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Oct 16, 2012 -- 4:33AM, Areleth wrote:

This might have been answered before, but why are the Zil Gnomes such master ship builders? I know that their mastery of elemental binding is associated with their mastery of alchemy, and the suberterfuge extends from their prediliction to illusion magic, but how did they get so good at building ships? And why is it important to them?

Their skill at it comes from the fact that it is important to them: that it's something their culture places a high value on and thus has devoted time and resources to perfecting. Why is it important? Because what the Zil value about all things is knowledge. They want to know everything - and that means that exploration and interaction with other cultures are vital. They are the finest cartographers of the world, in part because they have done their best to go everywhere it's possible to go. It was Sivis who made contact with Tharashk and brought them into the Twelve. And for that matter, elemental binding was inspired by the discovery of Sulat ruins in Xen'drik.

By contrast, humanity has approached travel from a more practical standpoint. Humans came to Khorvaire for land and resources; and Khorvaire had more of both than the number of humans could possibly use. Sea travel is a tool of commerce and war, but the Five Nations primarily focus on trade with one another and overland travel suffices for this. The Lhazaar are a seafaring culture, but frankly the Lhazaar simply aren't as sophisticated as the Zil, and no single principality has anything like the resources and knowledge based of the Zil shipbuilding industry. Furthermore, bear in mind that part of the excellence of Zil ships is because they incorporate alchemically infused materials; even before elemental binding, the Zil had many practical uses for alchemy.

Tied to this, you say that the Zil talent for subterfuge comes from their gift for illusion; my point against is that their passion for intrigue comes from their passion for information. They honed their illusion techniques in service of acquiring information - but if they weren't gifted illusionists, they'd have found something else. So the key is that the quest for knowledge drives the culture; honing intrigue and exploration techniques are the consequence of this basic cultural drive.

Oct 30, 2012 -- 12:04PM, KhanSemus wrote:

Keith, I've been enjoying your take on 4e Eberron (which I'm calling Eberron 4.K) but I'm trying to deal with the cost of rituals. Magewrights can learn one or two rituals but how do they handle component costs? I've been thinking of the lamplighters, walking around Sharn with Continual Light rituals and re-casting every 24 hours but the ritual is 20 gold or a healing surge. Adventurers can pay that but that's something like the annual income of the average laborer to power one lamp.

That's a case of the ritual being poorly designed for Eberron. There's no way people are paying 20 gp/day to keep a streetlight going. With that said, I think the answer is to say that it's about the streetlamp itself. The ritual allows you to place a continual light on ANYTHING. I can make my boot glow... but it only lasts for an hour. Now think of it as oil. I can pour oil on my boot and set it on fire, and it will provide light for a little while until it burns up the boot. However, if I use that same amount of oil in an oil lantern, it's going to last far longer, because it's a tool designed for that purpose.

So, in the case of Continual Light, what I'd say is that the streetlights are designed with dragonshard "wicks" that hold and channel the power of the ritual for an extended period of time. You pay the base cost to start it up the first time; from that point forward, you have a mini-version of the ritual that simply uses a pinch of residuum to keep it going. So the typical lamplighter is going around recharging, but only spending a small amount - which would come from municipal taxes.

As for the general costs of rituals (like arcane lock), the Magewright would simply have to charge enough for her services to cover the cost of the components and generate a profit.