[RPM] Questions on ritual definition rules

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by philosophyguy

I'm trying to understand how to define rituals in Ritual Path Magic and have a few questions.

1) Damage inherent modifiers: I'm trying to understand the internal vs external damage modifiers. Take the example of a fireball. A wizard could cast that as a missile, which would be the Greater Create Energy (6) + External Damage (+0) x Greater Effects (1, x3) = 18 energy spell from the back of the book, and it would do 3d damage because you triple the damage row on the spell modifiers table (1d = +0 energy, x3 = 3d).

Could a wizard also cast a fireball spell as internal damage (the victim suddenly feels like his insides are on fire and takes damage as his body responds to the manipulation) with a ritual like Greater Destroy Body (5) + Internal Damage (1d, +0) + Weight (human sized victim, +3) x Greater Effects (1, x3) = 24 energy? With this version of the spell, the wizard would not need to make an additional attack roll, and the victim would get a resistance roll instead of a defense roll. Is that right?

If you're burning them from the inside it would still be a Create Energy effect, and you need to add range, unless you're touching the victim, but that's generally correct.

2) Making an opponent sick. The direct route is to use the affliction modifiers for Nausea: Greater Control Body (5) + Affliction, Nausea (+30% affliction modifier) (6) + Weight, human sized victim (3) + Duration, 10 min (1) x Greater Effect (1, x3) = 45.

But if someone wanted to do the mechanic and use nausea as a flavor, it seems like the ritual would be Greater Control Body (5) + Bestows a Penalty, -2 to attribute/skill rolls, Broad (10) + Weight, human sized victim (3) + Duration, 10 min (1) x Greater Effect (1, x3) = 57. That's pushing the Broad modifier to the extreme and yet this version is a good deal more expensive. Is this just an artifact of the way the ritual is constructed, or is this formulation missing something?

For cases where an Affliction meets your needs, there's no reason not to build the spell that way. I'd also call Nausea a Lesser effect in my games.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

If you're burning them from the inside it would still be a Create Energy effect, and you need to add range, unless you're touching the victim, but that's generally correct.

For cases where an Affliction meets your needs, there's no reason not to build the spell that way. I'd also call Nausea a Lesser effect in my games.

Solid advice. Particularly the part about calling nausea a lesser effect.

As for nausea being cheaper than the broad modifier -- yes it is. Its not a great improvement, but it is an improvement. I'm fine with the player using either.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

If you're burning them from the inside it would still be a Create Energy effect, and you need to add range, unless you're touching the victim, but that's generally correct.



For cases where an Affliction meets your needs, there's no reason not to build the spell that way. I'd also call Nausea a Lesser effect in my games.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Solid advice. Particularly the part about calling nausea a lesser effect.

As for nausea being cheaper than the broad modifier -- yes it is. Its not a great improvement, but it is an improvement. I'm fine with the player using either.

Agreed on both accounts - anecdote from my current game, I nearly killed 1,000 point supers by making them cough, nauseated, and itchy all at once. Go with the nausea - it is your friend.

[philosophyguy]

Thanks for the replies. I wanted to try building the nausea effect from modifiers rather than afflictions simply because it's easier to build rituals on-the-fly if I don't have to look up costs for afflictions and can stick to one book.

If I did nausea as a lesser effect, would it still be acceptable to use a single effect for lowering all attribute/skill rolls, or would it be a more reasonable interpretation of the rules to treat all of those modifiers as separate effects? In other words, would it be more realistic to define the ritual as:

Lesser Control Body (5) + Bestows a Penalty, -2 to ST, Broad (10) + Bestows a Penalty, -2 to DX, Broad (10)+ Bestows a Penalty, -2 to IQ, Broad (10)+ Bestows a Penalty, -2 to HT, Broad (10) + Weight, human sized victim (3) + Duration, 10 min (1) = 49 energy

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by philosophyguy

Thanks for the replies. I wanted to try building the nausea effect from modifiers rather than afflictions simply because it's easier to build rituals on-the-fly if I don't have to look up costs for afflictions and can stick to one book.

If I did nausea as a lesser effect, would it still be acceptable to use a single effect for lowering all attribute/skill rolls, or would it be a more reasonable interpretation of the rules to treat all of those modifiers as separate effects? In other words, would it be more realistic to define the ritual as:

Lesser Control Body (5) + Bestows a Penalty, -2 to ST, Broad (10) + Bestows a Penalty, -2 to DX, Broad (10)+ Bestows a Penalty, -2 to IQ, Broad (10)+ Bestows a Penalty, -2 to HT, Broad (10) + Weight, human sized victim (3) + Duration, 10 min (1) = 49 energy

Nope, it would be
Lesser Control Body (5) + Altered Trait, -2 to ST (4) + Altered Trait,, -2 to DX, (8)+ Altered Trait,, -2 to IQ, (8)+Altered Trait, -2 to HT, (4) + Bestows a Penalty, -1 to Active Defences, Narrow, (1) Weight, human sized victim (3) + Duration, 10 min (1) = 34 Energy