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(TFT) Hedge Wizardy and industrial magic
Stan's points:
>> Burnish (IQ 8, 1 fST)
Lots quicker than sharpening swords, either at forging or after a
battle. Wizard (and not a great wizard) can do one of these every 15
minutes. It'd take *way* longer for an armorer to polish and hone a new
sword.
True, otherwise what's the point? Do you see this as a problem?
I'm not sure. It's *so* much faster (I think) than what a non-magical
armorer could do that it's a little scary. Higher ST cost (maybe 4 or
so?) would erase my objection. That would mean the Wizard pays 1 hour
for what the armorer would do in 2 or 3. That's OK. Or remove the
"sharpen" function, so it's more or less cosmetic - that would also
make it OK. Or do both versions, one just removes oxides, and the
other is a complete overhaul for the weapon.
>> Charm Vermin (IQ 9, 1 fST)
could become a very cheap "Cleansing" spell (cure any disease
> caused by invading bacteria, viruses, etc.).
Not really. The affected vermin follow the caster under their own
power (such was my intent, sorry if it wasn't evident from the
description). So even if you were aware of the bacteria and targeted
them, they'd 'follow' you at their microscopic movement rate, getting
essentially nowhere in 15 minutes. It could be used to purge someone
of tapeworms or other large parasites though.
Guess I don't know how fast bacteria are. But even if they are not
very fast, I could cast Charm Vermin pretty many times for the cost
of one Cleansing (and not harm the patient, and be a lot dumber
Wizard myself). Can you limit it to vermin of visible size or larger,
up to rat-size? That probably takes care of the mobility issue as
well.
>> Heat/Cool (IQ 8, 1+ ST)
Throw in a max of 100 degrees from ambient in either direction.
("ambient" so you can't stack 'em or pre-heat something normally
and then use this as a 'kicker').
That helps.
Yes you can make structural ice, at the rate of 3 ST per 10 cubic
feet, or 30 ST per day for a 10x10x1 wall. Of course, you'll have
to raise the wall yourself.
Are there any "lost wax casting" applications using ice? What's
worrying me in general is that the spell makes it sound like the
artificially heated (or cooled) substance maintains its temperature
*no matter what*. A clever Wizard/thermodynamicist could arrange to
extract (or dump) quite a lot of heat with such a substance, and I
just haven't been clever enough to figure out how to abuse that yet.
But I'm wary of clear violations of the laws of thermodynamics.
> Is this thrown? If so, can kill almost anything
biological up to 20 lbs.
Nah, it already has a prohibition against affecting living creatures.
It could be rather annoying used on people's equipment though. A
gradual onset of 5 degrees per minute would limit that, but leave
sneaking into the armory and pre-heating the enemy's weapons 20
minutes before you attack as a possibility.
My bad, didn't read closely enough. This application sounds good.
In general, though, were these the sort of things you were looking for?
They are really cool, though I'm not sure I was the one asking. But
yeah, that's the sort of Magic grit I'd like to have in my
campaign(s).
Erol added, amidst a very illuminating treatise on the economics of
illumination:
Whereas for me, the use of magical lights as the most cost-effective and
therefore most common form of illumination screams to me of
"industrial magic!"
True, with one (for me) redeeming feature: It's a very low-level,
cheap spell - so almost anyone, Wizard or not, can learn and use it.
It's "cottage industrial" magic, rather than "corporate industrial"
magic, so it's OK with me.
The 2%/week interest seems reasonable to me, for an unsecured loan.
Even secured loans should be high, because "nations" are small and a
person's valuables (mostly himself and his skills) so portable. It's
too easy to skip out on a loan, so rates should reflect that.
--
- Mark
210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
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