Weaving a spell is the art of drawing upon the tapestry of magic that permeates all the things. The use of metamagic subtly alters the normal flow of spells, bringing more power to the dweomer at the cost of a higher spell slot. Augmented ritual casting of spells energizes spells at the time that they are cast, as opposed to the time they are prepared; thus the spellcaster does not need to sacrifice any spell levels to cast a spell augmented with metamagic. The ritual provides the extra power.
A spellcaster can ritually cast spells augmented with only the metamagic feats that he knows, but he can include each feat that he knows at the expense of extending the casting time, sacrificing more expensive components, and taking greater risk that the ritual will fail. Each extra metamagic feat that is applied to a spell through augmented ritual casting that would normally increase the level of spell instead makes the spell take longer to cast and cost more in material components. The total of these extra levels is the added level modifier. The added level modifier is used to determine the specific requirements of an augmented ritual casting.
AUGMENTED RITUAL LIMITS
The level of the spell being cast plus the added level modifier of all feats augmenting the spell cannot exceed the highest level spell the caster is capable of normally casting.
Example: A 12th level wizard cannot cast 7th level spells. The most powerful ritual a 12th level wizard could perform to augment the knock spell (a 2nd level spell) would be one with an added level modifier of +4 (2 + 4 = 6, the highest spell level the wizard can cast).
AUGMENTED RITUAL CASTING TIME
To determine the casting time of an augmented ritual casting, first determine the spell’s base ritual casting time according to the spell’s normal casting time (see table). The ritual casting time is equal to this base time multiplied by the total added level modifier of the augmentations:
(base ritual time) x (added level modifier)
Any casting time which exceeds an hour requires a Ritual Casting check against a DC of 10 + the spell level. (Use the spell’s original level, not the augmented level, for this DC.) A failure on this Ritual Casting check results in the magical energies warping and recoiling back upon the caster, resulting in (level of the spell + added level modifier) hp of damage. The augmented ritual is still successfully cast in the event of a failed Ritual Casting check.
| Normal Casting Time | Base Ritual Casting Time |
|---|---|
| Free action | 1 full round |
| 1 action | 5 full rounds |
| Full round | 5 minutes |
| Other | 10 x normal casting time |
AUGMENTED RITUAL MATERIAL COMPONENTS
Augmented ritual castings require extra material components beyond those normally required for casting the spell. These additional components represent the rare materials that must be expended to draw upon even greater power for the spell effect. For divine casters, these components are typically comprised of holy incense, small sacrifices, or similar trappings offered to the gods. For arcane casters, these components may represent herbs, minerals, or any other form of ritual trappings.
Regardless of what these ingredients are, the general cost of these materials is a number of gold pieces equal to:
25 x (added level modifier)
SPECIFIC FEATS
Heighten Spell: The Heighten Spell feat can be used, with the difference in the actual spell level and the new spell level being used to calculate the added level modifier.
Quicken Spell: The Quicken Spell feat cannot be added to an augmented ritual casting. However, if the feat is used normally and the quickened spell is then augmented the ritual casting time can be greatly reduced (per the chart above).
Silent Spell: The Silent Spell feat cannot be added to an augmented ritual casting. If a spell prepared with the effects of the Silent Spell feat is used to perform an augmented ritual casting, the feat’s benefits are negated.
Spell Focus: This feat may be used in augmented ritual castings to provide a bonus beyond the normal +2 benefit. For every extra +1 bonus (above the normal +2 bonus provided by this feat) with which the caster desires to augment his casting, one level is added to the total added level modifier of the augmented ritual casting.
Spell Penetration: This feat may be used in augmented ritual castings to provide a bonus beyond the normal +2 benefit. For every extra +1 bonus (above the normal +2 bonus provided by this feat) with which the caster desires to augment his casting, one level is added to the total added level modifier of the augmented ritual casting.
Still Spell: As with Silent Spell, the Still Spell feat cannot be added to an augmented ritual casting. If a spell prepared with the effects of the Still Spell feat is used to perform an augmented ritual casting, the feat’s benefits are negated.
What are those sigils from? They look familiar, but I can’t place them.
They’re a font from the Exofont bundle by Joe Bush.
Metamagic reduction is one of the many broken parts of 3.5. If I were a very slightly stricter DM, I would probably ban all forms of it altogether. This ritual casting system is a fun and flavorful and well-established-tropey idea (“race to stop the villains from ritual-casting a country-devastating Locate City Bomb” or whatnot can be a good plot), but probably winds up too powerful a gift to the already-most-powerful classes.
“The level of the spell being cast plus the added level modifier of all feats augmenting the spell cannot exceed the highest level spell the caster is capable of normally casting.” should probably be a general rule applied to all metamagic reduction. It doesn’t fix the problem, but does bring it down from “1st level characters casting a couple Persistent buffs every day” to “nothing from 1-8, then 9th level characters casting a dozen Persistent buffs every day”. And by 9th level the game has been pretty much cracked in half by spellcasters anyway.