I bought the book about a week ago and was planning on running a game with some friends, the game looks like a lot of fun. I got a good grasp on most of it after checking forums and looking at guides for but I have a question about magic rituals.

When casting a spell through a ritual to you ignore the maximum zeon that can be spent on a spell? If I perform a ritual with an entire day of preperation I doubled the cost of the spell. If the maximum zeon is now under the new cost does the spell fail?

Also are there any rules on what a summoner can start the game with, anything bound or any invocations?

Hope you enjoy the system. It can be a bit fiddly to learn at first, but it is a blast to play.

Rituals don't remove the maximum amount of Zeon you can put into a spell. Instead, it allows you to recalculate the maximum as if your intelligence were higher, as indicated by the chart. The additional cost that the ritual requires you pay does not count towards the maximum amount of Zeon you can put into the spell, but it also doesn't give any added effects either beyond letting you cast the ritual.

Summonings and Invocations can be limited at the GM's discretion. Suggested starting limits can be found in the GM Tool Kit, depending on how high fantasy you want the game to be. The GM screen alone makes the Tool Kit invaluable, and there are some really nice new advantages and other rules in the book.

In addition, rituals do not have to be at the base cost of the spell. So if you want to say cast Create Monstrosity (essence 52) with two added effects so that the creature is level 3; If you do not have enough int to regularly do that (as that would make the cost 100) you instead do a ritual, take the entire day, and are able to cast the spell at 200 zeon.

Thank you for the answers.

I did order the GM toolkit but it won't be here for another day or two.

I got another question. I got my GM toolkit and after looking through it I noticed the summoner in the book as a creature with gnosis 15 but it has abilities that say gnosis 20. I'm wondering how the summoner has such a creature.

If I have a wizard in the group that has taken the Light magic path and they want to cast a spell of level 78 in it through a ritual. How would the accomplish that since their intelligence says they only know up to a certain spell limit. Do they need a grimoire, and if so how difficult should I make it for them to find such a thing?

Mythshambler said:

I hate to say it, but put Babelion's gnosis down to an error that didn't get noticed in proof reading. His abilities would require him to be at 20, so that's what he should be at.

Now, remember that wizards aren't limited to spell levels (so a wizard with 10 intelligence can know spells above level 50), but can know only 50 spell levels. This are either spent at 1 for 1 to learn an entire school, or at a cost, listed on table 57 on page 113.

If your wizard wants to learn Light 78 (Travel By Light), he needs to be able to either purchase Light up to 78 (at a cost of 78 spell levels) or purchase it individually for 16 spell levels (32 if he already has Darkness spells). In order to be able to cast the spell on his own, he has to reach the base level of maximum zeon, which requires an intelligence of 9, since Int times 30 is the maximum zeon you can put into the spell regardless and you need to have an Int of 9 before the result of Int x 30 is over 250. It his Intelligence is 8 or lower, he must use a ritual to cast it and must have it in a grimoire since he cannot learn spells he is incapable of casting. This is how it works across the board for all spells.

As for how hard that spell should be to get, that's up to you. Travel By Light is a very powerful spell, and not one you will likely want them to have free access to at the beginning. Instant teleportation across miles and miles can change the game drastically, even if it is has a massive cost. Consider how much zeon they have, how long it will take to cast (since their MA will be halved for using a grimoire if they don't have the advantage) , how much it will cost them in zeon and how long it will take them to recover that zeon. At a low level, that spell, if they can cast it at all, should take them out for a week or so. Try to point that out to your mage so he realizes what it will cost him.

At the same time it isn't a spell to use to get into combat at low levels since it costs so much, and the lengthy ritual time and cost prevents it from being an escape spell.

Taking all of that into account, you're still the only one who can make that judgment call.

It is high level magic, so it shouldn't be easy. I would suggest requiring a quest of some sort to track it down a copy, one that costs them at least some gold to get a map or rumor pointing them towards the correct horde/wizard.