I'm a young mage and not very bright. I barely used Pathways in Prime and now it seems so much more important in DR3.

So, when do I align, why would I align, when do I summon and when do I focus. I get that I can align to an element and cast spells of that type easier without using Pathways, so how does paths work? I get that for ritual spells, if I focus, I can cast the spells easier, but where does summon fit in and why would we want to meditate and sit down when we are a combat guild? It seems that in practice, by the time I get done aligning summoning and focusing, I will be either dead or I will have killed the critter without using a spell.

Please help me out...I'm so confused and I can't help but feel sorry for any true newbie in DR3. If DR was dumbing down before, it sure isn't now!

So I'm feeling really overwhelmed and I bet I'm not alone. So please, in detail discuss when how where why do I use align summon and focus. Also, GMs, please make the focus items such that we can look at it and see what element it is for...when I look at the stuff on the trunk, I see that it is such and such substance and is useable for 40 uses.

Ithyn

Align earth. Cast earth spells. You build up a 'charge'. This charge is consumed to activate pathways, summon familiars, and so on. Using pathways and fams will train summoning, the WM guild specific skill.

You have to have a charge to trigger abilities. You do not have to be in combat. Casting spells of your alignment (earth in this case) will build the most charge per cast. Casting spells outside your alignment will build less charge, but will build charge. Casting elements in opposition to your current alignment (air is I believe opposite earth?) will reduce your charge. So avoid that if possible. Your best bet, mechanically, is to align to whatever element your favored combat spells are, and avoid casting the opposing element spells.

That's a rough and ugly breakdown.

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Adding nothing to the conversation since 1834.

>> But what is summon admittance and impedance? When would I use that? And when do I use rituals and why? And how and in what order do I focus my object?

Summon admittance is a way to increase your charge without having to cast other spells, it causes you to sit down and has a roundtime. Impedance is the same thing except it reduces your charge, you'd want to do that if you wanted to change the element you're aligned to but had a full charge preventing you from aligning.

Ritual spells are spells that require a large input of mana to cast, like in the 250-600 range if I remember correctly. The two we have so far are hour+ long buff spells; Mantle of Flame gives you a Melee weapon boost, boosts agility, adds flame damage to your brawling and lights up dark rooms for you while it's up and Aegis of Granite which boosts strength, stamina and shield skill.

You use the focus object to gather mana for you in order to cast the ritual spells. When you cast a ritual spell you'll prepare the spell (ie. prep aeg 450), then INVOKE the focus. You'll get a round time and messaging about using the focus item to gather mana for the spell. Once the spell is fully prepared you cast like normal.

I appreciate the help you guys are giving me but I still have issues. :( I tried invoking a staff (the one for elementalism) while prepping MoF at min with a fully charged cam armband. About halfway through the rt, I get the message that my mind is too tired and the staff fails and when I try to cast the MoF after waiting for a full prep, I get that my mind is too tired to cast a spell!

Am I using this right? Am I just too little to benifit from this? My magic stats are : Elemental Magic: 235 58% clear (0/34) Attunement: 245 49% dabbling (1/34)
Arcana: 205 11% clear (0/34) Targeted Magic: 222 27% clear (0/34)
Augmentation: 211 87% clear (0/34) Debilitation: 188 82% clear (0/34)
Utility: 176 56% clear (0/34) Warding: 165 07% clear (0/34)
Summoning: 200 21% clear (0/34)

My info is this:
Strength : 30 Reflex : 30
Agility : 30 Charisma : 28
Discipline : 28 Wisdom : 28
Intelligence : 28 Stamina : 30

And my concentration is 156

Does this help?

Ithyn

>>I had to take the Improvised Rituals feat before I was able to invoke the staff irc.

That's correct. The staff is a multi-realm focus which means that it works with many different ritual spells rather than being focused for fire, or earth, etc.

But in order to use a multi-realm focus you need to have the improvised ritual feat.

>>And I still can't use the staff

When you say you can't use it, what are you doing and what message are you getting?

Could simply be that the staff requires a higher arcana to be used successfully.

Yup. Just sounds like your arcana is too low to handle a multirealm focus.

For the cambrinth you need the dedicated cambrinth feat.

Then you charge up your cambrinth and then focus on it with the suffix cyclic or spell.

Actually, I lack the "necessary resolve" to use ANY pathways...are pathways broken?

And thanks for the confirmation that I'm too little to use the staff---what skills do I need to use it?

Ithyn

I am having similar trouble, with slightly lower magic skills. I managed to get a staff and I cannot use it in a similar way, where do you get the specialized consumable foci instead? I would like to see if I can use the ritual spells although I might be unable to since I cannot seem to cast any other esoteric spells.

>I am having similar trouble, with slightly lower magic skills. I managed to get a staff and I cannot use it in a similar way, where do you get the specialized consumable foci instead? I would like to see if I can use the ritual spells although I might be unable to since I cannot seem to cast any other esoteric spells.

It might just be that your magic skills are not high enough to cast MOF. If you do not have the ability to cast the spell, invoking a focus will not work.

Also, I'm not sure it is an Arcana check at all to use foci? For the different ritual bard spells, I can cast the advanced one but not the esoteric one, and invoking the focus works for the advanced one but fails for the esoteric one. And neither cast attempt teaches any Arcana skill.

>It might just be that your magic skills are not high enough to cast MOF. If you do not have the ability to cast the spell, invoking a focus will not work.

>Also, I'm not sure it is an Arcana check at all to use foci? For the different ritual bard spells, I can cast the advanced one but not the esoteric one, and invoking the focus works for the advanced one but fails for the esoteric one. And neither cast attempt teaches any Arcana skill.

Yes, arcana checks come in to play.

You can fail to invoke a foci even if you can cast the spell if you're arcana is low enough. I've had to invoke a foci multiple times, due to failing to invoke the foci successfuly, before I could cast POM on my cleric even though I had cast it successfully before.

The min prep for the ritual spells is like 300 or so, so if you can pull that off without a focus, good for you. :) 650 is the cap IIRC.

- Starlear -