New Componant System!

Below is the new Component System that we have been working on. It is our hope that this new component system will make the effected classes, more simplified and also a more viable system.

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[size=14pt]Component System [/size]

1. Generic components for Alchemy are removed from the game.  All 1st and 2nd rank compounds require only production points and time to create.  Alchemists are still encourage to RP the usage of generic components in this process.

1.a. To match this, the need for basic materials (Steel, Wood, Leather, and Bone) for smithing materials has been dropped.  It is assumed that they are common and inexpensive enough to be freely available, and do not cost anything In-Game.  As above, Smiths are encouraged to RP obtaining and working with these materials.

2. All rare components have become "essences" which can be extracted from all manner of things around the world. There are four elemental essences that are common to all of the arts, and then each art form has two essences unique to its domain. Recipes will combine the elemental and unique essences so that each compound or ritual is unique from every other. The essences are:

Elemental Essences:
Earth - Humus
Wind - Ventus
Water - Pluvia
Fire - Ignis

Alchemical Essences:
Animal - Bestia
Plant - Sato

Sorcery Essences:
Lesser Weave - Consenesco
Greater Weave - Valeo

Ceremonies Essences:
Lesser Divine - Caelum
Greater Divine - Ager

Druidic Essences:
Lesser Druidic - Auctus
Greater Druidic - Morior

Elemental Essences are worth 1 Gold each, 5 provided by Fate of Lesser Supply
Alchemical Essences are worth 1 Gold each, 5 proided by Fate of Lesser Supply
Lesser Essences are worth 10 gold each, 2 provided by Fate of Greater Supply
Greater Essences are worth 20 gold each, and cannot be purchased using a Fate.

3. A new skill, Collect Essence, will replace Gather Reagents (same cost) and will allow a character to identify and extract essence.

4. The Alchemical compound Preservation Solution will be removed from the list of recipes. Essences will not need to be preserved; it is assumed that they are collected in a way that keeps them usable indefinitely. It will be replaced by: Potion of Ironskin 3 PP. Hardens the imbibers skin, to make it tough and more resistant to attacks, granting +10 BP. These BP cannot be healed and are the first to go in battle.

5. Dissect will be removed from all lists except Physician.

6. Anyone who has generic component cards should discard them as they are no longer valid. Anyone who has rare components may bring them to logistics to be traded for essences at a 1 to 1 rate. Greater essences will only be traded for components that are currently used in rank four rituals/ceremonies.

7. Higher Lists will not use this system until they are re-written. Until then, they will function with the current rules yet any need for generic components are no longer needed. 

New Alchemy Recipes:
Alchemy:
Explosive Bomb - Earth, Fire
Potion of Heroisim - Animal, Fire
Paste of Mending - Water, Earth
Salve of Stone to Flesh - Earth, Air
Potion of Invisibility - Air, Air, Air, Animal
Acid Bomb - Water, Fire, Animal, Plant
Oil of Searing Heat - Fire, Fire, Earth, Animal

Herbals:
Potion of Greater Healing - Water, Plant
Elixir of Healthfulness - Plant, Animal
Smelling Salts - Air, Earth
Potion of Rehabilitation – Air, Plant
Potion of Greater Antidote - Earth, Water, Fire, Plant
Potion of Greater Refreshment - Fire, Air, Air, Plant
Potion of Superior Healing - Plant, Plant, Water, Earth

Poisons:
Greater Blade Poison - Plant, Animal
Greater Ingested Poison - Water, Plant
Contact Poison - Earth, Fire
Potion of Crippling Nausea - Water, Animal
Sleep Blade Poison - Air, Water, Animal, Plant
Contact Sleep Poison - Water, Earth, Animal, Animal
Death Poison - Animal, Animal, Plant, Fire

Let me take a moment to explain how this works: Essence Cards are found both on monsters, and anywhere in the game environment. You may come across a "Fire Essence" card sitting in an old fire pit, or a "Plant Essence" card attached to a tree branch. If you have the skill Collect Essence, you can see the essence within the object, and RP extracting it and then take the card.

As another example, an animal NPC may have an "Animal Essence" Card on her. You may call "Collect Essence" on a dead NPC. If they have a card they will give you one after the RP. If they do not have a card, you could not find enough extractable essence on the creature, and the attempt failed. Because not all things, have essence that is in-tact and ripe for collecting, you may not ask to collect essence from a creature or place, that does not already have a card assigned to it.

Essence RP is open to player interpretation, but could commonly be RPd as a liquid, or a gas that has been collected.

1 - If a physician dissects something, how is it preserved without the solution?

2 - What happens to existing component item cards, i.e., do the rituals still require specific components?

3 - Is my assumption correct that if one has "Gather Reagents" it will be removed from the CC and replaced with "collect Essence?"

1- Components of any kind will no longer require to be preserved. It is assumed that if you can extract/dissect it, you can preserve it and keep it from rotting and becoming useless.

2 - Throw them away. (accept the higher list rare components) For the time being the higher lists will still use the specific components. This will change once we re-do the higher lists. See number 7.

3- You are correct. Sam will have to speck to the specific way you go about doing this.

The torturer profession also has "dissect" on it's skill list, it is a prereq for a lot of other skills; is it going to be taken out completely or will it also retain dissect along with physician?

As a budding alchemist, I thank you.

As a new Smith I say wheeeeee!

So what lists have Collect Essence? Alchemist I'm sure, but is it found elsewhere?

Any instances of Gather Reagents in the current rulebook will be replaced with Collect Essence.  So yes, Alchemists, Assassins, Druids, Healers, Physicians, etc... will have the skill on their list in replacement of Gather Reagents.

Druidic Essences?

Yes there are, other than that F.O.I.G.

This brings up a few questions regarding sorcery.

*note* I assume that Gather Sorcery Components will follow the same rules as Gather Reagents.

1) Gather Sorcery Components is, as of now, useless.  Collect Essence is also useless for the time being (for sorcerers).  Do these skills swap now, or do Sorcerers with this skill get 3 build back?

2) Do Sorcerers keep dissect for the time being, since the component rules are unchanged for that list for the time being (and thus they need dissect to acquire a good majority of the only components left IG for sorcery)?

Sorcerers will keep Dissect for the time being, and will also be allowed to immediately switch Gather Sorcery Components, for Gather Essence. That way they can begin collecting essences for the future.

Wow, here I am editing my post for clarity and there's already a response.  Thanks for the super quick response!

If Gather Reagents is now Collect Essence, which is the requirement for Rank 3 and 4 potions, what does this mean for classes like Healers and Physicians which are currently limited in their ability to produce potions?  Will Healers regain the ability to produce Rank 3 and 4 Herbals, for example?

Edit: Also, it seems like Collect Essence is a continuous skill, does this mean that multiple purchases of Gather Reagent will be refunded?

- Any class that had Gather Reagents, will have it replaced with Collect Essence, regardless of what they can or cannot make. You may not be able to make third ranks or higher, but you will still have the ability to collect the Essence, if you so choose.

- Collect Essence will be Continuous, and you will be refunded build for multiple purchases of Gather Reagents.

Torturer list- dissect?  I'm assuming it's still there.  Is my assumption correct?

Oops, sorry about missing that one.

Yes, we will leave it on the Torturer list as it seems extremely appropriate. 

I'll gradually be working this into the Online Rulebook this week, also reformatting it as I do so to be more printout-friendly.

Man, for the sake of equality couldn't we just make the lower rank ceremonies not need components either? They already are out of balance with Sorcery, now Sorcerers don't need any components for low rank and we still need rare. Lame lame lame.

Not to mention there are way more Sorcery rituals and they do much more.

And, I just got physreps for several of the Ceremonial Components.  Really nice ones (thank you for most, Kristen) and in bottles.

babys

From what I'm hearing it sounds like smiths will gain a huge advantage out of this.

QQ moar plz

FTFY

From what I'm hearing it sounds like smiths will gain a huge advantage out of this.

No more than anyone else from what I can see. Base level components across the board, doesn't impact higher level stuff.

This change was intended to effect Ceremonies in the same way as Sorcery. Perhaps I did not word it as such.

It's impossible for it to effect ceremonies in the same way as sorcery, because sorcery has generic components (and now none for low ranks) and ceremonies still has rare components even for our first ranks. Although I'd be happy to see it change. *nudge nudge* 

IIRC Ceremonies start with rare components (labeled as such in the descriptor) at R III.  What they have at lower levels are "named" components. 

When purchasing some IG from a traveling NPC merchant I received, a set of generics (which I was told would work for any component listed as "component" and a selection of specifics (actually listed under "Components - Rare), such as "tears of sorrow from an archbishop."  Some confusion seems to attach as in Ceremonies, the "generic" components are specifically named (i.e., abdomen of a black widow spider) while in sorcery they are not.

Ah yes, the named vs. rare was my confusion, thank you!

I have to apologize to ceremonialists. I realize your list can feel like the redheaded step child. I promise well fix that when we get to working on higher lists.

Whenever there is a fundamental fix to sorcery, it should also be mimicked to ceremonies (Most of the time), as they are supposed to use the same basic system outline. Those who cast 1st and 2nd rank ceremonies are meant to be able to buy generic ceremonial components, and not have to rely on specific named ones... just like sorcery. 

If it is not like this now, and someone who plays a ceremonialist would like to take a stab at sending me an edit to the components list, e-mail it to me directly and I will see about applying a hotfix.

These should all be in the Online Rulebook now.  If I missed something, please post here to let me know.