Author Topic: Ritual Magic Index & General Discussion  (Read 85497 times)

Offline Stratovarius

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Ritual Magic Index & General Discussion
« on: March 15, 2014, 08:32:10 PM »
Ritual Magic
Canere hid, silent, as the raiders carried a gift towards their leader. The "gift" was a humanoid, wrapped in a net and bound tightly. Clearly, Canere had stumbled upon the kidnappers who hhad been working this area in recent weeks.

Placing the creature flat on the ground, the raiders backed away, bowing and scraping to their lord, their faces fearful, although Canere could not tell of what.

Stripping away the cloth from the bound creature's face, the leader nodded in satisfaction at what he saw, and began to spread unguents about the creature, creating diagrams and mystical symbols that Canere had never seen before.

The process took perhaps fifteen minutes or more, the captive squirming against its bonds, but able to do more than writhe in place. Such writhings did not stop the blade that slit its throat, nor hide the bitter tang of fresh blood in the air.

A savage grin split the leader's mouth as his form changed, twisted, until it was a strange melding of his own and the dead captive, revealed to be a gnoll after it spilt from the bindings in death.

Canere staggered, his thoughts rippling wildly. What magic was this?


Ritual magic is an old form of magic, perhaps the first there was. It began when the first shaman danced around a fire, calling upon the spirits and souls of ancestors past and great beasts of the present to come and aid him. What answered him is uncertain, but it was called up both from within himself and from without, from the sacrifice that he laid upon the altar. It was there that the true power of the ritual was discovered, in a sanctified symbol upon the ground with powerful unguents that help trap and hold the spirit of the sacrifice, binding it to the wielder's will. There was much refining of the process and powders until the current times, where it now resides as a powerful yet fragmented magic, split between the desire to do good, and the ease with which it can do evil.

It is this idea of sacrifice that holds true throughout the Tome of Ritual Magic, for all of the rituals within require a source to power the desired energies, be it the dead soul of a creature, the energy bound within a magical item, or a sacrifice of the wielder's very essence. Conversely, the power offered by a ritual lasts for days, and often weeks, rewarding the gift of sacrifice with long lasting energies that grant many strange and unusual benefits. The gifts imbued into the wielder vary in the method of sacrifice, with those that give of oneself a boon to help, and those that take from another a more overt and harsh mistress. No one wielder has learned how to manipulate all of the methods of power, with each branch preferring to specialize themselves into a source of sacrificial energy that suits their discipline and temperament.

Like the Expanded Psionics Handbook, this book presents a new system of magic, a novel way of looking at characters who deal with life and death. The heart of this system is the sacrifice, the rules for which will presented in full in Chapter 4.

Sacrifices
Sacrifices are the sources of power to those who wield the knife upon the altar, but despite the image of a priest standing above a creature, a sacrifice need not be a living being. No, sacrifices can come from almost anywhere, be it from unharnessing the magical energy in an artefact to, indeed, killing creatures, to the very essence of a soul that resides in each and every character.

Talented users of ritual magic understand this, and apply themselves so that they can draw upon different sources of energy, should one ever prove to be difficult to acquire.

Rituals
The characters who make use of the options in this book— new classes, prestige classes, feats, and other options—gain the ability to transform sacrifices into ongoing supernatural effects called rituals. Characters who can perform rituals are called ritual-wielders.

A ritual is the bound energy of the sacrifice, slowly being expended either by the will of the ritual-wielder, or over time as the magic is used up. Unlike spells, however, the duration of rituals is measured in days, such is the strength of the sacrifice, although some are dismissed sooner than that.

Character and Campaign Options
Central to the concept behind this book is the idea that you can use as much or as little of it as you want to in your game. Much of the material can be used by characters from existing classes, although ritual magic does perform best when utilized by a specialist character.

A player who is very excited about ritual magic might choose a new race from Chapter 1, one of the ritual-wielder classes from Chapter 2, and feats from the new feats presented in Chapter 3. His character can perform rituals drawn from Chapter 4 and wield magic items from Chapter 5. When he’s ready, he might adopt a prestige class from Chapter 6. For such a player, this book can almost replace the Player’s Handbook—in much the same way that the Expanded Psionics Handbook can for a psionic character. Others might prefer to simply dabble in ritual magic. A player can choose a race and a class from the Player’s Handbook, then choose feats and prestige classes from Chapters 3 & 6 to enhance his character. He can make extensive use of the items in Chapter 5, even if he can’t unlock all the potential of those items. Several of the prestige classes in Chapter 6 are designed for characters with little previous exposure to ritual magic, so they open up additional opportunities.  A player who wants his character to dabble in ritual magic can use this book as an additional resource at the table, without having ritual magic dominate the character’s capabilities.

A campaign might introduce ritual magic in tiny fragments: a single villain with a ritual-wielding class from Chapter 2, an encounter with members of a new race from Chapter 1 or monsters from Chapter 7, or a strange item from Chapter 5 that holds the promise of more abilities than it immediately reveals—if a character can learn the secrets of the sacrifice. The player characters might explore an ancient ruin strangely laden with ritual magic-related items and opponents, and learn new capabilities themselves as they progress through the ruins and uncover their secrets. Like Canere in the vignette at the start of this introduction, the PCs in your campaign might stumble upon a tribe that utilizes this strange magic, and choose whether to learn it, or judge the users of it. Chapter 8: Ritual Magic Campaigns includes a wealth of options and advice about incorporating ritual magic into an ongoing or all-new campaign. Whatever options you choose, you’ll find ritual magic injecting a unique flavor and never-before-seen effects into your campaign. Whether you’re as new to the game as ritualists and Caeth or you’ve been playing since psionics made their first appearance, we trust that the arrival of ritual magic will spark your imagination and give new life to your campaigns and adventures to come.

Download Ritual Magic

« Last Edit: May 28, 2020, 10:27:00 AM by Stratovarius »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2014, 12:29:27 PM »
For those interested, the entirety of the system is now posted, and I'm cleaning up the index thread as a result.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2014, 07:53:36 PM »
The Opened Soul feat makes rituals last "one time period longer".  Does that mean that for a ritual that lasts hours it adds an extra hour or does it turn hours into days (I believe the latter but am asking for clarification.

More importantly, if it turns hours into days what does it turn days into?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2014, 08:36:20 PM »
The latter. And Weeks.

Which, upon thinking about it, is somewhat insane. Let me eyeball the feat.

This is the original.

Quote
Opened Soul [Ritual]
Prerequisites: Con 13.
Benefit: Your soul is highly susceptible to the effects of rituals, and magnifies their effects upon you. This effect is not without its drawbacks. Any ritual created upon you lasts one time period long (hour, day, minute, depending on the ritual), but you take a -2 penalty to all saves against rituals and effects with the mind-effecting descriptor.

Alternative A:

Quote
Opened Soul [Ritual]
Prerequisites: Con 13.
Benefit: Your soul is highly susceptible to the effects of rituals, and magnifies their effects upon you. This effect is not without its drawbacks. Any ritual created upon you lasts one time period longer (rounds become minutes, minutes become hours, up to a maximum of hours becoming days), but you take a -2 penalty to all saves against rituals and effects with the mind-effecting descriptor.

Alternative B:

Quote
Opened Soul [Ritual]
Prerequisites: Con 13.
Benefit: Your soul is highly susceptible to the effects of rituals, and magnifies their effects upon you. This effect is not without its drawbacks. Any ritual created upon you lasts one time period longer (rounds become minutes, minutes become hours, up to a maximum of days becoming weeks), but you take a -2 penalty to all saves.

Alternative C:

Quote
Opened Soul [Ritual]
Prerequisites: Con 13.
Benefit: Your soul is highly susceptible to the effects of rituals, and magnifies their effects upon you. This effect is not without its drawbacks. Any ritual created upon you increases all numerical benefits by 50% (rounded down), but you take a -2 penalty to all saves against rituals and effects with the mind-effecting descriptor.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2014, 08:43:51 PM by Stratovarius »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2014, 10:27:26 PM »
Warning: Stream of consciousness rambling ahead.

I think A or C would be the better way to go, having rituals last weeks and weeks seems too good to me, then again it would make sense from a fluff standpoint.

I also just remembered that there is the cap on active rituals so you having a ritual last that long isn't abusable the way having a spell last for more than a day.



Hmm, in that case I think I'm leaning towards B.  The Ritualist has always been my least favorite class and part of that is the fact that you need to go out and find sacrifices all the time.  This helps alleviate that issue without being a feat tax.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2014, 10:37:16 PM »
On another topic, I just went through the magic items.


Circumscribing Solution should mention that it is a one use item.

Goggles of Unbound Sight should have "(as per the Status spell)" in the rules text.  Also there's a typo, it says "of all creatures him."  I think it is suppose to say of all creatures visible to him but I'm not sure.

Sanguineous Scroll: How long does the benefit last?  It should also say something about not counting towards qualifying for anything.

Torc of Eternal life seems expensive for what it does.  That's not much healing.


Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2014, 07:40:16 AM »
Hmm, in that case I think I'm leaning towards B.  The Ritualist has always been my least favorite class and part of that is the fact that you need to go out and find sacrifices all the time.  This helps alleviate that issue without being a feat tax.

Went with B for now. All it does is make the Ritual classes better in constrained resource environments, with a pretty significant penalty.

Circumscribing Solution should mention that it is a one use item.

Fixed

Quote
Goggles of Unbound Sight should have "(as per the Status spell)" in the rules text.  Also there's a typo, it says "of all creatures him."  I think it is suppose to say of all creatures visible to him but I'm not sure.

Quote
Sanguineous Scroll: How long does the benefit last?  It should also say something about not counting towards qualifying for anything.

One day, and no requirements. Fixed.

Quote
Torc of Eternal life seems expensive for what it does.  That's not much healing.

Made it heal more, and much much cheaper. Probably a touch too expensive still, though.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2014, 10:53:42 AM »
Magic items look good to me now.

What do you want me to look at next?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2014, 11:12:41 AM »
The next "easier" place to start is probably the Races (there's 4 of em). After that, you're really into the meat of the base classes and rituals.

If you're unsure of how to value being able to cast a 1st level ritual, think of it of roughly a 1st level buffing spell 1/day.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2014, 12:08:04 PM »
Hastro gets a lot of bonuses, but not enough to make it LA +1 in my opinion.  Not sure what to do about that.

Helfarch: I think Consumptive Gift should say may instead of must, that's a huge penalty for in combat if you are required to stop and eat the corpse.  The Hunger PrC should be changed to match in my opinion.

Niwl gets a bonus to two important stats, Con gives hit points and Dex give armor class.  One of them should be nixed.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #10 on: March 17, 2014, 12:18:29 PM »
Hastro gets a lot of bonuses, but not enough to make it LA +1 in my opinion.  Not sure what to do about that.

Well, as long as it's not game-breaking, that's probably okay. Could easily drop their claws, and switch to -2 Con instead of Dex.

Quote
Helfarch: I think Consumptive Gift should say may instead of must, that's a huge penalty for in combat if you are required to stop and eat the corpse.  The Hunger PrC should be changed to match in my opinion.

It being a huge penalty is sort of the point of the ability - it's an uncontrollable urge. You're also missing the out - Just don't kill anyone, and leave the final blow business to party members.

Quote
Niwl gets a bonus to two important stats, Con gives hit points and Dex give armor class.  One of them should be nixed.

Hmm, what if I gave them -2 Str instead?

Also, no issues with the Caeth?

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #11 on: March 17, 2014, 12:52:03 PM »
Hastro gets a lot of bonuses, but not enough to make it LA +1 in my opinion.  Not sure what to do about that.

Well, as long as it's not game-breaking, that's probably okay. Could easily drop their claws, and switch to -2 Con instead of Dex.


I think that just dropping the claws should be enough.

Quote
Quote
Helfarch: I think Consumptive Gift should say may instead of must, that's a huge penalty for in combat if you are required to stop and eat the corpse.  The Hunger PrC should be changed to match in my opinion.

It being a huge penalty is sort of the point of the ability - it's an uncontrollable urge. You're also missing the out - Just don't kill anyone, and leave the final blow business to party members.

I get your point, but there is no way to know how much health someone actually has so that out isn't easily used.  If it is intentional that's fine, I'm not going to argue against it.

Quote
Quote
Niwl gets a bonus to two important stats, Con gives hit points and Dex give armor class.  One of them should be nixed.

Hmm, what if I gave them -2 Str instead?

I'm iffy about that.  A strength penalty is easily ignored by not playing a strength based class but so is every other stat.

Quote
Also, no issues with the Caeth?

Nope, no issues with them.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #12 on: March 17, 2014, 01:48:07 PM »
I think that just dropping the claws should be enough.

Done

Quote
I get your point, but there is no way to know how much health someone actually has so that out isn't easily used.  If it is intentional that's fine, I'm not going to argue against it.

However, I am seeing a few problems with the ability. It's not saying how the ritual gets chosen, and the Will save, is, honestly, brutal. I shall adjust.

Edit here:
Consumptive Gift: Whenever the Helfarch kills a creature, it must spend 1 round per hit dice of the killed creature to consume it, gaining the effects of one ritual that only affects the caster. There is no gold or spellcraft check required. It cannot dismiss that ritual normally, nor can it use Consumptive Gift again until that ritual is gone. It will only overcome the compulsion to feed when already affected by a ritual or when in serious danger, at which time it will defend itself or run. The ritual is randomly chosen from the highest level he could cast if he treated all class levels as ritualist levels, and cannot exceed his hit dice cap. If it does, he must dismiss an existing ritual. Every day that the Helfarch is not affected by Consumptive Gift, it must make a Will save versus 15 + the number of weeks without using Consumptive Gift or go into a frenzy, seeking out the nearest living creature, slaying and eating it.

That should clean up most of the problems associated with the ability. Also, Consumptive Gift could be ignored "when in serious danger", which I think heavy combat counts as. So, mostly triggers if he KOs the last BBEG in a fight.

Quote
I'm iffy about that.  A strength penalty is easily ignored by not playing a strength based class but so is every other stat

I'm honestly not sure what to do with the Niwl. They don't have enough abilities to make them interesting , and they don't head specifically for a single class... Aside from being a good dex monkey, and allowing for PrC abuse.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2014, 01:58:16 PM by Stratovarius »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #13 on: March 17, 2014, 02:40:13 PM »
Consumptive Gift looks good now, I like it.

I'm not sure what to do with Niwl either.  I'll just skip it for now and move onto classes when I get home from work.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2014, 08:10:39 AM »
Thinking of dropping most of the stat bonuses/penalties (aside from the -2 int), and replacing with a few more "gaseous" fighting abilities. Free movement in clouds, attack bonus when concealed by one, that kind of thing.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2014, 10:03:18 AM »
That sounds interesting, I'd like to see where you go with that.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2014, 10:20:07 AM »
Done. Thoughts?

(click to show/hide)

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2014, 10:25:18 AM »
The only concern I have is how easy it might be to be in a cloud effect.  +6 to damage is nothing to sniff at.  Maybe knock it down to +4 or +2?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2014, 12:21:29 PM »
+1/+3 sound right?

Offline Nanshork

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Re: General Discussion
« Reply #19 on: March 19, 2014, 12:23:00 PM »
Sounds good to me.