Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 14:54:07 -5000 From: rtrifts@mail.on.rogers.wave.ca Subject: House Rule: Spell Components and Ritual Magic
For those who look back nostalgically at the days of Verbal, Somatic and Material components, this house rule may be of use. I conceived of the use of components as integral to my own House Rule regarding Spell Classes and Ritual magic. I find the concept meshes readily with the old Spell Pick Development System in RM2 and the rules regarding Extraordinary Spell Failure.
The major difference with respect to Personal Rituals (Spell Rituals) and Group Rituals (Rites) from that presented in RMCIII is that the caster or leader of the Rite (in Group Rituals) must be capable of casting the spell either intrinsically or through a Rune or some embedded spell item. Ritual magic does NOT allow a caster to just make up a spell out of the air as does Ritual Magic as depicted in RMC3 (which I thought was ridiculous). The 20th level witch in RMCIII under THESE rules does NOT just whip off a 50th level Earthquake spell all by her lonesome. Even using the Personal Ritual rulesas set out herein, the witch, even if she knew the spell, is virtually certain to die in the attempt. Now, if she had a coven of supporting witches and the requisite Ritual known to her, and the spell known to her or incscribed on Lord Rune Paper, a lot of Ritual skilland some skilled followers, she *might* manage the 50th level spell.
I have not had a problem with play balance using these rules. Generally, they tend to be used only for Spell Rituals by PC's, while NPC's are the one's who will take advantage of Group Rites.
[The Group Rites rules are detailed more fully in the Group Rituals (Rites) House Rule]
The basic idea is this, the rule envisions spells as being of SIX Spell classes in RM2 with respect to preparation time, NOT four. The six classes of Magic are:
Because I still use the Pick System for spell development, learning and using personal rituals of this kind is not dependent upon the Magic Ritual skill, rather, Personal (Spell) Rituals are assumed to be learned as part of learning a spell list.
[Note - this may restrict the capability of actually LEARNING the list, and a lack of component materials for base list learning is always a real problem for any caster. As I also use a modified House Rule regarding Spell Books, this is generally not a problem. Any Treatise will always contain the requisite clues to comprehending many Spell Rituals within a list. Runes are inherently mystical and contain therein the very secret to the spell ritual. Tomes *always*, by their very thorough and discursive nature, contain the requisite spell rituals in plain and exhaustive descriptions, typically illustrated.]
[Otherwise, a caster without instructive materials discovers by a process of trial and error and magical reasoning a Spell Ritual that works for him or her to learn the spell's casting. This is assumed to BE the reason for the high cost of Spell Development, and further meshes with my House Rule regarding Treatises, Runebooks, Tomes and Texts.]
So, as a spell list is learned and mastered by the spell caster, the process of mastery is a continuum of learning how to cast the spell via ritual (material component + extremely complex verbal + complex somatic), thence through experience, to cast it as Class 3 (complex verbal + somatic), Class 2 (verbal) and lastly, Class 1 (word).
Spell Rituals are not available for instant spells.
A Group Ritual (Rite) is NOT learned as part of normal spell development. The Rite leader must have discovered a Rite in a Text somewhere to make use of it, or else he or she researches a Rite through Lord Research.
Personal rituals require a length of time to cast (in rounds) equal to the level of the spell being cast, or 4 rounds (minimum), whichever is greater. Spell Rituals which are hastily completed automatically incur an ESF of +5 for every round so "shaved off" the Ritual's normal casting time (this is so even if an ESF is not normally required to cast the spell normally).
Rites take much longer to cast, and are detailed in the Rites House Rule.
The problems inherent in not taking the required time to cast a spell that has not been fully mastered to Class 1 is thus defined and explained by the above descriptions of casting from the six Spell Classes. The skipping of a step in a spell's casting, be it verbal, somatic or component, to a caster of imperfect mastery, is fraught with danger. The danger is outlined in the ESF rules in Spell Law (Spell Law 12.2 @22).
Example: Ramilien the 11th level Magician is EXTREMELY hard pressed in combat and decides to cast Lightning Bolt, which is to him a Class 3 spell, in but 1 round. Ramilen's mastery is imperfect and the required words, concentration and gestures are skipped as he casts in great haste a spell using a single word of power which he does not fully understand. His ESF mod is now at 50, and his dice had better be feeling lucky. As this is an attack spell, Ramilien has a even chance of failing his spell, with a further modifier on the Attack Spell Failure chart of +150. On an average day, this will result in a stroke and paralysis of the caster every other time. (See Spell Law 12.2 @22). On an unlucky day (outright spell fumble) Ramilien has a good chance of dying.
Example 2: If Ramilien was only ninth level, and was attempting to cast the Lightning Bolt spell as Class 1, his imperfect mastery of even the complex words and gestures of the spell without an accompanying personal ritual and components would hazard even greater disaster: ESF mod is at -70, with a +210 on the spell failure chart, usually resulting in his losing casting ability for 3 months about 70% of the time. Given the nature of what he is attempting to do, a spell fumble will always result in death.
Example 3: This time, Ramilien has a bit of foresight and has decided to cast Waiting Firestorm and sucker the bad guys in to it instead of charging in to combat. Ramilien is 9th level, but he knows Fire Law to 20th. Waiting Firestorm is an 18th level spell - beyond his mastery. If he casts the spell as a Class 3, he will suffer a 65 mod due to ESF (Spell Law, 12.2 @22). This is unacceptable to Ramilien, and instead he will opt to go for extra casting time and cast the spell via Ritual. The Personal Ritual rule states that over-preparing can yield a bonus of +50. While this bonus of +50 still leaves an ESF of 15, this is far more acceptable to Ramilien and he decides Waiting Flame is the way to go. 18 rounds (3 minutes) are taken to go cast the spell using the Personal Spell Ritual. The GM rules that he has the required components and the Ritual is cast (Roll BAR), and Ramilien deducts the required power points. He rolls a 34. The spell goes off and the Waiting Flame is cast.
Rituals are not possible to perform without complete freedom of movement and both ready hands.
Optional: The GM may decide that certain components are inferior, or superior spell components. The Ritual Bonus of +50 may be modified by up to +/-25 to account for the components quality.
The components vary, and are not consumed by the ritual depending on the class of the list.
Open Spell Lists usually destroy the ritual component but such components are typically readily available and are relatively cheap.
Example: Ess. - Physical Enhancement - Water Lungs: Requires the gills of a fish, typically dried. The GM rules that FRESH fish gills is a superior component, and gives a +15 to such a Ritual when using that component. Assuming he had the power points and knew the spell, a first level Magician could use fresh gills to cast Water Lungs through Spell Ritual in near-perfect safety.
Closed List Rituals may destroy the component (GM discretion) and are hard to obtain and may be quite expensive depending on the spell type and level (GM discretion)
Example: Closed Ess - Spirit Mastery - ALL: The GM rules that this list requires a totem containing some small dragon relic to be worn by the caster - a fragment of a dragon scale will do. The totem case must first be prepared by the caster and inscribed by the caster with non-magical runes in the Pneumatikos magic tongue in his own blood. The totem's contents is never consumed by the spell, but the runes do wear off as the totem is gripped by the caster's left hand during the ritual. After any Spirit Mastery Ritual is worked by the caster, the runes have a 10% chance of becoming so obscured as to be useless until re-inscribed. As it so happens, the target made its RR and the runes fade at this inopportune moment. Oh well, at least the caster's blood will be flowing freely in a moment or two...grab a quill.
Base List Rituals typically require still more rare and exotic components, (access to some of which may be deliberately restricted by that professions particular order, if one exists). The Ritual rarely destroys one of the components, (and the expensive component is not necessarily the one to be destroyed by the casting).
Example: Mentalism - Seer Base - Future Visions - Dream I,II,III and Lord Dream. The GM rules that the primary component to this spell is the processed nectar of a rare flower known as dream-drowse. Dream-drowse is exceedingly rare and is only available,to the caster's knowledge, from the herb garden of Chernas, in the Seers Grove in Kay'Lar. Happily, the caster is able to purchase from Chernas of Kay'Lar enough for 4 doses of precious dream-drowse. Unusually for a base list component, in the case of this spell ritual, the dream-drowse is burned as incense prior to the Seer going in to a meditative trance. The incense component is, of course, consumed by the fire. The GM considers that given the rarity and cost that Dream-drowse is therefore a +25 component. "100 GP is a small price to pay for the safe casting of a Lord Dream".
This last Class of Spell is Entirely Optional and is offered as an alternative to Ritual Magic in the Companions. Details on Rites are found in the House Rule, Group Rituals (Rites).
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Regards,
.Robert rtrifts@rogers.wave.ca