[MH] Ritual Path Magic - how many paths to a ritual?

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Exxar

Matter for rain, hail etc and Energy for wind, lightning etc - this is actually written out in MH1. But it would have to already be cloudy for it to be a lesser effect IMO.

Depends where you live. There are plenty of places in the Midwest where clouds can roll in and storms start inside of ten minutes, easy, so anybody who lived there would not look at it as being in any way unnatural or less than believable.

[mlangsdorf]

MH1 p33 addresses storms specifically: you need Path of Energy for the wind and Path of Matter for the precipitation.

I'd rule that Strengthen Energy could be used to intensify existing winds, Control Energy and Control Matter to force existing clouds to move to your will, and Create Energy and Create Matter to cause clouds to form from clear skies.

To make it subtle and believable, the ritual needs to be slow and cover a massive area. Having the weather change in a 100 mile radius over the course of 6-12 hours is perfectly reasonable, and in some areas (Cleveland, Ohio and other lakeside cities known for fickle weather) you could probably bring that down to as little as an hour. That incurs a big charge for area (60-70 energy) but it saves paying for 2 Greater effects (x5 cost).

A "Summon Stormfront" effect might be Control Energy and Control Matter, 100 mile radius, 12 hour duration, 5 tons weight (how much does a cloud weigh, anyway?), and 20 energy for -3 to all ranged combat and sense rolls. With a total cost of (10+60+6+6+20) 102 energy, effective skill-20 pulls this off safely (<5% critfail chance), skill-18 pulls this off with some luck (~10% critfail chance), and people with skill-14 or less explode spectacularly.

The typical starting witch can safely pull this off with a $1500 grimoire; sages need to focus on Energy and Matter or have a $7500 grimoire. Inhuman or Techie dabblers should really leave this one to the professionals.

A "Summon local storm" effect might be Greater Create Energy and Greater Create Matter, 30 yard radius, 10 minute duration, 1000 lbs weight, -3 to ranged combat and sense rolls... cost is 5*(14+1+4+20) for 195 energy, which means really only a witch or specialized sage can do this, and preferably while standing on a big sacred site with a good grimoire and having Extraordinary Luck.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-clouds-precip.htm

Q: How much does a cloud weigh?

A: A cloud’s weight depends on its density and whether it includes ice, water or both. For low clouds such as stratus, one cubic kilometer (about 0.6 mile on each side) might weigh about 200,000 pounds. Thin cirrus clouds typically weigh 10 to 100 times less, while a strong cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) cloud could weigh 2 million pounds. Updrafts hold clouds aloft until their tiny ice crystals or water droplets grow large enough to fall as rain or snow.

If these numbers are factual, I think the estimated weight is off for those rituals. (900~ tons every cubic kilometer of thunderstorm, spread over a 160 km radius ... Ouchie.)

[mlangsdorf]

Weights for area effects are based on the heaviest item in the area, not total weight.

Looking over the way I statted the ritual, I could argue that the target of the ritual are the people being blinded by the rain, not the clouds.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Weights for area effects are based on the heaviest item in the area, not total weight.

Looking over the way I statted the ritual, I could argue that the target of the ritual are the people being blinded by the rain, not the clouds.

Yeah, the caster should probably 'only' pay for the area, the duration, and the modifiers imposed on the people and monsters in the area, not for the weight of the clouds or the air moved as wind or anything like that.

It also seems a bit off for the time for the storm to form, its onset time if you will, to count against the duration, as opposed to paying for duration based on how long the storm sticks around once it's actually started. After all, you'd think a shorter onset time would be more difficult, although a large part of that is it becoming a Greater Effect if the storm gathers with unnatural speed.

Still, I maintain that the threshold between Lesser and Greater Effect for the time it takes a storm to brew, even from scattered clouds to full-on thunderstorm, in many parts of the country is no more than an hour, perhaps even considerably less. If you're starting from overcast, it could be on the order of minutes.