The Ritualist: Some Pact Gifts of the First Rank...

Good Evening, All:

Below are a few examples of the rituals/pact gifts I'm creating for the Ritualist. Bear in mind that these are effectively spell-like abilities, and can be used every round unless otherwise stated in the description of the ability. Please look them over and let me know what you think.

Acid Spittle
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: 30 ft.; Dur: One attack; ST: None
With this granted ability, you may spit acid once per round at a single target within range. If the attack succeeds, the target suffers 1d4 points of acid damage. Using this ability more than once within the same hour makes you ravenous, as you must eat to replenish your body after being drained through the use of this power.

Dark Blessing
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: Touch; Dur: One minute; ST: None
By calling loudly on the name of your patron, you are given the ability to imbue your target with magical energy that protects it from harm, granting it a +1 bonus on all saving throws for the duration.

Eldritch Charm
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: 30 ft.; Dur: Four hours; ST: Yes
With this granted power, you may select one target within range who may attempt a saving throw to resist this power. If the target fails, then you have charmed your target, and they regard you as a close personal friend and ally. While the target would never act in a suicidal manner, nor follow obviously harmful orders, they will regard you in the best light possible. Threatening or allowing others to threaten your target automatically breaks the charm upon them. Through this power, you are granting your patron limited access to a potential mortal shell in the Physical World.

Mystic Sight
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: Personal; Dur: Twenty minutes; ST: None
This ability grants you the ability to see a magical glow around any enchanted object or creature within range for the duration of the ability. While this power is active, your patron may also look through your eyes into the Physical World.

Spectral Hand
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: 30 ft.; Dur: Concentration; ST: None
With this gift, you can lift and move any one object weighing less than five pounds within range that you point at. When moving the object, it moves at half your normal movement rate, but can never be moved beyond the range of this power. Alternately, you may focus the strength of this ability to push a door, lid or similar hinged portal open or closed, so long as nothing resists the push and the portal itself weighs under 30 pounds. Through the use of this power, you are serving as a conduit for your patron to interact with the Physical World, even if on a superficial level.

Whispering Winds
Rank: 1 (Universal); Rng: 150 ft.; Dur: One hour; ST: None
With this granted ability, the winds carry your whispered words to and from a single creature within range, so long as the wind may move between you and your target. You may carry on a whispered conversation, but this ability does not bestow any special knowledge for overcoming any language barriers that might exist. Through the use of this power, you are serving as a conduit for your patron to interact with the Physical World, even if on a superficial level. You may only carry on one conversation at a time.

With Regards,
Flynn

Working on MyD20 Lite Referee's Guide...

Good Evening, All:

Today I continued my work on the MyD20 Lite Referee's Guide. I added a rewritten synopsis of the 5x5 Method, with proper accreditation, and then included a link to the article for more information. As it turns out, you can't mix other licenses with the OGL, so I can't quote the actual text of the method verbatim or directly. In addition, I updated the monster stat blocks based on James' suggestion earlier about adjusting the damage done by large creatures. Finally, I did some more work on the magic items section, working on the Constant Items lists.

I’m also building a number of lists for different types of Spirit Lords that can provide Pact Gifts to Ritualists. So far, I have four major categories: Elemental, Primordial (for those Elder Gods of the Mythos), Profane and Sacred. I also have a fifth category called Universal, which are gifts open to all Ritualists. If anyone has any additional suggestions, I’m definitely open to them.

More Tomorrow,
Flynn

Magic in the World Within: Nothing Is Ever Free...

Good Morning, All:

Today, I wanted to briefly go over one of my core concepts for the Pact Gifts of the Ritualist: nothing is free. In essence, every special ability has some kind of sacrifice associated with it. My reasons for doing so are numerous. First, as spirits from the Spirit Realms are entities unto themselves, they are not inclined to give anything away for free. They want something in return. Second, spirits cannot create something out of nothing. They can convert one thing to another of a like nature, but they cannot create something where nothing once existed. Third, they want back into the Physical Realm, and consider opportunities that bring a spirit's influence into the Physical Realm to be adequate compensation for their gifts. When a Ritualist makes such requests, they are providing access to this realm, and thus trading access for power. Fourth, since things cannot be created, having a source of an appropriate material or energy nearby becomes very important, particularly for damaging effects like fire or acid. Thus, we have more cinematic flavor when the Ritualist creates a fireball effect, pulling from a large nearby source of fire to direct it to the target area. Fifth, and perhaps the most important to me, it creates a consistent flavor to the special abilities of the Ritualist that promotes actions of the kind associated with sorcerers from the Swords & Sorcery pulp adventures that serve as one of the sources of inspiration for the World Within.

As an example, let's consider healing for a moment. An example of a first level Pact Gift related to healing one's comrades would be Empathic Healing. For this power, I envision that the Ritualist could invoke the name of the spirit itself, and then transfer hitpoints from a willing donor to the intended target on a one-to-one basis (i.e. for every hitpoint the target heals, the donor loses one hitpoint.) If the Ritualist uses multiple donors, the transfer rate is three-to-two (i.e. for every two hitpoints the target heals, three hitpoints are lost among the multiple donors, divided as the willing donors agree.

Now, Empathic Healing may not sound very great from a player perspective, but it has a lot of flavor, and it lends itself well to the concept of a second level Pact Gift, Vampiric Healing. In the case of Vampiric Healing, the Ritualist may use unwilling donors to drain hitpoints from and transfer to the intended target. Unwilling donors are allowed a saving throw, and if successful, only lose half the desired hitpoints, which results in half the healing effect on the intended target. Now we have an ability that increases the Ritualist's use of captives and slaves as a power source, and promotes this concept for adventuring opportunities through reinforcement via the rules.

The ultimate healing ability, Raise Dead/Resurrection, can then be envisioned as a fifth level Pact Gift that requires the death of one or more intelligent creatures to bring life back to the intended target. The sacrifice must have at least as many hit dice/levels as the target, or at least 150% of the target's hit dice/levels if multiple sacrifices are made. Of course, unwilling donors may attempt a saving throw that, if successful, halves their effective hit dice donation, which in turn might require more sacrifices to accomplish this ritual's goal. Thus, a tenth level Warrior would require the sacrifice of fifteen or more slaves in order to bring this one back from the dead. Non-intelligent creatures may be sacrificed, but they only add one-quarter of their hit dice toward the accumulated total.

As I start to create my list of Pact Gifts or Rituals, I will keep this concept in mind. I hope to see some pretty interesting and flavorful concepts emerge as I continue down this path. As I create them, I'll try to post examples to this blog in hopes of getting some feedback that will help this become a better element for my next campaign.

With Regards,
Flynn

Hollow Earth: Magic in the World Below...

Good Evening, All:

In thinking further about what I would do with a Hollow Earth campaign, my first thoughts, of course, were in regards to the game mechanics for characters. After some consideration, I believe I would fall back on a three class concept akin to 3E Unearthed Arcana's Generic Classes. In essence, I would want to see a Warrior whose focus is combat, an Expert whose focus is skills, and a Ritualist whose focus is magic. The classic Vancian magic system doesn't seem appropriate for this particular environment, considering that I'm looking for a Swords & Sorcery feel. I started thinking, then, that a Ritualist would be the more setting-appropriate spellcaster. Since I was throwing Vancian magic out, what did that leave me as options?

I considered an effects-based magic system for about two seconds, ala E.N. Publishing's Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth, which is an exceptional approach to effects-based magic. Once I let go of that idea, I considered the concept of magic as it was described in Swords & Sorcery novels. Most spellcasters in these stories are mages that use abilities taught to them by creatures from other worlds of existence. I started thinking about that, and realized that a class that deals in spell-like abilities might be good, something akin to the Warlock class from 3E's Complete Arcane.

Game mechanically, part of my inspiration for this idea stems from the Seraphist class found in the old Role-Aids Sentinels supplement. In essence, that was a class that granted spells and such much like a Cleric, but required the Seraphist to negotiate with celestial beings to gain his spells known. The class could also negotiate for spell-like abilities instead of spells, such that they take up a particular spell slot. In a similar manner, I picture the Ritualist negotiating for special abilities based on their pacts with their otherworldly masters. Mechanically, I'd have a slow progression of these gifts, based on the type of pacts the Ritualist has achieved. Below is an example of the type of table I'd consider for such.

Table: Pact Gifts By Level

Level	1st Rank	2nd Rank	3rd Rank	4th Rank	5th Rank
1st	1	-	-	-	-
2nd	2	-	-	-	-
3rd	3	-	-	-	-
4th	3	1	-	-	-
5th	3	2	-	-	-
6th	4	3	-	-	-
7th	4	3	1	-	-
8th	4	3	2	-	-
9th	4	4	3	-	-
10th	4	4	3	1	-
11th	5	4	3	2	-
12th	5	4	3	3	-
13th	5	4	4	3	1
14th	5	5	4	3	2
15th	5	5	4	3	3

While I'd probably use the MyD20 Lite engine to power such a game, this class would likely replace the standard casting classes. I'm still thinking about this, as the setting continues to inspire my creativity and pique my gaming interests.

More Later,
Flynn