons to create a masterpiece requiring a craft total of 42.

This wonderous item can whip out a magnetude 30 effect every day. That's level 150.

level 150

Fortunately he can not benefit from a craft manual written by himself.

That's pretty impressive though. The character does have 350 more xp to broaden himself with so he isn't exclusively one-dimensional.

So, in the perfect situation they can put most magi to shame in the realm of their specific craft scores and thier specific forms and effects that do not need penetration.

I did throw 9 points of virtues and 350 experience points at the trick. It better darn well be impressive.

I think that for the most part they're ok Matt.

Did I miss anything?

2

Not a bad time to miss a game, what with a brand new book to play with :smiley:

Super Serf's Parma (as I don't have the book yet), but this companion has just started to age. He's got another 30 or so years to work his stats up...is there anything he could do in that time to add gigantic bonuses? Looking at your formula it doesn't look like it.

165 is sure a big number, but as I don't know exactly what effects can be enchanted I can't really say if this is too high. There's lots of fiddley little effects that can end up quite high level when dealing with large area or duration. It sure is big, though. I would hate to think this could be expressed in levels of Creo Bomb or Rego World, however.

3

There are restrictions

range must be personal or touch,
duration can not be greater than Sun
target must be individual

Still, you could perhaps turn someone into a 15o levels worth of dragon.

4

That made me laugh. :smiley:

5

Careful of that Tart! I baked it "special"!

6

Haven't gotten to buy this 'un yet, so indulge my curiosity please. :smiley:

My favorite character of all time is a Verditius smith with nigh zero ability to use regular magic, but fantastic abilities in the area of crafting. (As is common among that house) Would he be able to learn this ability? Would there be a point? Would it be something that he could teach his Forge Companions? (resulting in a Weylan Smith kinda thign)

7

This is from a major virtue: touched by (realm), the characer needs to have the magic in their blood.

As far as your verditious using it, my example poured 350 xp, affinity, and puissant into a craft ability. I imagine that a verditious could put their resources to better use.

Touched by realm allows the character to use one craft skill to create magic items. The player chooses two forms for their character to be able to enchant effects with. Items enchanted can not have penetration and are restricted to the parameters I listed above.

My example of the game system stretched as far as is comfortable without laboring my own sense of proportion, shows a character who can create a few particular items that could not be matched by any save the greatest of the verditous. Yet any magus in the order could make items that are beyond the ability of my crafter.

8

(Just got my book :smiley:)

The aura bonuses and penalties are much more important for such crafters than for magi. Craftsmen will mostly be found in towns. Towns have Divine auras. A craftsman touched by the Divine may have specific ideas about what is proper use of his talent and what isn't.

Of course, as a player character in a Covenant, anything goes...