Powerstone (spell)

Powerstone
Spell Class:	Enchantment
College:	Enchantment
Duration:	Permanent
Base Cost:	20 (Normal) 12 (One-College)
Time to cast:	Normal
Prerequisites:	Enchant
Prerequisite Count:	11
Enchanted Item:	Yes, see Enchantment Costs
Book-Page Reference:	GURPS Magic p.69

Powerstone is an enchantment-type Enchantment spell that infuses mana into an object for later use by a wizard. This is typically a gemstone or other small, sturdy, valuable item.

• Energy cost for each casting: 20
• Prerequisite: Enchant

Powerstones can recharge--slowly--when within an area with mana. If two or more powerstones are in the same small area (about two yards), the largest chargest first. This may explain wizard habits of building towers atop high mana areas, utilizing

For an TL5+ alternative see Electric Power/TL.

Special Conditions

Operation in No Mana zones

3e talked about this on page 64 of Classic: Magic Items 2:

• "destroys all mana in its immediate area. It is, in effect, a portable no-mana zone"
• "A Powerstone in a Vortex will be completely drained, and must recharge normally"

This initially appears to indicate that the ability to store FP when lost means starting at 0 again.

It probably also would mean that a Manastone would permanently lose the energy.

This is not reiterated in 4E though.

Contradicting thoughts are found in a February 1987 response to Ron Hauser in Roleplayer issue 4 though

Magic won't work at all in a no-mana area. If you tried, you might drain the Powerstone, but to no avail.

This implies that the loss of energy inside a powerstone in a No-Mana area would not normally be drained (but might be, fruitlessly, to attempt magic) and that a Mana Vortex has a more powerful effect.

No Mana Effect (quirk)

No powerstone with the dreaded Mana Vortex quirk will recharge and even worse it will turn any area it is in into a no mana area. The area will return to its normal mana level once the stone is removed. "Most Mana Vortices are 1 to 3 hexes in radius, but there are rumors of Vortices with radii of up to 300 hexes." This Classic quirk presumably also ruins Manastones since they can't be recharged. 4e has never addressed the effect of No Mana on energy stored within a Powerstone.

Comment

This quirk is a bit of a paradox. Baring special conditions, mana based magic items do not fuction in no mana areas. So a powerstone with this quirk should not function but it clearly does. This indicates that some aspects of Powerstone do not follow the normal rules with regard to mana level.

Perhaps it means it turns surrounding hexes into No Mana except within the object itself, meaning you would need to travel within the object to access the mana?

Mana Enhancer Effect (quirk)

The Mana Pool quirk raises the local Mana level by 1 or 2 steps making it akin to a portable Mana Enhancer item. It also changes the recharge rate. Mana Pool 1 raises the mana level of the hex it is in by one step while Mana Pool 2 raises the mana level in a 3-hex radius by two steps. Obviously in any setting where this quirk exists the mages are doing research on how to produce this particular quirk on demand. Classic was unclear if this applied to no mana areas.

Comment

If this quirk is treated like Mana Enhancer then as with Mana Vortex the quirk comes before the local mana level. Hence a Power 15 Powerstone w/Mana Pool 1 in low mana or Power 15 Powerstone w/Mana Pool 2 in no mana will function normally. It is unknown as to what happens if the local mana level goes above Very High. GM's may want to treat such mana levels as akin to Pure Mana where energy use for spells are five time more efficient or like Wild Mana with spectacular critical failures.

Colleges

M70 talks about a lower energy cost if a powerstone can only be used to fuel magic from a specific college. It costs 60% of the usual cost, basically emulating the -40% "One College Only" limitation value on B67 for Magery.

Some might get the impression reading this that knowing "Powerstone" allows for the creation of any variety of One-College Powerstones too, however M231's Appendix: Spell Table lists "One-College Powerstone" by itself, separately from Powerstone on M232, indicating it may have to be learned separately, and that the basic "Powerstone" spell can only create all-college powerstones.

Whether or not OCP learned once could create OCPs of any college or just one college remains to be clarified.

Alchemic Alternative

In 4e the alchemic Paut (elixir) functions like a "liquid Manastone". For some weird reason Classic: Cabal (referring back to Classic: Magic 47) and Classic: Egypt have Paut as "sort of liquid Powerstone" even though by the text it is clear is works like a Manastone which had been introduced in Classic: Grimoire back in 1994 while Egypt came out in 1996 and 2004 and Cabal in 2001.

While print delays could explain the first printing of Egypt referencing Magic this does not explain the poor terminology being used in the 2004 reprint nor does it explain why Cabol effectively copy-pasted Egypt's text when a better reference in Classic: Grimoire had existed long enough for the change to be noted.

Remember that per the rule in GURPS Magic each dose above the first is a -1 to Alchemy skill and making a Alchemic Charm/Talisman is -2 but a maxed out Technique (Paut Talisman, multiple doses) will offset up to 5 points of penalties.

So Alchemy-20 using standard equipment with Technique (Paut Talisman, multiple doses) 5 will be able to produce a 6 dose (6 energy) Paut Talisman every 100 days in a normal mana with the same amount of success as an enchanter for a quirkless 1 energy Powerstone using a "standard" lab. Industrial Alchemy makes really large Paut Talismans (6xST) possible with far lower cost and issues than a Powerstone of similar size.

Recharging

The time it takes to recover energy reduces as mana increases. Proximity to larger stones inhibits recharge, while proximity to same-size splits the energy amongst them.

Precision Recharger (Perk)

Anyone with this perk will always places Powerstone at the optimum distance from each other to allow full recharging speed.

Charge Powerstone

Charge Powerstone provided a trade off to recharging a powerstone now instead of waiting but it is not a free lunch. In Classic: Grimoire's Charge Powerstone could be enchanted onto an item doubling its recharge rate though this had the downside of destroying an item it was enchanted onto with any failure.

Spell Power 15 in Low Mana

Given the spell goes out of its way to state it will not recharge in no mana area and how Mana Vortex and Mana Pool work it seems logical that a Spell Power 15 Powerstone can still recharge in Low Mana. If the GM is feeling generous they may allow such a Powrstone to be used in Low mana areas.

Paut Talisman comparison

Paut Talismans, like all alchemic Talismans, must be worn to reactivate.

Local Mana	None	Very Low	Low	Normal	High	Very high
Powerstone Recharge Rate	None	None	1 point/week	1 point/day	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs
w/Classic Charge Powerstone	None	None	1 point/3.5 days	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs	1 point/3 hrs
w/Mana Pool 1	None	None	1 point/day	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs	1 point/3 hrs
w/Mana Pool 1 and Classic Charge Powerstone	None	None	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs	1 point/3 hrs	1 point/45 min
w/Mana Pool 2	None	1 point/day	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs	1 point/3 hrs	1 point/45 min
w/Mana Pool 2 and Classic Charge Powerstone	None	1 point/12 hrs	1 point/6 hrs	1 point/3 hrs	1 point/45 min	1 point/22.5 min
Paut Talisman Time to Reactivation	Remains dormant	Remains dormant	2.86 days (~69 hrs)	1.42 days (~34 hrs)	1.42 days (~34 hrs)	0.71 day (~17 hrs)

Making Powerstones More Effective

A "dedicated" Powerstone is a powerstone put into another item before it is enchanted.

An "exclusive" Powerstone is similar to a "dedicated" Powerstone except the item can only be powered by the powerstone and not by the user.

Efficiency

Function is explained in an example on M70:

its energy, being specifically channeled, is used twice as efficiently.

A one-point dedicated Powerstone gives two points of energy

(but still recharges in one day in a normal-mana area).

This means that you could recharge it with 1 energy and it would give back 2. The same is for exclusive: exactly as for dedicated Powerstones, but the energy of an exclusive Powerstone is three times as efficient – i.e., a one-point exclusive Powerstone delivers three.

So these don't actually have higher capacities (they don't take double/triple the time to recharge them) but rather, give more efficient outputs.

Since M126's "Recharge Powerstone" has a 1:3 ratio, it can be counteracted through the use of exclusive powerstones...

In fact since high skill in magic reduces FP cost, this could create a net benefit in energy from experienced chargers.

This is probably why Charge Powerstone has balancing aspects like delaying against future recharges, possibly creating quirks (normal fail) or exploding (crit fail).

Of course, since no rolling is involved in No Nuisance Rolls, those risks are abated with skill 16+ and that perk.

General Rule that has Setting Issues

Per GURPS Magic "The cost to cast Powerstone is quadrupled if the item being enchanted has a value of less than $10xP^2 + $40xP, where P is the target capacity of the Powerstone." This 10P(P+4) is so insanely setting dependent that it is nearly meaningless.

• To take an example from Lost in Space's "Treasure of the Lost Planet" the treasure of a pirate from Betelguese is pig iron - because gold, silver, and even jewels on his homeworld are so common that buildings and even utensils are made with them.
• In Star Trek's "Catspaw" Kirk points out the Enterprise can make a ton of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires making them "valueless".
• One of the gag emotes by the female Draenei in World of Warcraft is "This planet has a tremendous supply of sandstone. The inhabitants must be wealthy beyond their dreams."

On a practical level it is safe to ignore this rule as making high energy powerstones is hard enough without what at the end of the day an poorly thought out rule to add to the pile.

Dungeon Fantasy Alternative

Dungeon Fantasy replaces Powerstones with Power Items

However, unlike Powerstones these Power Items do not recharge on their own and "must be recharged in town once emptied" making them more like Manastones then Powerstones. GMs may want to allow elaborate methods of recharging by players as adventure hooks.

Mentions

Powerstones are discussed on page 20 of GURPS Magic, further discussed on page 69-70 including one-shot Manastones that cost only 1/4 to make (manastone quirks can't be related to recharge rates)

M86 specifies that accelerate Time doesn't help them, since they go by outside rates.

M69 discusses quirks but not particulars...

M17 has a Quick and Dirty Enchantment example with Tubbs and Hawthorne.

M13 explains how the Staff enchantment allows tapping stones in the staff without touching them.

Additional Information

• Compleat Powerstone Roleplayer #18, February 1990
• "Powerstone Costs" - GURPS Magic 20
• Multiple spell success chart - for multiple castings of the Powerstone spell.
• Cubic Lattices and Close Packing - hexagonal packing, when possible, is the best arraignment of powerstones for recharge.

See Also

• Better Powerstones
• Divided Magery, which like One-College Powerstones also relates to allocating energy reserves for the casting of one specific college.
• Enchantment Costs
• Meditative Magic
• Skills to Salvage Critical Failures: Stabilizing Skill