What are Rituals from Paizo's Occult Roleplaying?

[thorr-kan]

Are they comparable to incantations from Unearthed Arcana or Urban Arcana?

[Psyren]

Are they comparable to incantations from Unearthed Arcana or Urban Arcana?

That's basically what they are, yes; very specific magic that anyone can use if they complete a bunch of skill checks and/or find a bunch of components (some story-based), secondary casters etc. It's a way to introduce more powerful magic, like planar travel or resurrection, into a lower-level campaign without causing too much disruption. It can also be used simply to enable magical effects that normal spells can't pull off, like letting you rebuild your character or ward a city.

One of the big differences between the two is that you can never take 10 or 20 on a ritual (even if you have an ability that lets you do so while threatened) while Incantations do let you take 10.

[thorr-kan]

Thanks.

Has anyone used them enough to compare them to other incantation rules?

[inuyasha]

While I've never used them, I compared the two a bit and I think the Pathfinder ones are more flexible. I actually posted one ritual here before, so I'll copy it here if you want to have a look.

This is meant for a horror campaign, preferably in one where resurrection is not available or nigh impossible
Taboo Ritual
Necromancy; Level 5
Casting Time: 50 minutes (only during a full moon)
Components: V, S, M (An infusion of mercury, water, and gold worth 500 GP)
Skill Checks: Knowledge (Arcana) DC 19 2 successes; Knowledge (The Planes) DC 19 4 successes
Range: Touch
Target: 1 humanoid corpse
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: None
Backlash: 2d6 damage, caster is exhausted, one temporary negative level
Failure: The ritual fails, leaving a rotted husk moaning in a pool of blood, unfit for raising or resurrection of any kind. The caster suffers 2d6 points of additional bleed damage as his wounds fester and bleed profusely.

The taboo ritual knows no other name, but to those desperate enough to bring back the dead, it usually spells their doom.

The ritual is performed on a night of the full moon by the caster spilling his blood (the 2d6 damage) and both drinking and injecting the infusion into their body. This must be done on the night of a full moon, and a corpse and intricate diagram is required to cast it. The ritual works by snatching the soul in question from it's resting place and essentially shoving it back into it's body, and a small portion of the caster's soul is left behind so that the gods do not realize the "snatched soul" is missing, resulting in an exhausting and painful experience for the caster (which causes them to be exhausted and gain one temporary negative level)

After the ritual is succeeded, the corpse becomes a ghoul that appears and acts completely as it did in life, with no rotted or deathly appearance (a DC 30 perception check is required to reveal something "off" about the ghoul). The ghoul itself doesn't even know of it's own undead state, though this could be revealed normally. A will save (DC 1) must be made by the ghoul one year after the ritual is performed, and this must be repeated every year thereafter (each time a save is prompted, the DC increases by 1). Success indicates nothing unusual happens, failure indicates that the ghoul's alignment shifts to chaotic evil and begins to rot as if time had affected it normally. This is a process that occurs over 1d4+1 days of violent, odd, and insane behavior as the soul leaves the body, leaving it in a feral and evil state. By the end of the process, the ghoul is permanently and irrevocably a chaotic evil monster bent on killing it's creator, but otherwise exists as a normal ghoul.