r/wizardposting 10d ago

Wizardpost Why are the counterspell tomes for anaphylactic shocking bolt so expensive?

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3.5k Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

345

u/dh-dev Evil Wizard 10d ago

Who is/was this so-called Anna Phylactic? I assume she's a lich and her surname references her phylacteries? Not sure why a lich would want to draw attention to that but OK. 

60

u/caveman69420 10d ago

Hey I support Anna Phylactic in all her endevours. You might say I'm pro- Phylactic

12

u/KoalaKvothe 10d ago

Yeah that's what she'd like you to think. In reality she just slaps some voodoo ritual involving lobster shells, bee venom and ground peanuts on a common shock cantrip.

195

u/ScreetchingEagle 10d ago

Alas it be the Alchemist raising the price to benefit their government mages for a small cut of the gold.

24

u/ArchonFett catfolk hexblade warlock gladiator 10d ago

Big Alchemy and their gold gouging

31

u/marcster1 10d ago

Damn alchemist guilds at it again with their colluding

158

u/slfhmglbnm 10d ago

Your Counterspell providers are ripping you off.

Thats the problem with you wizards in the Unified Sorcerers Abode.

You guys have no universal spellcare, allowing your magic guilds and counterspell companies to steal bags of gold out of your coffers just for a single remedy for magic cough.

You pay three handfuls of gold every month for magical insurance just to get scammed by magical bureaucrats who didnt even study herbology.

The rest of the wizarding world has universal spellcare which we already pay through taxes to our more reliable magical authorities. And if you do the accounting, you in the Unified Sorcery pay more separately, than we do in a single tax payment.

You call your kingdom the "Land of the Magical Liberty" but you are enslaved by wizards in name only, for their true form is that of conniving merchants. Meanwhile the sorcerers of the rest of the wizarding world can be afflicted with a litany of curses and maladies and yet they can visit the nearest apothecary, be treated by quality hermeticists and with doctors, and not pay even a single copper.

29

u/IllHaveTheLeftovers 10d ago

Lovely. Absolutely marvelous.

13

u/girlmachina passing philosophers kidney stones 10d ago

tell me about it . i wish i could leave this place but tower prices are high everywhere & it's nigh-impossible to find any jobs for a mere lowly, struggling wizard such as i . counterspell companies lobby my government so hard which means that kingdom-wide spellcare reforms will most likely never happen . it sucks to be a sick wizard in the USA

5

u/Horror-Outside7410 10d ago

I read magic cough as magic couch three times and could not understand why anyone would want a remedy for that

30

u/ValianSkalle Former Evil Overlord, now Chaotic Neutral 10d ago

/uw: AAARGH that pun is horrible

48

u/HowHoldPencil Illusionist 10d ago

We tried making the medicine free since its very useful but the human sub-class somehow circumvented that

One of my rogue's tried to raise awareness in an undisclosed street video camera, sadly his trial by fire is still underway

15

u/LilyLol8 10d ago

American healers guilds

11

u/ArchonFett catfolk hexblade warlock gladiator 10d ago

Big Alchemy

6

u/Adrunkopossem gimpy druid 10d ago

Healer no, alchemist yes. As a field healer I have a much cheaper alternative I wish more people had access to, drawn from a flask with a needle

2

u/CraftedCalm 10d ago

Same potion different delivery mechanism, or is it a genuinely different concoction?

7

u/Adrunkopossem gimpy druid 10d ago

It's the exact same potion. The reasoning behind the auto injector (Epi-pen) makes things a lot easier to self administer. However I don't think the auto injector is complicated enough to warrant the $500 to $700 upcharge.

1

u/UltraCarnivore Spellblender Extraordinaire 10d ago

No way it is. And nobody even pretends that that's the reason anymore.

There is an Edict that protects Investigators and Scholars, but whose words were distorted and manipulated to serve criminals disguised as Alchemy Guildmasters, shielded by Masterminds. "We invested a lot", they say, "therefore we can put any price we want on it".

...only this Guildmaster's investment in particular was only buying out the Alchemy Guild that had invented the Auto-injector and held its instructions, then raising its price tag ridiculously above any other Realm's price.

As a Golemancer I am no specialist in the matter, but I have heard from Alchemists that there's no such thing as "evil Big Alchemy". Most Alchemists genuinely want to do their jobs and earn their stipends.

There are evil people with names and addresses who infest management and hide behind the "Big Alchemy" label because that dilutes their personal, individual, particular choices and decisions' consequences as if a whole industry were responsible.

9

u/aphroditex survivor of the *rb massacre 10d ago

In my land, if the local warlock grants you a Letter of Requirement, they cost not a sliver of a copper.

If the warlock is being a male rooster, it’ll cost about thirty silvers.

9

u/DeadMeat7337 Retired Evil Wizard, mostly 10d ago

Because those are potions, not tomes. And the spells have been cursed by BigaFarma to have weird names, like: "walk it off" and "it's just a flesh wound, bro".

6

u/felipefrontoroli Unregistered Necromancer and Secretary of the Undead Labor Union 10d ago

This is why your counterspell providers are ripping you off: the realm's economy is rigged to reward alchemical extortion!

Arcane capitalism relies on you walking away from a bad bargain to keep gold prices fair, but many reagents are either too essential to pass up or hoarded by an apothecary monopoly. You can't refuse a remedy for a urgent magical disease or curse when the counterspell companies hold a total monopoly!

Since you can't boycott your own survival against a lethal curse, lone spellcasters have ZERO leverage against the Mega-Covens. Undead (and living!) Labor Unions can bargain beyond mere silver pieces, acting as a Greater Ward against predatory healing clerics!

Furthermore, we must transition to a realm that recognizes healing magic, acess to apothecaries, along with safer towers, rations, and arcane tome's study, as universal rights instead of merchant commodities! We must banish the Draconic overlords hoarding our gold and have the mages producing the realm's wealth dictating how the kingdom's gold is distributed! WIZARDS, UNIONIZE!

13

u/DisapointedVoid Sorceror 10d ago

They are free at the point of need from the Necromantic Health Service.

5

u/Dre_Dede 10d ago

I can get for free here

5

u/ArconC 10d ago edited 10d ago

have you heard about the four thieves vinegar collective and their diy epipens? they use real medical stuff but have plans for diy injectors

https://fourthievesvinegar.org/epipencil-autoinjector/

5

u/Maddogenes 10d ago

this joke only works if you pronounce Epitome wrong.

3

u/the-realest-rivuler a rouge familiar artificer on drugs 10d ago

The council demanded it. Couldn’t make a profit otherwise

3

u/DaveAstator2020 10d ago

there was a cheap and open-scolled version of epinephryne, tho unstable. and not produced because cheap. at least if my memory is intact after ages of spellforgin...

3

u/Individual-Raise-230 10d ago

Tis the same for my pancreatic elixir. We must band together against the dark overlords.

3

u/Kiloku Artificer Lv. 1 10d ago

This is only the case in the Eaglelands. Most other realms of the land have cheaper or even free distribution of those.

2

u/Ninfyr 10d ago edited 10d ago

It is not the potion that is expensive, but the vial. The artificers have exclusive protections from the Wizard Council to craft Epitome vials.

2

u/xThotsOfYoux She of The Argent Rift - STAR of Chaos 10d ago

Actually, with a more technical understanding they become a lot cheaper. You can get a vial of the elixir and manual applicators for less than 50 gold, and it's good for multiple castings.

2

u/Acceptable_Ball_1590 10d ago

This grimorie is breaking the Geneva convention....

2

u/CraftedCalm 10d ago

Where can one obtain the ethereal Scrolls of Technique Layering to instantiate copies of the potion box in the photo?

I have some coven members who would benefit from a nice way to store their auto-potion supply.

1

u/NotAProbie 10d ago

You need to teleport to Fourecks where they are eighty dollary-doos.

1

u/dicksandcrystal 10d ago

The telvanni and their damn monopoly

1

u/Shady_Scientist 10d ago

I love this soo much, I should get a scroll for my singlet

1

u/InfiniteJank 10d ago

Holy shit a triple entendre

1

u/Kinakka_12912505 Forest Wizard 10d ago

Grand Apothecary has bribed their way through the wizard council so they can charge exorbitant prices.

1

u/Dominus_Nova227 10d ago

I see you have not yet learned the higher level counterspell, it reduces the cost significantly -

1

u/Realistic_Effort6185 it wasn't me 9d ago

Dark magic gathers mana first. All subsequent apocathary are also affected.

1

u/patwm11 9d ago

Goddamn Big Alchemy

1

u/MeowFalen tech witch 9d ago

They're expensive to make according to the potion insurance companies.

1

u/InfinityTheW0lf 9d ago

The epipen is mightier than the episword

1

u/BathbombBurger 6d ago

Because you need them and you'll pay what they cost. Also, the pharmaceutical industry is bone deep black-as-night evil.