On hedge magic…
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Hi,
I've spent some time analyzing the hedge magic book. The OOC part of the books says that purchasing the book, hunting for materials and performing a ritual will give the performer (which I assume to be a spellcaster but I might be wrong) some special effect/power.There seem to be no "formula" like potions where you buy the recipe you have the potion and the spell ready and -et voilá- the potion is done, nor there is any OOC information on the results of the ritual (on potions the process and its outcome are clearly indicated on forums instead) but rather inventive and involvement of others will be rewarded by the DM team when performing the ritual (skill rolls may be required).
Now the question is the following, will the ritual generate a "one time item" (a sword, a staff, etc..) or imbue an item with a particular effect, or will the ritual give the caster the possibility to create items (i.e. this is the new - or part of the new - crafting system)?
Till a few days/weeks ago it seemed to me that everyone was after "hedge magic reagents" and that the ritual result would do more or less anything, from curing the wart on the tip of the nose, to weaken the magical abilities of the most powerful dragon.
Is this a sort of "personalized quest path" with the final assistance of the DM team wehre we are supposed to develop our plots/ideas by searching for reagents in dangerous places and, once we have walked a path, we will receive the necessary DM attention to obtain a particular "perk"?
Asking this because the OOC information in the book don't seem too clear to me. If this is intentional and the answer is FOIG then forget about the post.
Thanks! (I preferred to put this in the General discussion also to have inputs from other players, if DMs think that this is better suited for the Ask a DM forum pls feel free to move it).
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A ritual can allow you to do EVERYTHING. It is, in my opinion, a great addition, because it lets you pursue your goals even when a DM is not on. You can, of course, do things the old way, this is just another option.
So far I have used rituals to:-Raise wards against infernal interventions around the Sheriff's Tower
-Free an angel that had been trapped by a devil
-Spawn and hunt a magical beast, whose meat was used to feed the population -
Yeah, remember in the old days when you might be told by a faction NPC you needed X Y and Z to solve some problem or other? then you had to go round lookin, and perhaps took screenshots, or, needed a DM to get X Y and Z?
It's that, but, the stuff is already there.
Example. Gamwell wanted to create arrest wands for the Stark Wyverns. He needed a white stag antlers, a true kings tear, and the blood of a phase spider.
Remember the Starwater gorge crystal? That was sort of a forerunner to an extent as well I guess.
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There is not set formulas for a few reasons:
1). This kind of magic is well beyond anything any of your characters would ever understand, you're doing the equivalent of playing with nuclear science in the world of magic. Which also means, toying with it is very dangerous.
2). We are open to any ideas using hedge magic, but determine how successful the ritual is by how creative your ritual idea is (ie: picking reagents creatively, rather than just scrounging what you find first and bending them to fit an idea–using other rare or difficult to find objects maybe not listed in the books to supplement your idea--including people in the ritual by either finding more mundane ingredients like the "cancerous liver of an alluvial man (wherein you just ask someone to hunt one down and take a screenshot of its death)" or at least in the roleplaying of the scenes), how much fun people will derive from your objective, and how much you involved other people in hunting down these hard to get ingredients.
3). We also fully intend to make this stuff risky, but in a way that gives your character more things to do rather than less. So you may try a ritual to cure the people of the slums from all diseases they suffer, but you may wind up removing all their diseases and putting in a sentient form which decides its a god who must slay you to regain its full powers and spends a few months hunting you down and trying to murder you; or trying to summon animals to feed people at a celebration you may wind up summoning a monstrous wild boar that charges through your celebration killing dozens unless you kill it first--and then you can eat it.
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The short of it, think up any ritual, and try to be inventive. Involve as many people in it, both to help and oppose. FInd 'outside-the-box' regeants (Example, you're trying to summon a big scary monster to hunt your enemies, you might add something rare like albino crag cat pelt on top of your 'real' regeants). ENjoy yourself, and try to help others enjoy it. Perform ritual, but don't be surprised if its not quite what you expect! Even if you do everything awesomely in the DM's eyes, you may simply get a low roll.
AT least, those thoughts serve me well enough. Messed about with several rituals so far, to varying degrees of success, but each one has been awesome fun.
My 2 pence. Hope it helps.
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It's kinda like the wish spell in the pencil and paper version of D&D, you can get whatever you want, you just might not like how you get it.
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It's more like… Epic Spellcasting attempted by people who don't fully understand those concepts.
Oh, yes... trying it may get you very scorched.
