Dragonshards as Ritual Components... - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Dragonshards as Ritual Components...

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
dieffenbachj
Jan 24, 2010 18:39:21
So with only Eberron, Khyber, and Siberys shards to choose from for ritual components, I went with this system:

Eberron shards are for exploration, divination, and scrying rituals
Khyber shards are for binding, creation and deception rituals
Siberys shards are for restoration, travel, and warding rituals
Residuum is only available from disenchanting, as normal.

I think this is fairly effective--Eberron shards are mostly used by spellcasters for enhancing spells and recording information, so the whole 'adventure exploration' plus 'divination and scrying' abilities really fit that.
Khyber shards are mostly used for binding and being creepy, so 'binding', 'creation' and 'deception' fit that
Siberys shards are mostly used to enhance marks, and I think the 'restoration', 'travel', and 'warding' rituals are the most distinctively Dragonmark-specific rituals of them all, so that fits.

I really wanted an alternate system of shards instead of normal components because, well, I wanted everything to feel really Eberronny when I updated my custom character sheet to give to my players. But I didn't want to favor one brand o' shard over the other... so this should work out, right?

(Plus I've always found it weird when a party spends 50,000 gp of, like, incense. Though it always makes for a good laugh when I describe the cleric spending the entire 8 hours a particular ritual simply setting up and lighting that incense. No actual ritual chanting required, only the determination to ignite 50,000 gp of incense).

Thoughts? On the house rule in general, and my particular selection of categories for shards?
#2
Sarlax
Jan 25, 2010 0:12:15 This is actually my default assumption for rituals and magic in Eberron. I like to think that residuum is basically shard dust put through a special treatment to be useful. I think that magic was always around on Khorvaire, but shards are the all-purpose phlebotinum that makes it easier.

I hadn't thought of splitting up ritual type by shard, but I think it's an awesome idea. If you have the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting book, I'd rever to chapter 10 for guidelines, as it actually has dragonshard magic items split up by shard type. Here are my suggestions for ritual affinities based on some of the books and my own preferences.

Binding: Khyber - these shards are used for elemental binding items.
Creation: Eberron - Khyber can work here too because of elemental energy, but I think Eberron is more the world of creation than Khyber.
Deception: Siberys - While Khyber is generally "evil" in it's feel, I think information magic (whether exposing truth or hiding it) best suits Siberys.
Divination: Siberys - shards from the heavens seem appropriate to me for knowledge.
Exploration: Eberron - These are the most generic rituals, and Eberron shards were described in 3.5 as having the most general magical affinity.
Restoration: Eberron - Khyber's creatures are fiends, Siberys's are the couatl, but Eberron's are life itself. I'd say healing effects belong under Eberron shards.
Scrying: Siberys - same reason as divination.
Travel: Khyber - There's something violent about opening the barriers in the world to teleport or move to other planes. I think that suits it to Khyber.
Warding: Khyber - I think of warding as restrictive, so Khyber fits here for me.

In any case, I'm stealing your idea and putting it in my own campaign. I like to think about the economies of games I'm running and this idea is a good one for inspiration. It makes discovery of shard sources particularly interesting because of how it shapes the use of magic.

For instance, if a vast supply of Khyber shards is discovered, then (under my suggestions) we'd see a increase in binding, warding, and travel magic. There'd be more airships, more lightning rail lines, etc. There's also an obvious advantage for Orien and Kundarak.
#3
skrapsan
Feb 05, 2010 0:36:35 I to have taken up the wiev that Residium is just powdered dragon shards. My players havent made that much magic itims yet so it havent really come up. But it helps when describing stuff and awarding loot. Besides it makes the loot stand out a bit more, especially now that we have a artificer on the team. "Do we grind it up and make cool gear or do we sell it and buy other stuff?"
#4
dieffenbachj
Feb 05, 2010 11:37:10
I to have taken up the wiev that Residium is just powdered dragon shards. My players havent made that much magic itims yet so it havent really come up. But it helps when describing stuff and awarding loot. Besides it makes the loot stand out a bit more, especially now that we have a artificer on the team. "Do we grind it up and make cool gear or do we sell it and buy other stuff?"

Well Residuum isn't available on the open market for purchase; I usually just treat OTHER components as ground up dragonshards, and residuum as just the 'raw magic-stuff' that is extremely difficult and expensive to acquire. I might one day house-rule that you can buy residuum for a 500% markup (since residuum is 20% the value of an item it's disenchanted from).

Though I have one player saying he's thinking of having a sorcerer who's addicted to residuum, and that if he doesn't have at least 1 gp per day of it his powers weaken. Heh. I might just balance that by saying it's 5 GP per day (500% markup) and once per day he can deal 1d6 damage to targets adjacent to his target on a hit, or something minor like that (akin to the 20 gp alchemist fire but slightly cheaper and less effective).

I'm digressing though. I think it's pretty badass to make dragonshards ritual components no matter how it's done, I just think residuum should universally be 'raw mana, weightless and golden'. So purified that a single salt-sized grain is worth 1 GP or something like that.* And that dragonshards, even if they're refined and ground up, are still much more bulky and qualify as regular components.

*Oh man, I should make a wizard who keeps his residuum in a salt-shaker...
#5
khift
Feb 05, 2010 15:25:21 I've taken the opposite approach, actually, Dieffenbachj. Instead of making residuum more expensive, I've made non-residuum components less expensive. The way I see it, anything I can do to encourage my players using rituals is good. Rituals are fun, and I want to encourage their use, not discourage it. So, they can buy residuum at market price and use it for all rituals, or buy specific nature/arcana/religion ritual components at 80% market price and use it only for rituals tied to those skills.

Of course, I just really like rituals. For example, I just gave them a treasure parcel of five rituals of their choice last session. And they seem to notice, because they use them pretty often, and to good effect too.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 dieffenbachj Jan 24, 2010 18:39:21	So with only Eberron, Khyber, and Siberys shards to choose from for ritual components, I went with this system: Eberron shards are for exploration, divination, and scrying rituals Khyber shards are for binding, creation and deception rituals Siberys shards are for restoration, travel, and warding rituals Residuum is only available from disenchanting, as normal. I think this is fairly effective--Eberron shards are mostly used by spellcasters for enhancing spells and recording information, so the whole 'adventure exploration' plus 'divination and scrying' abilities really fit that. Khyber shards are mostly used for binding and being creepy, so 'binding', 'creation' and 'deception' fit that Siberys shards are mostly used to enhance marks, and I think the 'restoration', 'travel', and 'warding' rituals are the most distinctively Dragonmark-specific rituals of them all, so that fits. I really wanted an alternate system of shards instead of normal components because, well, I wanted everything to feel really Eberronny when I updated my custom character sheet to give to my players. But I didn't want to favor one brand o' shard over the other... so this should work out, right? (Plus I've always found it weird when a party spends 50,000 gp of, like, incense. Though it always makes for a good laugh when I describe the cleric spending the entire 8 hours a particular ritual simply setting up and lighting that incense. No actual ritual chanting required, only the determination to ignite 50,000 gp of incense). Thoughts? On the house rule in general, and my particular selection of categories for shards?
#2 Sarlax Jan 25, 2010 0:12:15	This is actually my default assumption for rituals and magic in Eberron. I like to think that residuum is basically shard dust put through a special treatment to be useful. I think that magic was always around on Khorvaire, but shards are the all-purpose phlebotinum that makes it easier. I hadn't thought of splitting up ritual type by shard, but I think it's an awesome idea. If you have the 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting book, I'd rever to chapter 10 for guidelines, as it actually has dragonshard magic items split up by shard type. Here are my suggestions for ritual affinities based on some of the books and my own preferences. Binding: Khyber - these shards are used for elemental binding items. Creation: Eberron - Khyber can work here too because of elemental energy, but I think Eberron is more the world of creation than Khyber. Deception: Siberys - While Khyber is generally "evil" in it's feel, I think information magic (whether exposing truth or hiding it) best suits Siberys. Divination: Siberys - shards from the heavens seem appropriate to me for knowledge. Exploration: Eberron - These are the most generic rituals, and Eberron shards were described in 3.5 as having the most general magical affinity. Restoration: Eberron - Khyber's creatures are fiends, Siberys's are the couatl, but Eberron's are life itself. I'd say healing effects belong under Eberron shards. Scrying: Siberys - same reason as divination. Travel: Khyber - There's something violent about opening the barriers in the world to teleport or move to other planes. I think that suits it to Khyber. Warding: Khyber - I think of warding as restrictive, so Khyber fits here for me. In any case, I'm stealing your idea and putting it in my own campaign. I like to think about the economies of games I'm running and this idea is a good one for inspiration. It makes discovery of shard sources particularly interesting because of how it shapes the use of magic. For instance, if a vast supply of Khyber shards is discovered, then (under my suggestions) we'd see a increase in binding, warding, and travel magic. There'd be more airships, more lightning rail lines, etc. There's also an obvious advantage for Orien and Kundarak.
#3 skrapsan Feb 05, 2010 0:36:35	I to have taken up the wiev that Residium is just powdered dragon shards. My players havent made that much magic itims yet so it havent really come up. But it helps when describing stuff and awarding loot. Besides it makes the loot stand out a bit more, especially now that we have a artificer on the team. "Do we grind it up and make cool gear or do we sell it and buy other stuff?"
#4 dieffenbachj Feb 05, 2010 11:37:10	I to have taken up the wiev that Residium is just powdered dragon shards. My players havent made that much magic itims yet so it havent really come up. But it helps when describing stuff and awarding loot. Besides it makes the loot stand out a bit more, especially now that we have a artificer on the team. "Do we grind it up and make cool gear or do we sell it and buy other stuff?" Well Residuum isn't available on the open market for purchase; I usually just treat OTHER components as ground up dragonshards, and residuum as just the 'raw magic-stuff' that is extremely difficult and expensive to acquire. I might one day house-rule that you can buy residuum for a 500% markup (since residuum is 20% the value of an item it's disenchanted from). Though I have one player saying he's thinking of having a sorcerer who's addicted to residuum, and that if he doesn't have at least 1 gp per day of it his powers weaken. Heh. I might just balance that by saying it's 5 GP per day (500% markup) and once per day he can deal 1d6 damage to targets adjacent to his target on a hit, or something minor like that (akin to the 20 gp alchemist fire but slightly cheaper and less effective). I'm digressing though. I think it's pretty badass to make dragonshards ritual components no matter how it's done, I just think residuum should universally be 'raw mana, weightless and golden'. So purified that a single salt-sized grain is worth 1 GP or something like that.* And that dragonshards, even if they're refined and ground up, are still much more bulky and qualify as regular components. *Oh man, I should make a wizard who keeps his residuum in a salt-shaker...
#5 khift Feb 05, 2010 15:25:21	I've taken the opposite approach, actually, Dieffenbachj. Instead of making residuum more expensive, I've made non-residuum components less expensive. The way I see it, anything I can do to encourage my players using rituals is good. Rituals are fun, and I want to encourage their use, not discourage it. So, they can buy residuum at market price and use it for all rituals, or buy specific nature/arcana/religion ritual components at 80% market price and use it only for rituals tied to those skills. Of course, I just really like rituals. For example, I just gave them a treasure parcel of five rituals of their choice last session. And they seem to notice, because they use them pretty often, and to good effect too.