Ritual path magic group casting

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Hmm, 200 energy means Elli herself can break that barrier, which is confusing, how does it work in game? I mean, Elli decides she is going to cast the spell, and the reality rearranges to counter that, but if the reality is not conducive to casting a spell would she want to cast it to begin with?

The 'ripple' effect is not wrong or breaking anything- its not that your magic is somehow disturbing the world. Just that it has some backward awareness when the spell was cast.

Just some further details from my talking with Kal about how this is inteded to work out:

The ripple happens at time of casting, not at time of activation (IE for delayed rituals or charms), and conveys some knowledge about the spell in question. It does not invalidate using a 'doom bullet' charm from a hidden position by giving the target a heads up. Though through the vulgarities of magic the target would have felt 'bad ju-ju' when the spell was cast and loaded into a charm, they just would not know when and where that was actually going to take place (and neither would the caster).

I kind of described this as 'map space-time into a still but weather effected pond', a 200 point spell is like a 6mm bb being dropped into the water, it creates ripples, but they are barely perceptable and not perceptable very far away in either space or time. However the 3000+ point 'end the world' spell is like a multi-tonne boulder being dropped in, everyone on the planet could feel it and they can feel it weeks in advance.

Next- just because they CAN feel it does not mean they DO feel it. The pond is effected by weather (IE casual fluxuations in magic that are wholly natural), and except for the more massive spells the ripples are dwarfed by those natural effects. Someone would have to have been actively 'looking' at the pond (via magic, or some other ability) to see a 200 point ability being put together. Someone still has to look at the 3000+ ability to 'see' it, but they can do so at any time from that 6 week advance notice point to the point at which it gets cast (If it gets cast).

Further- Ammount of informaiton: a 200 point spell is going to convey 'good' and 'bad' and that's about it. At around the 500 point range you might start getting more details 'good for a large group of people', however even the 3000 point monstrosity is going to be a vague 'world ending magic', 'reshape the landscape significantly', 'restore something huge' etc; and even then its only with studdy of the 'ripple'; of course once you know the spell is coming, you can scry for it with magic of your own.

So if you have an epic level caster who casually tosses around 200 energy spells then a lot of shudders in there enemies or warm feelings in there friends are likely the doing of those castings; however if the enemies were getting twitchy for every shudder, or friends were assuming that every warm feeling was the casters doing they'd be all over the place. Those who watch ripples might 'notice' the spells being cast, but quite frankly they will be one 6mm BB dropping into the pond amongs dozens to thousands depending on the size of the world. Once your castings are getting more to the 600 range then people might get interested enough to scry further- but if your a casual 600 range caster then you could also easily set up a scrywall that prevents casual inquiry into your spellcasting, or you could let those interested see your everyday masterworks.

Keep in mind this is my first attempt to try to make a concrete analysis of how this would work, I might chew on this some more and come back.

My thoughts are: I don't want to nerf attack magic by making powerful spells tell the target what's going on, but I do want to limit the ammount of world destroying magic that a crazed cult (or evil wizard through involuntary sacrifice) can accomplish.