From: gip207@sci.kun.nl (gip2 course)
Subject: Re: GURPS: Enchantments questions
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:50:34 GMT

In <5216@equinox.unr.edu> hodges@unssun.nevada.edu (Marcus Hodges) writes:

>1)  In the Magic book, in the beginning section on Enchantment (p. 16) it
>    is stated that the base power for an item is the creators Enchant skill
>    or the skill for the spell being enchanted.  Later in the chapter (I
>    believe p. 20) it is stated that if a person wants an item with a power
>    of twenty, three time the base amount of energy is required.  The 
>    second example assumes that Enchant spell has a maximum effect of 15.
>    If this is true, then the only use for a high Enchant skill would be
>    for an enchantment using multiple enchanters.  What is your opinion
>    on this?

I don't have the Gurps-magic book myself but it seems to me from the rules in
the basic rule set that when you have an enchantment skill of 20 you can
enchant an object at Power 20. After all the character has spend quite a few
points getting that skill of 20 so he should some advantages from it.

>2)  In the Magic book, the Quick Draw enchantment says that any weapon with 
>    this enchantment will leap to the weilder's hand, and be ready, at their
>    mental command.  The question is, what about missile weapons?  The 
>    description of the spell states that the weapon leaps the the wielders 
>    hand and is instantly ready.  The enchantment normally costs 300/pound
>    of the weapon, but has a special cost for missile weapons of a flat
>    2000 energy.  Would the missile enchantment cause an arrow to be knocked
>    and ready to fire whenever the wielder pulled back the string, thus
>    removing a Fast Draw roll and an action to ready the weapon?  If the
>    enchantment just puts the arrow into the wielders hand, I think that 
>    2000 energy is way out of line.  How is anyone else handling this?

It makes sense that the Fast Draw enchantment only put the missile in the users
hand, not knocked and ready to fire (that would take some kind of Fast Ready
enchantment). But since they give such an enourmous cost I'd say give them
better version and let the arrow be knocked and ready for fire. If you decide
to only use the Fast Draw version however use the same energy cost difference as
for enchanting missiles vs. hand weapons. (I believe the cost to enchant a
missile with puissance is 1/10 of the cost of that same enchantement on a
hand held weapon).

>3)  Can a Golem use magic items?  Not just weapons, shields and armor, but
>    what about wands of Fireball or other debilitating effects.  Would they
>    be able to power the item with their own fatigue, or would they have  
>    to use self-powered items?  What if they had a powerstone inset in   
>    their body during creation?  (How many PCs smash the body to rubble
>    to see if there is anything inside?)  Can a Golem itself be enchanted
>    with spells (i.e. Hawk Flight, Invisibility, etc.)?

I'm not quite sure on the rules for Golems but I'd say not unless the
enchantment was self-powered, or if the Golem had a `dedicated' powerstone
imbedded in it at it's creation just for such uses. As for enchanting a golem
with spells I'd say yes. An invisible Golem would still function normally, it's
just that he'd be quite a bit more dangerous. The only problem is with spells
like Hawk Flight which are directed by the user. I'd say that kind of spells
would only work if the Golem had the right `reflexes' for flight built into it
at creation.

>Thanks for helping with these questions.

>Marcus

Didn't have anything better to do anyway :)

Jos
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