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Magic food

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1Magic food Empty Magic food Mon Jan 19, 2015 12:10 pm

Mister Dicey

Mister Dicey
Yellow Wizard

Onions has been wondering about magic food for a little bit, so I thought I'd see what people thought about designing some rules for such things.

I managed to find a few things from a very early Pathfinder suppliment (Before they'd even released the core rulebook) called Elves of Golarion. They have it with Brew Potion as a requirement and 5 ranks in Profession(Cook) [2 ranks in modern Pathfinder] to be able to make things. Eating a meal is a full-round action, and only one person gets the benefit. They cost as much as a potion to make and take just as long. Typically their effects last an hour.



But, I'm not actually so impressed with those rules. So, here's something I might suggest:

Meals take much, much longer than 6 seconds to eat in reality. A meal that would actually fill you up enough to count as a meal would probably take closer to 5 minutes to eat. Likewise, sharing a meal should probably provide benefits to everyone who eats it, not just the first person.
So, let's say it takes 6 minutes (60 rounds) for one person to eat a meal, so it divides evenly for up to 6 people.
Because of the greatly extended time it takes to eat a meal, the effects need to last a lot longer. A duration of 1 round/level should be increased to 6 mins/level. 1 minute/level should change to 1 hour/level. 10 minutes/level to 6 hours/level, and an hour/level or greater until the food has left the body in some way or another (3 days maximum).
Because it is food and has an extended duration, there should probably be a limit on how much you can actually eat and whether the effects stack. You can eat up to 3 magical meals per day, and cannot benefit from more than one meal at a time.
Also, sharing food changes the duration in proportion to the number of people eating it. One person can, of course, eat more than another to gain a longer duration.

I am uncertain as to what to do for durations of instantaneous. Suggestions are welcome...

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2Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:32 pm

The Black Vegetable

The Black Vegetable
Great Adventurer
Great Adventurer

I usually assume that food has no benefit beyond ensuring lack of starvation. Food seems to me like a vector for magical effects at best, realistically just a long-term potion with drastically weaker effects, like a +1-2 circumstance bonus on skill checks.

3Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Mon Jan 19, 2015 6:40 pm

Mister Dicey

Mister Dicey
Yellow Wizard

I'm not totally sure you got the point there...

The food has been specially prepared with magic so that consuming it acts as a potion or something similar. It's more than just ensuring that you don't starve; it provides relatively long term beneficial effects.

for example, how about frog leg soup? for a mere cost of 50 gp, you gain a +10 bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump for an hour after eating.

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4Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:11 pm

Einstein

Einstein
Adventurer
Adventurer

I think it would be a nice idea that not only a very good cook is needed for the "magic" meal.
I think the whole process of gathering (or hunting) the ingredients should be done in a special way and needs a check.
So the hunter (ranger or w/e) and the cook need to check if they handle that food correctly.
And maybe than it is a nice idea to calculate the duration of the buff with a formula like:
modifier of ranger x modifier of cook = minutes of buff working (Something like this)
I mean this reflects the difference of using just supermarket food or food from a natural foods store (here in germany we say sth like bio food) which is more healthy but on the other hand more expensive.

5Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:25 pm

Mister Dicey

Mister Dicey
Yellow Wizard

Would a feat such as Create Magical Meal satisfy that? I was thinking of just using Brew Potion and rather than using Spellcraft or Craft(Alchemy), you instead use Profession(Cook).

The ingredients actually required are much less of an issue, as in potion making. A good survival check might, as with normal potion making, dig up some suitable herbs or roots or what have you that might make the potion/meal cheaper (and indeed would be necessary if you had no food).

Sadly, Einstein, your suggestion probably wouldn't work. Mostly because some effects have longer durations for balance reasons. A 400 minute shield of faith +4 is much better than a 400 minute mage armour for example. Likewise an optimised team would be able to put out a roughly 10 hour duration meal regularly by level 3, even on effects that last only a very short while.

Instant duration spells, such as cure light wounds are tricky. I think what would work is maximising the spell to compensate for the much greater usage time, and sharing it divides the HP healed (rounding down).



Bio food I think would be called Organic food here. No idea what it's like where you are. In theory, it's just produced without artificial fertilisers/pesticides &c.. Substantially more expensive than regular food, probably as much because of a consequentially lower yield as a desire to make people pay a bit more. I would suspect that the "Healthier" aspect is probably inaccurate and is just a marketing ploy.

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6Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Tue Jan 20, 2015 8:42 am

Einstein

Einstein
Adventurer
Adventurer

I think there is no feat necessary. The brew potion check should work. Putting the magic in a potion should be the same work as putting it in a meal, no?

7Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:22 pm

Mister Dicey

Mister Dicey
Yellow Wizard

That's what I thought. Still need Brew Potion to be able to make a magic meal though.

It occurs to me that the initial suggestion is probably actually a little strong. Why ever use plain potions of mage armour when a meal works so much better? I suppose that only one magic meal being in effect at a time helps with that, but probably halving the durations before is good, too. Might even adapt it so that you can only eat one a day.

I am undecided whether maximising or empowering instant spells is the best option. I'm keeping in mind that people will use meals mostly when they aren't in combat since the usage time is so much greater.


{Edit}
What was I thinking with those durations? Just a mouthful in a round gives the same effect as a potion! Scrap that.
Multipling durations by 20 rather than 60 might be more appropriate, and the meal needs to be finished to have an effect.

https://theyellowwizard.rpg-board.net

8Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Thu Jan 22, 2015 9:43 am

Onions

Onions
Golden Cat Lord
Golden Cat Lord

You think foods should be enhancement spells only, like strength and skill check? Or for healing purposes? Like some meals could be a cure (light/moderate/heavy) wounds?

For instant duration spells like the cure spells, maybe instead give it a regenerative property rather than the heal damage outright, like get 1 or 2 hp regen per/random# of rounds for a few hours, maybe until the target of the meal would normally need to eat another meal to stay nourished. And think of similar ways of handling instant properties, or alternatively just make instant duration spells impossible to create as food meals. Unless they are restricted to being something like crackers or little candies and they bestow the instantaneous effects the spell in question would normally give.

9Magic food Empty Re: Magic food Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:40 pm

Mister Dicey

Mister Dicey
Yellow Wizard

You might have the right idea with instant things. Perhaps it is better to just have them functioning as potions and they just look like food. A mere cosmetic thing.
I was trying to give the meals some sort of versatility by getting them to replicate spell effects, which is where a lot of the things have been coming from.

Regen is a little like infernal healing, which, come to think of it, is a prime example of when the extended duration from food is exceptionally bad.

Probably the thing to do is come up with a few specific spells that would work as a meal and the effects it would have as a meal. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you from making something like crackers of cure light wounds or ice cream of infernal healing or fish and chips of flight that you can just eat as a standard action and work just as potions.

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