[RPM] Post your rituals here

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Well, I'm not God (I guess that's PK), but yeah...this is how you do it. Basically, if you want Explosive 1, you use the normal rules for external damage (p. 17 of GURPS Thuamatology: Ritual Path Magic). If you want Explosive 2 you add +10 energy (for a +50% modifier), and +20 energy for Explosive 3. That's it. I guess if you're doing some sort of weird explosive curse, for internal damage...It's not listed, but I add +10 energy to get Explosive 1, +20 for Explosive 2, and +30 for Explosive 3. Does that make sense?

Thanks for clearing that up about how explosions work. Here's a question that I've been wondering about related to that. Rather than make the effect explosive, couldn't one just cast the spell with an Area of Effect modifier? Isn't that a cheaper way of causing a massive amount of damage? Consider the following example and compare it to the cost of the spell above:

Firestorm:
Spell Effect: Greater Create Energy + Lesser Control Magic.
Inherent Modifiers: Damage, External Burning
Greater Effects: 1 (x3).

This spell is cast as a charm. When broken it causes the area within 10 yards to go up in flames.
Typical Casting: Greater Create Energy (6) + Damage, External Burning 9d (8) + Area of Effect 10 yards (8) +Lesser Control Magic (5). 81 energy (27x3).

This spell does more than twice the amount of damage, to a larger area, and is about the same cost. Am I missing something? If so, I await enlightenment.
Thanks is advance for your thoughts!
p.s. The way that we have dealt with this issue in our games has been to avoid allowing AoE on damaging spells.