Harry's Duster and the dangerous world of Chicago

[Morenath]

Harry wonders if they make bullet proof vests for dogs when mouse gets hurt.  Why doesn't he enchant a fetching doggie tuxedo?  For that matter, why not make Karen, Butters, and Michael some bullet proof stuff?

He was worried about Michael, who had to rely on Charity being awesome and thinking ahead to save him on the train, so why not lay the enchantment right on his tabaed for him?  Hell, a jumpsuit under the armor would have prevented the incident at demonreach,  right?

Help me out here... it's killing me. (And crippling Michael)

[Fcrate]

It's very time and energy consuming. And they have to be refreshed every 6 months or so., and Harry always has a lot on his plate.

[Lost Merlin]

Jim has also mentioned that harry spend roughly 20 hours a week working on magic gear maintenance.  I would assume that some of this is work on the duster.  To do this for additional items may just be too much of a time investment. 

[WereElephant]

Jim has also mentioned that harry spend roughly 20 hours a week working on magic gear maintenance.  I would assume that some of this is work on the duster.  To do this for additional items may just be too much of a time investment. 

I'd like to get a credit hour breakdown of each magical item/gadget/enchantment using that metaphor.

For example,

Duster: 4 credit hours
Blasting Rod: 3 credit hours
Staff: 3 credit hours
Shield Bracelet: 5 credit hours
Research: 5 credit hours

Or something like that.

[Quantus]

I'd like to get a credit hour breakdown of each magical item/gadget/enchantment using that metaphor.

For example,

Duster: 4 credit hours
Blasting Rod: 3 credit hours
Staff: 3 credit hours
Shield Bracelet: 5 credit hours
Research: 5 credit hours

Or something like that.

It's not a market exchange rate, its an ongoing design project.  At the beginning it's enchantments didnt last as long, and in the save of his canvas duster the entire process was different.  By Changes he thought he'd refined the design enough that the enchantments would last most of a year.  And even THAT is only based on the design he'd worked on which did not use any of the expensive materials known to make enchantments last longer (per bob in BR).

You cant get a standardized Man-hour requirement any more than you can reduce actual real-world crafts to that sort of hard-line repeatable schedule cost. 

[Snark Knight]

When Butters briefly borrowed the duster at the end of SG, didn't Bob have to power the wards on it for him? It might be something like the warden swords - for Harry it just works passively once he's set it up, but it would take a power source to work for another wearer.

[Quantus]

When Butters briefly borrowed the duster at the end of SG, didn't Bob have to power the wards on it for him? It might be something like the warden swords - for Harry it just works passively once he's set it up, but it would take a power source to work for another wearer.

Possible, but maybe not.  Bob was definitely powering Butter's own gear but in that last scene butters asked him to "access" the spells, and the result was Bob making the coat move on it's own to more actively protect him.  Plus I want to say we've seen harry put the coat on somebody else for their protection indicating it doesnt need to be worn him him for it's basic function.  I know we've seen him throw it in the fireplace to clean it.

[Kindler]

I always wondered why Harry never used his duster properly. It's bulletproof, but it's right up against his skin, so he gets battered pretty badly. If he held parts of it away from himself and ducked behind it, he'd be in a lot less pain.

John Wick 2 illustrated it pretty well during some of the Rome sequences.

[Mira]

   Police dogs do wear protective vests but it doesn't totally keep them safe..  I think Mouse will, if he hasn't already developed his own form of protection, he doesn't need Harry or anyone else to make it for him.

[Quantus]

I always wondered why Harry never used his duster properly. It's bulletproof, but it's right up against his skin, so he gets battered pretty badly. If he held parts of it away from himself and ducked behind it, he'd be in a lot less pain.

John Wick 2 illustrated it pretty well during some of the Rome sequences.

Kevlar doesnt actually work well when hanging loose like that, and Harry's enchantments operate on a similar mechanism of spreading the force out over a larger surface area.  In other words it's not that he is using the enchantment wrong, it is that it's a fundamentally inferior enchantment, at least as compared to McCoy's bullet-proof robe in Changes where it just sort of shed the bullets like rainwater.

[WereElephant]

It's not a market exchange rate, its an ongoing design project.  At the beginning it's enchantments didnt last as long, and in the save of his canvas duster the entire process was different.  By Changes he thought he'd refined the design enough that the enchantments would last most of a year.  And even THAT is only based on the design he'd worked on which did not use any of the expensive materials known to make enchantments last longer (per bob in BR).

You cant get a standardized Man-hour requirement any more than you can reduce actual real-world crafts to that sort of hard-line repeatable schedule cost.

I was thinking more of credit-hours in the university sense. They don't translate to literal time you spend during the week, but they represent a portion or percent of how much you can take on. I'd like a list like this as a benchmark for how much is considered a full load to Harry.

As for it being an ongoing design, this is true. However, it is also an ongoing maintenance project. Maintenance is more regular in time cost. I imagine most weeks Harry simply restores the enchantments on his items as they wear away due to use. He would only decide to alter the enchantment on something (which would probably make it temporarily unusable until completion) when he saw a deficiency in the pattern he'd come up with or had an idea for a better way.

[Quantus]

I was thinking more of credit-hours in the university sense. They don't translate to literal time you spend during the week, but they represent a portion or percent of how much you can take on. I'd like a list like this as a benchmark for how much is considered a full load to Harry.

As for it being an ongoing design, this is true. However, it is also an ongoing maintenance project. Maintenance is more regular in time cost. I imagine most weeks Harry simply restores the enchantments on his items as they wear away due to use. He would only decide to alter the enchantment on something (which would probably make it temporarily unusable until completion) when he saw a deficiency in the pattern he'd come up with or had an idea for a better way.

Only when the design changes/improvements stop, at least in my experience.

[Ananda]

Jim has also mentioned that harry spend roughly 20 hours a week working on magic gear maintenance.  I would assume that some of this is work on the duster.  To do this for additional items may just be too much of a time investment.

After they all got bags of diamonds, they can afford to pay someone to make and maintain some thingies, I am sure. I’d spend it on clothes and so,  but I don’t participate in supernatural battles.

[groinkick]

Could be wrong but didn't Harry use Soulfire for his duster, and it later became known that such an object could be dangerous to the magic user because of this intimate connection with the object?

[Quantus]

Could be wrong but didn't Harry use Soulfire for his duster, and it later became known that such an object could be dangerous to the magic user because of this intimate connection with the object?

No he didnt, and yes it would.  So far he hasnt (as far as we know) done any Creating with Soulfire, and Jim said that a mobile piece of his soul like that would be a huge and dangerous Thaumaturgic link should anyone hostile get their hands on it.  As of CD Harry just said that he'd been avidly avoiding any actual experimentation with Soulfire, viewing it as akin to "swallowing nitroglycerine and jumping up and down" for Science!