Rituals, Rituals, Rituals

Rituals Rock!  I love the concept of rituals, simply because I believe that magic should be an in-depth process, an art that takes time to create. Yes, I understand the need and functionality for being able to unleash a Lightning Bolt with a Standard Action, but when you have to open a gate to another realm or compel the dead to speak, a ritual captures the mystery of the arcane skill needed much better.

Rituals Suck! Only in that they are way overpriced I think.  I just do not see many PCs wanting to blow the gold to use rituals often. Maybe halving the price would be better; thoughts?

Anyways here’s a  haversack-load of rituals for your 4e game (yes, using the current pricing status).

Curse of Quietus

With a surge of dark magic you throw a lock of Bailiff Windright’s hair into the still twilight. A faint odor of decay swirls about you, an acknowledgment of arcane success.

Level: 10                              Component Cost: 400 gp (special)

Category: Deception                      Market Price: 1,000 gp

Time: 1 hour                         Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: Special

This malicious ritual is favored by warlocks, necromancers, and witches. By twisting dark magic around a lock of the target’s hair, you surround the victim with an aura of decay.  The victim’s skin grows pallid and rotten, his hair falls out in clumps, and the stench of death lingers about him regardless of his cleanliness. As a result, the target suffers a -2 penalty to all social checks per day he suffers under the curse.

This curse cannot be healed in mundane matters. It must either run its course or be countered by an appropriate ritual. Also, as the target is unwilling, your Arcana check must exceed the target’s Fortitude defense to take effect. In addition, the Arcana check determines the curse’s duration.

Arcana Check Result Duration

19 or lower                    1 day

20-29                            3 days

30-39                            5 days

40 or higher                   7 days

Finally, this ritual does require one special component, a piece of the target’s hair, a drop of their blood, or some other piece of organic material taken from the target.

False Memories

It would be so much easier for the witnesses to believe your story if you were actually telling the truth. Fortunately, you’ve found ways around that.

Level: 19                                 Component Cost: 8,000 gp

Type: Deception                     Market Price: 20,000 gp

Time: 1 hour                           Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: Special

You may insert memories into the targeted creature’s mind. The details may be as precise or as vague as you wish to leave them.. The targeted creature will recall these implanted memories as being absolute truth.

A variety of pratfalls do complicate the use of the ritual, however. Memories, in and of themselves are fickle things, the art of implanting them is, as well. A sound understanding of your target’s actual past can make for an easier, more believable use of this ritual.

Any unwilling target of this ritual must be helpless during the casting time. Upon completing the ritual, roll your Arcana check. This check must exceed the targeted creature’s Will defense. In addition, this check determines the rituals duration.

Arcana Check Result		Duration
19 or Lower		1 week
20-29		1 month
30-39		1 year
40 or higher		Permanent

You may also target yourself with this ritual.

Masque of Mirages

So far today you have been Edwin the Red, rogue about town, and Igben the barkeep. Both disguises garnered a lot of information, but you believe your turn as Count Helwik Highcourt at tonight’s ball will be the most useful of all.

Level: 8                                   Component Cost: 135 gp (special)

Type: Deception                     Market Price: 680 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: 24 hours (special)

With this ritual you weave a malleable illusion about yourself. Over the course of the next 24 hours you may assume 3 different humanoid appearances. These appearances can stem from your imagination or they may be imitations of other people. If they are imitations of other people, a picture, painting, or, preferably, the person being imitated needs to be at hand during the casting of the spell. For those familiar with the imitated target, allow an Insight check with a DC equal to 5 + your Arcana check to notice the differences.

The duration of the ritual is 24 hours. However, the magic does not allow constant swapping between forms. Once one form is used, only two remain, and so on. Swapping into a new mirage is a full-round action and is an obvious use of magic if noticed.

Finally, you can cast this ritual on someone other than yourself but it requires a mirror of at least 200 gp.

Portal of Ages Past

Stars swirl and spin, bending to your will. Slowly, but inescapably they are drawn into form – that of a spiraling portal.

Level: 29 Component Cost: 90,000 gp (plus 5 healing surges)

Category: Travel                    Market Price: 500,000 gp

Time: 1 hour                           Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: Instantaneous

This ritual allows you and any others you name within 25 feet of you to travel through time. The portal does not allow for travel through space; your destination is the stated time in the exact same locale you cast the ritual from. This requires some measure of preparation and research on your behalf to ensure you do not end up in the midst of a battle, or worse, the bottom of an ocean.

In addition to the dangers of ill preparation, an unskilled caster may become unhinged in time and forever lost. The table below charts the strength of your ritual based upon your Arcana check.

Arcana Check Result	Distance Allowed
19 or Lower	1 year
20-29	10 years
30-39	100 years
40 or higher	Any point in history

Only willing targets are subject to the time travel this ritual allows. These willing subjects are lifted from the ground and hurtled skyward until they disappear with a flash of light. Any equipment that his held or carried is transported with the subject. There is no limit to the number of people that can travel via this portal aside from the number of people that can fit within a 25 foot radius of you.

To return to your own time, the ritual must be successfully cast again from the same locale you arrived at.

Unhinged in Time: Daring time travel is a risky proposition. If a ritual is performed unsuccessfully, the caster is hurtled through time randomly. Upon arriving at this unknown destination, the caster is also invisible and insubstantial, unable to physically affect anything within his new era.

Quick Study

You thumb through the hefty tome. Dust rolls off the pages as you flip pages in quick succession. You set it down and say, “I’ve studied the history of the region. I believe we should began are search at the abandoned manor of the Renwick family.”

Level: 5                                   Component Cost: 50 gp

Category: Divination             Market Price: 250 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana (no check)

Duration: 1 hour

This ritual hastens your mental acuity. Under its effects, you are able to perform calculations and comprehend items in a much quicker manner. This grants the most utility in research situations as it allows you to read 10 pages of text every minute; this translates out to 600 pages an hour. All of this text is fully digested as if you had spent hours poring over every minute detail and reading it in full.

Another benefit for spellcasters is that this ritual lessens the time it takes to master other rituals. When under the effects of Quick Study, a ritualist need only 1 hour, as opposed to 8, to master a ritual.

Sleepless Vigilance

Deep within the lands claimed by brutish orcs, one cannot afford the luxury of rest.

Level: 6                                   Component Cost: 140 gp

Category: Restoration            Market Price: 360 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Heal

Duration: 6 hours

You, or another recipient of this ritual’s effect, do not need sleep to feel fully rested. For the next 6 hours you are wakeful and aware; in addition, you gain a bonus to your Perception skill as shown below:

Heal Check Result	Perception Check Bonus
19 or Lower	+1
20-29	+2
30-39	+3
40 or higher	+4

Though not sleeping, this ritual does affect you as if you had a full night’s rest. At the end of the 6 hours you regain any lost hit points, healing surges, encounter powers, and daily powers, and you still lose any accumulated action points.

Theft of Thoughts

Your gaze burrows deep past the captive’s defiant stare and makes known the answers you seek.

Level: 12                                 Component Cost: 500 gp

Category: Divination             Market Price: 2,600 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: 10 minutes (Special)

You can rifle through a touched target’s mind and rip out the information you seek. This ritual gives you full access to the target’s mind, but it is up to you to navigate the process. This ritual does not allow you to read thoughts. Instead, you prod the magic by asking questions mentally to the victim; if the creature is aware of the answer you are as well.

There are some limitations to this ritual. Namely, it works best with yes/no or short answer questions; as a rule, you do not receive answers longer than 10 words. Also, if the target communicates in a language you cannot understand, you will be unable to decipher its thoughts without other precautions. Finally, if the target is unwilling your Arcana check must exceed its Will defense.

The Arcana check also determines the number of queries.

Arcana Check Result	Questions Asked
19 or Lower	1
20-29	2
30-39	3
40 or higher

Tormented Arcana

You’ve hurled bolts of lightning, rays of fire, and summoned blizzards of ice. And you’re enemy knows it.  But as you grit your teeth and choke back the copper taste of your own blood, you realize it is the magic he is unaware of that will cost him.

Level: 22                                 Component Cost: 13,000 gp (special)

Category: Creation                Market Price: 65,000 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana (no check)

Duration: Instantaneous

By inflicting grievous strain on your health and pain threshold you call upon a rare form of blood magic to refuel your arcane reserves. This ritual allows you to recharge any and all spent daily powers from a certain tier by burning through available healing surges. The cost to your immediate health is taxing, and most texts that contain this ritual regard it as a last ditch attempt for survival.

Healing Surges Spent	Tier Replenished
2	Heroic
3	Paragon
5	Epic

For example, if you spend 3 healing surges when casting this ritual you regain the use of any and all spent daily powers from levels 11-20 (the paragon tier).

Twist of Fate

As you cast this ritual you see the threads of fate spun about you. You gently pluck at one producing the harmonious tone of good luck.

Level: 16                                 Component Cost: 1,800 gp

Category: Binding                 Market Price: 4,500 gp

Time: 30 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana (no check)

Duration: 24 hours or until discharged

Your mastery of the arcane allows you to bind the magic of fate to your side. During the next 24-hour period you may re-roll any one roll that is pertinent to your character; this includes both rolls you’ve made and rolls made by allies or enemies that affect you. After the re-roll takes place you may choose the optimal roll for your concerns. If the magic is not used within a 24-hour period it dissipates.

This ritual only affects you and may not be cast upon other creatures.

Unfettered Vision

You see the unseen. Through darkness, distance, and deception, your silver eyes see all.

Level: 14                                 Component Cost: 800 gp

Category: Divination             Market Price: 4,200 gp

Time: 10 minutes                    Key Skill: Arcana

Duration: 1 hour

Depending on the text, this ritual has been referred to as Angel Eye’s and Eyes of the Oracle for its beneficial impact on divination and scrying spells.

5

This ritual greatly amplifies your sight and heightens your senses. For the duration of the ritual’s effects your eyes shine with a silvery sheen and they remain unblinking. This transformation of the eyes is not a disguisable element even by illusory magic.

The strength of the ritual determines the effects and bonuses inferred upon the caster.

Arcana Check Result	Sight Gained	Skill Bonus
19 or Lower	Darkvision	+2 Perception
20-29	All-around Vision
30-39	Truesight 20	+2 Insight
40 or higher		+5 Arcana (Divination checks only)

All of the associated bonuses (both skill and sight) stack.

Buffing 4e, Part 2

Continuing from part 1, allow me a few more rituals. Again, these are inspired by 3.5 buff spells (Eagle’s Splendor, Bull’s Strength . . . and so on), though I’ve altered them enough to keep them somewhat fresh for 4e.

Without further ado . . .

Nymph’s Touch

As you grip the guard’s hand and give it a hearty shake, you see a smile cross his face. You feel comfortable that he will be quite agreeable to handing over the keys to the jail now.

Level: 3                                                 Component Cost: 25 gp

Category: Deception                      Market Price: 125 gp

Time: 10 minutes                             Key Skill: Arcana (no check)

Duration: 1 hour (special)

This ritual charms the next person, within the hour, that you make physical contact with. That person will regard you warmly, find your witticisms particularly funny, and generally be impressed with you. A person under the effect of this ritual remains friendly until the hours is up, or until extenuating circumstances disables the effect (violence, going against the target’s nature or religion, etc.).

Targets of this ritual are willing to chat and discuss things with you as if you were a friend. It does not mean they will willingly divulge secrets or other information, but it does tend to make them at least susceptible to such options. You gain a +4 to all Diplomacy checks regarding the target, and the target suffers a -4 penalty to Insight checks involving you.

Once the hour is up, the target has full recollection of the events and may begin to question their sudden and brief affection for you.

Divine Wisdom

Calling on the wisdom of your deity, your mind is granted true insight.

Level: 14                                             Component Cost: 800 gp

Category: Divination                    Market Price: 4,200 gp

Time: 1 hour                                     Key Skill: Religion (no check)

Duration: 4 hours

Upon completion of this powerful prayer, your mind becomes attuned to wisdom much more vast and greater than your own. You are able to feel a connection to your deity bordering on euphoric, able to understand the mystery of your religious magic much easier, and possess a sense of well-being that fortifies your mind.

For the duration of this ritual you reduce the casting time of any other known rituals with a Religion as the key skill to 1 minute. In addition, you may halve their component cost. Lastly, throughout the duration of this spell you gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against affect with the Charm, Fear, Illusion, or Psychic keyword.

So that wraps up rituals. I will probably not post tomorrow, as I have to get some other writings finished, but when I come back I plan on delving into this month’s RPG Blog Carnival – Steampunk!

Buffing 4e, Part 1

Artist: Porcelain Angel (Deviant Art)

I recall one of the concepts behind 4e, at least in regards to differences from 3.X, being the removal of buff spells. The most notable of these spells would be the animal-themed Bear’s Endurance, Bull’s Strength, Cat’s Grace, Eagle’s Splendor, Fox’s Cunning, and Owl’s Wisdom. While I wholly agree with the removal of items and spells that bolster attributes (thereafter becoming necessary to compete), I still think that there is a home for buffs in 4e.

Rituals.

Of course, these buffs would be greatly watered-down versions of their former selves, in that they would not raise attributes. Instead of explaining it, I will simply include some examples of what I mean.

I’ve decided to give these 3.5 spells a bit of a facelift for 4e, but each spell is inspired by the buffs. They are not necessarily too imaginative or boundary-breaking, but should be fun, light additions to any ritualist’s repertoire.

Mountain’s Resilience

For a moment you’re like mountains . . . everlasting.

Level: 4                                                  Component Cost: 30 gp

Category: Exploration                    Market Price: 175 gp

Time: 10 minutes                              Key Skill: Nature

Duration: Special

You weave a spell of endurance into yourself or another willing target. This ritual grants the recipient a bonus to the next endurance check they make. This increased durability does not translate into any other game mechanics, though the target likely feels heartier and fit.

Common uses for this ritual include assisting disease victims, bolstering traveling companions during long journeys, and providing assistance to laborers, pack animals, and the like.

The bonus to the Endurance check is decided by a Nature check during the casting of the ritual, as see below.

Nature Check Result                      Bonus to Endurance

19 or lower                                         + 1

20-29                                                     +2

30-39                                                     +5

40 and over                                        +10

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Aspect of the Panther

The world becomes more alive as your eyes slit and your muscles tense.

Level: 10                                           Component Cost: 200 gp

Category: Exploration                Market Price: 1000 gp

Time: 10 minutes                           Key Skill: Nature

Duration: 1 hour

Through your casting you are able to imbue your awareness with that of a great hunting cat. Your muscles become alive, and you become intensely more aware of your surroundings. These abilities manifest in an increase in the skills of Acrobatics, Athletics, and Perception. Depending on the strength of your casting you are also able to assume even more preternatural abilities of a cat such as darkvision and the ability to resist falling damage.

The strength of your ritual is determined by your Nature check.

Nature Check Result                      Bonuses Awarded

19 or lower                                         +2 Acrobatics, +2 Perception

20-29                                                     +2 Athletics

30-39                                                     darkvision

40 or higher                                        reduced falling damage*

* – You take only 1d10 falling damage for every 30 feet you fall, as opposed to every 10.

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I will post part 2, in which I offer Diplomacy and Arcana rituals, tomorrow. I will not be including a derivative of Bull’s Strength, as I believe WotC has done that with the 4^th level ritual Feat of Strength.

Really, there are two things I want to stress with this . . .

1) Rituals are awesome, and, perhaps, overlooked.

2) 3.5 was/is a great game. If you are looking to spice up your 4e game, do not hesitate to cast (no pun intended) an eye backwards and to remold spells, creatures, classes, adventures, ideas from older editions to buff (ok, this time it was intended) up your 4e game.