Questions about Formal and High Magic

[Alex319]

1. Suppose I have 20 levels of Celestial Formal, and want to cast multiple rituals, one right after the other (assume I have the components and formal scrolls for each ritual). Which of the following is true?

(a) I have a "pool" of 20 levels which must be divided up among the rituals. For instance, if I use 15 levels of formal to cast one ritual, then I will only have 5 levels left to cast another ritual, until my "pool" refreshes.

(b) I can cast as many rituals as I want, each using the full 20 levels, as long as I have all the other requirements for each of them.

2. If the answer to (1) is (a), then when does the "pool" refresh? Is it every Logistics Period, every event, or something else? Also, if I use a High Magic Ritual Manipulation, do the "extra formal levels above the ritual difficulty" needed for the ritual manipulation count toward the amount expended from the pool? Does using additional casters to add levels expend the levels from the additional casters' pools?

3. If the answer to (1) is (b), then what is the benefit of ever using fewer than your maximum number of levels? Would the only use here be if you wanted the ritual to fail for some reason?

4. If I use multiple High Magic Ritual Manipulations on the same ritual, do the "extra formal levels above the ritual difficulty" needed for the ritual manipulations add together? For instance, if I cast a Difficulty 7 ritual with both Conservative Casting and Disguised Casting, do I need 17 levels of formal (7 + 10), or 27 (7 + 10 + 10)? Similarly, if I use five levels of Improved Chance, do I need 12 levels of formal (7 + 5), or 32 levels (7 + (5*5))?

5. Just to clarify how the success chance improvements work: let's say I have 5 levels of Improved Chance and 5 levels of Second Chance on the ritual. Then my first roll I have a 95% chance of success, and if I fail, then I can reroll with a 50% chance of success. So effectively the overall probability of success is 97.5%. (95% + (5% * 50%)). Is this how it works?

6. Are the concepts of difficulty level, formal ranks, etc. considered IG information? For instance, can my character IG say something like "I need someone with 17 levels of formal to cast this ritual?"

7. Is there a benefit of the High Magics Elemental Augmentation and Magic Augmentation, besides saving a couple seconds saying the incant? If so, what is it?

8. Can a caster with 10 formal levels at a 3-day event (so he has 15 points of High Magic) take 15 purchases of Formal Link, and thus be able to add 16 levels to another formal caster's ritual casting, even though he only had 10 formal levels himself? (If so, is there an IG explanation for why formal casters suddenly get better at working together when the event is longer?)

9. If I take 10 purchases of Formal Link, and I am a secondary caster in multiple rituals, can I add the full amount (11 levels) on each of the rituals, or are the Formal Link purchases "used up" after the first ritual in which I add the extra levels?

10. The rules for Celestial Armor states that "if reduced to zero or below, the Celestial Armor can be returned to its full protection with one minute of concentration." Does this mean that the armor cannot be "refit" if it is only partially damaged? For instance, if I have 15 points of Celestial Armor, and I take 12 points of damage during a fight, then after the battle I will need to have my friend hit me for 3 points of damage (to get the Celestial Armor down to 0) before being able to bring it back up to 15?

 

[phedre]

1. B is correct. The only thing that has to be allocated are high magic points, which have no bearing on ritual casting ability in terms of difficulty.

3. Some rituals have different results based on the difficulty it's cast at. AA, PA, Slayers, Reavers, Vengeance, extenders... the list is extensive.

4. Manipulations are separately considered, not cumulative per ritual.

5. It's two rolls. You can make arguments and do math for the cumulative probability, but you'd roll a 20-sider for the Improved Chance (for simplicity's sake) and any even-sided die for the second. It's up to you and the marshal to decide the number or range that indicate failure.

6. I usually refer to the tomes or circles of ritual knowledge that a caster requires? Or how large a Vengeance the caster would be able to produce (that ritual gives 10 points of damage per level of formal, so a 10 rit rank caster can cast a 100 Vengeance.) This is all flavor, there's no actual rule.

7. Casting when Silenced is a HUGE advantage. Like I can't stress how good a Magic Dispel is.

8. This is one that I can only find a 2012 arc ruling on, but yes, you can purchase more Formal Links than you have ritual ranks. if there's something updated, I'd be interested to see it.

9. This one isn't entirely clear in the RAW. I've usually seen it played as "unlimited assisting in other rits," but again if there's been a ruling/clarification that someone can link to that'd be fantastic.

10. Celestial armor works like Arcane Armor, it can be refit whenever it's value is reduced.

 

[KyleSchmelz]

To clarify a bit on Magic Augment and Elemental Augment:

For both of these abilities, you can cast the spells as though they are innate magical abilities instead of normal incanted spells. What this means is you can cast them even when you're otherwise unable to use game abilities so long as you can at least move your mouth. So you can use a Magic Augmented Purify or Dispel to get you out of most debilitating game effects - exceptions being things like Prison or Paralysis where you're completely immobilized and any effects where you're basically unconscious like Sleep, Waylay, or being Dead.

For Elemental Augment, the other advantage is that the spell is no longer blocked by a Spell Shield, Reflect Magic, Spell Guard, or Resist Magic. Protective abilities against Elemental effects are generally more rare.

 

[Draven]

Re: #5 It's up to the Marshal.

Basically, I'd roll a single d10. Success on all but a zero. Fail? Roll another d10, success 1-5. Fail? Repeat last step. Fail? At this point, I'd let the ritual continue, and sometime during I'd roll Flaw/Backlash.

#7 - Magic Purify/Dispel can get you out of a Binding/Silence effect (but not a Paralysis or Prison). It can save your life. It is amazing. Elemental Augmentation doesn't really seem to have a lot of advantages that I can see, except maybe an Elemental Magic Storm to slowly burn down a golem?

 

[Paladin of Chaos]

Please keep in mind that this forum is for clarifications and not opinions.

All questions seem to have been answered, closing thread.