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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aosaw" data-source="post: 2302237" data-attributes="member: 32873">Staff Rites and RitualsRituals        Every weaver is different; each one has his own special flare for a certain type of spell, weaves his magic with his own unique flourish, even recharges his staff differently. Below are a few examples of rituals a typical weaver might utilize; feel free to craft your own. (Note: each of these rituals requires some sort of sacrifice on the part of the weaver; as a result, each has a resulting benefit for using that particular ritual). In fact, it is conceivable that one weaver could use multiple different rituals over the course of her career—it should be noted that each benefit lasts only until the staff is drained of spell points. (The value listed in parentheses is the amount of time the ritual takes to complete)Bloodwater Rite (10 rounds)Requirements: one ceremonial bowl bowl (or hole) large enough to hold a quart of liquid; water chilled with ice crystals; a source of fire; 3 points of damage dealt to the weaver.Ritual: The weaver first places the staff in the center of the bowl/hole, perpendicular with the ground. If the ground is steady, the staff will remain upright without the weaver’s guiding hand. Then, the weaver pours the chilled water into the bowl, followed by a slash across his palm with the Shiva; the tool’s magical properties seal the wound once 3 points’ worth of blood has fallen into the bowl. At this point, the liquid mixes and takes on a silvery sheen. The fluid is aptly named “bloodwater”, and if the weaver ceases the ritual at this point, the bloodwater can be stored to quickly perform the ritual at a later date, if necessary (though still only once per day). Finally, a small flame is dropped into the bloodwater, causing a chain reaction in the bowl. The staff becomes engulfed in white flames (or crackles with white electrical energy, or glows and emits a cold white mist, at the weaver’s option; the light need not even be white), but the weaver can grasp it without being harmed.Benefits: Most practitioners of this ritual have a special wrapping cloth to cover their focusing staff, and the reason is this: The staff gives off a white light, illuminating area as a torch would. Additionally, against “creatures of the dark” (undead), the staff gains a +3 bonus to attack and damage.Special: The Bloodwater Rite only takes 5 rounds if the weaver does not need to dig the hole. Also, if the weaver spends 10 points of damage instead of only 3, the bonus to attack and damage against undead is +5 and the light shed is as a daylight spell.Special: Bloodwater, if thrown at undead, has the same effects as holy water. If stored in a flask, the Bloodwater Rite can be performed with just a full-round action, by simply pouring the fluid over the staff and lighting it on fire.Notes: Practitioners of the Bloodwater Rite tend to be naturalists, seeing unnatural things such as undead as affronts to the world’s natural order. Ironically, these weavers tend to wrap their staffs in black.        Threadstaff Rite (4 rounds)Requirements: NoneRitual: The weaver must concentrate for four rounds, as he gathers the ley in the area around the staff, to capture their energy within it. Also, the weaver must expend fully one third of his maximum body spell points in order to fulfill the ritual. If the weaver’s current body spell point total does not at least equal one third of his maximum body spell point total, the difference is taken from his hit points.Alternatively, if the weaver is in an area of high magic concentration, he can perform the Threadstaff Rite without expending the requisite spell or hit points.Benefits: Many practitioners of this ritual are healers, for the following reason: The weaver gains the ability to heal wounds (on himself or others), removing up to a number of points of damage equal to his maximum body spell point total. The weaver can spread these points out over a long period of time, but once the staff is completely drained of spell points, any remaining healing powers it may have had are lost.Special: Alternatively, a practitioner of the Threadstaff Rite can add some of these points as a divine bonus to her next attack or damage roll, as long as the total number of points added or used does not exceed the allotted number of points granted from this ritual. (It should be noted that the benefits, as well as the sacrifice, increase with level)Notes: Practitioners of the Threadstaff Rite tend to be righteous members of society, often donating their talents to wounded soldiers of a worthy cause. Alternatively, a Threadstaff weaver might simply use these points to heal himself in a time of crisis.Ambient Rite (1 round)Requirements: Must be in an area of high magic concentrationRitual: Should the weaver find herself in an area where there is a high concentration of magical energy, she can spend time concentrating to gather the ambient energy into her staff. Each round so spent replenishes 2d6 spell points—more useful to low- and mid-level weavers than to high-level ones—but can be invoked more than once per day, making such areas a very valuable resource. Weaver Academies tend to be built in areas of Ambient Magic.Benefits: Like the Natural Rite, the Ambient Rite is not so much a ritual as an act of opportunistic nature. There are no benefits, other than its more-than-reasonable time and its unrestricted usage.Notes: A weaver in an Ambient Magic area is more likely to first invoke the Threadstaff Rite, to gain its benefits, before relying on the Ambient Rite. An area of Ambient Magic is invaluable for Bloodwater and Threadstaff weavers, as it effectively extends the durations of these rituals’ benefits.Natural Rite (1 round, often random)Requirements: Weaver level 6+, must be in the presence of a natural lightning stormRitual: In the event that the weaver finds herself running low on spell points while in the middle of a natural lightning storm, she can raise her staff to the heavens and invoke the power of the gods. In reality, the staff acts as a sort of lightning rod, attracting the very next lightning strike to its shaft. However much damage the bolt would normally deal to the caster is immediately absorbed into the staff as spell points. If the absorbed spell points overflow the weaver’s staff maximum, the difference is divided as magical damage amongst everyone within a five-foot radius.Benefits: Unlike the other rituals, the Natural Rite can be invoked more than once per day. The risk is often greater than the weaver is willing to take, however, and one usually must weigh the options before calling down the wrath of the heavens. Because it takes so little time—only one round—it can be a very realistic option for high-level weavers who have depleted their resources. Other than its many uses per day and quick execution, there are no benefits to the Natural Rite. Just the same, a weaver in a lightning storm is a force to be reckoned with.Notes: There are sparsely few weavers who exclusively invoke the Natural Rite, largely because of its restrictive nature: one can only invoke it during a natural lightning storm; ergo, one has to be very careful about when one’s resources are drained.Foundstaff Rite (1 minute)Requirements: staff with spell points stored in it, weaver level 3+Ritual: Any weaver can use any other weaver’s staff as a source of spell points. If a third-level weaver, for instance, happened upon a fully charged level 18 weaver’s staff, she could use that staff to fuel her spells, effectively gaining more than one-hundred extra spell points. It does, however, take time to attune the staff to its new user, requiring one full minute of quiet meditation.Benefits: A found staff is just like the weaver’s original staff, with the exception of any enchantments that are on the new staff that weren’t on the old one (and vice versa).Special: Once the new staff’s spell points are drained, the found staff becomes ordinary for the purposes of focusing spell points. If the weaver wishes to recharge the staff, he must tune it especially to him, requiring 24 hours of uninterrupted meditation. Since most found staffs are so discovered in the middle of a dungeon or cave—and therefore in an environment unsuitable for extended meditation—many weavers put off recharging their new staffs until they are in an area of absolute peace and serenity (as anything less creates a risk of interruption).Notes: While a low-level weaver could conceivably have an obscene number of spell points through this Rite, it should be noted that the low-level weaver is unlikely to stumble upon a high-level weaver’s staff. Likewise, a weaver is unlikely to be separated from her staff (since a weaver has no reason to abandon her staff, especially if it is fully charged) unless she’s been killed. Thus, it’s somewhat unlikely that a weaver will find a fully charged staff (just as it is unlikely that a character will find a fully charged Staff of Power). Also, it should be noted that a first-level weaver with a twentieth-level weaver’s staff, even fully charged, is still restricted to his normal selection of spells, and the likelihood of anyone actually needing to cast 200 mudballs is so small that, in the event that any weaver would need 200 mudballs, it’s probably a good thing that he has a twentieth-level weaver’s staff.</blockquote>

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