[4E] Ritual: Anti-magic Field

[Jogi]

Alright folks, this is intended to be a ritual which prevents spells from being cast within the limits of a certain area. Oh, if you don't find the name of this ritual of your liking, please suggest me a new one :)
Im looking forward for suggestions!

Arcane Dispelling Field

"The circle of symbols painted in the ground glow with magical light as the wizard attempts to cast his spells."

Level: 9
Category: Warding
Time: 2 hours
Duration: Until broken
Component Cost: 600 gp
Market Price: 800 gp
Key Skill: Arcana

You inscribe a circle of arcane runes of protection on the ground. If the ritual is performed correctly, these runes will prevent magic from being cast within the circle. When performing this ritual, you make an Arcana check. Anyone in this area who attempts to activate powers that have the Arcana keyword, must succed in an Arcana check against your check's result or the spell will fail and still consume daily uses, if any. Anyone whose level is lower than half of your level cannot activate powers with the Arcana keyword inside this area. When magic is successfully cast within the circle (including other rituals) it damages the boundary, thus destroying circle.

[Mauril Everleaf]

Quick problem. There really isn't "magic" anymore. If you are specifically referring to powers from the Arcane power source, you will probably want to specify that. If you are trying to nix anything not from the Martial power source, you may want to make this a lot higher level. Level 9 seems kinda low to me anyway.

I think you were wanting to make it a Level 9 spell, like from 3.5. If so, you probably want to make this a Level 25 ritual.

[Jogi]

Quick problem. There really isn't "magic" anymore. If you are specifically referring to powers from the Arcane power source, you will probably want to specify that. If you are trying to nix anything not from the Martial power source, you may want to make this a lot higher level. Level 9 seems kinda low to me anyway.

I think you were wanting to make it a Level 9 spell, like from 3.5. If so, you probably want to make this a Level 25 ritual.

Uhm, you're right, althought im quite sure I mentioned "powers with the Arcana keyword" in the description. About the level, im taking notes on what you said. Would you say lv 15 or around 15-20 is fine? I don't think this should be impossible to as it is something not that powerfull (since it depends on your arcana check - thus kinda depends on your level). Oh, I'll try not to use the word magic anymore :D

[NecroRebel]

Agreed with Mauril. If it simply affects anything with the Arcane power source, it's both nigh-useless to PCs - monsters don't have power sources - and far, far too low-level and cheap for what it does.

That said, the component cost and such do seem appropriate for a level 9 ritual, so I'm assuming that that's what you based it off of. However, do keep in mind that level 9 rituals are roughly on par with level 3-4 spells in 3.xE, and if you're basing this off Anti-Magic Field (a level 6 spell, minimum), you should be building a level ~15 ritual.

I'd give this a wider area of effect, as in covering much of a building or dungeon, and make it simply impose a penalty to all other rituals attempted in the field. Half your Arcana check would make most rituals that require a skill check unreliable or much weaker, for example.

Edit: There is no "Arcana" keyword for powers. Do you want this to affect divine, primal, and other "magical" powers, or just the Arcane power source?

[Jogi]

Ooooh, good point guys. Ok, so far we've got:

- Nigh useless for PC's. (forgot that monster's don't have power source :D)
- Low level requirement
- Wide area of effect
- Penalties instead of stoping all "magic"

My views on these are:

- So, If I wanted to make if work against monsters I'd have to make it work against a certain list of keywords, such as Illusion or Charm. Am I right?
- Level 17 should be fine?
- I agree on wide area of effect.
- Penalties are a very nice option, althought I'd take them on second choice since not all rituals require checks (am I right in this?).
- The 2 hours preparation might be a bad thing for PC's uses...do you guys think so?


Thanks in advance! :)

PS: yes, I did base on a lv 8 ritual :D

[Mauril Everleaf]

Yeah, keywords would work. I would take a look through the monsters in the MM, specifically at the types of monsters you want to make sure are affected, and use the keywords listed on their powers. This seems a bit inelegant though.

The idea of making the Anti-Magic Field impose penalties on other rituals based on an Arcana check is good. I would make them tiered, like other powers. Assuming you stick with level 17 for the ritual, an average Arcana check for a dedicated Arcanist would be around 30. Getting 1-19 results in no penalties, 20-30 resulting in a minor penalty, 31-39 resulting in a moderate penalty and 40+ resulting in a heavy penalty. Think 0, -2, -5, -10 or so.

Having it also grant Immunity to specific keywords while within the zone would be a good way to create the same effect as suppressing certain keywords, but would seem to fit a little closer to the 4e mentality. It could well do both the ritual penalty and the Immunity.

Treat duration like Magic Circle. 1 hour + 1 min per square encompassed.

[Jogi]

I took a small look in the MM, and found out that keywords would work, but not as expected. Some monsters would be totally disabled, like the Hell Hound (pag. 160): both his attacks include the Fire keyword, which is a keyword I was going to use since some "spells" include it. Therefore I thought of something else: what if this Ritual does not prevent casting but merely dispelled all magical ongoing effects? Of course that would be something check-based. About the penalties, :D im using that. Nice idea!

Oh, maybe some specific keywords that are obviously bound to be "magic" should have their effects prevented from being cast in there. Just maybe.

Great idea about the duration. Still, since this can be a powerfull Ritual, shouldn't duration be 1 hour - 1 min per square? Or maybe a high duration, like [(half of your Arcana check)hours - 10 min/square] but can still be broken if any "magic" is cast inside? I took a look at Magic Circle, it is Until Broken.

This said, the Ritual would:

- Dispell ongoing magical effects once they enter the Ritual AOE (Area of Effect).
- Impose penalties to Rituals being made within this Ritual's AOE (penalties depend on Arcana checks results).
- High level spell.
- Modified Ritual duration.
- Possibly grant Immunity against keywords bound to obviously "magical" powers.

[Mauril Everleaf]

About duration, you are right. I made an error. Where I said "duration", I meant "casting time". My apologies. Below is my reasoning on casting time.

The casting time should simply be based on size. Yes, it is a high level and potentially powerful ritual, but it should definitely take longer the larger you make the area. One hour (pretty standard duration) to prepare the magicks, and then one minute to apply the magic runes for every square. I definitely would not make it quicker to make a larger zone. With your math, anything larger than sixty squares starts to take negative time, making the zone completed before it began. Breaking the time continuum is rarely good. The latter somewhat rewards a low Arcana check by making it take less time to create the zone. Also a bad idea.

I would not have it dispel ongoing effects, I would have it suppress ongoing effects. I might even put in a clause saying that "ongoing effects that are untyped are unaffected by this suppression" so that basic bleeding wounds and such aren't mysteriously shut off.

Make sure that you state in the ritual description that the Immunity remains only while the character is within the zone's effect.

So, as an example, I would make the ritual look like this:
Anti-Magic Field
Level: 17
Component Cost: 5,000 gp
Category: Warding
Time: 1 hour + 1 min per square enclosed
Market Price: 17,000 gp
Key Skill: Arcana
Duration: Until broken

You inscribe a circle or other enclosed figure on the ground with powerful magic runes. The more correctly the runes are drawn, the more powerful the zone becomes.

When the ritual is begun three Keywords (excluding Weapon) are selected. Any creature within the zone is granted Immunity to those three Keywords. When a creature leaves the zone, it loses any Immunities granted by the effect of this ritual. Any ongoing effects caused by a power with one of those three Keywords are suppressed while the creature is within the zone.

Also, any rituals cast while within the ritual's zone take a penalty to their skill check based on the table below.
{table]Arcana Check Result|Penalty to Check
19 or below|0
20-29|-2
30-39|-5
40 or higher|-10[/table]

The duration of the ritual ends when one of the following conditions is met: a successful Dispel Magic ritual is performed, a ritual of level 17 or higher is successfully performed within the zone of the Anti-Magic Field, or the original caster willfully dispels it.

[Alteran]

- Possibly grant Immunity against keywords bound to obviously "magical" powers.

I'm not sure what keywords are obviously magical. Fire arrows are a simple example, as well as special abilities of certain monsters. I wouldn't call a dragon's breath magic. The only keywords that seem obviously magical to me are conjuration, summoning, teleportation, illusion, zone, and perhaps charm. Even that could be achieved naturally, by a Nymph or something (although I don't think those currently exist). The problem is that very few things are guaranteed to be the result of a magical effect. Since magic is so badly-defined in 4e, the best way to make this work may be to make it effectively a zone of dispel magic.

Some things like force and radiant are likely to be caused by magic, but there are no guarantees, so the effect could end up blocking non-magical effects.

[Jogi]

Thanks for all the replies guys, it's really useful :elan:
Mauril Everleaf: oooh, very nice version. May I do some adds/changes based on Alteran's suggestions?

If yes...


Anti-Magic Field

"The symbols painted in the ground glow with magical light as the wizard fails to cast his rituals."

Level: 17
Category: Warding
Time: 1 hour + 1 min per square enclosed
Duration: Until broken
Component Cost: 5,000 gp
Market Price: 17,000 gp
Key Skill: Arcana

You enclose an area on the ground with powerful magic runes. The more correctly the runes are drawn, the more powerful the zone becomes.

When this ritual is cast, you may choose two Keywords from the following: Conjuration, Summoning, Teleportation, Illusion or Zone. No powers including these keywords can be used within this ritual's area of effect. Any creature within the zone is granted Immunity to those Keywords. When a creature leaves the zone, it loses any Immunities granted by the effect of this ritual. Any ongoing effects caused by a power with one of those two Keywords are suppressed while the creature is within the zone. This ritual does not supress items enhancements, but still prevents items powers that include the chosen Keywords from being activated.

Also, any rituals cast while within the ritual's zone take a penalty to their skill check based on the table below:

{table] Arcana Check Result | Penalty to Check
19 or below | 0
20-29 | -2
30-39 | -5
40 or higher | -10[/table]

The duration of the ritual ends when one of the following conditions is met: a successful Dispel Magic ritual is performed, a ritual of level 17 or higher is successfully performed within the zone of the Anti-Magic Field, or the original caster willfully dispels it.


I think we're getting somewhere :)

[Mauril Everleaf]

It looks pretty good to me. Just one note. At one point, you talk about selecting "three keywords" and then later refer to "one of two keywords". Since you pared down the available keywords, I would change the first to match the second, selecting just two keywords.

[Jogi]

I just edited it. Thanks for all the help guys :)
Also, I hope it is usefull for someone :D