Quick Question: Ritual Path Magic and Meta-Traits/Templates are too expensive?

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by PK

Personally, I do "charge" for the meta-trait using the Altered Traits modifier, because I see this as a "buff" -- the whole point of the spell is to "power-up" the subject in some specific way. I suppose I could leak one of the sample spells from the RPM book:

Sylph Form

Spell Effects: Greater Transform Body + Greater Transform Matter.
Inherent Modifiers: Altered Trait, Body of Air.
Greater Effects: 2 (x5).

This spell is usually cast as a charm. When broken, it transforms
the subject (but not his clothing or equipment!) into a
being of elemental air. This lasts 10 minutes. See Body of Air
(p. B262) for details.

Typical Casting: Greater Transform Body (8) + Greater Transform
Matter (8) + Lesser Control Magic (5) + Altered Trait, Body of Air (36) +
Duration, 10 minutes (1) + Subject Weight, 300 lbs. (3). 305 energy
(61x5).

Now, is that expensive at 305 energy? Sure. But assuming it's cast as a charm, a skilled caster (or one with a lot of modifiers) can definitely raise that energy ahead of time.

Let's say you've got a character with all three Path skills at 15 (not at all unbelievable). He picks up a +3 grimoire for this spell (affordable enough to be assumed), has a nice +2 place of power (doable for most casters), and a very fine workspace kit (a must for any charm-reliant caster) for +2. So his modified skill for this spell is 21 (15 - 1 for using three Paths + 7 from external help).

Using the Quick-and-Dirty Charm rules from MH4, his threshold is 75 energy. He chips in 9 energy from his mana reserve, leaving 296 to accumulate. That's over 3x his safe threshold. So his first QND roll has a 74% chance of succeeding -- dicey, but not horrible odds, especially if he has Luck. His second QND roll (for quirks) is at 21 - 3 = 18, so it's very unlikely to have any quirks. It'll have one at the worst.

So basically this caster (who I think I've constructed as a reasonable example) has a 3/4 chance of pulling off this charm ahead of time. It'll take forever, but then he can activate it whenever he wants. I'm perfectly comfortable with the cost.

Finally! I'm glad that you responded to my bat-- er... PK-signal. Thank you so much! This solves all of my problems, and it's really cool to be able to get a taste of the upcoming book. I'm even more excited than I was before!

Now it just bugs me that Body of Fire is so insanely cheap in comparison to Stone/Water/Wind. I might just have to tweak some of those templates... Yes, I'm one of those guys who likes elemental balance (but that might be another case of fiction brainwashing).