Need help with some stuff with Ritual/Path magic.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by DeathDaisy

I can't say where I read it without looking around a bit, but I'm 98% sure that you can add Bestow a Penalty to a ritual to make the spell harder to resist. I'm sure someone will correct me if I misremember. On the offchance that I remember wrong, which has happened, I have played that way in campaigns without issues, so shouldn't pose a problem even if it turns out it's not RAW.

This, in fact, is not RAW. PK has addressed his concerns over allowing it here:

Originally Posted by PK

Same way as with any other magic system -- raise your skill. :)

(I'm not opposed to the "bestows a penalty" method, mind you. But bear in mind that allowing that to be added cheaply may make magic a bit overpowered.)

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Would it? The cost of the bonus is exponential, after all; that would seem to make it impractical to add large bonuses.

Originally Posted by PK

It's actually the opposite that concerns me -- not the occasional large penalty, but ubiquitous small ones. If it's just a few energy to throw a small penalty to resist onto every ritual, then it's effectively like a free +1 to +3 skill for overcoming resistance, and every competent caster is likely to add it on to every spell.

It's also mechanically questionable. Your spell is imposing a penalty on the subject, except that penalty hits him before it's even determined whether he resisted the spell in the first place. If you ask me, this is a two-spell process. First, you cast a spell like Sorcerous Mark (p. 50), which is resisted normally. Then that ritual gives the target a penalty to resist subsequent spells.

(Again, I'm not trying to put my foot down and saying, as the designer, that it's not legal. I'm just explaining why I see some issues with it. The final call here is explicitly up to the GM.)

Full Thread: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=119351