Meditation, Holiness, or Study

Meditation, Holiness, or Study is a set of rules on page 53 of GURPS Thaumatology.
==Origins==
They appear to be adapted from Meditative Magic introduced in GURPS Fantasy 161, in turn based on page 131's pricing of 1 point of Signature Gear buying 25 energy worth of enchantment.
Since 1 character point worth of skill can be bought with 200 hours of study (B292). 200 hours divided by 25 energy is 8 hours, which is conveniently a standard work day.
T112 even highlights:
:roughly as efficient a use of time as Slow and Sure Enchantment
The initial version in Fantasy was even more flexible though because it didn't even need to be spent on enchantment at all, just broadly on "magical feats":
:can use the resulting energy reserve to cast spells or work enchantments. Energy points can accumulate without limit, but once spent, they are gone.
This versatility was a huge advantage over SASE because in a pinch, the energy could be used for quick (seconds-to-cast) spellcasting.
Another huge aspect of versatility was the energy built up via MM could be used for ANY enchantment, chosen at the last minute. So if someone was meditating for days intending to built a magic sword, they might instead opt to build a magical cape instead.
This basically made the process of SASE (short for Slow and Sure Enchantment pointless. It was used instead of QADE (short for Quick and Dirty Enchantment for situations where characters couldn't actually get high energy amounts, but with Meditative Magic, they could get that energy amount and then spent it casting the QADE way, with more flexibility.
Using SASE instead of med+QADE did have one advantage: where casting spells would presumably ruin an entire day's meditation (requires complete concentration) an enchanter using SASE could opt to case other spells at a -3 penalty while avoiding losing his day's work. He'd only lose a day's work if he wanted to avoid the -3 penalty and voluntarily drop concentration.
*This was however counterbalanced by the penalty of being down 1D6 FP any given day, per M18, which meditative magic doesn't do
M18 also highlights another drawbase of SASE:
:"If a day’s work is skipped or interrupted, it takes two
days to make it up."
This type of problem doesn't exist with using Meditative Magic, so it was a more reliable way of building up energy in an on-and-off fashion.
There's also a weird disclaimer about losing a mage ending the project though it's unclear how to implement that.
==Fixes to Quick and Dirty Enchantment==
A relative improvement to SASE (via penalizing QADE) is suggested on T108: a blanket -4 penalty along with doubling the -1 to skill for ANY number of people within 10 yards to -2 PER PERSON within 25 yards.
This actually helps to clarify some vagueness, since the 10-yard minus 1 rule on M17 might be interpreted as "per person" (the example only uses one customer) but T108's italicized per person clarifies it's a fixed -1 regardless of number, which actually isn't that huge a drawback at all.
This was once only a slight benefit (SASE never suffered the -1, people could come and go without penalty) to a huge one.
This would help to counterbalance the exploit of building up energy via Meditative Magic and then using it to enchant via QADE.
It also suggests eliminating the requirement of a final skill roll for overall success when using SASE, however this removed the possibility of rolling a 3 and getting a bonus to item's power.
T108 also suggests allowing Long Tasks rules (more regular skill rolls throughout process, with less extreme consequences) where mages can work extra hours. This explicitly contradicts the initial description from M18:
:A mage may work on only one enchantment at a time; he
may not “work two shifts,” either on the same or different items.
Long Tasks allows working two shifts, however B346 (right side of LT box) requires a HT roll when doing so (penalties based on extra hours) where failure penalizes the daily skill roll and has FP loss.
LT rules do not assume success, but involve daily skill rolls to get the hours: crit success is +50% hours, failures are -50% hours, crit fails are -100% hours plus an additional loss of 2d6.
Since enchantment requires 2 days (16 mage hours) to make up an 8 hour period of skipped/interrupted work, this presumably applies during a critical failure, but it's unclear how it would apply during a normal failure where 4 hours are gained.
Another suggestion is rolling once per week or ten days instead of daily for workers, for long projects. It also mentions failures losing some materials value, but not how much a crit fail would lose.
It also suggests crit fails (and maybe even normal fails) would quirk items. That would be a HUGE penalty if rolls were made daily though.
T109 also suggests a "flat reduction" for SASE. 50% of total time (or energy, basically same) would take half as much time to make. 25% is considered more extreme.
SASE is considered "much faster" if energy contributed is Magery per day (8 hours) although that would be the same as 50% time for Magery 2 (minimum required for Enchant) so "much" is probably assuming Magery 3+.
The "minimum 1" implies those with Magery 1 (or even 0) can assist with Enchantment. This wasn't entirely clear in GURPS Magic. M16 specified:
:To perform enchantments, the caster and any assistants must know both the Enchant spell and the specific spell
being put on the item at an effective skill of 15 or better. Unskilled spectators cannot contribute energy to an enchantment.
The enchant spell has a prerequisite of Magery 2. This could lead people to assume that all assistants (to know Enchant at 15, to be able to assist) must have at least Magery 2.
By 1 still being possible (Magery 1) and it being a minimum (ie Magery 0) this implies you could know Enchant at skill 15 without having Magery 2 as a prerequisite.
Per M12 rules for Ceremonial Magic, assistants are likely considered top tier if :
:Each mage who knows the spell at level 15+ as much
energy as he wishes to contribute.
In consideration of the 2nd tier:
:Each nonmage who knows the spell at level 15+: up to
3 points
The upper-right of M16 does not appear to forbid that (it never specifies assistants must be mages) but the standard rules capping their help at 3 energy likely apply, meaning they would not be particularly helpful, especially considering the -1 penalty per assistant in Enchantment (which doesn't apply to normal Ceremonial Magic). It would probably only make sense if a mage had a perk allowing them to ignore the penalty for an assistant, if they were the only help available. This penalty might also only apply to QADE and not SASE.
Magery 0/1 and non-mage assistants able to help enchantment probably have Enchant at skill 15 via a couple rules.
Even if Magery 2 were required to learn Enchant, once they've learned it they do not lose it when they lose their magery. M130 has notes for two
Suspend Magery (all levels)
*retains his knowledge of spells, but cannot cast them – unless he is in a high-mana area
*in a high-mana area, the subject cannot cast spells that require Magery of any level
Drain Magery (one level)
*retains his knowledge of spells (albeit at a lower skill level)
*cannot cast those that require a higher degree of Magery than his new one
This shows that prerequisites for LEARNING a spell are not needed to RETAIN it, but are needed to CAST it.
With enchantment however, only the LEAD mage is casting it (so only the lead mage would need magery 2). Assistants are not casting it, so they would not need to retain magery 2, even if they originally needed it to learn the spell.
*other situations besides Suspend/Drain Magery which might lead to temporarily absent magery include Affliction: Negated Advantage, or Magery with limitations like "costs FP" or "limited use" or "maximum duration" which might allow an assistant to fill the Magery 2 prereq BRIEFLY to learn the Enchant skill, but not maintain it long-term.
M135 Forgetfulness if it removes a prereq for a spell causes those spells to be cast at -2. This is a lesser penalty than if one never had the prereq in the first place per B99 Wildcard Talent's enhancement Retention which is -4 and prevents improvement. Being half as bad could be due to Forgetfulness not actually removing the character point value of the skill, but just temporarily masking it.
*it's unclear in either case if the -2 or -4 is cumulative in the case of 2+ missing prereqs.
**spells lack prereqs when using Ritual Magic so that's a huge advantage of that system
Time Spent (B346) penalties are suggested for lowering the total hours needed in exchange to a skill penalty. Due to lack of a final roll, this likely means the daily rolls,
==Fixes to Meditative Magic==
Thaumatology appears to have recognized the balance problem, and tweaked Meditative Magic into MHS to create some mechanical differences.
The first is limiting it's use in emergency situations:
:it can’t be combined with FP, energy from
Powerstones, etc., to cast spells.
Enchantment (either SASE or QADE) can be used with powerstones, which is one major advantage it now holds relative to MHS, a limitation which was not explicit for MM.
The second is the SUGGESTION ("GMs may wish to restrict") of limiting how much can be built up: 2 x (Will + Power Investiture) is a suggested maximum. This would normally limit it to small-scale enchantments, since few would have will/PI high enough to pay the full cost of hundreds-of-energy for enchantments this way.
Although it does not explicitly say it prevents pooling energy with other mages for spellcasting (as in Ceremonial Magic: as in Enchantment specifically, an option with Assitants) that would also create another niche for the traditional SASE system.
Presumably Magery substitutes for Power Investiture in the case of "Adherents of abstruse meditational systems, who don’t invoke gods"
Elsewhere in Thaumatology are suggested improvements to the SASE system which make it more competitive than 1/day.
==See also==
*Enchantment Through Age and Deeds
*Clerical Spell-Magic
*Clerical Enchantment
Category:Rules
Category:Religion