Quote:
Originally Posted by Puppetminion
If Hermetic is supposed to be wide ranging but weak, how about making its paths subsets? So any ritual with a penalty of say, -6 or worse isn't part of the hermetic tradition and can't be learnt or cast via it's ritual skill? Note that -6 is a WAG, picking the actual number depends on desired power level.
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I think that the current system is starting to look like it might do the job of distinguishing the Hermetic system from others while keeping them all useful.
For one thing, the maximum bonus of +15 to rituals is a
hard cap in the Hermetic system. This means that the combined bonus for all modifiers, including Sympathy, Names, Contagion (themselves limited to a combined bonus of +6), Extra Time, decanic correspondances, planetary and zodiacal correspondances, materials, Symbol Drawing and sacrifices can't exceed +15. This is before any
negative modifiers are counted.
The
sole exceptions to this are bonuses from Sacred Architecture and Patina for places, in both cases because such bonuses actually modify the local mana level, and the bonus for Magical Languages. On the other hand, the most common languages available to Hermetic practisoners, Koine Greek and Latin, both top out at +0, so this is rarely a concern.
Combined with the -10 to -5 of the Very Low to Low Continious Mana levels, this means that it is exceptionally difficult to perform any powerful effects with Ritual Magic (Hermetic).
By contrast, attaining the higher level of the Sephiroth allows a kabbalist to increase the maximum bonus above +15. In addition, in Kabbalah, knowing a True Name for the subject of the ritual adds its +4
on top of the maximum +6 for Sympathy, Names and Contagion (though obviously no further name bonus may be claimed).
Similar increases above the +15 cap exist in most of the other older and more powerful traditions. This, combined with the fact that their magical languages may be +1, +2 or even +3 by default will tend to make them more powerful than Ritual Magic (Hermetic) for the rituals that default to them.