Ritual Magic

More elaborate rituals allow heroes to cast powers they don’t normally have access to and give them even greater enhancements.

Ritual magic follows the same process as prepared powers with a few exceptions:

The caster may cast any power he already knows or any he’s found the proper ritual for—typically a written spell, prayer, or scroll found by Research or adventure (see Using Rituals below).

Ritual magic offers some additional enhancements as well:

^Cost^Effect^

3/5	Increase the Duration of a power expressed in rounds to minutes for 3 points, or an hour for 5.
3/5	If a power has an Area of Effect, it may be increased to a radius of 50 yards for +3 points, or 100 yards for +5. Either enhancement may also conform to a building, ship, or other irregular space of roughly the same size (GM’s call).
5	Targets of the power resist its effects at an additional –2 modifier, in addition to any Power Modifiers such as Strong.

If the caster knows the power, the cost to cast is 100 gold pieces times the spell’s total Power Points (including modifiers, existing Limitations, and enhancements from the table above). If he doesn’t know the power, the cost is 150 gold pieces per Power Point (including modifiers, existing Limitations, and enhancements from the table above) in addition to any costs required to get the scroll or tome. Scrolls used as part of a ritual are consumed in the process
The spell is activated with the Occult skill via a single-person, Difficult Dramatic Task. The penalty to cast is −1 for Seasoned powers, −2 for Veteran, −3 for Heroic, and −4 for Legendary. Each round of the Dramatic Tasks takes 10 minutes per rank of the spell, ie. 10 minutes for Novice, 20 for Seasoned, etc.
A caster may use his arcane skill if the power is normally available to his Arcane Background (whether he has it or not).
The power is cast immediately with the successful completion of the Dramatic Task. Use the final roll of the task as the casting total. Spellcasters may not spend Power Points to maintain the power. If the Dramatic Task fails, the ritual fails and the components are consumed. That caster can’t attempt that ritual again for one week (but others may).

Using Rituals

Ritual magic allows characters to cast spells they may not have to solve problems their group can’t otherwise resolve. For example, a party confronted by evil spirits might not have detect arcana to see invisible spirits or banish to then expel them from the town they’ve been hired to protect. This encourages creativity and allows any character to access arcane powers on occasion (though at significant cost).

If a setting is relatively low-magic, it also makes even the most basic spells feel special and magical, such as boosting the party’s Vigor while they perform a heroic feat.

Remember the party must have the spell or find the “ritual” to cast it, so if the GM doesn’t want them to have access to something unknown she doesn’t have to let them find it! Rituals typically come in the form of consumable scrolls or reusable tomes.

Finally, note that the mystic intervention power (page 131) must be cast via ritual magic. This is the spell to use to close gates to hostile dimensions, stop a mad god’s tidal wave, or other epic goals. Of course the villains will attempt to intervene, forcing some of the heroes to fend them off while the others concentrate on the ritual!