[Squirrelloid]

See, i'd say ToG has the smallest effect because the existence of *yet another* way to boost N in a misc slot has almost no effect on the game, since only an oracle/blood fountain has enough misc slots to use them all. (moonvine, RoS, RoW current - and for oracle/fountain there's no hand slot so still no ability to exceed current maximum boost across all chasses). And for single boosting of N you still go to the thistle mace because its cheaper. ie, it has little effect on common needs for an N booster (doesn't change 1 boost level choice or max possible boost).

At which point the only real reason to forge it will be for the earth booster.

Keep in mind that 'drawbacks' are not something we should be actively seeking out - Earth has *1* non-unique booster without bloodstones (2 if you count the staff of the elements, which is remarkably hard to forge without earth boosters!), compared to at least 2 such boosters for every other path of magic. This is a shortcoming that should be rectified.

So arguably the ToG adds less value than the bloodstone did (both have E, +1e/trn vs. +1N), and doesn't really change the metagame situation substantially for N boosters. Sure, its different paths than bloodstone, but that's not the most important part. (People can and will trade for items, the important part is that a second *non-cursed* non-unique earth booster exist)