Boil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Miscellany VI

Like my previous five installments, today’s post are compact little rules to help spice up your Ritual Path Magic game.

Drain Tests

Magic is treated normally except that an additional roll is required. Casters must now make a Will-based Path skill roll after the spell is cast with a -1 to rolls for every 20 points of energy the spell is worth; note the margin of failure. On a success, their is no drain or further effects. On a failure, the target suffers 1 FP damage for every point of their margin of failure to a maximum FP loss equal to the penalty on the roll. Critical failure turns this into HP damage.

Example: David the Divine casts a firebolt spell with 40 energy. This means he must make a Will-based Path of Energy roll at -2. Success means no further issues, failure results in a lost of 1 FP per point of failure, to a maximum of 2 FP.

Impulse Magic

Magic now costs character points (destiny points, impulse points, etc.) to cast. Divide all costs by 5 and round up. Additionally, points can be spent on a 1:50 ratio to instantly gather the required energy for a spell. For Effect-Shaping each point spent this way gives a +5 to rolls instead. The GM is free to make some spells (“spells of legend”) require points to cast and then use normal methods for others. All magic requires character points to cast

Example: Sarah the Sorcerer is a master of impulse magic. She puts together a quick spell to open all the doors, windows, gates, etc. of a city. When all is said and done this totals over 100 energy to cast. Since it’s impulse-powered this reduces to 20 points with Sarah either gathering energy normally or spending another point to just do it instantly.

Ritual Path Magic Countermagic

Countermagic takes two forms, the first is a passive bonus known as shielding. When someone with Magery 0 is affected by a working that they do not consciously chose to not resist, they must resist with the lowest of his applicable Path skills, floated to the attribute used to resist. If the target does not have that particular noun skill, they must rely on their default of IQ-6, meaning that unless their Magery is very high, they are more likely to be affected than an individual without Magery! The second is an active form of resistance, called warding, and requires that the mage be aware of the impending attack or be ready for any magical attack; they must then take a Concentrate maneuver. Roll against the caster’s highest skill with the Path involved in the magic, and subtract their margin of success from their attacker’s skill. This can cause the magic to fail entirely if high enough.

Example: Ron the Righteous is minding his business when a warlock casts a nasty spell at him. His shields instantly flare up he gets to make a Will-based Path of Body skill roll to resist instead of just Will.