[RPM] Starting Character Points

[Varyon]

First off, with Ritual Adept, Connection is the component that can most readily be dropped - it's only needed for targeting someone/something out of line of sight and that you don't have some connection for (piece of hair, some blood, an important possession, etc). It's a useful component to be certain, but while the others almost always apply, Connection is the easiest to work around.

Secondly, there are options to make Path of Magic less crucial. Pyramid #3/66 introduces the Easy Refill Perk, which lets you use Thaumatology instead of Path of Magic to refill your Mana Reserve. While I don't think it's in any book or Pyramid, a Perk to let you either ignore Path of Magic or replace it with Thaumatology when making Charms and Conditional Rituals (you'd still have a Lesser Control Magic "wrapper" on the spell, you just wouldn't be limited by your Path of Magic skill) would probably also be appropriate - it would probably be specialized by Path. Call it Easy Conditionals.

Next up, Pyramid #3/66 also has some useful ways of limiting Ritual Adept and Magery, as well as some useful Talents. In your case, you may want to limit both Advantages to Two Paths (-25%), then pick up a Talent that includes those paths. For example, a necromancer might have Ritual Adept (Spirit and Undead -25%) [30], Magery 0 [5] (limiting it would only save you a point, and I'm not that comfortable with limiting Magery 0 anyway), Dark Walker 4 [20], Easy Conditionals (Path of Spirit) [1], and Easy Conditionals (Path of Undead) [1]. For skills, he could have Thaumatology at IQ-2 for [1], and Path of Spirit and Path of Undead at IQ+2 (thanks to talent) for [1] each, for a total of [3] in skills. His Thaumatology will actually jump to IQ+2 when only Path of Spirit and/or Path of Undead are involved. That's a [+60] lens that could be tossed on to any existing character to give him some RPM ability. His cap for Path of Spirit and Path of Undead is actually 16 (although you have to raise Thaumatology to 12 to reach that), so he's got some room to grow, particularly if he's starting with only IQ 10 (and thus Paths at 12). You can replace Path of Spirit and Path of Undead with whatever Paths you'd prefer, and find (or make) a Talent that includes those two - Crafter for Energy and Matter, Neuromancer for Body and Mind, etc.

[Ah_Ftagn]

Great advice so far in this thread. I especially like the idea of turning the potential to develop ritual adept into an unusual background advantage.

Here's how I want to handle this:


Unusual Background: The Gift
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Allows taking Ritual Adept after character creation, in whole or specified parts.
Allows taking any level of Magery after character creation.
Costs 20% of "Maxed Out" Ritual adept, +2, in character points.


So, for example, someone specifying the full ritual adept would spend 10 Character Points on this Unusual Background.