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Ritual Magic

Though more limited than casters in other settings, channeling casters have a great boon in the form of ritual magic. Rituals can greatly increase a spell's duration, lower the amount of spell energy needed to cast it, or even lessen the apparent caster level of the spell so that it is less likely to be detected by the dark god's legates.

Learning Rituals

In order to learn a ritual, a character must have the Ritual Caster feat. A character may learn a ritual version of any spell that he knows using the normal rules for learning new spells for his tradition; rather than learning a new spell at the end of the process, the character learns the ritual version of an already known spell. This means that spiritual channelers must find teachers to commune with who know the ritual, and hermetic channelers must find scrolls and texts specifically describing the ritual they seek.

Alternatively, the ritual caster may learn a new ritual any other time that he would learn a new spell, such as by gaining a level or taking the Spellcasting or Spell Knowledge feat.

Leading Rituals

The first ingredient that any ritual needs is a character with the Ritual Caster feat who knows the ritual. This is the ritual leader. A number of ritual assistancs may also participate in the ritual, up to a maximum equal to the ritual leader's spellcasting ability modifier. In order to assist in a ritual, a character must be able to cast spells of the ritual spell's school (via the appropriate Spellcasting feat) and must have a caster level equal to the ritual spell level, but need not know or be able to cast the spell itself. For each ritual assistant who participates, the spell energy cost of the ritual is lowered by one, with no minimum (meaning that a ritual can allow a spell to be cast for zero spell energy).

Ritual Costs

Rituals essentially allow a channeling caster to push, prod, and stretch the mystic energy of the world into the or manner he desires. Each ritual participant must pay the ritual spell energy cost. The ritual takes a great physical toll on all participants, however, and thus they may not use spell energy points to pay to the ritual's spell energy cost (nor may they use spell talismans and the like tolower the spell energy cost). Instead, the ritual participants must pay for the ritual by suffering Constitution damage equal to the ritual's spell energy cost, just as if they had run out of spell energy.

While costly, this option allows desperate casters to accomplish longer-lasting, farther-reaching, and less easily detectable spell effects than would otherwise be possible. Also, if the number of participants is balanced with the spell energy cost of the ritual, the ritual may have no spell energy cost whatsoever. It is the use of such rituals, often for days without rest, that allow the hard-pressed healers of the elves and dwarves to keep up with the constant battlefield wounds of their soldiers.

Ritual Effects

In addition to the potental for reduced spell energy cost, rituals allow a spell to be modified in several ways. For each ritual effect chosen fromt he list below, the spell energy cost of the spell increases by one.

A ritual effect may be chosen multiple times. For instance, a 5th-level ritual leader casting a ritual version of mage armor could choose the "double original duration of spell" effect twice, giving the mage armor spell a duration of 15 hours and a spell energy cost of 3.

Casting Rituals

Casting a ritual requires 10 minutes per spell energy cost of the ritual (this cost includes the addition or subtraction of spell energy due to ritual participants and ritual effects). Even rituals with a total spell energy cost of zero still require at minimum 10 minutes to cast.

This includes time preparing material components, drawing glyphs and symbols on the target of the spell (or area that it will affect), and mentally preparing for the grueling task ahead. Such preparations generally do not take more than one quarter of the time spent on the actual casting. For example, a ritual with a spell energy cost of 4 rarely requires more than 10 minutes to prepare.

The actual casting of the ritual requires complete concentration, and significant distractions can cause the ritual to fail. Anything that would normally disrupt the casting that affects any of the ritual participants forces them to make Concentration checks in order to maintain the ritual. In addition, large-scale distractions or a change in the local environment (a powerful storm moving into the region, a battle taking place, etc.) require all participants to make a Concentration check (DC 10 + the ritual's spell level) each minute or the ritual is lost. Once order has been restored, the caster no longer needs to make these checks.

Ritual Failure

Rituals can fail for a variety of reasons. A ritual fails if the caster does not succeed at a required Concentration check, the ritual area is disturbed, or the caster simply stops perfomring the ritual. Other situations may cause a ritual to automatically fail as well, according to the DM. If a ritual fails, any character participating in the casting suffers immediate Constitution damage as if he had cast the spell without use of the ritual. This penalty is harsh, and characters are well advised to use rituals only under circumstances they fully control.

Designing Rituals

Rituals are an important part of the magic of the world, and each should be designed to reflect the particular culture from which it springs. Different types of magic also have certain common elements in their rituals, elements that can be found in rituals of diverse cultures.

The material components used in rituals are rarely valuable, as items of worth—food, clothing, and tools—are hard to come by in these trying times. They are more likely to be materials common to the area in which the rituals are conceived. The elves make liberal use of wood, leaves, flowers, herbs, and moss in their rituals, while gnomes use the bones of river fish, reeds, and smooth stones from shallow areas. The humans adapt to their varied surroundings, using clay for drawing and other materials where appropriate.

Some of the most common types of ritual spells and their components are as follows.

Healing: Healing rituals are common, especially when greater healing is needed and there are not many healers to perform the duties. The subject of the healing is usually painted with an aromatic paste made from various local plants. The spellcaster then chants over him for several hous while applying more of the paste and sometimes feeding him roots or leaves during the process.

Illusion: Illusions are often used to hide entire communities from oncoming armies or to facilitate the movement of small numbers of people through enemy territory. When used on these scales, it is often more than local channelers can handle, so they turn to rituals to aid them. Illusion rituals often use translucent gemstones and minerals such as quartz. Light is shone through the stone and reflected onto the area to be glamered, while the channeler envisions and describes the illusion to be wrought.

Abjuration: spells used for protection can often be made to affect more people and larger areas when used in conjunction with rituals. Protection rituals often make use of powdered substances that are used to draw circles and symbols on the area to be protected. Common materials include bone and dirt from an area that is sacred or somehow special to the local population.

Transmutation: Sometimes a channeler needs to use powerful transmutation magic to aid himself or another. This is common when a great champion is needed in battle. Transmutation rituals are always intense and personal, and they usually involve the use of colorful dyes or pastes that are applied to the subject in a way related to the enhancement he is being given. For instance, a character being augmented by a ritual bull's strength may have an exaggerated or stylized musculature painted on his body during the ritual.

Ritual Examples

Two 3rd-level channelers and their injured barbarian comrade are trapped behind enemy lines, hiding out in a small cave. The two channelers are out of spell energy, but wish to heal their companion. One has the Ritual Caster feat and both know the ritual for the cure light wounds spell; the other has the Spellcasting (Conjuration) feat and can therefore assist. They prepare the barbarian for the ritual, covering his wounds with mystic salves, and then perform the ritual. They choose the "No effect" option, meaning the spell energy cost does not increase; additionally, since there are two of them, the spell energy cost decreases from one to zero. Minutes later, the channelers complete the ritual and their warlike comrade gains the benefit of the cure light wounds spell with no spell energy cost or Constitution damage to his allies.

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Three 10th-level channelers are participating in a ritual to cast a mirage arcana spell (5th level) with a doubled area of effect (+1 level). So the ritual's cost would be 5 spell energy points, plus 1 for the ritual effect, minus 2 for the two ritual assistants, for a total of 4 spell energy points. It would therefore require 40 minutes to complete and each would suffer four points of Constitution damage.