11.1 Spell and Ritual Mechanics

Spells and rituals are common types of magical ✨ abilities with some special rules. Every spell and ritual belongs to a thematically related grouping called a mystic sphere. To learn a spell or lead a ritual, you must have access to the mystic sphere that it belongs to.

Magic Sources

There are four magic sources that characters can use to cast spells and perform rituals: arcane (cast by sorcerers and wizards), divine (cast by clerics and paladins), nature (cast by druids), and pact (cast by votives). Each magic source has a set of associated mystic spheres.

Characters with Multiple Magic Sources: Multiclass characters can have access to multiple magic sources. Their mystic spheres, spells, and rituals are tracked separately for each source of magic they have access to.

11.1.1 Casting Components

All rituals require both verbal components and somatic components (see Ability Usage Components). Unless otherwise noted, all spells require verbal components. In addition, spells from the arcane and pact mystic sources require somatic components.

11.1.2 Rituals

Some characters have the ability to lead rituals. Like spells, rituals are magical ✨ abilities that are grouped into mystic spheres.

Ritual Requirements

Every ritual has three requirements to perform:

• Fatigue: Every ritual takes at least one fatigue leve, and some require much more. Once per minute, the ritual leader can allocate one fatigue level to a creature who participated during that full minute. Non-leading ritual participants that are suffering a fatigue penalty cannot have any additional fatigue levels allocated to them from a ritual.
• Leader: The ritual must be led by a spellcasting creature with access to one of the ritual’s mystic spheres. They must also be able to cast a spell of the ritual’s rank or higher. Finally, they must have knowledge of the ritual, either because they have it memorized or because they have a ritual book for the ritual. If at any time a ritual does not have a participating leader, it ends with no effect.
• Time: Every ritual takes at least one minute to perform, and some can take much longer.

Ritual Books

Unlike spells, you cannot learn additional rituals with insight points. Instead, you must acquire ritual books to learn additional rituals. A ritual book contains the instructions for how to perform one or more rituals. A typical ritual book is Tiny, and can contain rituals with a maximum combined rank of 10.

The act of inscribing such potent magical instructions imbues the books with intrinsic magic. That magic tends to escape or fade over time, so ritual books made of ordinary ink quickly become unreadable. Scribing a ritual book that can last requires expensive magical ink and thick, sturdy pages. The cost to scribe a ritual book of a given rank is equal to an item of the ritual’s rank (see Item Ranks). High rank ritual books tend to be made of exotic materials, like dragonhide or mithral.

Ritual Participation

While a ritual is being performed, creatures can participate in the ritual. Participating in a ritual involves spending a standard action each round, which requires both verbal components and somatic components. Creatures must be able to speak at least one language to participate in a ritual. They must also be able to receive instruction about the appropriate actions to take during the ritual.

Only the ritual leader needs to know how to perform the ritual, either by having it memorized or with a ritual book. Non-leading ritual participants must be given instructions by the leader on the steps they should perform during the ritual. Creatures can freely start or stop participating in rituals. The ritual can even change leaders, as long as it always has at least one ritual leader.

Ritual Mystic Spheres

Each ritual belongs to multiple mystic spheres. You can only lead rituals from mystic spheres that you have access to. Some rituals have special effects based on which mystic sphere is used to access it. If you have access to a ritual through multiple different mystic spheres, you choose which mystic sphere you are using to perform the ritual when the ritual starts.