What are my options for a ritual magic system?

[Kichwas]

I know of the one in Relics and Rituals and the one from 'Spellbound'. Any others?

Key to what I desire is a system that can kill off those lacking in much skill. I desire something for example that would cause a mage to burn through apprentices.

But also, I'd like to know what people think of the different systems they've looked into.

 

[Tsyr]

Your not giving a whole lot of information to go on...

High magic, or low magic?
What type of rituals?
Etc etc.

 

[carpedavid]

I was really impressed with the "incantation" system in Urban Arcana. I think it could be adapted to D&D without too much trouble. It features repeated skill checks over long periods of time, secondary casters as a mitigating factor, and magical backlash for failed casting.

From looking at the system, I get the mental image of a group of evil cultists in an underground cave all chanting for hours on end to summon up something unspeakable. Alternately, I can picture a group of druids holding a nature ritual in a hidden grove, or a cabal of high wizards locked in a tower while they bend space-time to their will.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the system as it is currently written: first, since it is designed for d20 Modern, the system has a lower magic feel than most D&D worlds do. This is something that would take a little bit of work to adapt.

Second, it is designed to use skill checks in order to allow anyone to perform a ritual. Again, this is something that makes sense for d20 Modern, but doesn't fit right into most D&D worlds. You could always require that ritual casters must be spellcasters of some sort, perhaps requiring that they expend a spell slot of some level while casting the spell.

Third, the incantation system is the only thing I found interesting in Urban Arcana, and UA is not a cheap book.

 

[Dismas]

Urban Arcana (for d20 Modern) has incantations.

These are similar to Epic Spell Seeds. To cast you must make Knowledge (Arcana) checks with a certain number of sucesses required. Each check takes a minimum of 10 minutes (some checks take a minimum of 1 hour). It was a replacement for high level (5+) spells.

Fail two skill checks in a row and the spell backfires, results vary depending on how you have built the spell. Even casting the spell sucessfully may result in problems for the caster.

Don't have the book to hand out the moment so can't go into anymore depth.

 

[Voadam]

Quintessential Wizard has a system for using apprentices to reduce the costs to a high level wizard in making items. There is a risk of magical accidents affecting the item or apprentices though.

Other than that R&R, Spellbound, and Epic Handbook are the three big D&D ritual systems.

Spellbound has a nice list of flawed effects and catastrophic failure for rituals. (I only have the twin crowns CS, not spellbound, but it has the ritual system in there).

 

[Dakkareth]

Epic spellcasting and drain the apprentices of all XP they have as mitigating factor

 

[Kerrick]

We've got a new ritual magic system in an upcoming book, but unfortunately, it won't be out until next summer or so. The wya we did it was that any participants have to have the Ritual Casting feat. Each person has to make a Concentration check each unit of time the ritual takes (if it's a five-hour ritual, then once an hour, etc.); if they fail the check (which isn't that high), he takes arcane burn, and all the other casters have make checks or suffer arcane burn also as the ritual collapses.

 

[PatEllis15]

I've always been intrigued by Ritual Magic... Mostly from reading the Katherine Kurtz Deryni novels. There the Rituals are typically used to pull power from some of the participants to expand the power of the ritual leader... typically for the use of some form of Divination.

I saw in Game Trader that a Deryni RPG is coming out. It will use the "FUDGE" ruleset, but will also have "conversion for OGL.

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't understand the difference between a D20 system and a OGL system, but I now enough to know that there IS a difference. SO, while there will probably be a Deryni Ritual magic system, it may or may not get translated over for D&D and D20 players to use...

Taro Sarask

Pat E

 

[Emiricol]

I'd encourage you to check out Ars Magica 4th edition, now a free download from RPGNow.com. The system is not directly portable to D&D, but ought to give you a lot of ideas.

 

[Kichwas]

The wya we did it was that any participants have to have the Ritual Casting feat.

Well I wouldn't want a system that required everyone to have feats.

Citizen Game's Way of the witch uses the Relics and Rituals system, but with a few refinements such as a set of rules for casting spells you don't know.

I may go for a mix of that system and the one found in Green Ronin's Witch's Handbook -which is also an upgrade to the system found in Relics and Rituals.