The Quick Guide to Rituals

By Ryan

Firstly

When it comes to player rituals you should ignore the following skills:

Inscribe Magic Circle
Work with Cabal
Join Cabal

Inscribe Ceremonial Circle
Work with Conclave
Join Conclave

The above skills are for casting high level rituals which, due to practicality and balance reasons, aren’t really available to players. If you want to learn more, check out the full rules.

The Basics

What can you cast?

Rituals can be used to cast all spells/miracles of the appropriate level and School/Path.

e.g.

Fire Ritual 0 allows you to cast all level 0 Fire spells via Rituals.

Life Ritual 2 allows you to cast all level 0, 1 and 2 Life miracles via Ceremonies.

Might Ritual 1 allows you to cast all level 0 and 1 Order, Death and Might miracles via Ceremonies.

You need to purchase Ritual skills sequentially, however, starting at Ritual 0.

How do you cast?

Rituals take (level + 1) minutes to cast.

This time needs to be taken up with the ritual itself. This may take the form of chanting, lighting candles, dancing in a circle, burning scrolls, making blood sacrifices; anything you like really. The ritual should really be appropriate to the school/path you’re casting from or even the spell itself.

e.g.

Fire rituals could use flammable things, red things, fire.

Order rituals could use geometric objects, stone cubes, a detailed step by step guide.

After the time has passed, the spell can be released as you would a normal instant cast.

Do you take casting damage?

Yes.

For the most powerful ritual you can cast, you will take 15 life damage per minute.

e.g.

If you have level 0 Fire ritual, you will take 15 life damage over the minute it takes you to perform an Flame Blade 0 ritual.

If you have level 2 Fire ritual, you will take 15 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform a Flame Blade 2 ritual.

However, this damage can be reduced by being a better Ritualist, having a Talisman/Holy Symbol and using Ritual Components and/or Ritual Focuses.

The damage taken is reduced by:

• 3 for every level the ritual is below your maximum skill.
• 1 for every level of Talisman/Holy Symbol you have.
• 1 for each Focus you have.
• 3 for each Component you have.

The bad news is, Foci are restricted to a maximum of 3 items and Components are restricted to a maximum of 6 items plus are destroyed during the ritual. The good news is, this many items will always be adequate.

e.g.

Flame Blade 2 ritual – a level 2 Fire spell.

If you have level 2 Fire ritual, you will take 15 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform the ritual.

If you have level 4 Fire ritual, this damage is reduced to 9 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform the ritual.

If you have level 4 Fire ritual and a level 4 talisman, you will take 5 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform the ritual.

If you have level 4 Fire ritual, a level 4 talisman and 2 Foci (a red feather and a piece of coal), you will take 3 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform the ritual.

If you have level 4 Fire ritual, a level 4 talisman, 2 Foci (a red feather and a piece of coal) and single Component (a small candle), you will take 0 life damage over each of the 3 minutes it takes you to perform the ritual.

That’s right, with just a few items and an inexpensive Talisman, the damage has been reduced to zero! Plus, if you don’t want to invest the points into a talisman or your ritual level isn’t so high you can always use a few more Components to take up the slack.

e.g.

Ignite – a level 0 Fire spell.

If you have level 0 Fire ritual, 3 Foci (a red feather, a piece of coal and a mundane necklace with a red rock on it) and 4 Components (4 candles) you will take 0 life damage for the minute it takes to perform the ritual.

I’ve heard rituals don’t need Mana/Standing…

I’m afraid they do. Rituals require (level+1) Mana/Standing to cast, just like instant casts.

Conclusions

In this guide the most complex thing, by far, is the casting damage. The best way to deal with the casting damage is to simply have enough of the above items or skills so that your most powerful rituals don’t do any damage at all. Then you can forget about it.

Is it really that simple?

Short answer – NO.

• Rituals need to be written.
• Components and Focuses can be of a higher quality and, thus, more effective.
• Rituals can be performed with living sacrifices.
• You can get people to join you in rituals to simply leech their power and life.
• Rituals can be used to create your own spells.

If you stick to this quick and simple guide (and the guide can serve a ritualist to the highest of levels) then you don’t really need to worry about the rest however full details can be found in the player rules if you’re interested.

Wait. You can make your own spells!? I have a great idea…

Whoa there…

Making your own spells is, in general, not a great plan. Here are a few rules/comments from my experience and opinion…

• All player created spells need to be evaluated and given the go-ahead by the Character Ref.
• If the effect you’re after is from another School or Path already but by another name, forget about it. Schools/Paths have certain weaknesses. Rituals won’t let you bypass those weaknesses by, for example, making an Earth based Sleep spell, no matter how much you justify it with Earthy effects. “…but but dirt leaps up and strangles them until they black out!”
• Try not to make new combat/offensive spells. Running around shouting “Tendonitis 2!!!” at people will just cause confusion. You might know the spell causes the touched location to be slowed, unless the target has 2 or more toughness, but virtually no one else will.
• Having a unique spell which is cast on a friendly target in an out of combat situation is probably the best type of invented spell as you have plenty of time to explain the effects.
• Always remember, keep it simple, make sure you don’t confuse people, keep the spell in the spirit of the School/Path and try to consider all possibilities before even submitting it to the Character Ref.