Ritual Preparation

Attributes: .................Intellect + Wisdom

Level: ........................DF 4; n/a; 600 Exp; 6 SKP

[TR] Using this skill allows a mage to make additional preparations when casting any spell with a casting time of ritual. These preparations may be made up to a day in advance.

Making preparations for a ritual takes the same amount of time as performing the ritual itself, generally it also requires additional materials; depending on what action one is attempting to perform. Using a particular specialisation requires a skill check, with a penalty of -10% for every type of preparation after the first.

When first learning ritual preparations one must choose a speciality, further specialities can be added at the cost of 500 experience points.

Purification:

Purifications use rigorous cleaning and incense to rid the area of any sympathetic contamination, such as hair and skin that could affect the ritual. Performing this preparation uses 3 quantities of any material described as purifying and adds the caster's ML + Crit Die to any subsequent rolls.

Sacrifice:

Any living creature can be prepared to be sacrificed during the ritual. The sacrifice must be made during the ritual using a specially constructed sacrificial knife. This knife must contain 5 of the 22 correspondences of the mage’s birth sign and 1 quantity of iron, all enchanted to MR 0. When the sacrifice is made the FP cost of the ritual is reduced by ¼ of the body points of an animal or ¾ of the body points of a sentient being. The sacrifice, needless to say, is killed during the ritual.

Research

Using this aspect of ritual preparations involves the use of a treatise on the method of Magick or a spell book containing the spell. Using the research preparation adds +30% to the INT AR roll for casting partially learned ritual spells.

Empowerment

Empowerment allows a mage to add extra fatigue during the ritual in order to reduce the target's resistance. The resistance of the target is reduced by 3 PSF% for each additional fatigue point spent. An empowered spell is more difficult to target, reducing the chance of targeting the spell by 1 TSC for each fatigue point spent. The mage using empowerment must have a focus, to this focus is added gems at MR 0 with the quality of energising, the maximum amount of fatigue that can be spent is equal to the energise value of the gems. So if amber (energises +13 charges) and diamond (7 charges).

Hasty preparations

Hasty preparations are used to prepare a ritual to be performed quicker. Once these preparations are made the ritual can be performed in half the normal time. This can be useful for preparing for an eventual emergency, such as when one is expecting an attack.