Ritual magic is an alternative magical form to sorcery. In general, it is a lot slower to cast, and needs a lot more setting up and formal movements and mechanisms. However, if done properly, it has the potential to be far more devastating than sorcery. There is also more of a creative side to it than to basic sorcery, so in many ways, ritual is more an art than a science. Also going to greater risks means greater creativity, but with greater outcomes subject to GM guidance and approval.
Basic (15pt)
This covers the basics of occult ritual work:
– Casting a circle, sealing the aura
– Making and dedicating a Working area
– Putting him/herself into a Working trance
– Setting up both personal and area wards
Once the Ritualist has learned the basics, typical areas of study might include some or all of:
– Casting horoscopes
– Far sensing (with suitable focus)
– Hypnotism
– Long and short-range attacks – however these are too slow to be practical in active combat, and so are more use artillery-style (needs a focus for where the attack is required)
– Location rituals (again, with suitable focus)
– Medium abilities (channelling spirits who wish to communicate)
– Psychometry (reading impressions from an item)
– Scrying/law of correspondences (maps and water)
– Summon mundane people or items (needs a focus specific to what you wish to summon, such a true name or some kind of arcane connection)
– Tarot and improved Trump scrying
The Ritualist will also learn how to work with others to make their combined effects more powerful, and give others energy. However, a basic Ritualist is not able to devise a combined ritual from scratch. In the proper setting, with the proper foci, the ritual magician or group of magicians can generate significantly more powerful and long-ranging effects than would normally be possible with sorcery. The trade-off is that any ritual takes time to complete, and the amount of time involved will increase with the complexity and power of the ritual.
Advanced (50pt)
There are stat prerequisites of 30 psyche and 20 endurance for Advanced Ritual.
This takes the basics further, so either more power can be generated, or casting times can be improved. It also allows the caster to start working with storing energy in items, and using that energy later; and with magical items, as long as the Ritualist has the psyche and endurance to bind the two together. More basic and mundane rituals can be performed at much closer to sorcery speed, and the Ritualist will be much better at devising rituals on the fly. In addition, they can generate a lot more power within a ritual than a basic Ritualist.
Larger rituals, involving multiple participants, can be devised and cast. In addition, an advanced Ritualist can create a magical interrupt to mess up someone else’s spell, and forensic-style look-back rituals become possible.
Powers backing can be combined into rituals, so long as the Ritualist has a reasonable understanding of the Power in question (ie at least basic) and has the psyche and endurance to bind the two together
If the Ritualist is also a Sorcerer, the two disciplines can be combined together, to try to obtain the optimum balance of power and speed.
The Ritualist can also learn to summon High Bloods or magical, within reason, although the need for a focus remains, and all such summonings are subject to GM approval.
Master (75pt)
This is under consideration. Please contact the GM.