It is indeed a skill and ritual based system. You have rituals skills by discipline (Invocation, divination, necromancy, inticement, protection, and transformation.) The modifier is determined by the magic 'style' you are using, whether arcane ritualism (Int, the most common - trained wizardry), faith working (Wis - asking your god for magic) or animism (Cha - asking the spirits for magic) This is modified for conditions (knowing true names, casting at a place of power, etc.) against a DC determined by the rituals scope, with more powerful, longer ranged, longer lasting, or wider effects being harder to pull off as spells. Multiple effects can be combined into a single spell. You will also need to purchase components for the spell. (Steampunk uses a purvhase DC system rather than tracking each coin.) *EDIT* Ritual skills are not class skills for anybody. You need spell casting feats to use them at all, and purchase them cross class, though some vocations get the feats as bonuses.
You keep making ritual tests until the total rolled is equal or greater than the DC of the ritual times 10, assuming that all the rolls succeeded. (Failure indicates a backlash.) If the ritual succeeds then the spell is cast. If it fails then there is a backlash. Backlash can run from a lessened pool of successes to the loss of a level, 1d6 from the ability used to cast the ritual, and temporary loss of all spell casting powers till the damage is healed. *EDIT* So if the casting DC is 16 then you will need a total of 160 to finish the ritual. So getting a total on your rols of 22, a 17, and an 18 would give you 57 points toward the 160 you need.
Each ritual contains several rolls, as you accumulate the total needed to cast the spell, so casting a spell takes a fairly long time. You can also rush the ritual, taking less time, but a greater risk of failure is the cost. Casting times are in the tens of minutes rather than mere seconds. If it takes more than an hour you also have to make Concentration rolls, as you become tired. Several people can work together to complete a larger ritual.
You can 'store' the ritual effects in a conduit - making it a much faster, easier process. A conduit is a one user magic item that is enchanted ahead of time using the rules for ritual casting.
There are no mana points or any similar mechanic, just the time needed to cast a ritual, and the limitations on conduits.(Conduits do what they are enchanted to do - no more, no less. Rituals are much more flexible, but costly in time and components.,
I currently have no PC spellslingers in the party, the only occultist is a medium. And the only spellcaster they have encountered works in the city morgue as prosector. (And helpful necromancer...)
The Auld Grump
