Forums of the Megaverse®

Normal invocations require you to have all the PPE at once as they go off in less than a round(usually) and you can draw 20ppe in a round from a nexus to put toward it (once every 15 seconds).

Now for Rituals I always assumed the PPE was expended during the entire casting time and thus 20ppe per 15s could be added to the spell, but I can't find any information about how rituals work now either way.

It could be
1. Long introductory/preparation work (ritual actions), spend entire PPE amount at end of ritual. (1 draw/spell)

2. Gradually build up the ppe into the spell while doing ritual actions until complete and spell goes off.

3. some other variant.

Anything canon would help, particularly a line that states the nexus/LL draw can be used only once per spell, or that ritual spells are cast (PPE spent) over the course of their casting time.

Now that I think about it I've played the game for years and this is the first time I've run into a ritual being used...

HR

The only reference I can find at the moment about when PPE is expended during a rutual is in PFRPG pg 181;

The additional magic energy is often accessible only at a ley line nexus and must me used while it is available. The PPE cannot be saved and used later. This makes timing a critical factor.

While this refers to the gathering of PPE from ley lines and nexus points, the nature of PPE is pretty universal in all its applications, meaning that PPE gathered from other sources (willing donation, blood sacrifice, drawing from Ley Lines/Nexus points) needs to be used the moment it is gathered in order to power whatever magical effect the ritual is geared toward. In the cases of willing donations and blood sacrifices, the ritual chants/actions are of a symbolic nature in order to prepare the donors, openning them up to allow their PPE to be drawn upon and channeled into the ritual master (ie the guy actually casting the ritual spell) so that he can make the magic happen. The first option you listed seems to be the applicable one.
I'll keep looking through my other books for other references on this if any can be found.
Good luck and great gaming!

This is correct.

This is why timing of rituals is critical. If one wants to take advantage of the extra PPE avaible during "Peak hours" and during astrological events, you have to time your ritual to go off at the moment the PPE is avaible to use.

This is also why having more participates is always useful. Remember: even non-mage humans have 2d6 PPE. If your Cult or whatever all participate in the ritual, you can still suck an average of 4 PPE per person. so a 50 man cult is an extra 200 PPE.

Not bad. but for the really big stuff, you still need something spectacular. Either a sacarfise, the aid of other magicians, or wait for those ever-crucial Solstaces and Equinoxes.

This is also why Ley Lines are in hot demand.