Blood to Power Rituals

[nnms]

A character proficient in blood rituals can power rituals by shedding blood in place of paying the component cost of a ritual. Items cannot be crafted through blood rituals. No variable component cost rituals can be powered through blood rituals.

The character takes 1d10 damage per level of the ritual. If characters assist in the ritual, divide the damage taken by those assisting and apply it to all participants.

Sacrifice. If a living being is sacrificed upon completion of a ritual, the power of its blood will power the spell. The sacrifice must be either helpless or willing. Subtract one level from the level of the ritual when calculating the dice to rolled for damage for each small or larger creature killed as part of the ritual. Each tiny creature sacrificed reduces the damage by one point.

For arcane rituals, creatures of the fey origin reduce the level one further for the purposes of determining the damage the ritual does to its participants.

For divine rituals, creatures of the immortal origin reduce the level one further.

For nature rituals, creatures of the natural origin reduce the level one further.

Examples:

Thurion the Wise sacrificies a captured pixie in the process of casting Seek Rumour. Normally it's a level 2 ritual. So it's reduced to a single d10 damage. A 4 is rolled. Thurion takes 3 damage as the pixie's size reduces it by one.

Thurion needs to cast the spell again on the next day and convinces the rogue Mitris to aid him. Unfortunately, he's all out of pixie. They buy a goat and conduct their ritual. A 7 is rolled. Both Mitris and Thurion take 3 points of damage.

Thurion learns Hand of Fate. After defeating some orcs, Thurion convinces Mitris to help him sacrifice a remaining captured orc. Dorin Grudgebearer agrees to also assist in the ritual killing of a foul enemy of his clan. They bind him and perform the ritual. They lop off his hand and blood pours onto Thurion's charcoal circle. They add their own blood. As the orc expires the hand rises to point the way. 3d10 is rolled (level 4 ritual with one sacrifice). 18 is rolled. The three participants each take 6 damage.

More powerful rituals are going to either be too dangerous, taking the users life in the casting or require mass sacrifice to be rendered safe for those conducting them.

 

[Pyrex]

d10/level damage is pretty trivial. Most ritual casters can (mostly) safely soak the damage for rituals up to their level then just spend a short rest.

I'd instead bill them 0.5*Level Healing Surges (with sacrificed creatures paying some* of those surges) and have them recover at the rate of 1/(Extended Rest || Milestone).

*Monsters typically only have 1 surge/tier, sacrificed characters would buy down all their remaining surges, sacrificed monsters should buy down 2*Tier*[0.5minion, 1standard, 2Elite, 4Solo].

 

[nnms]

d10/level damage is pretty trivial. Most ritual casters can (mostly) safely soak the damage for rituals up to their level then just spend a short rest.

I want the cost to be trivial. One of the problems with rituals as they are is that it takes money from the PCs that the math of the game assumes they are spending on getting a bonus to hit, damage, defense or a useful property, at-will, encounter or daily power.

I also know that surgeless healing is quite rare and not the easiest thing to maximize. Ritual casting ends up being part of the daily resource cycle rather than being part of the level-by-level resource cycle of getting and buying magic items.

1d10 split among four people is very, very trivial. Perhaps it'd be better if the main caster of the ritual takes half the damage and the other half is split up among the assistants.

I'm also going to be using this in a setting where magic and religion is very much rooted in old world northern paganism which had tons of sacrifices in order to accomplish their rites-- especially among the Celts, the Balts/ancient Prusai/Lats.

The cost is also social. While many local people are followers of the old ways, those who adhere to more civilized faiths might have something to say about blood magic and ritual sacrifice.

Another thing I'm going to do is reduce the time scale by one factor. Rituals that take an hour take a minute. Rituals that take 10 minutes would take 10 rounds.

 

[LostSoul]

Two thoughts:

1. The cost is mostly social/flavour, which means you as DM can make it count in the campaign - or not. I like it for that aspect.

2. Have you thought about allowing access to higher-level rituals by powering them with blood? Rituals that you can't normally cast.

 

[nnms]

Two thoughts:

1. The cost is mostly social/flavour, which means you as DM can make it count in the campaign - or not. I like it for that aspect.

2. Have you thought about allowing access to higher-level rituals by powering them with blood? Rituals that you can't normally cast.

1. Yes, it is more about social/flavour costs. I think a marginal HP cost helps give it just a bit of a sense of it not being unlimited.

2. Yes! About an hour ago, I was looking through rituals to see if any become broken if you get rid of the gp cost and thought, "Does anything really break if you let any ritualist cast any level of ritual they can afford?"

The risk is obvious. A level 1 PC casting a level 4 ritual with blood powering it is taking on a really big risk. I'm thinking of making tiny reduce the cost by 1 hp and small by 2 hp and only having medium and larger reduce the number of dice.

Just imagine what would happen in your typical town if your character bought a half dozen sheep and then went and performed a ritual where they were all sacrificed. The typical medievally influenced town would call for a witch burning. Nobles and religious figures would find it very easy to propagandize against illegal practitioners of magic because they kill things to do their magic.

Another thing to make this even grimmer would be that tiny absorbs 1 hp, small 2 hp, medium 4 hp, large 8 hp, huge 16 hp. But in order to reduce levels/dice of damage, the sacrifice must be intelligent. It must have a soul. So you could sacrifice 3 sheep and know you'll be safe for casting level 1 rituals, but to cast powerful ritual spells, you're going to need tons and tons of sacrifices or head down towards the practice of human sacrifice.

I think it'll work well in a darker fantasy setting where magic is not just another type of technology.

 

[TarionzCousin]

What are the benefits of the player using his/her own blood?

 

[nnms]

What are the benefits of the player using his/her own blood?

Well, you take the damage, but you don't expend any ritual component/money. If you're not going to be fighting, you can cast as many rituals as you dare before each extended rest.

Perhaps there could be some benefit beyond that. As it stand, a ritual does a bunch of damage. You either reduce it through sacrificing, share it with assistants or take it. Perhaps if you're doing a ritual solo and use your own blood, there can be some sort of benefit? A bonus on any related skill check? Any suggestions?