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:

^Cost^Effect^

3/5Increase the Duration of a power expressed in rounds to minutes for 3 points, or an hour for 5.
3/5If 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).
5Targets of the power resist its effects at an additional –2 modifier, in addition to any Power Modifiers such as Strong.

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!