Author Topic: Ritual Magic Index & General Discussion  (Read 85502 times)

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #100 on: April 28, 2014, 10:04:11 PM »
So, I'm only a week late with this.

Martyr Rituals

Ability Transfer: Seems pretty useless since most Martyr abilities are based around their hp sacrifice.

All of them except Hand of the Heavens could be used by another class. Not that they'd necessarily want them...

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Burden of Virtue: This is a little too open ended.

Meaning Iron Heart Surge vague? Do you remember that other ability that I had that was like that and rewritten to be saner?

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Call Boon: I think these are kind of weird for the ritual list, also open ended shenanigans are probably possible but I've never done item abuse.

Probably true... I think I need a few more restrictions on these.

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Chained Body: Reword it to say something like "Every time this creature makes a physical attack (melee or ranged)..."

Will do.

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Entwined Lifeforce: It doesn't match the pattern of the other entwined rituals, I'm not a big fan of it.

It's... exactly the same? Well, except that only one creature receives the shared feats instead of both. Which I could easily change it to be that way.

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Face Thy Punishments: "A bounding box appears around the targeted creature, an area that only it can see that is domed over, creating a sphere from which it cannot depart."  What is this trying to say?

It's borrowed from Resilient Sphere. Basically, you get locked into an indestructible bubble.

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Lift the Mind: What kind of bonus?

Probably should be Enhancement, although maybe Exalted, given it's the Martyr.

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Strengthen the Body: What kind of bonus?

As above.

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Okay, how to Martyrs stay alive?

The d12 HD is a start. And it can target itself with all of the Rituals, so it's got a fair amount of defensive buffs lying around, as well as infinite out of combat healing. I'd have to see it in combat before I got really worried.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #101 on: April 28, 2014, 10:45:36 PM »
So, I'm only a week late with this.

Martyr Rituals

Ability Transfer: Seems pretty useless since most Martyr abilities are based around their hp sacrifice.

All of them except Hand of the Heavens could be used by another class. Not that they'd necessarily want them...
If no one wants it, it is still useless. :p

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Burden of Virtue: This is a little too open ended.

Meaning Iron Heart Surge vague? Do you remember that other ability that I had that was like that and rewritten to be saner?
Cleansing Touch from the Martyr class writeup IIRC.

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Call Boon: I think these are kind of weird for the ritual list, also open ended shenanigans are probably possible but I've never done item abuse.

Probably true... I think I need a few more restrictions on these.
Probably, I just don't know what to add.

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Chained Body: Reword it to say something like "Every time this creature makes a physical attack (melee or ranged)..."

Will do.
Sounds good.

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Entwined Lifeforce: It doesn't match the pattern of the other entwined rituals, I'm not a big fan of it.

It's... exactly the same? Well, except that only one creature receives the shared feats instead of both. Which I could easily change it to be that way.
I'm tired and you wrote too many words.  That's the best excuse I have for not offering a simple fix to put it in line with the others.  I probably read part of it wrong too.

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Face Thy Punishments: "A bounding box appears around the targeted creature, an area that only it can see that is domed over, creating a sphere from which it cannot depart."  What is this trying to say?

It's borrowed from Resilient Sphere. Basically, you get locked into an indestructible bubble.
No, I mean the grammar of that bolded part is way off.  Also you use the words box and dome and sphere in the same sentence.  Please rewrite that sentence.  :p

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Lift the Mind: What kind of bonus?

Probably should be Enhancement, although maybe Exalted, given it's the Martyr.
Exalted is too obscure.  Sacred would work though.  Not that it is any less obscure of a source for ability point bonuses.

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Strengthen the Body: What kind of bonus?

As above.
As above.

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Okay, how to Martyrs stay alive?

The d12 HD is a start. And it can target itself with all of the Rituals, so it's got a fair amount of defensive buffs lying around, as well as infinite out of combat healing. I'd have to see it in combat before I got really worried.

I'm getting more worried the more I read, definetely could use some playtesting.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #102 on: April 29, 2014, 09:19:47 PM »
Okay, updated and fixed all of the rituals mentioned above.

And hey, you've got the chance to be the first playtester for ritual magic :P

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #103 on: April 29, 2014, 10:28:54 PM »
Rituals look good.

Yeah yeah, so pushy.   :P

I'll either play a ritual user or the totem guy (too lazy to look, that's pretty lazy).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get started on comparing the ritual lists to each other and get into the nitty gritty.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #104 on: April 30, 2014, 10:14:16 PM »
The Executioner's Dance feat has unneccessary bolding from a find/replace.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #105 on: May 01, 2014, 07:22:58 AM »
The Executioner's Dance feat has unneccessary bolding from a find/replace.

Cleaned up the feat list, organizing by type and alphabetizing the whole list. Should make finding things slightly easier.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #106 on: May 01, 2014, 10:48:10 AM »
Looks much better!

Now you just need a feed like Mind over Matter but not Con based so that we can heal Con burn from Burn Essence.  :P

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #107 on: May 01, 2014, 11:14:10 AM »
Looks much better!

Now you just need a feed like Mind over Matter but not Con based so that we can heal Con burn from Burn Essence.  :P

You know the rule around here - you want it, design it, and I'll look it over :P

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #108 on: May 01, 2014, 11:33:30 AM »
Oh, I'd say something like this.

Resilient Essence [Ritual]
Prerequisites: Burn Essence
Benefit: You heal ability damage and ability burn damage more quickly than normal. You heal a number of ability points per day equal to 1 + your unmodified Constitution bonus (before taking any increases or damage/burn into effect).
Normal: You heal ability damage and ability burn at a rate of 1 per day.


How does that look?  It's better than Mind Over Body (from the SRD) in that you don't take the burn into effect when calculating how much you heal but to offset that it has a prerequisite and if you have a magic item/whatever that grants you Constitution the bonus from that is also ignored for the effects of the feat.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #109 on: May 01, 2014, 11:57:26 AM »
Think it'll do fine. And given the duration of rituals, it's probably just fine.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #110 on: May 01, 2014, 12:06:28 PM »
It will also make more of a difference at low levels than high ones without a significant investment in Constitution (although will also help against con draining undead and that kind of thing at higher levels).


Yeah, it's not for spamming rituals. It's more to heal faster, and not everyone will want it anyway.  For every Con burned the ritual lasts an extra day and you heal a Con a day so it evens out in the end. 

It's more for if I'm a level 6 Ritualist with a Constitution score of 14 who's trying to hide the fact that I sacrifice people so I sacrifice 9 Con to power a ritual I don't end up killing myself if I go into combat in two days because I'll have gained 6 Con back by then.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #111 on: May 01, 2014, 12:28:53 PM »
Well, even at level 1 it's quite handy, since the Ritual HD cap is 3, so if you have 14 Con, you can keep at ritual on you at all times. It takes a few levels before the amount of burn damage goes beyond what you can recover to keep all the rituals up and running. Of course, a bunch of rituals aren't very good when fueled with just Con burn, so there is that drawback. Added to the feat list.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #112 on: May 01, 2014, 12:33:27 PM »
I'm not denying that it isn't good, just wanting to make sure that it isn't TOO good.  :p

HOORAY!

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #113 on: May 03, 2014, 06:37:03 AM »
I'm not denying that it isn't good, just wanting to make sure that it isn't TOO good.  :p

HOORAY!

Well, go ahead and take it :P

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #114 on: May 08, 2014, 04:04:51 PM »
Now that I've made a level 1 Ritualist I'm torn when it comes to the Ritualist ritual list.  All of the touch attacks are melee touch attacks (on the other hand, one feat and one level gets you a pretty nifty Prestige Class that fixes that.  The list just seems way too "in your face", especially when that's the Ritual Warrior's job.  The Martyr has more debuffs at the lower ritual levels and that seems weird to me.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #115 on: May 08, 2014, 04:51:02 PM »
Well, it was actually the Ritualist's job too. A large portion of his rituals are around melee buffs, although ones that turn him into another creature, or use their power. The touch attacks are part of that. He's using the lifeforce of dead creatures as his weapon, instead of a blade. He also has a fair amount of ranged attacks, although they do take a little while to get going, and a lot of them are cloud or fog based.

The ritual warrior, on the other hand, uses much shorter duration rituals and kills people in combat for his power. Hence finishing strike.

Martyr, on the other hand, is the debuff support role. He's vulnerable enough with burning his own hit points for mana that I didn't want him anywhere near combat, or at least as much as possible.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #116 on: May 08, 2014, 05:28:20 PM »
I went into this wanting to make someone who doesn't wade into melee combat.   :P

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #117 on: May 08, 2014, 05:37:12 PM »
I went into this wanting to make someone who doesn't wade into melee combat.   :P

That's the Martyr's job.

Ritualist is not very ranged - only 2 of the first two levels of Ritualist Rituals are ranged (well, three, with Bloodstone). Only at the high levels does he wander away from that.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #118 on: May 08, 2014, 05:56:46 PM »
I went into this wanting to make someone who doesn't wade into melee combat.   :P

That's the Martyr's job.

Ritualist is not very ranged - only 2 of the first two levels of Ritualist Rituals are ranged (well, three, with Bloodstone). Only at the high levels does he wander away from that.

The higher levels are apparently what I spent more time looking at when I did the overview.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #119 on: May 08, 2014, 06:31:46 PM »
The higher levels are apparently what I spent more time looking at when I did the overview.

Well, probably should use this as a chance to change things about, especially given some rituals need to be dumped. Like Steal the Lifeforce, which is an almost exact duplicate of Linked Lifeforce, and there's another 1st level ritual that grants Temp HP.

Plus, if you want to invent more, I'm hardly going to argue :)