Can a PC use a power during ritual?

[Shin Okada]

Namely, can a shaman use Speak with spirits to boost his skill check, when he is performing a ritual which requires a check?

Or, should the use of such a power considered to be Interrupting a Ritual?

 

[vagabundo]

Yes, nothing in RAW says you cannot, unless a DM rules otherwise.

Performing a ritual does not require constant concentration:

To perform a ritual that you have mastered, you spend a certain amount of time (specified in the ritual description) performing various actions appropriate to the ritual. The actions might include reading long passages out of the ritual book, scribing complex diagrams on the ground, burning special incense or sprinkling mystic reagents at appropriate times, or performing a long set of meticulous gestures. The specific activities required aren’t described in most ritual descriptions; they’re left to your imagination.

And interrupting a ritual is a voluntary act:

Interrupting a Ritual: At any time before a ritual is completed, you can stop it and suffer no ill effect. You don’t expend any components or pay any costs until a ritual is completed. You can’t resume a ritual that was interrupted, however, so you do lose the time you spent on an interrupted ritual.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

My own view would be that a minor action should be used each round to sustain a ritual.
In one of the Thunderspire Labyrinth encounters one of the bad guys is preforming a ritual when the PCs encounter him and it states that the ritualist only need a minor action each round to continue the ritual.

I do not see any reason it would be different for the PCs

 

[Zieche]

It would really depend how you picture the ritual going, if your assuming a 10 min ritual is 10 minutes of chanting and casting then I would say no.

But I picture it more as, a 10 min ritual is 6 or 7 minutes getting your components ready, drawing runes or magic circles and then doing the actual "casting" at the end. In that case pausing to use a power seems to fit better. IMHO.

 

[GRStrayton]

Like ardoughter, I also use the house rule that it takes one minor action per round to continue to cast the ritual.