If the complexity of the spell is greater than your Lore, your wizard must enter a preparation stage during which he researches the spell further, assembles the necessary components, acquires additional sources of power, and finishes the spell construct.
Inflicting a mild disease on a fairly hale target—say, Good (+3) Endurance—would be a 13 complexity spell: 7 to match the best Endurance roll possible, 4 for the target’s stress track, and 2 more for the mild consequence.
So a curse that acts as a maneuver to put Bad Luck on a target might start from “15 minutes” (about the length of that particular scene), and you could make it last all day by adding five shifts of complexity to the spell.But only the first tag is free, right? It’s there to be invoked, but doesnt do a thing by itself.
Make Declarations
As part of preparation, you can use your skills to declare you have access…
Accept or Inflict Consequences, page 269
…Actually committing murder on a sentient being as part of a spell grants the wizard all of the shifts for all levels…
Page 248
There are various sources that a wizard can draw on to power his spells:
…
Unwilling magical creatures; the deliberate sacrifice of humans or animals.
I assume, if you do that once and need the exact same spell again (like summoning and binding the same creature again) you don’t need to research the spell again.
Hmm, can a skill be used multiple times for the same ritual for different declaration?
First magical?
Second, how much shifts would an animal grant?
Third, sacrificing animals isnt against the law, right?
5 + 4 +2 for an Aspect to be on the save side is an +12 complexity containment.Correct, that is the safes minimum except that 5+4+2=11.
+20 for all conditionsI remember this being in one of the examples. Just to point out, incase you took it from one of the examples and didnt realise, that it is at 20 due to the extra mild consequence from having such high conviction.
+33 complexity ritual.
Hey Korwin, I'm still learning the rules myself but Ill take a fair shot at some of this. I won't answer anything that I'm not too sure on as I don't have the time to look stuff up in the rule book right now.Thanks for the answers, even if I dont agree, by talking about it many things get clearer.
You would need to do it again. In terms of game mechanics the preparation and the research is what makes up the difference between your wizards capabilities and the requirement of the spell. You'd still need to make up that difference again to cast the spell. In terms of narrative colour Harry still has to replace items used in rituals, meditate & prepare himself, wait for certain times of day etc all of which are things that can be used during the research phase to help. For example: Contacts roll to get the items, dicipline to meditate and prepare and tagging a scene aspect for the times of day.You brought up Victor Sells, did he research his spell new after each casting?
My first reaction to this is to say no. A player could just repeatedly roll their top skill to meet the requirements of the spell. Perhaps if they could frame it differently?
I don't think it has to be magical.Yeah, I think thats an typoFurther more in the example on page YS:301 it gave +2 bonus as a component.(click to show/hide)
As for the Law, I would say no. The laws seem there to protect "mortals" in the sense of humans and you wouldn't be killing it by magic for the ritual.
Correct, that is the safes minimum except that 5+4+2=11.
I remember this being in one of the examples. Just to point out, incase you took it from one of the examples and didnt realise, that it is at 20 due to the extra mild consequence from having such high conviction.No I counted. But I missed the extra mild consequence so it would be +22 for the consequences +26 if the target has the stunt for 2 extra mild consequences.
Dont you need one more sucesses than the defender?
No I counted. But I missed the extra mild consequence so it would be +22 for the consequences +26 if the target has the stunt for 2 extra mild consequences.
The target dies instantly as his heart explodes from his chest, assuming that a 32-stress attack does the trick—an extreme, severe, moderate, and mild consequence for a total of 20 shifts, plus 10 shifts to fill up a strong physical stress track (4+3+2+1) plus two more shifts for good measure to ensure a “taken out” result.In this example its only a strong opposed skill (so no extra mild consequences), but why are 10 shifts needed to fill up the physical stress boxes?
Sells needed to do some significant preparation to cast this.At the moment (unless I miss something) the rules dont support this.
Reading the example now.
In this example its only a strong opposed skill (so no extra mild consequences), but why are 10 shifts needed to fill up the physical stress boxes?
(And Endurance isnt really calculated in...)
You brought up Victor Sells, did he research his spell new after each casting?
It's like anything - if you don't really know how to do something properly you check the manual or textbook to make sure you get it right, and you keep checking it until you've got it down pat. This goes double for big powerful killing magic which can fry you if you get it wrong.
Airline pilots who've flown thousands of hours still have to go through the preflight checklist every time.
Some tasks just need that kind of preparation, and the time you don't do it could prove fatal.
How about some of my other questions? *hope*
My sample will be an Air-Spirit who is supposed to carry the summoner around.
I’ll give the Spirit
- inhuman Strenght
- Wings
- Veils aka. Glamours (so nobody is wondering about that flying wizard…)
What conviction should that being have? I’ll go with Superb +5 for the example…
Containment:
5 + 4 +2 for an Aspect to be on the save side is an +12 complexity containment.
Summoning
Would be the same +12 complexity.
Binding
Binding is a full conflict.
We need (+4 for lucky dice, +4 for stress boxes, +22 for all conditions [inkluding extreme condition], +5 to extend the duration of afternoon to a month) a +35 complexity ritual.
Casting that thing would’nt be that hard, if we play it save (+1 per exchange) and took our time.
Researching it would need many declarations or skipped scenes…
... the quality of a workplace determines the highest possible difficulty of a “question” or project that you can pursue there.
Another question: How good a workspace for researching Ritual is needed?That's more on the "simple action" level, a single Lore roll, so one step of preparation, not the entire complexity total of a ritual.
Lore - Arcane Research - Arcane Library
Lore - Arcane Spellwork & - Ritual Arcane SanctumAs described in Scholarship (see page 142), the quality of a workplace determines the highest possible difficulty of a “question” or project that you can pursue there.
As such, deeper, dedicated research is something that might happen when you fail a Scholarship check. Provided you are willing to spend time researching (and that the answer can be found), the only questions are how long it will take you and how good a workspace you have access to (usually a library for book things, a laboratory for experimental research, etc.) to discover the answer.
The quality of these workspaces determines the hardest possible question you can answer within them (so a question of Good difficulty requires a Good library or better).
Binding
Binding is a full conflict.
We need (+4 for lucky dice, +4 for stress boxes, +20 for all conditions [inkluding extreme condition], +5 to extend the duration of afternoon to a month) a +33 complexity ritual.
I think +4 for stress boxes is wrong. If the target has for stress boxes you need +10 (4+3+2+1) shifts to fill up that stress track.
These aren't four separate hits...
Note that Victor had (like spell discription says) "too much power and too little sense".
Maybe he wasn't really sure how much power was needed so he just went for overkill.
That may be so but when referring to the example in the rule book the real question is, was the person who wrote the example sure how much power was needed? 8)
... you're still looking at the potential of the target being warded, having some sort of supernaturally extended stress track, or other things, so I still think something that aims in the mid-30s "just to be sure" has merit.
Got an new Question:
The Complexities of Binding Rituals are fairly high. But...
Can you break one Binding Ritual up into more smaller ones?
Then your Ritual needs only to beat the Defending skill without fail.
Repeat until the summoned Creature doesnt want to take any more consequences...
Is there a reason you cant do that?
How patient do you think the creature will be in between rituals? There's not zero time passing between 'em. Do you think it'll just stand there and wait? :)
If you have it already summoned and trapped in a circle? Sure it will. What else can it do?
After further consideration, the Wizard who uses multiple Small Binding Rituals will live saver than the One with the big hammer Ritual.
Extreme consequences will stay until an Major Milestone. How often does a Demon get an Major Milestone?
I think thats an angry Demon...
I'm reading the Construct chapter at OW 29 at the moment.
Would it be handled like summoning and binding, or is there another method?
The construct's animated by something. That something is typically a spirit or demon that is summoned and bound into the construct.