The Utility of Ritual Magic?

[Riggler]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Another approach would be to start her out with normal Magery, but with the Ceremonial Magery Limitation (p.23) and the Solitary Ceremonial Enhancement (p.28). This will require her to take her time with her spells, rendering them unsuitale for combat.

How much do you trust the player? Instead of the above, you could simply let her purchase spells as normal, and then make use of the "Ceremonial-Only Casting" box on p.82: in short, she gets to make use of the Laws of Magic to get spell-casting bonuses (pp.243-246), but only if she casts the spell according to the rules of Ceremonial Magic. The player could then, strictly as a roleplaying choice, have her start out using Ceremonial castings exclusively; but as the game progresses, have her start going "quick-and-dirty".

To keep things relatively consistent, you might also want to handle the shaman through the standard magic system, by using Power Investiture (Shamanism) as written.

Thanks dataweaver.
Your suggestion above of the Ceremonial Magery Limitation (p.23) and the Solitary Ceremonial Enhancement (p.28) sounds like the route I'm going to go with the mage character. It allows her to do what she wants and yet buy off the limitations when she wants for each level of magery. Yet it's not too far off of the basic system...as a newb gm and players I don't want to get too wacky if I don't have to. Need to learn the basics first I feel.

After talking with the VooDoo player more, he wants to start off as a magic item based user...being reliant on magical trinkets and such that are given to him by a mentor. And then when they "run out" of juice, he'll try to find his own way. But the way he described it to me in more detail the magic-using aspect of his character would be secondary in comparison to his natural sneakiness, rougish nature.