If a ritual allows the participation of secondary casters often called “acolytes”, the ritual's components line includes "SC" "secondary casters" as an entry, immediately followed by a p
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In addition, some rituals have a locational
component (“L”) or a temporal component (“T”)
Each includes a description for its component, which
might be very specific (such as one particular hill) or
general (such as “open to the sky” or “an underground
chamber”) Temporal components are often astrological
and require one or more stars or planets to be visible
If these temporal or locational components are not
provided, the ritual simply fails
If a ritual allows the participation of secondary
casters (often called “acolytes”), the ritual's components
line includes "SC" ("secondary casters") as an entry,
immediately followed by a parenthetical that details any
maximum or minimum number of secondary casters
required to cast the ritual If a ritual description has
no secondary caster entry, that ritual does not permit
the assistance of secondary casters While secondary
casters can help by attempting the skill checks the
primary caster assigns them, their chief purpose is to
aid in the ritual's casting Unless stated otherwise in
the ritual description, secondary casters must be within
100 feet and line of effect of the primary caster and
each other during the entirety of a ritual's casting
A ritual automatically fails when enough of the
casters are incapacitated, killed, or moved more than
100 feet from (or out of line of effect of) all other
casters to reduce the number below the minimum
number of casters
Skill Checks: Since it is possible for those lacking
the ability to cast arcane, divine, or psychic spells to
cast rituals, variables that would normally rely on
caster level (such as range and spell resistance) use the
character level or total Hit Dice of the primary caster
instead This is the case even for a ritual caster who
has the ability to cast spells Characters with a caster
level gain a +1 bonus on skill checks to cast a ritual,
and this bonus increases by 1 for every 5 caster levels
they possess (to a maximum of +5 at caster level 20th)
as their understanding of the fundamentals of magic grows
It's surprisingly difficult to disrupt a ritual
Participation in casting a ritual does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the casters can pause the ritual to engage in combat or take other actions—
though not without consequences For each round a ritual is paused in this way, the DCs of all the ritual's subsequent skill checks increase by 1 The ritual's casting time does not continue to elapse while paused
If all the skill checks for a ritual are successful, the ritual succeeds, and the primary caster (and the secondary casters, if specified) experiences the ritual's backlash before the ritual's effect occurs If the casters fail any of the skill checks required for a ritual, or the ritual fails for another reason, the ritual ends In this case, the casters also experience the ritual’s backlash, and the failure consequences occur (though only some rituals have these properties) The consequences of failure, if any, are detailed in each ritual's description
The skill checks must be attempted in the order listed, generally starting with the diagram skill check (if any), but the GM rolls for the checks and tracks the progress
of the ritual casting in secret
Mythos Taint: Any caster who has been tainted by
cosmic forces gains a bonus on any skill check to cast
a ritual, except for the diagram phase skill check The bonus is proportional to the severity of the taint The
GM makes the final ruling on the severity of the taint, but as a general guideline, having a distant aberration ancestor or any fear condition caused by Mythos phenomena gives a +2 circumstance bonus Belonging
to a race linked to one of the Great Old Ones or other cosmic forces or having an insanity caused by Mythos phenomena gives a +4 circumstance bonus Being a chosen vessel of a Great Old One or other cosmic forces