Arcane sanctums - what do they do?

[Dreadpirate72]

Has it ever been established what the sanctum actually does? I'm a first time player, and I was considering making a wizard who's basically a great enchanter (lore 5) from an old money family (resources 5) that's also part of a long line of wizards...basically the family mansion has a sanctum and workshop using the stunts to bring their level up to 5. I'm sort of making the anti-Harry...he's never broke, his sanctum includes an altar that's been on the family land for 500 years and is older than that as opposed to his basement, and he has a world class library instead of Bob. Instead of the Doom of Damocles for killing a mentor, he has Wardens following him because they could use a talented enchanter because he helps the lesser practitioners around his home and because of the history of his family and their land that he might not even fully understand.

But as I looked around, I started to wonder what would be the benefit of using any of those. It seems like most people rarely use resources and they use the workspaces even less. Is there a point in pursuing this line of thought, or maybe is there another way to come at it? (I posted basically the same question on reddit).

[dragoonbuster]

No. The rules talk about not being able to do research higher than your research space, but honestly, it's a terrible mechanic in concept and barely explained.

Don't bother. I don't know a single person that uses them. Don't EVER take a stunt based on a workspace, don't bother with the concept at all.

I find it absurd that you can't get any practical research done unless you ALSO have really high resources, spend refresh on stunts, or spend a lot of in-game time working to set up a space.

That said, Resources in general is totally a useful skill and comes in all kinds of handy. If your GM isn't careful you can also get away with skill-replacement thaumaturgy-style rolls all day by saying "Contacts? I don't have them, but I can buy them." <-- I do not like this style of play, mind you, but a decent GM will realize money can grease wheels but not solve every problem--especially in Dresden. What's money to Mab or Donar? Nothing.


((I posted basically the same answer on reddit))

[wyvern]

If you want a world-class workspace, I'd actually make that (part of) an aspect, or perhaps a stunt: +3 lore when you have time* & opportunity to go home and research - excluding any actual spellcasting uses of lore.  (For spellcasting bonuses from having a really good workspace, see crafting & thaumaturgy focus items.)

The actual sanctum / library rules that get mentioned a time or two in the book should, however, be ignored - as Dragoonbuster said.

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* How much time is needed?  Well, that's a GM call; I'd expect at least a few hours.

[Taran]

I'd planned on using them in a campaign I was running because I thought it might lead to interesting side quests around finding information and it just never came up.  Never.  In the end, that kind of thing is better handled with a compel anyways.

To reiterate what  the others have said: An aspect should do it and; don't waste refresh on it.

[Sanctaphrax]

Arcane sanctums are, as far as I can tell, entirely useless.

The library/workspace rules in general suffer from weirdly low ratings. You need a world-class library to study Superb questions that a PC can likely answer off the top of their head. If I were to start using the library/workspace rules, I'd probably increase all the ratings by 4 or so.

[blackstaff67]

Perhaps an Arcane Workspace that functions as a Foci bonus for Crafting/Thaumaturgy purchased as a Stunt/Power with the strong limitation "only at home."  That's all my brain can come up with.  What can I say, they should have done more work on the thing.  Perhaps it can function as skipping a scene or two from time to time to make Declarations so you can place an Aspect on your domicile.  Possible Aspects:
1) Iron, Bronze, and Silver rings set in floor
2) My parents' well-stocked library
3) A home founded on magical energy
4) All this residual magic...