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<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Well,
I'm sort of against a Will cost (and even the energy drain I mentioned before),
since who gets the hit? The maker? The "owner" of the item?
Who ever happens to be carrying it? However, if casting is truly limited
by casting ability, then you could have 1000 mana stashed in piles of batteries,
but you can still only trickle it out at your casting ability per
day....</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>And
then you have to recharge them. The batteries do give a mage the
flexibility to do maximum output casting over several days (instead of running
out on the first day, and then being tapped for a while) at the expense of being
tapped out for several days of down time to refill them.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>To
balance it I would make the recharge be "inefficient", sort of on the model of
the Knowledge spell. At EL0 it may take 10 mana to stash 1 mana in the
battery, but at higher ELs the waste goes down since the battery is better made
(perhaps by 1 per EL, to a minimum of x2). Or perhaps x10 may be too
much and just have it start at x5. Or maybe have it be x2 in a
protected area (free of outside influences) and x3
otherwise.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Another "irritant" to balance the flexibility is time to recharge.
What if the maximum you could refill was MEL points per day? Joe
wizard with 100 points of battery would need a lot of days, even if he had
the mana available. Yea, he could have apprentices do it, but it will
take longer. And like "Healing", the item could only be charged once per
day (so you could not pass it along to the next apprentice in the chain and thus
tap it up in a day). Taking a Runequest bent to it, it should probably be
a sort of ritual, not a zap-bam casting (perhaps an hour for the process, maybe
even a strategic turn if you want to be a hard ass). </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
battery is very useful, but if put enough irritants on the recharge part, we
won't need rules for how many you can have, or worry about drain or MEL
limits.-- the logistics of reload will make the numbers low (if you have your
wizard spending the day chanting over batteries, he isn't training skills or
anything. It's intensive work.). If you make it a day process to
recharge (and it should be at least a day process to make enchantments anyways,
so it's not like the refilling is any harsher than the construction), then
actually having apprentices becomes a desireable thing (much like for crafting,
in order to add to the work points). This reinforces the need for the
player to hire people around them (rather than be lone wolves, doing eveything
themselves). Hirelings are money sinks, so of course they have to go off
and adventure for coin. :}</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
hireling money sink is a big game balance thing. When my brother wanted to
go running about with his 10 warrior hirelings and attack giants in the
mountains, he better well bag them because it was getting expensive to have them
on retainer. :}</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932335812-09022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<P><FONT face="Courier New"
size=2>----------------------------------------</FONT> <BR><B><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Burton Choinski</FONT></B> <BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>Principal Software
Engineer, Quality Engineering</FONT> <BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>email:
burton.choinski@matrixone.com</FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>phone:</FONT> <FONT face=Arial color=#000000
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